Erin Harkless Moore

Managing Director - Investments, Pivotal Ventures

Erin Harkless Moore leads the fund and direct investment program for Pivotal Ventures, a company created by Melinda French Gates to advance social progress in the United States. With nearly twenty years of investment experience, building and managing customized portfolios for endowed institutions and family offices, Erin is responsible for identifying, investing, and overseeing a diverse portfolio of investments that drive breakthrough innovations and advance women’s power and influence. On a day-to-day basis, Erin is deeply involved in discovering and cultivating relationships with leaders, entrepreneurs, investors and founders, a skill that has been essential to her success. She has sourced and conducted diligence on investment managers across asset classes, with a particular focus and expertise in private markets and early-stage venture capital and has managed investment portfolios ranging in size from $100m to over $1b. Erin also serves on the Pivotal Ventures Executive Leadership Team, where she is part of the group responsible for setting org-wide priorities and approving cross-org bodies of work.

Prior to joining Pivotal, Erin spent 8 years at Cambridge Associates, most recently as a Managing Director. She has extensive experience developing strategies for impact and mission-aligned investments and advising on investment governance best practices and writes and speaks frequently on the topics of investing with a social equity/gender equity lens and investing in diverse and emerging managers. Erin has spoken at industry events sponsored by organizations such as Milken Global Institute, SOCAP, Forbes, PEWIN and others. Earlier in her career, she held positions at the Princeton University Investment Company, Summit Rock Advisors and Goldman Sachs. Erin received her MBA from the Harvard Business School as a Robert Toigo Foundation Fellow and her BSBA magna cum laude from Washington University in St. Louis as a John B. Ervin Scholar. She is also a CFA charterholder and member of the CFA Society of Washington, DC. Erin was honored as part of the inaugural Black Women in Asset Management 40 under 40 List in 2022.

Outside of work, Erin serves on the Board and Investment Committee for Builders Initiative, a family foundation dedicated to social and environmental change in pursuit of a humane and healthy planet and is an active volunteer for her alma mater, Washington University, where she currently is an at-large member of the Alumni Board of Governors. She also serves on the Advisory Council for White Oak Enterprises, a multi-generation family office. Erin is a former member of the board of the DC Public Library Foundation, where she served as treasurer and chair of the finance/investment committee. A native Texan, she resides on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC with her husband and two children. When not chasing after her kids, Erin enjoys exploring new restaurants, spending time with friends, travel, reading and fiction writing.