Advancing Women: The Boston Club

The Boston Club
Image: thebostonclub.com

Ellen Griggs, board director at E. Ritter & Company, sits on the Corporate Board Committee of The Boston Club, one of the largest organizations for women executives in the northeast. Ellen Griggs continues to contribute to this important group, which has over 40 years of history and countless success stories from women in dozens of top leadership positions.

As both a club and a cause, The Boston Club started in 1976 by a small group of women who wanted to see additional leadership opportunities at Fortune 500 companies and more. Those who are a part of the club hold various accomplishments in their respective fields and give back to their communities, while supporting their fellow women in their career pursuits. Members are offered a wide range of problem solving aid, including the chance to speak with other more senior members for advice and counsel.

Sponsorship opportunities are available for many businesses, and the Club also promotes leadership programs and workshops for women navigating today’s complex workplace cultures. Aside from various meetings and programs to help leaders grow, there are many social events and networking opportunities to attend, from lunches to golf trips. The Boston Club continues to be an advocate and a resource for women in leadership positions.

The Year Up Works to Overcome the Opportunity Divide

Year Up
Image: yearup.org

A graduate of Kenyon College, where she completed her degree in religion and philosophy, Ellen Griggs has since become a board director of Market Street Trust Company, E. Ritter and Company and Evanston Capital. Aside from her professional work, Ellen Griggs finds time to volunteer as a mentor at Year Up.

Founded in 2000, Year Up is a nonprofit organization that helps empower young adults from low-income backgrounds to overcome poverty within a year as they transition to professional careers. Having started in Boston, Year Up eventually spread to other places, including Silicon Valley and Jacksonville. Since 2000, it has served over 10,000 students.

Year Up believes that the problem that young people need to overcome is the opportunity divide, a theory which contends that although there are enough job opportunities available, millions of young adults who have enough talent and motivation do not have enough opportunities to join the workforce.

To bridge this divide, Year Up identifies eligible young adults in urban areas and companies in need of new talent. These young adults receive six months of skills training, followed by a six-month internship at the partner company. Upon graduation, the student will be able to launch a meaningful career while contributing to the economy.

Ellen Griggs’ Advice at the 2006 Milken Institute Global Conference

Milken Institute Global Conference
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Since 2009, Ellen Griggs has served on many boards, including those of Boston Medical Center and InvestorForce in Pennsylvania. As a respected professional in the investment industry, Ellen Griggs served as a speaker during the 2006 Milken Institute Global Conference.

The Milken Institute Global Conference is an annual event that convenes world leaders in different industries to explore solutions to some of the most critical problems in financial markets, health, education, and government. As a speaker in 2006, Griggs talked about trends in global fixed-income and credit markets.

At the time of the conference, investors in these markets were facing strong market growths. This begged the question, where should they invest their money? During her speech, Griggs spoke about asset allocation. With traditional diversification techniques becoming obsolete, she advised investors to look at the bigger picture. This means that they should analyze and manage their liabilities, and provide managers with more freedom to generate alpha.

Year Up Bridges the Opportunity Divide

Year Up
Image: yearup.org

An experienced executive in the financial services industry, Ellen Griggs serves on the boards of several non profit organizations, including the Philanthropic Trust Board of the Boston Medical Center and the Board of Overseers of the New England Aquarium. To give back to her community, Ellen Griggs mentors young people at the Year Up organization.

Founded in 2000 by Gerald Chertavian, Year Up uses a “high support, high expectations” model to bridge the opportunity divide that prevents millions of the country’s young from accessing higher education and careers that provide a living wage. The Year Up program is open to underserved young adults aged 18 to 24.

Year Up prepares young people for gainful employment and teaches them the value of higher education through a series of classes and personal support systems, such as mentors and social services personnel. The program’s holistic approach focuses on the students’ personal and professional development, combined with marketable job skills, internships, stipends, and college credits.

Life Portfolio Helps Executives Retire in Their Own Way

Retirement Planning
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Since retiring from her career as a senior financial services executive, Ellen Griggs has served on the boards of several prominent companies and nonprofit organizations, including Market Street Trust Corporation. As part of her new chapter in her life, Ellen Griggs participated in and continues to endorse the Life Portfolio Program.

As Americans climb the corporate ladder, many fall victim to career-oriented tunnel vision. In so doing, they fail to make time for other opportunities of interest to them, a failure that becomes particularly prominent in retirement.

In response, the Life Portfolio Program encourages professionals to view life as a portfolio of experiences. Just like individuals acquire stocks and securities, they collect the people, projects, and ideas that make life interesting.

Through this unique approach to retirement planning, participants build a plan for their futures, which may involve formal retirement but more often finds them creating new businesses or joining boards of directors. Developing a Life Portfolio encourages professionals to consider what they really want out of life and retirement, and helps them achieve these new goals.

The Evanston Alternative Opportunities Fund

Ellen Griggs

Ellen Griggs is an experienced investment executive with over three decades’ experience in the industry, having led companies such as Massachusetts-based NEPC, LLC. Currently, Ellen Griggs serves as a board member for a diverse group of organizations, including Market Street Trust Company, InvestorForce, and Evanston Capital Management.

Evanston Capital Management offers investment services that aim to provide superior returns via carefully studied and managed portfolios. One of the services they offer is a registered fund which affords alternative earning opportunities to investors with primary portfolios.

