Carol Schleif

Carol Schleif is the regional chief investment officer of Asset Management for Abbot Downing’s Midwest region. She is responsible for providing clients with strategic, long-term investment guidance as well as guiding and coordinating the asset management activities of the region. Carol is also a member of the Abbot Downing Asset Allocation Committee, Client Educational Initiative Committee, and Content Committee. Prior to joining Abbot Downing, Carol was a partner and investment principal at Lowry Hill from 1993 to 2012. She was a member of the firm’s Investment Strategy and Asset Allocation teams and actively engaged in mentoring and coaching investment talent. Before Lowry Hill, Carol was a director of investment research and senior analyst for John G. Kinnard & Company (a regional brokerage firm). Prior to that, she was a research officer at First Trust Company. Carol began her investment career in 1983 as a market strategist with Piper Jaffray & Hopwood, analyzing market and group dynamics. From 1996 to 2001, Carol authored a monthly column for the award-winning regional business publication Twin Cities Business Monthly (TCBM). Currently, Carol authors a quarterly column for the Wells Fargo online publication, Today’s Connections, and Multi-Unit Franchisee magazine. She has continued to write many articles for TCBM and other publications, including Physician’s Money Digest, Estate Planning, MN Law & Politics and Arizona Business. Carol has frequently lectured on a variety of topics such as investment management and philosophy, asset allocation, portfolio construction, how to select a money manager, and behavioral finance, and the strategic shifts that technological innovation is bringing to portfolio construction and management. Carol graduated summa cum laude with dual bachelor’s degrees in business and equestrian science from William Woods University in Missouri. She is a holder of the right to use the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation and is a member of the CFA Institute. Carol currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the College of St. Benedict, a private women’s liberal arts college. She is chair of the investment committee, and a member of the college’s executive board, academic affairs and finance committees. She is also on the CSB/St. John’s University joint finance committee. Carol is a mentor in the MENTTIUM Program, an organization dedicated to developing high-performance female talent, and a mentor in her local CFA Society. She is on the Board of Trustees for the Children’s Cancer Research Fund where she is also on the joint finance and investment committees. She is a member (and past board member and membership chair) of the local society of securities analysts, CFA MN. Carol remains active in multiple church music groups as an accompanist for senior, women’s, and praise and worship choirs. Carol and her husband Steve have four grown children and live in Buffalo, Minnesota.