Shepard Farrar is an SEC Qualified Financial and Technology Expert, Qualified Risk Director, Certified Director and Advisory Board Chair.  

Shepard Farrar is an SEC Qualified Financial and Technology Expert, Qualified Risk Director, Certified Director and Advisory Board Chair.  

Farrar serves on seven boards that align with her passions for economic development, education, governance and faith.  She serves on Audit/Risk, Finance/Operations and Program Committees of the DCRO Institute, Eastern University, Inter-American Development Bank, Memton Fund, NACD Capital Area, PDA DC Metro and Reall, Ltd. (U.K.).  She is Adjunct Faculty at The American College of Financial Services, an Executive Coach/Guide with ReacHIRE, Expert for information networks, and frequent speaker at family office, governance, infrastructure, investment management and risk/technology conferences. With over 40 years’ experience as an institutional fund manager, equity/fixed income investment analyst and in international economic development, she has particular expertise in the analysis of and investment in infrastructure (electric and water utilities, energy, air/seaport, rail and toll roads), in the U.S. and globally.

Additional Information:

Most recently CIO of the Inter-American Development Bank’s $8.5 billion retirement plans, her prior roles included Director of U.S. Equity at NRRIT, Sr. Investment Advisor at the UMWA H&R Funds, Vice President at Riggs (now PNC) and CoreStates (now Wells Fargo) Banks, Associate at Merrill Lynch, Fixed Income Analyst at Lehman Brothers, Equity Analyst at SunLife of Canada, Research Assistant at Scudder, Stevens & Clark, Head of Operations at a Shearson Lehman American Express branch and Consultant at Thompson Financial.  With a passion for economic development, she worked 2 years as Technical Advisor in Mali and Liberia, West Africa and volunteers annually with Habitat for Humanity and the Fuller Center for Housing in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, Haiti and Europe.  She earned her BA in Political Science at Princeton University and MBA in Global Economic Development from Eastern University, and continued training and certifications in investments (CFA, CAIA), governance (NACD.DC, PDA, DCRO CRG), cybersecurity (NACD CERT and DCRO) and AI (HBS and NACD), and sustainability (SASB, CFA ESG). 

She speaks frequently at conferences (BDO, CFA Institute, Institutional Connect, Institutional Investor, Marcus Evans, NACD, Opal, ReacHIRE and Titan) on a range of topics: best-in-class board governance; management of multi-asset institutional funds amidst complex economic, geopolitical and monetary conditions; governance of digital transformation, including artificial intelligence, process automation and cybersecurity; effective shareholder engagement; building resilient and multi-generational family offices and foundations; identifying, measuring and monitoring sustainability metrics; managing liquidity and risk in multi-asset, liability-aware portfolios; and the role of digital assets and the U.S. dollar in the economy and investments.

For over 20 years she has developed and graded curriculum for the CFA Institute, CAIA Association and NACD, speaks at investment and governance conferences, and was awarded Institutional Investor’s Most Influential Women in Investment Management.  Outside of work, she has earned varsity letters in 6 sports, competed for Team USA in duathlon, is a Cat 2 cyclist and Kempo black belt, and trains in boxing, kickboxing and Muay Thai.