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In 1992, JoAnn Price was offered a job that almost nobody wanted. The National Association of Investment Companies had identified a gap: institutional capital was barely flowing toward minority-led investment firms, and someone needed to build a fund-of-funds to fix that. The search committee had gone looking for a man. Price, then serving as NAIC's president, was not the first call. "Of course, they were looking for a man," she later said. "But at the end of the day, all of those super-duper men were not willing to take that level of risk."
Price took it. Born on January 7, 1950, in North Wales, Pennsylvania, she had graduated from Howard University in 1971, worked as a legislative aide to Pennsylvania Senator Richard Schweiker on Capitol Hill, risen to NAIC president by 1983, and spent nearly a decade steering policy in Washington before anyone asked her to build something from scratch. In 1994, she co-founded Fairview Capital Partners in West Hartford, Connecticut, alongside Laurence C. Morse. Their first fund closed after two and a half years of road-show pitching that included investors questioning whether there were even enough Black entrepreneurs starting companies beyond "successful barbershops and beauty shops."
Thirty years later, Fairview Capital manages more than $10 billion in aggregate fund capitalization. New York Life, America's largest mutual life insurer, has acquired a minority ownership stake in the firm. Forbes named Price to its 50 Over 50 list. Below is a look at the seven investment programs that make up her empire.
1. Fairview Capital Partners
The mother company. Founded in 1994 and headquartered at 75 Isham Road in West Hartford, Connecticut, with a second office in San Francisco, Fairview Capital Partners is the institutional infrastructure through which all of Price's investment programs operate. It is one of the largest minority-owned investment management firms in the United States, with over $10 billion in aggregate fund capitalization since inception. The firm employs a diverse team of approximately 28 professionals across both offices and invests on behalf of institutional investors including public and private pension plans, foundations, endowments, and family offices. New York Life's acquisition of a minority stake in the firm, announced in 2024, marks the most significant external validation of Fairview's position in the market since its founding.
2. Venture Capital Fund-of-Funds Program
Fairview's flagship investment strategy and the program that first put the firm on the map. The venture capital fund-of-funds invests in a portfolio of early-stage and growth-stage venture capital partnerships, providing institutional investors with diversified access to the VC asset class through a single managed vehicle. Fairview evaluates thousands of next-generation venture managers and commits capital to fewer than 2 percent of them. Of the managers it has backed, 31 percent ranked in the first quartile by net internal rate of return. The firm raised its fifth venture capital fund in 2019. Its institutional investor base for this program includes some of the country's most prominent state pension systems.
3. Diverse and Emerging Managers Program
This is the program that made Fairview a household name in institutional investing circles, and it is the one that Price has championed most publicly throughout her career. The diverse and emerging managers program systematically identifies, diligences, and allocates capital to investment firms led by women and people of color, as well as first-time fund managers from any background who demonstrate the potential for institutional-quality returns. Fairview applies the same rigorous due diligence criteria to every manager in this program that it applies across its entire platform. The State Universities Retirement System of Illinois committed an additional $100 million to this program as recently as 2023, building on a longstanding relationship. Fairview publishes an annual market review on woman and minority-owned private equity and venture capital firms, providing data that has become a reference point across the institutional investing industry.
4. Co-Investment Program
Fairview's co-investment program gives institutional clients direct access to individual portfolio company investments alongside the firm's general partner relationships. Rather than receiving exposure only through a fund-of-funds structure, co-investment clients can participate directly in specific transactions sourced through Fairview's network of fund manager relationships, which has been built across three decades. The program provides more concentrated exposure and reduced fee drag compared with the fund-of-funds vehicles. Fairview's long-standing relationships with top-tier general partners, including some of the most sought-after venture capital firms in the country, are what make this program operationally possible.
5. Customized Separate Accounts
Beyond its commingled funds, Fairview structures bespoke separate account mandates for larger institutional investors that want a tailored private markets portfolio built to their specific return objectives, risk parameters, and diversity mandates. These accounts are managed with the same investment philosophy as the broader platform but calibrated to the individual client's guidelines. The New Jersey State Investment Council is among the institutional investors that have accessed Fairview's strategies through a separately managed vehicle. This part of the business reflects the sophistication of Fairview's institutional client relationships and the degree to which large pension systems trust the firm to manage capital outside a standardized vehicle.
6. Fairview Foundations Emerging Managers Fund
In 2019, Fairview launched this dedicated fund in partnership with the Ford Foundation, designed specifically to channel philanthropic and institutional capital toward emerging managers who are led by women and people of color. The Visa Foundation subsequently backed the fund as well. The Fairview Foundations Emerging Managers Fund operates as a distinct vehicle within the Fairview platform, targeting a segment of the market that even most of Fairview's institutional clients have historically underfunded. It represents Price's conviction that the capital gap facing diverse fund managers requires dedicated, purpose-built solutions rather than incremental adjustments to existing programs.
7. Buyout and Growth Equity Program
Fairview's investment mandate extends beyond venture capital. The firm's buyout and growth equity program allocates to private equity partnerships focused on small to mid-market companies, covering both control buyouts and minority growth equity investments. This strategy gives institutional clients exposure to the broader private equity market alongside the firm's venture-focused and diversity-focused programs, creating a more complete private markets allocation through a single manager relationship. Fairview's individual commitment sizes across its programs typically range from $5 million to $50 million per fund, depending on vehicle size and strategy. The combination of buyout and growth equity exposure with the firm's venture capital and emerging manager programs is central to what makes Fairview a full-service private markets platform.
Price summarized her founding philosophy in a sentence that has held across every one of these programs: "The moment is going to be with us, and either you get on board or get left behind." Three decades in, the institutional capital community has largely agreed with her.
