Blocking Out the Noise with Denise Strack

Lighthouses in Denise’s Words “In looking back, several women have acted as a lighthouse for me over the years. Starting with a high school math teacher, to a college professor, my first boss, and several other amazing women that have mentored and supported me throughout my career. Each brought their authentic selves to work every day – embracing career, family, and community. I am forever grateful for their leadership and support, and I hope I can do the same for others in the future.”

Denise was born into a multigenerational family of farmers in Ohio. Her grandfather traded commodities like corn and soybeans, so, although he did not have a college education, he traded to protect his crop from commodity price changes.

Denise’s interests in high school, however, were not agricultural. Her passion was in math and science due to two teachers that pushed her passion: Ms. Chambers, her calculus teacher, and Mr. Merryweather, her biology teacher. Throughout high school, she was an avid gymnast. She was a member of the United States National Gymnastics team and was one of the top 20 gymnasts in the US. Gymnastics taught Denise lifelong skills of endurance, concentration, setting long term goals, and how to balance life and work with efficiency. She said, “I developed a way of focusing on what matters and what is important and not letting the other noise distracts me and using every minute to its fullest.”

Stanford

Denise was accepted to Stanford for college with an athletic scholarship and an interest in being a math major. Her math major decision did not stick. She quickly decided that she did not want to be a math major in part because of how few women there were in the math program. Denise transferred to the engineering department to be an industrial engineering major because a few of the Professors were women and she would have at least a few more female peers. Industrial engineering also felt more practical to Denise and she could incorporate her passion in math with the finance part of the curriculum.

After graduating from Stanford University with a BA in Industrial Engineering in 1992, she decided to go to business school at age 27. That decision put her life on hold for quite a few years. She said, “It was an interesting point to put the pause button on the family aspect of my life. The part that I did not realize was that when you graduate from business school you do commit to a couple of years of a pretty intense career commitment that again postpones family and children.”

Path to Success

Denise started working as an Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company in their private equity and financial services practice for two years right after graduating from business school and then returned to work on Stanford’s endowment as their Director of Private Equity for two years.

Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

During that time, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation was establishing itself. The foundation gives grants in environmental conservation, patient care, and science. The CIO for the Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation at the time was Alice Ruth. She reached out to Denise to join the foundation as their Director of Private Equity and Real Assets in 2002. Real asset investments are tangible investments such as real estate, land, or precious metals. Around that time, Denise was pregnant with her first child. She did not know what to expect as a reaction from Alice, but when Alice “jumped out of her chair, shouted congratulations, and gave her a big hug,” it was transformational for Denise. “I decided to do the same for every woman who ever worked for me and was expecting,” she said. 

Six years later, Alice left the foundation for a different job opportunity, and Denise was not only appointed as CIO but quickly had to guide the foundation through the financial crisis in 2008, all while pregnant with her second daughter who was born on September 18^th which was the day after Lehman Brothers filed for bankruptcy. Denise Strack used what she learned as a member of the United States National Gymnastics team to establish herself as the CIO of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. She came from a family of farmers with minimal education, and with her ability to block out the noise and persist through challenging jobs. Her success has not come without struggles such as starting a family while working to get her MBA.

Denise told me that when she was first promoted to CIO, it was a $4.5 billion foundation. As of 2016, and despite the challenges in 2008, the foundation is now worth $6.9 billion, in part, due to the success of the Foundation’s venture capital and real estate investments portion of the fund. The employees of the fund have worked there for an average of nine years which, as Denise says, “makes us unique in the industry because we can deploy with a long-term mindset.”[i] She enjoys the foundation because being a part of the foundation and the “nonprofit mission makes the world a better place”, and during her time there, they have given away $2.44 billion in grants.

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[i] Denmark, Frances. “Denise Strack Has Endowment Management Down to a Science.” Institutional Investor. https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b14z9qccwxvlzy/denise-strack-has-endowment-management-down-to-a-science(accessed on November 13th, 2019).