Conestoga Capital Advisors LLC, an independent investment advisory firm headquartered in Wayne, Pa., has promoted Christina Kowalski to partner, the company said.
Kowalski, a financial services industry veteran with over two decades of experience, joined Conestoga in December 2019. She currently serves as the firm’s head trader, a position in which she excelled to the benefit of both the firm’s clients and its shareholders, according to Bob Mitchell, co-founder and managing partner/portfolio manager.
“Christina has added tremendous value to our clients and shareholders since she joined us in 2019,” he said in a prepared statement. “Her promotion to partner recognizes her significant contributions to our success over the last several years.”
Prior to joining Conestoga, Kowalski worked for nearly a decade at the Philadelphia-based Swarthmore Group. She got her start in the financial services industry nine years earlier at StoneRidge Investment Partners, headquartered in the Philadelphia suburb of Radnor, Pa.
Kowalski is a graduate of St. Joseph’s University, where she majored in finance and minored in economics. She has served as the president of the Investment Traders Association of Philadelphia since January 2019. She is also the affiliate contact for the Philadelphia area for the Security Traders Association (STA) Women in Finance Committee and a member of the Bond Club of Philadelphia and Women in Investing Network.
Conestoga has continued to broaden employee ownership of the firm. Over the past five years, thirteen of its sixteen employees now have an ownership stake in the firm, including Kowalski.
"We believe our equity ownership program serves to further align our employees with our clients' investment goals and enables the partners to participate in the growth of the firm,” Duane D'Orazio, co-founder and managing partner/chief compliance officer, said in the news release announcing Kowalski’s promotion to partner. “Christina has been a great addition to our team, and we very much appreciate her contributions to our investment results. We are proud to have her join us as partner."
As of December 31, 2022, Conestoga Capital Advisors reported managing over $6.2 billion in client assets for both institutional and individual investors.