Meet Mara

Mara Der Hovanesian joined Vontobel in March 2010. She is a Senior Investigative Analyst within Quality Growth, focusing on ESG and engagement. She uses her journalistic skills to conduct research on investment themes and on the companies, in which the Quality Growth portfolios already invest or may potentially invest.

Prior to joining Vontobel, she worked at BusinessWeek magazine as the Associate Editor (2003-2009), covering banking and finance, and as the Department Editor (2000-2003) covering Wall Street and money management. Back then, she played a key role breaking news and covering trends preceding the global financial crisis, earning praise from independent media critics for spotting trouble ahead of the competitive pack in New York City and beyond. From 1998 to 2000, she was a staff journalist for Dow Jones & Co., reporting for Dow Jones Newswires, Barron’s Magazine, and The Wall Street Journal. From 1994 to 1998, she wrote for the Knight Ridder Newspaper Group. She began her financial writing career in 1990 as a freelance business writer. Her portfolio includes investigative stories that have been featured in The Chicago Tribune, The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Boston Globe, and the San Jose Mercury News.

Mara holds a Master of Arts in Economics and a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from California State University in San Francisco.