Cathie Wood (born 1955) is an American investor and CEO of Ark Invest, whose funds have been described as "rollercoaster rides" due to their wildly mixed performance. After graduating summa cum laude from USC in 1981, where she was mentored by economist Arthur Laffer, Wood worked at Capital Group, Jennison Associates, and AllianceBernstein before founding Ark Invest in 2014. The firm, named after the Ark of the Covenant, was initially seeded by convicted fraudster Bill Hwang, and its flagship ARK Innovation ETF (ARKK) became the top-performing global equity fund in 2020. However, ARKK fell 24% in 2021 and was the worst performer in early 2022, leading Morningstar to rank Ark Invest as the worst "wealth destroyer" fund family for the decade ending 2023, though it rebounded to be a top performer in 2023 and 2025. In 2025, Ark's funds rebounded strongly, with ARKK up 23.4% through Q3 (vs. the S&P 500's 6.8%), and in January 2026, Morningstar ranked ARKK as the fifth best ETF of 2025, with Ark funds taking four of the top five spots. Wood, who was named to the inaugural Forbes 50 Over 50 list in 2021, also made headlines in mid-2025 by selling $47.9 million in Coinbase shares, though Coinbase remained her second-largest holding.