Jay C. Flaherty, Assistant Vice President-Investments and Investment Manager, has been promoted to Vice President and Chief Investment Officer of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. He succeeds Michael J. Smith, who retired from that position on December 31, 2012, after a 35-year career with the Foundation.
Flaherty joined the Foundation’s Michigan-based investment office in Troy in 2007 as an investment manager. He subsequently was named assistant vice president in March 2012, continuing to focus on hedge funds and private equity investments in that position.
“We are very pleased that Jay has agreed to step into this critical leadership position,” said the Foundation’s President and CEO William S. White. “His knowledge of financial markets is deeply valued. And on a practical note, his familiarity with the day-to-day operations of the investment office should assure a smooth and seamless transition.”
Before joining the Foundation, Flaherty worked for eight years in similar capacities at Ennis, Knupp & Associates (now Hewitt Ennis Knupp) and Richards & Tierney, both investment advisory firms in Chicago. He also held positions as financial analyst and reliability statistician for agricultural and computer technology firms in Wisconsin and Illinois.
Flaherty earned his bachelor’s degree from Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota in Winona. He obtained two master’s degrees: one in mathematics from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and another in business administration in finance and accounting from the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business.
Smith joined the Foundation’s Detroit-based investment office in 1978 as an investment manager. He subsequently was named Assistant Vice President-Investments and Associate Vice President-Investments, and was responsible for equities, fixed income and real estate portfolios. In 2006, Smith was named Vice President and Chief Investment Officer.
“Mike has helped guide the Foundation’s investment office through three decades of remarkable transformation of financial systems, changing world economies and increasingly competitive and reactive markets,” said White. “Under his watch, the Foundation has achieved a more broadly diversified portfolio of investments. This could not have been accomplished without his equanimity and principled leadership.”
Smith earned both a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. He achieved the rank of captain during his eight years of service in the U.S. Air Force Reserve. He is a past president of the Financial Analysts Society of Detroit.
The Mott Foundation, established in 1926 by an automotive pioneer, is a private philanthropy committed to supporting projects that promote a just, equitable and sustainable society. It supports nonprofit programs throughout the U.S. and, on a limited geographic basis, internationally. Grantmaking is focused in four programs: Civil Society, Environment, Flint Area and Pathways Out of Poverty. Besides Flint, offices are located in metropolitan Detroit, Johannesburg (South Africa) and London. The Foundation, with 2011 year-end assets of approximately $2.13 billion, made 456 grants totaling $89.3 million. For more information, visit www.mott.org.
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