Julie Cochran ’20

I’ve been in asset management for 30 years. I started out when international equity investing was the new thing. Fast forward another decade, and people realized they needed to broaden the toolkit, so alternatives like private equity, real estate, and hedge funds became the newest techniques to achieve return and look at risk in a new way.

When I came to Yale, I was interested in learning about the areas that are now cutting edge in asset management. One is the application of blockchain and other technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning. Another is impact investing: looking at ways to achieve returns and do good at the same time. This approach is just taking hold in institutional capital. What interests me are the barriers to scale. How is impact investing going to move billions and trillions of dollars into the things that we all recognize need that capital? 

I’m very glad that I waited until mid-career to get my MBA, because the EMBA program is a very rich experience, and it’s made even richer by classmates who have had amazing experiences and are highly successful at what they do.

My classmates are fascinating people. I love the fact that we have three tracks that are together. I’m going to miss the opportunity to have all of these diverse, expert views. Any of the people in our class could teach a class or two themselves. Everyone says that we wish we had more time together.