Appointment of Emily Straw is effectively immediately
Fulton, MO – William Woods University (WWU) today announced the appointment of Emily Straw, a longtime national competitor in the Equestrian industry and investment manager by trade, to the University’s Board of Trustees. The appointment of Straw was voted on unanimously by the university’s current governing board and is effective immediately.
Straw’s experience in Equestrian has taken her to competitions across the U.S. and Canada. Beginning riding at age five, she rode throughout college at Mount Holyoke College, where she continued to show at the national level and won the USET (United States Equestrian Team) Gold medal after winning 20 USET medal classes.
Currently an amateur rider who competes coast to coast across the U.S. in Hunter Jumper, Straw has won numerous national titles including United States Hunter Jumper Association (USHJA) Championships in the jumpers, top placings at the year-end USHJA finals in Las Vegas and at Spruce Meadows in Canada. She has ridden under some of the best/top trainers in the country, and currently keeps her horses and trains in Spring Hill, Kansas.
Professionally, Straw currently works as a partner at an investment management firm called Vela Investment Management, located in New Albany, Ohio. Past experience includes serving as a Senior Vice-President at First Pacific Advisors in Los Angeles (2020-2024), Managing Director and Partner at Palmer Square Capital Management in Mission Hills, Kansas (2012-2019) and Managing Director and Partner at SSI Investment Management in Beverly Hills, California (2009-2012).
Straw is a 1995 graduate of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts, where she received her bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Sociology.
