Sylvia S. Kwan

Sylvia is the CEO and CIO at Ellevest, an investment advisory firm focused on helping women, their families, and the next generation build and manage wealth with intention. Ellevest helps women understand, own and deploy the power of their capital through holistic financial planning, financial education, tailored content, and customized impact investing portfolio solutions. Since its founding, Ellevest has fostered a 3 million-member strong community centered on financial resilience and independence, representation and collective progress.  

Prior to joining Ellevest, Sylvia was a founding member of the investments team at Financial Engines, L.L.C., where she developed scalable, robust investment processes to manage over $14B in AUM for more than 200,000 client accounts. In 2010, Sylvia co-founded the boutique RIA firm SimplySmart Asset Management, serving individual investors with fully customized global investment solutions. Her financial services experience also includes portfolio management positions at Charles Schwab Investment Management, and at the Boston Company, where she managed over $500 million in institutional fixed-income assets.  

Sylvia is a Director of Exit 182 Group, LLC where she shares responsibility for the fiduciary oversight of Grinnell College’s $2.5B endowment. She recently joined the Board of Lotus Campaign, a startup non-profit focused on housing-driven solutions to homelessness and the Board of The Alternative & Direct Investment Securities Association (ADISA), the largest U.S. trade association representing the alternative and direct investments industry. Sylvia also serves on the UniFi by CAIA™ Advisory Council, a micro-credential and certificate educational program designed for advisors and private wealth managers. She is a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events, specifically on the topics of women and wealth, and alternatives and impact investing.  

Sylvia holds both Chartered Financial Analyst® and Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst® designations. She earned a B.S. in applied mathematics and computer science from Brown University and a Ph.D. in engineering-economic systems from Stanford University. Her doctoral dissertation on investor behavior and social interaction was one of the first in the field of behavioral finance.