Lives of Consequence
Katherine D. Elliott '66, L.H.D. '08
Chief Operating Officer (retired), Petner Asset Management
Katherine D. Elliott is the retired Chief Operating Officer for Petner Asset Management, LLC, a hedge fund where she specialized in investment management operations. Prior to her work with Petner Asset Management, she was a senior vice president and chief operating officer with the New York investment firm Lynch and Mayer Inc.
While her career was in finance, Elliott nurtures a passion for the arts that has manifested itself, through her generosity, in one of the most important capital projects in the Colleges' recent history.
Elliott has the distinction of having made what was, at the time, the largest personal donation to the Colleges by a William Smith alumna. Her 2005 gift financed the Katherine D. Elliott Studio Arts Center on the Houghton House grounds, the first building at the Colleges named in honor of a William Smith alumna. Opened in August 2006, the modern, glass and steel building provides generous space for classrooms and offices as well as studios for painting and photography, and shops for printing, wood and metal.
Elliott's generosity is rooted in her family's long history at Hobart and William Smith. Elliott's father, the late William Elliott, served as an HWS trustee. His gift led to the construction of the William Elliott Varsity house. The scholarship he endowed in memory of his father, Lewis H. Elliott, class of 1898, has helped more than 100 students attend Hobart and William Smith Colleges. The Elliott Dance Rehearsal Suite, named for the family, is housed in the recently completed Gearan Center for the Performing Arts. As a student at William Smith, Elliott majored in economics and was on the Dean's List. She played field hockey and was a member of the Canterbury Club.
A passionate advocate for the arts and art education, she serves on the board of Education Through Music Inc., a non-profit organization that partners with inner-city schools to provide music as a core subject for all children and utilizes music education as a catalyst to improve academic achievement.
Elliott joined the Hobart and William Smith Board of Trustees in 1996 and has served on the committees for enrollment management, education and appointments, investments and building and grounds; she is currently chair of the governance committee. She is a member of the Wheeler Society and Seneca Society, and was the recipient of alumnae citations in 1991 and 2001 and an honorary degree in 2008. In 2018, Elliott established the Katherine D. Elliott ’66 Faculty Innovation Grant, a two-year fund to support a breadth of faculty proposals, from innovation within the curriculum to professional development.