About Tyche

In Classical Greek mythology, Tyche is the goddess of fortune and prosperity. She is the daughter of Aphrodite, the goddess of love, and Zeus, the most powerful of all the gods.

Tyche evokes the wisdom of economics and the humanities—head and heart, power and love. In a world in which the profit motive drives outcomes, I guide clients to design resource allocation strategies around the most important principles in their lives.

About Nancy

We are in a moment in which capitalism has enabled humanity to flourish in ways unimaginable only a generation ago.  Consumer technology, biotech, aerospace, and cloud computing have allowed us to dramatically restructure the ways in which people in rich countries work and live. At the same time, the failures of unfettered capitalism—our climate and social justice crises—are clamoring for solutions.  Thoughtful investors are called to examine their assumptions and reimagine what their resources can do.  

With Tyche, I aim to help investors find clarity on what matters most to them.  For some people, it’s maximizing the optionality of their resources over time (i.e. wealth preservation) while advancing gender equity.  Others want to maximize the power of their wealth to rebuild our food systems.  Some folks want to mobilize all of their resources—investment capital, philanthropic giving, social capital, and time—in alignment with the ideas that matter most to them.  And some people just want to do no harm, and have correctly concluded that it’s harder than it sounds. 

The goal of my work isn’t moral purity.  Nothing about capitalism is morally pure.  The goal is coherence.

Helping investors navigate investment policy, due diligence, family and governance issues, estate planning and philanthropy has given me visibility into many dozens of approaches to resource allocation strategy.

I have witnessed the flaws in the investment industry firsthand.  I experienced the 2008 financial crisis from my desk at Lehman Brothers, and designed and facilitated investor groups through TIGER 21, Toniic, Canopy, and the Seattle Impact Investing Group for the following decade. That work supported private investors as they came to understand their exposure to emerging systemic risks in our increasingly top-heavy and algorithm-driven global capital markets.  

I am not a financial advisor.  Instead, I help people set investment policies that honor what they care most about, and that mobilize the power they choose to wield in the world.  Love and power.

My education includes a BA from Yale University, an MBA from the Tuck School of Business, a Grand Diplôme from the French Culinary Institute, and a CTFA (Certified Trust and Financial Advisor) designation from the American Bankers Association. I’m a past board member of the MCO and Blade Foundations, and of Realize Impact. From 2006 to 2007, I served as a presidential appointee on Dartmouth College’s Advisory Committee on Investor Responsibility.

I live in Seattle with my husband and two small but powerful children.

The Tyche Approach

Not everyone feels ready to face the power they hold as investors, and to take responsibility for all that’s being done in their name.  In many cases our choices are constrained by family members, trusts, and limited resources.  When I work with a new client, in addition to asking about their learning and decision-making style, I also often ask about their appetite for disruption. I’m not here to tell clients what to do or how to invest. I am here to ask gentle questions about what matters most, to dare people to be a bit more brave than they were yesterday, and to share a vision for the impact that thoughtful investors can have on their advisors, their communities, and the global financial system.

Anyone who participates in our economy is likely to have areas of misalignment. I certainly do. But for those of us with resources who want to move toward greater coherence, we may want to take more responsibility for what we own.  Here are a few first steps to consider:

1. Start with stupid questions. (There are no stupid questions.) Do you know where your money sleeps at night, who is making money from your money, and what business practices are influenced by your wealth? Before your next meeting with your financial advisor, write down a few questions you’d like to get answered and send them to your advisor in advance: 

   • Questions like “Do I own oil pipelines?” or “Do any of my fees go to pay for lobbyists?” can be an easy place to start.  

   • If you’re feeling brave, you can ask more difficult questions like “What’s the gender composition of the boards of the private companies in which I hold investments?” (See me for more cheeky questions, if that’s your jam.)

   Keep in mind that these may be new questions for your advisors as well, and they may not be able to answer right away. Starting the conversation and exploring the topic is what is the priority.

2. Identify what’s most important to you. What keeps you up at night?  What is your vision for the influence you’d like to have on your advisors, your community, and the financial system more broadly? The ideas that inspire your political and philanthropic giving, and the principles that drive you to choose one consumer product over another, can provide clues.

3. Assess your appetite for disruption. Are your decisions constrained by family members, trust structures, or long term financial needs?  Would rocking the boat cause more stress than it would relieve?  Be honest with yourself about how much change you can tolerate in the near term, and what kinds of change you’d like to ease into over time.

4. Name what you’re curious about. What are the topics and ideas you’d like to explore? Climate change, alternative energy, race and social justice, global health, education—what topics do you enjoy learning about?

5. Discover your learning style. Determine whether you’re an experiential learner or a researcher.  This will be informed by where you sit on the introvert/extrovert spectrum, and also by your beliefs around what motivates change.  Do you want to meet people in the field or running organizations and companies in your area of interest, or would you prefer to use the levers of power that operate behind the scenes.

If you’d like to further explore ways to align your resources with what matters most to you and your family, please contact me. I can help make connections and match your interests with a meaningful investment approach. 

