Laura Glick smiles and poses for a portrait

Laura Glick

Laura Glick is the Chief Investment Officer for the Spencer Foundation and manages their $700 million endowment.

  • University of Michigan, Industrial Engineering, BSE, 1995
  • University of Michigan, Industrial Engineering, MSE, 1996
  • University of Michigan, Stephen M. Ross School of Business, MBA, Finance and Corporate Strategy, 2001

Laura Glick is the Chief Investment Officer for the Spencer Foundation and is responsible for the management of the organization’s $700 million endowment. Previously, she held senior-level positions in the Goldman Sachs Investment Management Division, JP Morgan Chase Private Bank and the Wells Fargo Private Bank. Laura is a member of the Board of Directors and Chair of the Finance Committee for BellXcel, Chair of the Investment Committee and Board member for the Albert Pick, Jr. Fund, and a member of the Wise Heads panel for the MacArthur Foundation. Laura also serves on the Advisory Board for the Department of Industrial and Operations Engineering at the University of Michigan, the Endowment Committee for the Winnetka Community House and Client Advisory Boards at Northern Trust and TIAA.

What do you look for when hiring early career professionals?

I look for somebody interested in continuing to learn, who is eager and engaged. Someone who is not afraid to roll up their sleeves and somebody who brings an energized sense of spirit to the work. 

Why do you love your job?

I work for the Spencer Foundation in Chicago and we fund education research. So, if you’re a professor in a school of education around the country, it’s highly probable that the Spencer Foundation has helped fund something you’ve worked on. I manage the endowment which is 700 million dollars that we use to fund our operations, the grant-making, and we do some local community engagement work as well. What I love about that is how I work with people from different disciplines, both in the education space as well as people on our boards with different backgrounds. We work together to collaboratively think about the future of equity in education and then think about the day-to-day management of our investments.