- Veteran finance CEO Sallie Krawcheck is pulling back from the $2.4 billion investment platform she co-founded a decade ago and has appointed co-CEOs to stand in her stead at Ellevest, she announced on Tuesday.
Wall Street titan and Ellevest CEO Sallie Krawcheck will step down from the investment platform she launched as the firm marks its 10-year anniversary.
Krawcheck, who made the announcement in a post on Tuesday, shared that she planned to focus on her health following a recent unspecified diagnosis. Dr. Sylvia Kwan, Ellevest chief investment officer, will take on a co-CEO role. Connie Hsiung, Ellevest’s current chief operating officer and chief financial officer, will share the co-CEO title, Krawcheck said in her post.
“While I pass the torch to the next generation of Ellevest leadership and as Sylvia and Connie take the reins on driving the company forward, I’ll be able to continue to provide guidance as a member of our Board,” she said. “My focus will be on my health, so I will not be involved in the day-to-day, but my heart will always be with our mission.”
Krawcheck, 59, launched Ellevest in 2014, and told Fortune’s Rachel Ventresca it was “founded by, funded by, built by, built for, investing in investing through women.” The firm has $2.4 billion in assets under management and draws on support from connections forged during Krawcheck’s 40 years in the finance industry. Krawcheck has been an outspoken advocate for women, and noted in her post that she and the firm are among Fortune’s Most Powerful Women.
Speaking at the event this year, Krawcheck encouraged women to “embrace the haters.”
“I’ve been on the cover of Fortune twice, but I’m also the only person who has been fired on the front page of the newspaper twice,” Krawcheck said, discussing public attention—both positive and negative—before adding to laughs: “It was so fun the first time, I was like, let’s do it all over again.”
Krawcheck shrugged off the negativity joking about “living rent-free” in people’s brains. “Embrace the haters,” she said. “Pressure’s a privilege.”