Services

INVESTMENT POLICY DEVELOPMENT

All investing is impact investing. A statement of investment principles defines the impact your family, foundation, or other entity aims to achieve.

To create a statement of investment principles, we will:

• Evaluate what you own. Who are the people and businesses who make money from your money? Where are these investments aligned—and misaligned—with what matters most to you?  

• Clarify your priorities. What do you believe about the influence you want to have as an investor? Who do you want to support with your investing activity? Which levers of influence feel appropriate to you? How is your individual financial risk connected to collective risk (i.e., climate change)? To what extent should your money address those collective concerns?

• Craft a written statement of investment principles. How do you want your investment life to work? What are the principles by which you want your advisors to act on your behalf? 

• Connect with your financial team. I can also serve as your advocate in observing the practices of your financial team to ensure they remain aligned with your principles.

ADVISOR SEARCH

I design advisory searches for clients who have either outgrown their current advisors, or whose desired impact in the world requires them to rethink and rebuild their teams.

In an institutional setting, advisor searches are accomplished through requests for proposal (RFPs). Institutional RFPs create a lot of data, which helps investment committees substantiate their choices and offers a degree of rigor in their decision-making. Tyche advisor searches take a different approach.

We begin with the principles that are most important to the client.  Together, we develop a set of criteria based on the client’s financial situation, theory of change, and what kind of relationship each client wishes to create with their advisory team—and by extension, with their wealth. Our search process is designed to:

• Survey financial advisors whose capabilities match your most important principles;

• Bring you together with potential advisors to assess fit in a way that is personal but not creepy, and efficient but not rushed;

• Avoid institutional biases, and balance my biases as a consultant; and

• Protect your privacy as much as possible in the process.

It takes 3-6 months.

TRUSTEE SERVICES

In select situations, I can serve as a trustee and fiduciary.

Projects, Collaborators, and Affiliations

University of Zurich Center for Sustainable Finance

An academic research and teaching institution at the Department of Banking and Finance at the University of Zurich. CSP is unique in its position at the intersection of research and training, bridging scientists, wealth owners, and investment professionals in order to generate knowledge and to mobilize capital toward impact. At CSP I serve as a mentor in the executive education program.

Phīla Engaged Giving 

A values-driven philanthropic advisory firm that works exclusively with donors— individuals, families, estates, foundations and businesses— interested in leaving a philanthropic legacy. Our goal is to help you understand the issues that move you, learn from experts on the ground who are doing the work, and become a meaningful partner to organizations and movements that are affecting change. I collaborate with the Phila team on select client projects.

TIGER 21

A peer learning organization of wealthy entrepreneurs, investors, and executives. Our network of Members effectively serve as legacy planning partners who help each other improve their investment acumen, tackle common issues of wealth preservation, manage family-related challenges, understand estate planning options, and share ideas on philanthropic endeavors. I built the TIGER 21 chapter in Seattle from 2013-2020.

EnVest

EnVest is an investor membership organization connecting top environmental investors with each other, and the most compelling environmental investment opportunities. We host invite-only events to accelerate the environmental economy to protect our planet, while generating returns for investors. I co-founded EnVest in 2018 with Brock Mansfield.

Canopy

A community of practice, Canopy member foundations are committed to values of the common good; transparency, shared learning, and community-driven outcomes in place-based investing. We believe this builds the platform to deploy capital in more meaningful ways, which ultimately contributes to the larger impact investing community. I served as co-lead for Canopy with Shiho Fuyuki from 2018 to 2020.

Testimonials

“Updating an investment policy isn't necessarily the first thing that comes to mind when I think of fun, but working with Nancy as we drafted a significantly updated and revised IPS was an absolute pleasure. She was able to bring a wealth of experience and exposure to our project; meetings were well structured and efficient with a lovely dose of humanity and connection; and she was able to take a giant pile of collected jottings, half finished thoughts, and bunch of different people's musings and turn them into a cohesive draft. She was also able to take on some additional projects beyond the initial scope of our engagement and brought some great energy and real thoughtfulness to the work. I happily recommend Nancy and hope to work with her again!”

- K., Managing Director at a family foundation

“Nancy is a nearly unbelievable intersection of investment knowledge, knowledge of the social impact investment space, and network of relationships all wrapped up in a degree of charm and diplomacy that I was blessed to regularly exposed to in the more than 5 years I got to work with her as part of the Seattle Impact Investors Group. She understands the complex array of vehicles people use to organize their estates, do philanthropic giving and mission-oriented investing.”

- S., Investor & Entrepreneur

“Nancy has the education and experience to explain all the pros and cons, but she feels very personal. I respect and appreciate her as a human being — all of her wisdom and humor and passion and stories.”

- J., Attorney & Investor

“Nancy has seen it all. She understands what wealth is, what it means. She speaks the language, and the depth of her heart is amazing.”

– M., Serial Entrepreneur

Connect

If you’re interested in a brief consultation to determine if we’re a good fit, please share your name and email address below.

Confidentiality and candor are the core values by which I work with clients. I am not available to help fund managers or entrepreneurs with fundraising strategy.