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Katherine Relle

Portfolio Manager, J.P. Morgan Private Equity Group

Growing up outside Washington, D.C., Katherine Relle thought she would go into her hometown business — politics. But as a Georgetown University political science undergraduate spending her junior year at the London School of Economics, she became interested in business, which led her to pursue a master’s degree at LSE. Her dissertation on financial regulation combined both fields of interest and led to a job in strategy at J.P. Morgan in 2012.

Relle, 31, has been there since, eventually moving into private equity in the bank’s asset management group. She sits on the group’s investment committee, covering direct and secondary investments, as well as separately managed accounts. In 2014, Relle was given responsibility for developing, growing and leading the bank’s NextGen effort, a firmwide business resource group providing mentorship and training to about 50,000 early career professionals. “I work directly with the bank’s operating committee on all programming to ensure alignment with the firm’s priorities,” she said.

Relle also leads a team within the bank’s Women on the Move initiative, which is intended to empower female employees, clients and consumers to build careers, grow businesses and improve their financial health.

Evan Cooper