Rebecca Patterson

Rebecca Patterson is a globally recognized investor and macroeconomic researcher with more than 25 years’ experience studying how politics and policy intersect with economic trends to drive financial markets.

Rebecca is currently an independent director at Vanguard, a global asset manager with more than $10 trillion in assets under management. Through the Washington Speakers Bureau, she is also a frequently requested speaker on macroeconomic and financial market topics, where she provides actionable insights to a wide array of companies and industry organizations.

Previously, Rebecca was Chief Investment Strategist for Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund. In that role, she shaped the firm’s research agenda across geographies and asset classes, oversaw development of new strategies to help large institutional clients solve their most pressing challenges, and shared her insights via Bridgewater’s Daily Observations publication. As a member of Bridgewater’s Executive, Commercial, and Investment committees, she helped the firm successfully transition from its founder, Ray Dalio, to its next generation of leadership.

From 2012 through 2019, Rebecca was Chief Investment Officer of Bessemer Trust, overseeing $85 billion in client assets. During her time there, she was a member of the firm’s Management Committee and helped launch their Diversity & Inclusion Committee.

Before joining Bessemer in 2012, Rebecca spent more than 15 years at JPMorgan. There she worked as a researcher in the firm’s investment bank in Europe, Singapore, and the U.S. She also served as Chief Investment Strategist in the asset management arm of the firm and ran the Private Bank’s global currency and commodity trading desk. Rebecca’s transition to finance came after several years working as a journalist, covering financial markets, policy, and politics in the U.S. and Europe.

Rebecca is currently a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, and the Economic Club of New York. She has served on the New York Federal Reserve’s Investor Advisory and Foreign Exchange committees. She also serves on the University of Florida’s Investment Corporation Advisory Board and was Chair of the Board for three years. She currently chairs the Council for Economic Education and is a member of the board of the Bretton Woods Committee.

Rebecca’s insights are frequently sought after by the media; she co-hosted the first-ever television program dedicated to foreign-exchange markets: CNBC’s Money in Motion.

She holds an M.B.A. from New York University, an M.A. in International Relations from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, and a B.S. in Journalism from the University of Florida. She was included in American Banker’s list of Most Powerful Women in Finance for six consecutive years and was named to Forbes’ 50 Over 50 in 2022.

Rebecca is married and has two teenage girls.