Rupal J. Bhansali

Rupal Bhansali is the chief investment officer & portfolio manager of Ariel’s multi-billion dollar international & global equity portfolios. She is a rare woman and woman of color to have broken through the glass ceiling on Wall Street and among the 1.3% of female portfolio managers to solely manage a mutual fund in the US.

Bhansali is a first-generation immigrant and woman of color who came to America with no network or net-worth, but through grit and acumen broke through the glass ceiling on Wall Street, to become the Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager of Ariel Investments’ multi-billion dollar international/global equity strategies.

She is a serial intrapreneur having launched several successful multi-billion-dollar businesses over her 3-decade long career. She has held executive roles at leading firms such as Oppenheimer Capital, New York Life Investment Management and Soros Fund Management.

In 2020, 2021 and 2022, alongside industry veterans such as Janet Yellen, she was featured on the list of “100 Most Influential Women in US Finance” published by Barron’s. In 2019, she received the “North American Industry Leadership Award” from the 20,000-follower strong global non-profit 100 Women in Finance, given to women who serve as role models for others in the industry. She also serves on the prestigious Barron’s Annual Roundtable which show-cases “10 of Wall Street’s smartest investors”.

She is a frequent guest/guest anchor on broadcast media such as Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, Yahoo Finance and Reuters, and a keynote speaker at prestigious industry conferences including The CFA Institute, Morningstar, and Schwab. She recently authored her debut book “Non-Consensus Investing”.

To pay it forward, she serves on the Advisory Board of Directors of the Ira M. Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership at Columbia Law School, alongside industry stalwarts such as former Vanguard CEO Bill McNabb, and SEC Commissioner William Donaldson. She also serves on the Board of Directors of the 100 Women in Finance Global Association and is a member of the Economic Club of New York.

Fluent in several Indian languages including Hindi, Bhansali earned a Bachelor of Commerce in accounting and finance, as well as a Master of Commerce in international finance and banking from the University of Mumbai. She later earned an MBA in finance from the University of Rochester, where she was a Rotary Foundation Scholar.