Chitra Staley has been a thought leader in Impact Investing for over 30 years. Her first job was as a seventh and tenth-grade teacher. She took this position because she had difficulty finding a job in the environmental field after graduating. Luckily, she had obtained a teaching certificate “as a type of insurance.” That certificate allowed her to gain employment.

Finally, Staley found work in the environmental field for about three years before President Nixon came into office. However, working in the environmental field was short-lived. “With the Republican administration in office, there was very little funding for environmental projects…consequently, there was less and less work offered in the field,” she says.

At this time, Staley decided to go back to school and study finance. Staley hoped to combine her interest in finance with her interests in biology and the environmental sciences. Getting her MBA was not something her family understood. “In India, where I grew up,” she says, “back then, the caste system was very much a part of people’s lives, and the caste that our family came from, we were supposed to be the ‘learned’ people, so we didn’t go into business. Everybody, my father, for instance, was in the university system. So none of them understood what the heck I was doing.”

 Staley says, “At first, I did not know how to go about it…but knew there had to be some kind of connection.” Staley wanted to do more than “analyze firms dealing with biology.” While reading various environmental magazines, she learned about a firm that did financially-responsible investing.

By sheer coincidence, Staley sat next to one of the senior people in the firm while riding the train home one day. As Staley sat beside a woman reading an investment book she had recently read, Staley introduced herself, and the two began talking. When Staley realized the woman belonged to the same investment firm she read about in the magazine article, she did not hesitate to express her interest in working for them. The woman told Staley there were no openings then, but the two exchanged contact information and kept in touch. She recalls, “Three years and one day after I met that woman on the train, she called me and asked me to come in for an interview. There was stiff competition for the job, but I was offered the position.” There was a male applicant with more experience in the investment field than Staley, but her perseverance, enthusiasm, and pleasant personality made Staley the number one choice for the company.

Staley joined the firm as an environmental consultant. The firm had just contracted to study an eight-thousand-acre land in Rhode Island that would be flooded to build a reservoir. Staley had prior knowledge of the project as she did a similar study for her thesis. As a result, she was hired to help with the area’s environmental impact assessment (EIS).

Staley’s financial management career started in 1984 when she served as the senior investment officer at State Street Bank & Trust Co. for seven years. She developed expertise in valuing illiquid assets, such as family businesses, real estate investments, and private equity. Following this, she became the Vice President, Management Committee of Trillium Asset Management, the oldest and largest independent investment management firm in the U.S. solely devoted to sustainable and responsible investing.

From 1997 to 1999, she was Chief Investment Officer for Crosby Advisors, the family office for the founders of Fidelity. From 2000 to 2004, she was Chief Investment Officer at Mintz Levin Financial Advisor. In 2004 she founded to make a new firm, TPW Financial, that has a global focus and a diverse clientele. TPW, situated in the Boston suburb of Newton, was an early participant in socially responsible investing (SRI). In an interview conducted by Garimella (2006), Staley mentioned that TPW is not a dedicated SRI firm. She founded it because a client at a previous firm asked her if she was interested in running her own multi-family office, and she saw a chance to imprint her personality and broad background on company culture.

As the company’s CEO and CIO, Staley was responsible for the investment strategy, asset allocation, and selection of private placement investments. Her team developed and executed client financial planning and provided research for those interested in ESG and Impact Investing.

In 2015, Beacon Pointe, headquartered in Newport Beach, California, purchased Staley’s Boston-based TPW Financial. The acquisition of TPW added depth to this specialized area as part of a broad range of investment capabilities available to institutions and families. Stately currently serves as the Managing Director for Beacon Pointe Wealth Advisors. Many endowments and universities among Beacon Pointe’s institutional clients are asking more questions about sustainability and impact investing. Staley walks the environmentally conscious talk and leads Beacon Pointe with her passion for the environment. Ainxw 2015, Stately has been the Managing Director at Beacon Pointe.

Aside from her financial career, Staley regularly contributes to her community. She served as Board Chair of the Jessie Smith Noyes Foundation, a New York-based foundation working to protect communities from toxic waste dumping and to promote sustainable agriculture. Staley is currently the Chair of the Investment Advisory Committee of the Brookline Public Library, the Chair of the Pomroy Foundation’s Finance Committee, and a member of the Pro Arte Chamber Orchestra board.

Stately said the following in an interview conducted by Garimella (2006): “It is very important to me to give back to the community since I have been so blessed in my own life. I am a board member of AASRA, an organization helping South Asian women in need. We are a young organization which has already positively impacted the lives of South Asian women, and we hope to continue to help other women at hard times in their life. I am also a board member of the Noyes Foundation, a New York-based Foundation which works to protect communities from toxic waste dumping and to promote sustainable agriculture. I have also acted as a resource for financial advice in the Massachusetts State Treasurer’s seminar for Women on financial education” (2006).

Staley is a recipient of the 2011 Five Star Wealth Managers. The Five Star program is the largest and most widely published wealth manager award program in North America. As part of the updated research process for the Five Star Wealth Manager program, firms and peers nominate award candidates. Award candidates are evaluated against ten objective criteria to determine the Five Star Wealth Managers in more than 40 major markets.