| Diane Garnick | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 19, 1967 Long Island, New York, USA |
| Occupation | Founder, Ladies in Red & Investment Strategist, Invesco |
Diane Garnick (born January 19, 1967) is an American investment manager and a former investment strategist at Invesco. Garnick is the Chairman of the Investment Committee for CHRISTUS Health, a health system providing care to the under-insured in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas and in Mexico. She is the founder of The Ladies in Red, an organization formed to create an opportunity for anyone, anywhere, to make a meaningful contribution to society. Garnick is the author of the upcoming book I'm Smarter Than My Boss. Now What? [1]
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Garnick was born in New York. She was identified as a top scholar in elementary school and competed throughout the United States as a math and science champion in the early 1970s. Garnick grew up in a poor single parent household. She gave birth to her first daughter at age 15. After the birth of her child, Garnick returned to High School and completed grades 9,10,11 and 12 in two years. Garnick continued to raise her daughter and had the opportunity to attend college 6 years later.
Garnick initially attended Suffolk Community College in NY. During her second year there she was named to the USA Today All Star Academics Team. She donated her medal to the community college where they now have that medal and several other awards she received on display.
Garnick later went on to earn her bachelors degree at Hofstra University, and immediately began her Wall Street career. Garnick then became a CPA. Garnick is currently teaching a class entitled "The Fine Art of Failure" at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. See Garnick on Failure
Following her high school graduation she went to work at Anchor Bancorp, Inc. Garnick rose up the ranks quickly, but without a college degree she was unable to reach the management level. In an effort to keep her at the bank they made her their spokesperson in 1989. When they launched a new campaign entitled 'We're Your Anchor Bankers ... Here For You' Garnick starred in their commercials. In 1992 Garnick left the bank to pursue a degree.
Garnick began her career at Deloitte and Touche LLP. Her projects entailed derivatives product control for clients such as Bear Stearns, Morgan Stanley, and Merrill Lynch. While she was on a project engagement at Merrill Lynch, she was hired to work in Merrill Lynch's Equity Derivatives Research team. In 2001, she joined State Street Global Advisors (SSGA) as their Chief Investment Strategist. Garnick is now the Investment Strategist at Invesco, one of the world's largest asset management companies.
Her Wall Street research focuses on all areas of portfolio construction that impact pension plans, foundations, and endowments. She has published reports focusing on equity derivatives, index investing, exchange-traded funds, taxation, corporate actions, and quantitative investing as a whole.,[2]
Garnick was an early supporter of requiring companies to include all of their derivatives on the face of their financial statements. In 1998, Garnick was named to the Derivatives Implementation Group 'DIG' at the Financial Accounting Standards Board. In early 2001, Garnick again became involved in FASB meetings where she actively supported option expensing. In 2002, she was nominated as a practitioner representative to replace Gary Schieneman on the FASB Board, but declined the nomination to pursue her Wall Street career.
Garnick is a plan sponsor and pension advocate focusing most of her research on issues surrounding how companies and public entities can fulfill the retirement promises made to employees during their work lives and how individuals need to save and plan for their retirement. Her work on hedging risks in the portfolios of plan sponsors is used throughout the world.,[3]
Diane makes regular appearances on CNBC, Fox and Bloomberg TV. Garnick became the number one rated contributor in 2008 when she primarily discussed the economic environment, the global job market and retirement savings.
Diane is the founder of the "Ladies in Red", a group dedicated to raising the profile of single women at charity events, which are often organized around couples. There are branches in several cities, and the group tries to focus on women's and children's issues.
She gives credit of her fast ascent on Wall Street to the Literacy Program first developed by Barbara Bush. That program provided books and tutors to underprivileged communities, including Diane’s. Her ferocious desire to learn coupled with the Literacy Program created an atmosphere that she says inspired her to read, understand, and eventually write some of the most complex theories, particularly in the area of finance. To date Diane has written and published over 100 pieces, many of which are in the area of finance.
Garnick served on the State University of New York (SUNY) Scholarship Committee representing the community. In that role she helps to ensure that the funds she received as a student will be available to help future students.
Garnick is the Chair of the Investment Committee of CHRISTUS Health, a foundation focused on providing medical care to impoverished people throughout the United States and Mexico.
Garnick is highly supportive of charities that advance the welfare of children, especially direct support to children who are physically ill and/or socially challenged. She supports the Red Sox Foundation, which builds baseball fields in greater Boston for underprivlidged children. She is also involved in the Robin Hood Foundation.
In 2008, Garnick was named A Champion for Children by the Council for Unity.[4]
In 2008 Garnick was honored for her work with domestic abuse survivors by Take Higher Ground.[5]
Garnick was first introduced to baseball in 2002. With almost no background in baseball, she immersed herself in the rules of the game and began developing and applying statistical analysis to the potential strategies involved in baseball. In 2004 Garnick traveled throughout the United States following the Boston Red Sox to more than 60 regular season games and every post season game to better understand the mechanics of the game. She is also well known for her recruiting efforts for the Red Sox Nation throughout the world. One such example of this is a video of her recruiting Chinese people on the great wall of China.
Garnick is divorced and lives in New York City. She has two daughters. When she reached the age of 21 she married a toilet salesman. Thirteen years later, when she was the Global Derivatives Strategist at Merrill Lynch, she divorced her husband. She pays alimony to her ex-husband.[6]