Leadership

Mr. Lake teaches graduate and undergraduate finance courses primarily associated with and developed by the GW Investment Institute. Students enrolled in these courses manage university endowment capital through the GW Investment Institute’s student investment funds, consisting of multiple funds across different asset classes and with more than $7 million of assets under management (AUM) as of March 2023.

Financier and philanthropist W. Russell "Russ" Ramsey is a great example of someone who equates success with generosity. Founder, chairman, and CEO of Ramsey Asset Management, a hedge fund management firm. Ramsey is the chair of the Governing Board for the George Washington University (GW) Investment Institute and the chairman emeritus of the GW’s Board of Trustees. Ramsey previously served as president and co-CEO at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey Group which raised $7 billion in capital for clients and had become the largest trading and investment banking firm in Washington in its first seven years. Newsweek magazine named Ramsey as one of its four "people to see" in Washington's finance community while the Northern Virginia Technology Council cited him as "Financier of the Year."

He served as chairman and CEO of Washington 2024, leading an effort to bring the 2024 Summer Olympics to his native Washington, D.C. In 2021 Ramsey was inducted into Washington Business Hall of Fame.