Stephanie Lynch

Stephanie S. Lynch is a co-founder and the Managing Partner of Global Endowment Management (GEM), a Charlotte, North Carolina–based Outsourced Chief Investment Office that manages roughly $11 billion for endowments, foundations, sovereign entities, and family offices. GEM was founded in March 2007 by Thruston B. Morton III with Lynch and Hugh N. Wrigley; the firm is approximately 96% partner- and employee-owned and is a registered investment adviser with the SEC. Lynch has more than three decades of investment experience and has been a CFA charterholder since 1992.

Before co-founding GEM, Lynch served as Chief Investment Officer of The Duke Endowment, one of the largest private foundations in the U.S. Earlier in her career she was a portfolio manager at INVESCO Capital Management and at Trade Street Investment Services. She earned a B.S. in Finance from Florida State University.

In February 2023 GEM named Lynch Managing Partner-Elect, and she began her tenure as Managing Partner on July 1, 2023, succeeding Porter Durham, who moved to an advisory role. In the same leadership transition, Matt Bank was named Deputy CIO and Jay Ripley Deputy Managing Partner. As Managing Partner, Lynch sets the firm's strategic direction, leads key client relationships, and supports investment-policy development in partnership with client leadership teams.

Beyond GEM, Lynch serves as an Independent Trustee of New York Life Investment Management (NYLIM) and on the board of the North Carolina Investment Authority (NCIA). Her prior board and trustee roles have included the Florida State University Foundation, Novant Asset Management Company (NAMCO), The Thacher School, Presbyterian Medical Center, Avalon Advisors, and CBAM.

• Runs an endowment-style, multi-generational program: broad diversification across public equities, hedge funds, private equity, venture capital, and real estate, aiming to compound capital over very long horizons.
• Emphasizes manager selection and access in less-efficient markets — GEM's stated view is that skill in differentiated manager selection generates alpha where markets are inefficient (private equity, venture, real estate).
• Deploys capital primarily as a limited partner and co-investor through dedicated access vehicles, including GAF-BO / GAF-BO II (buyout), GAF-VC and successors GAF-VC II / VC22A / VC24A (venture capital), GAF-RE / GAF-RE II (real estate), and the GEM IS Fund (independent sponsors).
• Team is described as "direct investors who operate with a principal mindset," reflecting a preference for managers and structures where GEM can act like an owner rather than a passive allocator.
• Implication for founders: GEM's startup exposure flows through the VC funds it backs, not through direct seed checks written by Lynch personally.