Barbara Doran



Introduction

Although Barbara Doran (b. 28th October 1957) grew up in a Philadelphia suburb, her mother and family are from Tyrone, a town close to State College, where she spent several weeks every summer with her cousins, swimming in Spruce Creek and exploring the hills. Her early-widowed grandmother went to Penn State, taking courses on weekends for years as she raised five children, until she finally got her degree in her early sixties. Her Aunt Florence also went to Penn State and graduated #1 in her class (not something her niece even came close to!)

Education

Barbara went to Ridley High School, where she played varsity field hockey, basketball and lacrosse and was co-captain of the cheerleaders. She is a graduate of both Penn State and Harvard Business School. At Penn State, she majored in creative writing, and played three varsity sports from freshman year on. She was Penn State's first woman to make the United States Lacrosse Team and first with two others to make the United States Field Hockey Team. She was also part of the first group of women both at Penn State and in the nation to receive an athletic scholarship her senior year. She was a women's sports and Title IX activist and covered women's sports for The Daily Collegian, writing for outside publications as well.

Business

Professionally, Barb is currently a private wealth portfolio manager at Morgan Stanley in New York, and is the former Research Investment Officer of Neuberger Berman, a $200 billion asset management firm where she co-managed the equity research department and a technology fund. Previously, she had founded and managed two firms, a long/short equity hedge fund and a third party marketing firm that specialized in asset raising and business consulting for hedge funds and private equity firms. She also worked as a senior institutional equity salesperson at two major Wall Street firms, First Boston (now Credit Suisse) and Lehman Brothers, becoming the top-ranked salesperson at the latter.

Prior to business school, she worked in publishing, initially as a journalist, which included a stint as a newswoman at State College’s WRSC radio and as a part-time writer for Penn State Sports Information. Later, she worked at Sports Illustrated in advertising sales and in circulation at Conde' Nast Publications.

Nonprofit and Other

She was a member of the United States Field Hockey and United States Lacrosse teams seven years in total and served on the boards of both organizations; she was a key leader in reforming the failed leadership and governance practices of the former organization. She has also served and currently serves on the boards and various committees of Outward Bound, MCC Theater, US Lacrosse, and The Foundation for Child Development (FCD), including FCD's investment committee overseeing an endowment of $100 million. She is a published writer on sports and investments and remains an active sportswoman.

Penn State Involvement

She has been involved as a volunteer for nearly five years in Penn State's For The Future Campaign, a multi-year, multi-billion dollar effort whose primary focus is raising money for scholarships. She is on the Varsity S Committee, a subcommittee of the campaign, responsible for fund-raising from all past varsity athletes. She oversees the four fall women's sports: cross country and track, soccer, field hockey and volleyball, and works with coaches and team reps, current and past, to encourage best practices in alumni development. She is also a member of the recently formed Penn State Alumni Advisory Committee to the Chair of the Board of Trustees.

She lives in New York City, where she has lived for over thirty years.