Anna Blanding          MBA '09

Anna Blanding is a Chief Investment Officer, institutional capital strategist, and governance leader redefining how capital can create long-term value for both institutions and society. Her career has been defined by a belief that foundations, endowments, family offices, corporations, and other long-term investors can generate exceptional financial performance while expanding economic opportunity, strengthening communities, and building enduring prosperity.

Anna serves as Chief Investment Officer of ConnCORP, where she leads investment strategy, capital formation, and strategic finance initiatives supporting transformative economic development. She co-leads First Haven in Dixwell, a $200MM catalytic mixed-use development in historic New Haven that is demonstrating how innovative public-private partnerships, strategic investment, and robust community leadership can create community wealth and economic mobility while expanding access to housing, workforce development, entrepreneurship, healthcare, food access and cultural opportunity. This initiative is poised to catalyze over $1B of investment and create 700 jobs.

Anna is a trustee of Casey Family Programs, where she chairs both the Investment Committee and the Audit Committee. Anna serves as a Trustee of The Kresge Foundation and is on the Investment Committee and Social Investment Committee. Anna is also a Trustee and Investment Committee Member of the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund and the RISC Family Foundation. Across these roles, she oversees over $10 billion dollars in institutional assets.

Previously, Anna served as Deputy Chief Investment Officer at Choate Rosemary Hall and as an Investment Officer at the Annie E. Casey Foundation, where she managed private capital investments and helped build one of the nation's leading mission-aligned investment portfolios. Her investment experience spans private equity, venture capital, hedge funds, real assets, public markets, and innovative approaches to mission aligned investing.

Beyond her investment and governance leadership, Anna is also a national advocate for rare neurological diseases. She previously served as a Board Member of the Angelman Syndrome Foundation and on pharmaceutical patient advisory committees, bringing a patient and family perspective to efforts to advance research, treatment, and support for individuals affected by rare disease.

Anna has been recognized nationally for her leadership in institutional investing, governance, and community development. She was selected as a 2026 Yale School of Management Donaldson Fellow, the School’s highest alumni honor recognizing leaders whose lives and careers embody Yale SOM’s mission of leadership in business and society. She was also named to BluePrint Capital Advisor’s Power 100 Allocators, received the Unlocked Foundation and Tiffany & Co. Catalyst for Inclusive Capital Award, and was nominated for Pensions & Investments’ 2026 Influential Women in Institutional Investing.

Anna earned both her Bachelor of Arts from Yale University and her MBA from Yale School of Management. She is Trustee and Investment Committee member of Yale University’s Dwight Hall and is a Fellow of Ezra Stiles at Yale University.