Formed in 2014, the Evanston Alternative Opportunities Fund is a non-exchange-listed and closed-end investment vehicle whose shares are listed under the Securities Act of 1933. It is intended to have a complementary effect on private investments and has been specifically formulated to enact the same strategies as Evanston’s flagship funds.

With an initial investment of at least $50,000, the Evanston Alternative Opportunities Fund is available to accredited investors and delivers a quarterly liquidity via tender offers.

Year Up Helps Urban Young Adults Find Professional Success

Ellen Griggs worked for more than 25 years in the field of investment management. Now retired, Ellen Griggs spends her free time as a mentor with the nonprofit organization Year Up. For professional businesspeople who want to make a difference in the life of a young adult from a low-income background, becoming a Year Up mentor is simple and meaningful way to contribute.

In order to help individuals from disadvantaged situations join the mainstream economy, Year Up recruits young adults from urban environments who show high levels of motivation. For the first six months, students receive instruction in professional workplace skills. Subsequently, for the following six months, they participate in an internship with a partner company to gain job experience and apply their newly acquired skills.

The role of a mentor is to serve as a teacher and supporter who relays personal experiences and encourages the student to succeed. The mentor is also responsible for maintaining contact with his or her student throughout the duration of the program, as well as developing for the student a professional network to be used to further his or her career.

A Look at the New England Aquarium’s New Sea Turtle Rescue Exhibit

Ellen Griggs is a senior financial services executive with an extensive record of board leadership in the Boston area. Leveraging more than 25 years of experience, Ellen Griggs continues to lend her insight to a number of cultural organizations, including the board of overseers of the New England Aquarium.

Since opening its doors to the public more than 45 years ago, the New England Aquarium has acted as a bridge between the public and crucial issues affecting marine wildlife. The organization’s Sea Turtle Hospital is a global leader in conservation efforts for several endangered species including green, loggerhead, and Kemp’s ridley sea turtles. Volunteers from the Massachusetts Audobon Society search the beaches of Cape Cod Bay and rescue injured turtles, who are then treated and rehabilitated for a period of several months to two years. As a result of public support and volunteer efforts, more than 90 percent of turtles treated at the New England Aquarium are released into the wild.

Following a record-breaking rescue season in 2014, in which 733 turtles were treated, the New England Aquarium has put together an all-new exhibit titled Your Mission: Save Turtlekind. Featuring an array of interactive displays, the exhibit outlines the rescue and rehabilitation process and invites aquarium visitors to join the Turtle Rescue Team.

Kenyon College Announces New Community Engagement Office

Ellen Griggs is a senior executive with nearly three decades of experience in the financial services industry. An alumna of Kenyon College, Ellen Griggs also remains involved with her alma mater as an Emeritus Member of the Board of Trustees.

Located in the heart of Knox County, Ohio, Kenyon College has remained committed not only to upholding its reputation as one of the finest liberal arts universities in the nation, but also to developing the local community and serving those in need. To that end, Kenyon College announced the establishment of a new office of community engagement, which will be headed by Jennifer C. Odenweller. Odenweller previously served a 15-year tenure as the director of the United Way of Knox County. The new community engagement center will serve as a resource for local Kenyon students to find service opportunities and internships with local nonprofits and community agencies.

The new community engagement office will be based on the first floor of the recently acquired Buckeye building and is scheduled to open about a year after renovations are complete. The Buckeye building will also serve as a space for film studies and house the Science Play-Space Initiative nonprofit.

Deep Sea Fishing Off Cape Cod

An accomplished financial services professional who has held senior leadership positions at such firms as NEPC, LLC, Strong Capital Management, and Bankers Trust, Ellen Griggs currently serves on several financial, philanthropic, and educational institutions as a member of their boards of directors. A graduate of Ohio’s Kenyon College, she served for 15 years on her alma mater’s board of trustees, and is now an emeritus member. When not attending to her professional obligations, Ellen Griggs enjoys watching Broadway plays, recreation-oriented traveling, golf and deep-sea fishing off Cape Cod.

The waters of the Atlantic off Cape Cod are renowned for the abundance of their fisheries, even at a time when some species have been threatened by overfishing. Among the gamefish encountered in these storied waters are cod, tuna, bonito, mackerel, sharks, bluefish, and striped bass. Also popular are the smaller but just as challenging sea bass, porgy, and fluke.

There are countless services operating out of towns all along the Cape that offer charter boat fishing. An individual or a group engages the boat and its skipper, generally for a half or a full day, although overnight trips aren’t uncommon. Because charter boat skippers are pretty knowledgeable about the local waters, they can be hired to go after any species of fish.

Party boats, on the other hand, go out daily on a set schedule, for half-day or full-day trips, and anglers book their spots on the boat on a first-come, first-served basis. Party boats generally advertise a particular species of fish for each trip, such as bluefish or fluke, and sail to where the fishing for that species is good.

Crew members on charter and party boats are attentive to the needs of each person fishing, and will bait their hooks if necessary as well as help land fish. When appropriate, as in the case of bluefish or fluke, they’ll clean and filet each angler’s catch. Charter boats and party boats alike generally provide rods, reels, tackle and bait, as well as food and refreshments.