Kourtney Gibson (1981- )

February 10, 2023 
/ Contributed By: Manos Karousos

Kourtney Gibson is an American entrepreneur and currently Senior Executive Vice President at Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association of America (TIAA). Prior to joining TIAA, she was Executive Vice Chairman of  Loop Capital, a private investment banking firm. Gibson is also a member of the Board of Directors of MarketAxess, and sits on the Board of Trustees of Viterbo University in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. She has previously served on the Board of Trustees of the University of Miami and Lululemon.  She is also member of the Economic Club of Chicago

Gibson was born on July 5, 1981, at St. Luke’s Memorial Hospital in Racine, Wisconsin. She attended J.I. Case High School in Racine, where she was an outstanding student and captain of the cheerleading team. She turned down scholarships from the University of Wisconsin and other universities to attend the University of Miami in Florida. She earned an MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and a BA from the University of Miami. Gibson originally wanted to become a bilingual pediatrician but decided to pursue business while studying at the University of Miami.

Gibson started as an intern at Loop Capital in 1997, the year the company was founded. She later held various leadership positions at the firm, including Head of Global Equities. In 2015, Crain’s Chicago Business named Gibson to its 40 Under 40 list. In 2016, she was elected President of Loop Capital, succeeding the firm’s co-founder Albert R. Grace, Jr.

In November 2020, Lululemon added Gibson to the company’s board of directors. That same year, Gibson joined the board of financial services company MarketAxess. In 2021, she partnered with Google and Goldman Sachs to promote racial equality. The partnership between Loop Capital and Google was part of Goldman Sachs’ One Million Black Women initiative, which seeks to reduce the racial wealth gap.

Gibson is frequently featured as an expert on finance and cryptocurrencies in publications such as Crain’s Chicago Business and Markets Insider. She spoke at the 2021 Women in Leadership Symposium at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Gibson is also a member of the Economic Club of Chicago and the Treasury Market Practises Group sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. She is a member of the Viterbo University Finance Committee.

In 2013, Gibson established the Kourtney K. Ratliff Endowed Scholarship Fund at the University of Miami. The fund sponsors the Kourtney K. Ratliff Scholarship for Academic Excellence, which is awarded to African American students from the Midwest pursuing a business degree. In 2017, Gibson donated the Nola Starling Recital Hall to Viterbo University in LaCrosse, Wisconsin, named after Gibson’s mother, a Viterbo University graduate. Gibson is chairman of the board of the Chicago Scholars Foundation and a board member of the Dibia Dream Foundation which provides STEM education to underserved youth.  She is a also a board member and Immediate Past Chairman of the Chicago Scholars Foundation, the largest college access and success program in Chicago.

Gibson is married and has four children. She currently resides with her family in Atlanta, Georgia and Chicago, Illinois.

About the Author

Author Profile

Manos S. Karousos received a BA in Social Anthropology from the Panteion University of Athens, Greece and he also holds a master’s degree in European societies and European integration from the Aegean University of Mitilíni, Greece. His research interests are focused on race issues and integration – the Black culture in the USA, especially the victimization and prisonization as well as the representation of African Americans as public figures. In addition, he is interested in prison issues, ghetto, and gang culture both as a researcher and as an activist. Furthermore, he is passionate about sports both as a researcher and as an athlete.

CITE THIS ENTRY IN APA FORMAT:

Karousos, M. (2023, February 10). Kourtney Gibson (1981- ). BlackPast.org. https://new.blackpast.org/african-american-history/kourtney-gibson-1981/

Source of the Author's Information:

Barton Kelsie, “From Intern to President: How Kourtney Gibson Does it All”, atlantamagazine.com, April 15, 2021 https://atlantanmagazine.com/from-intern-to-president-kourtney-gibson

University of Wisconsin-Madison, “2021 Women in Leadership Symposium presents Onward & Upward: The Era of the Empowered Woman”, diversity.wisc.edu , https://diversity.wisc.edu/2021/03/2021-women-in-leadership-symposium-presents-onward-upward-the-era-of-the-empowered-woman/

Fox Michelle, “Black leaders share their advice on how to help Black Americans succeed”, cnbc.com, February 16, 2021 https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/16/black-leaders-share-advice-on-how-to-help-black-americans-succeed.html

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