Cynthia Strauss is Director of Research of the Fidelity® Charitable Gift Fund, an independent public charity that sponsors the largest donor advised fund program in the U.S. She is a member of the Gift Funds Senior Team, where she focuses on the broader philanthropic sector and works with the Board of Trustees of the Gift Fund to make grants from the Trustees' Philanthropy Fund, the Gift Fund's general fund.
Previously, Cynthia had a long career at Fidelity Management and Research Company where she served in numerous capacities: Director of Research for part of the Fidelity’s broad actively managed US equity funds, Director of Research for Fidelity's investment grade bond funds, and Director of Research for Fidelity's domestic and Canadian dollar money market funds, senior fixed income analyst. In each of these capacities she managed some of the largest buy-side research teams supporting asset classes and sectors which outperformed their relevant peers and benchmarks. Prior to Fidelity she was a founding Managing Director of a French-owned merchant bank in New York and held a leadership position in leveraged finance at Citicorp, with expertise in global banking.
Cynthia has held volunteer and board positions with charitable organizations engaged in the arts, education, volunteerism and women's issues. She is currently on the Executive Committee of the Board of the Women's Campaign Forum, Washington, D.C., and WGBH's Ralph Lowell Society Committee, Boston. She holds a B.A. degree Cum Laude from Wesleyan University.