The Kresge Foundation, Trustee

The Kresge Foundation has appointed Anna Blanding to its 12-member board of trustees, which serves as the governing body overseeing the foundation’s financial management, operations, grantmaking, and social investing. 

Anna Blanding is a seasoned investment professional whose broad experience spans finance, philanthropy, endowment management, federal and state policy, institutional investing, and community development. She is a recognized expert on impact investing, and her work was most recently published in two Yale School of Management case studies. This year, Blanding was the invited keynote for the Donald H. Ogilvie colloquium, “The Evolution of Business and Society.” Blanding currently works as chief investment officer (CIO) at ConnCORP, a Connecticut-based impact enterprise whose mission is to drive transformational economic development through strategic investment in commercial and residential real estate and scalable businesses. In her current role, Blanding co-leads the company’s signature $225 million mixed-use sustainable real estate development located in an historic African American community, steps from Yale. The project will serve as an institutional anchor to boost revitalization of New Haven, Connecticut. Blanding also heads ConnCORP’s Economic Justice Fund, investing in women and BIPOC-led companies. 

Prior to ConnCORP, Blanding was deputy CIO at Choate Rosemary Hall where she oversaw a $350 million endowment and deployed capital across all private and public asset classes. Her previous experience also includes serving as an investment officer at The Annie E. Casey Foundation, a $4.2 billion endowment. Blanding commits her talent and time to various philanthropic pursuits including as a trustee and investment committee member of Yale University Dwight Hall and the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund. She is a delegate to Yale’s Alumni Association Assembly, an advisor to New Majority Capital, and member of the board of directors for Capital for Change and the Angelman Society Foundation. Blanding is a national advocate for children with rare neurological diseases and the increased need for inclusive clinical trials and neuroinflammation research. 

Blanding earned a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s degree in business administration from Yale University and Yale School of Management, respectively. 

Jack Gorman led this search with Nicole Poe and Sandeep Kaur.