Cathie Wood is the founder and CEO of Ark Invest, an investment firm that manages several exchange-traded funds. She is highly regarded in investment circles, and in 2020, Bloomberg’s chief editor for news, Emeritus Matthew Winkler, named her the top stock-picker of the year. Wood holds a bachelor of science degree in economics and finance from the University of Southern California.
Cathie Wood has over three decades of experience in the financial sector. Her foray into real-world capital markets began in 1977 when she started working at Capital Group as an assistant economist. She has since held finance-related positions in notable companies such as Jennison Associates, Tupelo Capital Services and AllianceBernstein. She founded Ark Invest in 2014. The company typically employs thematic investment strategies to optimize returns.
Wood is a staunch Christian, reportedly naming her company after the Ark of the Covenant, a sacred relic mentioned in the Bible. Officially, however, the “Ark” in Ark Invest stands for “Active Research Knowledge.” For a long time now, Wood has been bullish on the Bitcoin market. She recently mentioned that Bitcoin will breach the $1 million mark by 2030.
2021 was a tumultuous year for Wood. This is mainly because of her company’s failure to meet its forecasted annual returns of 20%. Instead, the firm’s prime Ark Innovation ETF lost over 50% of its value. The ETF consists of a bold selection of stocks, many of which are companies specializing in innovative, disruptive technologies.
The Ark Innovation ETF’s downturn has caused critics to question the resilience of Wood’s high-risk, high-yield investment strategy, but she has stuck to her guns and underlined her resolve to continue with her current investment formula.
Besides managing her company, Wood also joined Amun Holdings as a board member in March 2021. The European firm operates 21Shares, a subsidiary that specializes in crypto exchange-traded products, which make crypto products more accessible to investors in jurisdictions that are apprehensive about cryptocurrencies. 21Shares currently manages assets worth over $2 billion.
2022 is set to be a busy year for Wood as her company restructures its investment portfolio to stop the free-fall that has afflicted the famous Ark Innovation ETF. At the beginning of February 2022, Ark Invest purchased approximately 2.45 million Robinhood shares after rates fell to below $15. That said, HOOD stock has lost over 50% of its value over the past 12 months. The recent purchases by Wood indicate bullish sentiments on her part.
Wood has publicly expressed her support for the cryptocurrency sector, and in February, she talked about the evolution of the blockchain industry. She said that blockchain technology was set to change the internet as we know it through Web3 applications. She underlined that the technology had massive potential even though it was presently underdeveloped.
She also talked about the globalization aspect of blockchain systems and said that tokenized asset control was bound to merge global markets and undercut centralized control of property rights.
Founder, Investor
