As McKnight’s inaugural vice president of investments, ኤሊዛቤት ሜልጌንታን oversees the team that manages the Foundation’s $2.6 billion endowment. Elizabeth joined McKnight in 2014 to lead our impact investing program. In 2019, she assumed the role of director of investments, shepherding our endowment and helping deliver positive returns alongside mission alignment. In this capacity, she designed a market-rate solutions portfolio that aligns with the Foundation’s mission, advancing climate solutions and equitable communities and economies. Across the entire endowment, nearly one of every two invested dollars is mission-aligned.
A leader across the Foundation and within her field, Elizabeth has paved the way for McKnight to become a leading impact investor, identifying investment opportunities that help increase universal prosperity and preserve our planet. Moreover, she has inspired our peer funders and the wider philanthropic field to harness their endowments as powerful changemaking levers in support of their missions.
Elizabeth’s leadership and vision was a critical component to the Foundation’s commitment to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions across its entire portfolio by or before 2050—the nation’s first of the 50 largest private foundations to do so.
An investment leader since 1999, she was an early actor in developing environmental social and governance (ESG) approaches across the industry. As senior vice president for governance and sustainable investment at F&C Asset Management, a London-based commercial asset manager (now BMO Global Asset Management), she built this firm’s market-leading socially responsible investment team.
Elizabeth is an independent trustee of funds at Boston Trust Walden, a longtime leader in incorporating ESG into its investment approach. She was an original member of the U.S. Advisory Committee for the FTSE4Good indexes, and currently volunteers on the investment committee at the University of St. Thomas in her hometown of St. Paul. She grew up outside Boston and graduated from Carleton College in Minnesota.
