Ellen Safir

Ellen Safir graduated from Bennington in 1966 and is the Founder, Chief Executive Officer, and Chief Investment Officer of New Century Advisors in Chevy Chase, MD. Ellen is responsible for the overall investment and business strategies. An early adopter of Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS), she has helped advance the firm's reputation as an expert in inflation-linked securities. Ellen's personal expertise in the fixed income markets also extends to the emerging market and high-yield sectors, as well as to traditional fixed income sectors. Her prior experience includes serving for 16 years as Managing Director of Fixed Income & Currencies at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), a nonprofit medical research organization and one of the nation’s largest philanthropies. There, she was a pioneer in developing “core plus,” now a commonly accepted strategy that employs a broad opportunity set within portfolios. Before joining HHMI, Ellen was Assistant Treasurer of the American National Red Cross, where she managed operating reserves and oversaw the organization's retirement system and endowment portfolios. She began her career as a Financial Analyst at the Federal Reserve Board in Washington, DC. Ellen is Vice Chair of the Investment Committee of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, is Board Member & Development Chair of Horizons Greater Washington, and serves on the Finance Committee of the Foundation for Advanced Education in Science at the National Institutes of Health. She is a past President of the Washington Society of Investment Analysts and the Washington Association of Money Managers, and formerly served on the Board of Directors of Century National Bank of Washington, DC and of AARP Mutual Funds, where she was Chair of the Investment Committee. She moderated an Economic Outlook panel discussion for the CFA Institute in 2015 and recently attended the 100 Women in Finance Gala in NYC. Ellen studied Social Science at Bennington and received her MBA from George Washington University.