DEBORAH GANDY | Senior managing director and wealth advisor and relationship manager, Chevy Chase Trust

The first Black cheerleader for her middle and high schools in Greensboro, North Carolina, Deborah Gandy knows a thing or two about blazing trails. In 1998, U.S. Trust (now Bank of America Private Bank) hired Gandy as a business development officer, making her the first Black person in that role in the wealth management firm’s history. In 2023, she became the first Black woman to chair the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce.

“Breaking barriers is one thing,” Gandy says. “Ensuring there are others to follow you is another. I consider it my responsibility to ensure … diversity in the workforce.”

Gandy has more than three decades of experience in investment management. She joined Chevy Chase Trust, an investment management firm overseeing more than $42 billion in assets, in 2009 as a managing director. She’s held her current role since 2023.

Previously, Gandy was a director and private banker at Citi Private Bank. She’s also held positions with Wachovia Bank & Trust and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

In the community, Gandy sits on the boards of Arlington County’s Signature Theatre, the Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the VHC Health Foundation, as well as the dean’s advisory board of George Mason University’s Honors College. She is vice chair of the Arlington Community Foundation.

Gandy earned a degree in business administration from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Return to the full list of this year’s recipients