Rayna Lesser Hannaway is a small-cap specialist who spent 29 years as an institutional investor, studying thousands of innovative companies across market cycles. She began her career in small-cap equity research at Lord Abbett and later Jennison Associates, then spent more than a decade at Fidelity Investments, one of the most respected firms in asset management, as an analyst and portfolio manager. She more recently served as Head of the Small Company Growth team and Portfolio Manager at Polen Capital before founding Pure Path Ventures, through which she coaches and advises investors, founders, and executives and serves as a fractional Chief Investment Officer.

Over nearly three decades of evaluating companies across healthcare and life sciences, technology, consumer, financial services, and industrials, Rayna developed a deep understanding of what makes a business work: why some companies build durable advantage and compound over time while others falter. She has long held the conviction that the businesses that endure are those built to last, companies that invest patiently behind a long runway of growth, sustain that growth over time, and resist the short-term thinking that crowds out the right long-term decisions. She brings that long-term, owner’s perspective to the boardroom, combining the analytical rigor of a career investor with the discipline of a trained leadership coach to press on the strategy and capital allocation decisions that drive durable value and to engage management and fellow directors in honest, high-quality dialogue.

She currently serves as an Independent Director at Xelcis Bio, Board Chair at Raw Art Works, and Finance and Audit Committee Chair at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Eastern Massachusetts. Rayna holds a B.A. in Economics from Barnard College, Columbia University, and is a CFA® charterholder.