Committees Austin
Texas Wall Street Women is run by an all-volunteer staff from our Board of Directors, Advisory Board, Angels and Committee Members. Take a moment to get to know us and we look forward to meeting you at an upcoming event!
Austin City Head
Sarah is a native of upstate New York who spent 9 years in Boston after graduating. Sarah soon realized that the cold New England winters were not for her and traded in her snow boots for cowboy boots and moved to Austin in 2012.
Sarah is a Tax Director in the Asset & Wealth Management practice, specializing in state and local taxes. She has 13 years of public accounting experience and serves clients that sit in the fund of fund, private equity/venture capital and real estate space.
Sarah holds a BS in Business Administration and a MS in Taxation from Northeastern University. Sarah is a licensed CPA in Massachusetts and Texas, as well as a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
In additional to her passion for state and local taxes, Sarah has a love for animals. She is active with the Heart of Texas Lab Rescue, a local animal rescue in Austin, where she serves as a foster mom to labs waiting to find their fur-ever home.
Education
Mariko Boswell joined PIMCO in 2010 and focuses on institutional client service and business development as part of PIMCO’s public funds practice. In this role, she works with US public fund clients and prospects to better understand their investment objectives, deliver appropriate solutions and deepen partnerships.
Prior to joining PIMCO in 2010, she worked as an equity research associate on the energy team at Credit Suisse and as a senior associate covering utilities in the corporate finance group at Moody’s Investors Service.
Mariko holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business as well as an undergraduate degree from Yale University. In addition to her involvement with Texas Wall Street Women, she currently serves as a member of the board of directors of the YMCA of Austin.
Susan Chen is a Managing Director responsible for UTIMCO’s investments in public equities across developed and emerging markets. She is a member of UTIMCO’s Investment Committee and Leadership Team, and chair of the Co-Investment Committee.
Prior to UTIMCO, Susan was a Managing Director at a $5 billion alternative investment firm affiliated with Highbridge Capital, where she was a portfolio manager and analyst for distressed debt, event-driven equity, private debt, and special asset investments. She started her career in investment banking at Merrill Lynch. Susan earned an MBA, JD, and AB in economics from Harvard. She serves on the Investment Committee for St. David’s Foundation.
As a Regional Director and Vice President in the Global Client Group at Dimensional Fund Advisors, Kelly leads business development efforts across the United States with state-registered independent financial planning firms. In this role she educates financial advisors on Dimensional’s investment philosophy and delivers guidance and support for various practice managements needs in order to improve and grow their practice. Kelly is also a frequent speaker for many of Dimensional’s live virtual webcasts and workshops.
Kelly is a founding member of the steering committee for Dimensional’s financial advisor Women & Wealth Community – a group that is on a mission to better serve women investors. More recently, Kelly was selected as the Lead Chair of Dimensional’s Women’s Inclusion Network – one of the first employee resource groups to be formed at the firm.
Outside of her involvement with Texas Wall Street Women, Kelly serves as a mentor for female undergraduate students at her alma mater, the University of Texas at Austin’s McCombs School of Business. There she received a BBA degree in Finance with a concentration in investment management. Kelly has also held the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ designation since 2014 and is currently working on her Registered Life Planner designation.
Networking
Anida is an audit senior manager in the Financial Services practice, specializing in investment management and broker-dealer audits. Anida has twelve years of public accounting experience, including 6 years of experience overseas (IFRS). She served hedge funds, fund of funds with various capital structures and strategies, venture capital, broker-dealer (both introducing and clearing brokers) and other financial services companies. Anida is a licensed CPA in Texas, Connecticut and Alaska, as well as member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Jena Michels is an Associate on UTIMCO’s $10 billion hedge fund team. Since joining in 2013, Jena has focused on sourcing, due diligence and monitoring of existing long/short equity, distressed credit, event, multi-strategy and global macro hedge fund strategies. Prior to joining UTIMCO, Jena held similar positions at Ascension Health, a large non-profit hospital system based in St. Louis, Missouri and The University of Arizona Investment Office. She holds a B.S. in Business Administration and an M.S. in Finance from The University of Arizona.
Dianne supports the advisory team at Durbin Bennett Private Wealth Management and assists in a variety of client service related functions including client reporting, account maintenance and operations. Previously, she served as Operations Manager at Enclave Advisors, LLC in overseeing the day-to-day operations of the office along with providing client support and administrative duties. Prior to joining Enclave Advisors, Dianne worked as the executive assistant to the Director of Client Development for McVean Trading & Investments, LLC in Memphis, TN.
In her spare time, Dianne enjoys running on the trail around Town Lake in Austin, playing with her dog and spending time with friends and family.
Philanthropy
As General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, Heather Traeger is responsible for all legal services and compliance for the sixth largest public pension fund in the United States, including those related to the retirement system’s pension plan and two health care programs. She serves as General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer for the headquarters located in Austin, Texas and the foreign office located in London.
Ms. Traeger’s legal practice includes a strong regulatory background, with significant experience advising a variety of financial institutions. She has nearly 23 years’ experience in the financial services industry, including as Senior Counsel to Commissioner Roel Campos at the Securities and Exchange Commission, Counsel to Commissioner Isaac Hunt, and Senior Counsel in the Division of Market Regulation (now Trading and Markets).
Prior to joining TRS, Ms. Traeger was a partner at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, in Washington, D.C., in the Financial Services Practice and served as an Associate Counsel at the Investment Company Institute (ICI). Currently, she is a member of the US Investment Performance Committee, a subcommittee of the CFA, is co-chair of the NSCP Regulatory Advisory Committee, and serves on the Board of the Association of Securities and Exchange Commission Alumni. Ms. Traeger is a member of the Texas and District of Columbia bars
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If you would like to learn more about getting involved as a volunteer, you may reach out to any of us or email us at info@txwsw.com
