ONA LEWIS
INVESTMENTS, INSURANCE AND CONSULTING INDUSTRY TRAILBLAZER
Ona Lewis, WealthTrekk's CEO and Founder, is an American financial services executive who helped blaze the trail for African American women in finance over her 47 year career.
2023: Before founding WealthTrekk, Ms. Lewis served as the Senior Vice President and Head of Emerging and Strategic Risk Management for Lincoln Financial Group, a troubled Fortune 400 insurer based in the Philadelphia area.
At Lincoln, Ms. Lewis was the first African American female SVP in a "line" function. In this role, she identified several critical new or unresolved financial risks. The implementation of one of her loss mitigation strategies ended a recurring $600 million quarterly loss and turned it into a $billion profit in one quarter.
After conducting in-depth research, Ms. Lewis wrote a ground breaking research report that answered key, previously unanswered questions about the evolution of the insurance industry crisis and ways to solve it.
2012: Prior to joining Lincoln Financial Group, Ms. Lewis returned to Wall Street for a leadership role at Moody's (formerly Moody's Analytics), the top tier financial technology enterprise risk management software consultancy.
At Moody's Ms. Lewis won the President's Hour Glass award for exceeding her revenue targets by 25%. Her clients were institutional investor included many of the world's largest global insurance enterprises in North America.
After Moody's, Ms. Lewis took a similar role as a senior fintech risk management software consultant at Moody's major competitor until 2023.
2008: Ms. Lewis left Nationwide when she and her husband decided that Mr. Lewis should accept an important career opportunity in another state. Ms. Lewis founded Evermore Towb Global Investment Management, the first hedge fund founded by an African American woman.
Domiciled in the Cayman Islands, Evermore Towb's long/short US equity investment strategy allowed Ms. Lewis to utilize the hedging skills she had learned at the Chicago Board of Trade to outperform industry benchmarks, just as she had done for JP Morgan.
She also modified an investment model she developed at Integrity Investment and Service to continue to outperform industry benchmarks.
2006: Ms. Lewis joined Nationwide Insurance, a Fortune 100 insurer to lead strategic marketing and compliance for its securities subsidiary's insurance and annuity products.
At Nationwide, Ms. Lewis led the creation of Nationwide's award winning interactive Retirement Readiness website, and co-created the insurer's Webby Honoree 2007 Superbowl "Life Comes At You Fast Rolling VIP" viral ad campaign featuring pop music icon Brittany Spears' ex-husband, Kevin Federline.
1998: Ms. Lewis' high risk pregnancy led her to close Integrity's offices in downtown Columbus but continue to work for the firm from home part time. After successfully giving birth and weening her rainbow baby, joined JP Morgan, America’s largest bank (formerly Bank One Investment Management) as the Senior Portfolio Manager for $2 billion in assets of ultra high net worth individuals and personal trusts in 1999.
At JP Morgan Ms. Lewis' investment expertise and leadership skills were rewarded with a promotion to Regional Investment Leader and Senior Portfolio Manager of top asset manager's Michigan Wealth Management region. At JP Morgan, Ms. Lewis managed $6 billion, led a statewide region.
1991: Ms. Lewis founded Integrity Investment and Service Corporation, the first securities brokerage firm founded by an African American woman. Like many undercapitalized female entrepreneurs from modest backgrounds with no access to venture capital, Ms. Lewis took a second job to finance her firm.
That second job was that of Vice President for the prestigious Big 4 global management consulting firm, PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Ms. Lewis joined PWC in 1992, becoming its second African American female Vice President in the firm's history.
1986: After graduating from Kellogg with an MBA in Finance, Marketing and International Business, Ms. Lewis joined a major Wall Street investment bank in New York, advising the largest banks, insurers, corporations, pension funds, asset managers and municipalities in the Midwest.
As a Wall Street investment banker, Ms. Lewis drew upon the credit analysis and futures markets analytical skills she developed as a commercial banker to analyze the impact of economic and financial market data on her clients' bond portfolios.
She then developed and executed fixed income (bond) investment strategies that achieved their investment goals. That experience along with her business school training in finance, marketing and international business allowed Ms. Lewis to establish over 160 of the largest institutional investors in the region.
1978: Ms. Lewis began her finance career in 1978 at BMO Bank (formerly Harris Trust) Chicago’s largest bank. After completing a rigorous 18 month commercial credit analysis training program, Ms. Lewis was promoted to Commercial Banking Officer and became the first African American woman financier to Chicago’s futures industry.
She managed an estimated $500 million in investments and loans to grain merchants, investment banks and futures trading firms, while specializing in financing currency futures and options arbitrageurs.
EDUCATION
• MBA, Finance, Marketing, and International Business, Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (1986)
• BA, International & Comparative Politics, and Certificate of African Studies, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL (1978)
• Certificates of Achievement: Futures and Options Hedging and Trading courses, Chicago Board of Trade
LICENSES & REGISTRATIONS
• FINRA Series 7, 24, 63, and 65 Securities Registrations
• Life, Annuity, Health, and Accident Insurance License
BOARD & CIVIC LEADERSHIP
• Member, Board of Directors, United Nations Association, Columbus, OH (2006 – 2011)
• Co-Founder, Climate Change Impact on Health Working Group, for the Society of Actuaries, North America (2023-2024)
• Member, Society of Actuaries (2023-2025)
• Member, Global Association of Risk Professionals
• Member, 100 Women in Finance
