Q&A: Getting to Know Carrie Endries, Ph.D.

Tell us about your role at Reynders, McVeigh

The main part of my role is working with clients on their investments and all the holistic planning we do for them, financially, charitably, impact-focused; I help manage all of it for them. I especially enjoy helping them think through their values and see where their money can really align and flourish.

Another part of my job is supervising the impact investments that Reynders, McVeigh participates in. I lead the networking, sourcing, and evaluation of these investments, and I determine what kind of partnerships we're going to have in that space. I love being able to direct capital to people and places that historically have lacked access, so that we can try to change the future of wealth creation. This impact gives me a lot of purpose. 

And then the third part of my job is the hiring, mentoring, and supervising of our advisor team and working with them to improve, maintain skills, grow and enjoy our jobs together.

Can you speak more about the mentorship aspect of your work?

It’s been a huge goal of mine to try to grow our mentorship capabilities so that new hires feel more welcome and can understand their role in a more structured way. 

In the investment advisor world, there hasn't been a lot of diversity in hiring, and we want to be different in that respect. It’s important to think about who we can bring into this industry, because different people bring different perspectives, different networks, and different ideas.

I created a buddy program so that each employee has someone at the firm other than their manager they can go to with questions. That helps them get to know the company and the work we do, as well as build more peer-level connections. 

Are there any impact investing organizations that you believe stand out?

What I like best about impact investing is thinking about it in a really local, tangible way. One example that comes to mind is the Boston Impact Initiative (BII). I love the mix of getting to know local businesses and local entrepreneurs better and the support that they receive through the BII. That includes the ways that it reimagined some traditional ideas about funds, such as the rewards that investors should receive. They also champion the idea that you could build other criteria into loan covenants that were not simply about financials.

Just as banks have loan covenants, the BII also wants measurements around how portfolio companies are creating wealth in communities of color. How are you building that wealth and reducing the racial wealth gap?

I really credit BII with rethinking norms within the finance industry and moving the impact investment industry forward.

Can you recall a time when Reynders, McVeigh rose to a new challenge?

 One thing that I would say is that working remotely during the pandemic was something new for us back in 2020. By the time September of that year came around, we were in a position to hire more. We thought we would wait until we were back in person, but as we grew, we just couldn't wait any longer. We hired between five and seven people at the end of 2020, bringing them on 100 percent remotely.

 That whole process was outside my and the firm’s comfort zone. Having to hire and onboard in what felt like an uncertain world was a totally new experience, and it was challenging to integrate people into a team when they hadn't met with anybody in person. Overall, it went well, and I think we're still making strides every day when it comes to making people feel confident and whole here at the firm. We're getting better and better at these things, and that makes me proud.

Tell us about a time you got out of your comfort zone.

 In my college and graduate school years, I chose to live and study in three different foreign language environments -- Chile, Germany and Brazil -- and those were some of the most humbling experiences of my life. Travel in that pre-cellphone era produced some of my wildest stories.

 I had to navigate real-world, real-time challenges without any help from the internet, and that absolutely tested my problem-solving abilities! I hitchhiked with nuns in Peru. Another time, I got a ride in the Sahara Desert with some historians from Mali.

 I think traveling and living in other places allows you to really think about and reflect on the norms in your own upbringing, the norms in your own country, and expectations and ideas that are approached differently elsewhere. I believe experiencing that blows wide open your idea of what is normal.

Are you involved in any outside organizations or activities that you’d like to share?

 I'm passionate about local community foundations and making a difference in the place where you live. I'm a member of the Cambridge Community Foundation’s Professional Advisor’s Council, which is doing excellent work in the greater Cambridge area advising donors and bringing them together with local non-profits to work on the hardest social issues of our generation, particularly economic mobility.

I've also long been involved with two non-profits founded by close friends, Camp Starfish and the Jewish Studio Project. I love being able to provide any help I can to make others' big ideas flourish. I am in awe of how much my friends have grown these organizations and the impact they each have.

What do you love to do outside of Reynders, McVeigh?

 I live a relatively urban lifestyle with my family in Somerville, quite the opposite of how I grew up in rural upstate New York. We are super involved in our community -- during the pandemic, my husband started a nonprofit, Family Bike Ride, to promote family biking that organizes rides that have grown to hundreds of families over time. I had children relatively late in life and love being involved in their school communities. I'm also super into food and love supporting local farms and restaurants.

DISCLOSURE: The commentary provided by an employee of Reynders, McVeigh Capital Management, LLC (“RMCM”) in the Q&A above is subject to change and represents the current, good-faith views of the employee and RMCM at the time of publication. The commentary is educational in nature these views are not intended to forecast future events or guarantee future results.