Lisa S. Kaplowitz

Executive + Educator + Speaker + Advisor + Mentor + Advocate

Lisa Kaplowitz is the co-founder and executive director of the Center for Women in Business (CWIB), whose mission is to remove barriers, build community and empower women.  In 2020, she was honored as a “Woman on the Rise” by Paradigm for Parity. Lisa is a restless champion for gender equality and her advocacy began as a scholar-athlete at Brown University, when she was part of the landmark Title IX case that added more varsity athletic opportunities for women. Her work has been featured on Bloomberg TV and in USA Today, LA times, Forbes, CFO Magazine and Bloomberg.com.

Lisa is also an Assistant Professor of Professional Practice in the Finance and Economics department at Rutgers Business School. She earned the Dean’s Meritorious Teaching Award in 2018, the Dean’s Meritorious Service Award in 2021 and the Dean’s Meritorious Teaching Innovations Award in 2022.  She teaches students the fundamentals of corporate finance, with a focus on applying these concepts to decisions typically encountered in corporations and investment banking. Her courses combine excel modeling, case study analysis and strategic thinking. She challenges her students to move beyond the calculations and ask, “what does this mean?” and “how are we going to use this information to grow the business?”

Lisa leverages her almost 25 years of experience as an investment banker and CFO, during which, she established a record of growing businesses and increasing profitability by creating focused strategies, reducing costs and streamlining operations. She began her career as an investment banker at Deutsche Bank and Bank of America. She then transitioned to the company side, where she served as the Treasurer of Bed Bath & Beyond, and subsequently, as CFO of various private equity-backed start-ups.  She later created Kaplowitz Advisory Group, LLC to support executives, at all stages of growth, with using finance to help direct corporate strategy and decision making.

She earned a B.A. in Economics and International Relations from Brown and an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.  While at Brown, she was captain of the Women’s Gymnastics team, 4-year MVP, 4-year All-Ivy, 3-year Academic All-Ivy, 2-year all-ECAC and was inducted in the Brown Athletics Hall of Fame in 2018. She also founded Brown Athletics W.O.M.E.N. (Women’s Opportunity, Mentorship & Empowerment Network) in 2018.

Lisa resides in New Jersey, is obsessed with her Peloton app (@Prof_Kap) and enjoys traveling, skiing and anything active. She continues to champion gender equity at work and in the home, alongside her husband and teenage sons, where you can see them in action in her latest TEDx, Advancing Women in the Workplace, One Son at a Time.