Elizabeth Dater Jennings, who was one of the first women to work as a media analyst on Wall Street, died on Nov. 27, 2024 at Yale New Haven Hospital in Connecticut. The cause was a combination of heart and neurological conditions. She was 79.
The daughter of Joan FitzGerald Snow and Pershing W. Burgard, Beth was born on May 13, 1945. Raised in Cambridge, she spent her childhood summers in Provincetown, where she was introduced to theater as a walk-on actress at the Provincetown Playhouse on the Wharf. She often enlisted her siblings when the theater needed extras.
Beth was fluent in the words and tunes of many Broadway shows and could often be found singing those songs around the piano at her grandfather’s or uncle’s. She embraced that interest not only by singing but by helping to fund Broadway-bound productions.
After graduating from Sacred Heart High School in Kingston, she went on to study theater at the Boston University School of Fine Arts. Her life took a turn when she accepted a job as a flight attendant on Pan American World Airways. She met and married her first husband, Michael R. Dater. That marriage ended in divorce, but she received what she later said was the best education for a career in business: working in the male-dominated world of pilots and business travelers.
Beth’s career in investment management spanned 50 years, starting with a stint at Lehman Brothers. In 1970, she joined Fiduciary Trust Company of New York, where she became a vice president and U.S. equities analyst, specializing in the newspaper and media industries.
In 1977, she married William Mitchell Jennings, who had a successful career in finance at Bear Stearns. They shared a love of nature, history, and the arts and became avid collectors of Americana and other antiquities.
In 1978, Beth joined Warburg-Pincus Asset Management and, within two years, rose to managing director. She was named director of research in 1986. She launched the firm’s small capitalization and emerging growth equity business. In 1989, she started the first post-venture capital distribution business in the U.S., which became the industry leader in a decade.
After being appointed to Warburg-Pincus’s five-member operating committee in 1991, she led the firm through its merger with Credit Suisse Asset Management.
In 2019, she retired as managing director of Angelo, Gordon and Co., after which she was able to spend more time with her family on the Outer Cape. Her mother taught fourth grade in Wellfleet, and her brother continues to live in Provincetown.
Beth was a panelist on the PBS’s Wall Street Week hosted by Louis Rukeyser and won the show’s Prognosticator of the Year Award. Her longtime friend William Gedale said, “Beth was a brilliant analyst and a great investor.”
She was also a passionate advocate for women’s rights and equal opportunity and mentored many young men and women who worked with her, grew up in her family, or were inspired by her fierce intelligence and kindness.
She served on the boards of the New York Historical Society, Prep for Prep, the Academy of Teachers, New York Medical Center, and the Irish Georgian Society, and was on the advisory committee of Women in Need. She also served on the investment committee of the New York Community Trust.
In addition to her husband, Mitch Jennings, of Greenwich, Conn., she is survived by her brother, Christopher J. Snow, and spouse Kathleen Keenan Snow of Provincetown; her sister, Robyn Snow of Brewster; her cousin Adrienne FitzGerald of Brooklyn; her niece, Helen FitzGerald Jacobs, and spouse Brian Jacobs of Seattle, Wash.; and her nephews Andrew Burgard of Durango, Colo. and Patrick Burgard of New York City.
She was predeceased by her brother Stephen Burgard of Arlington.
A service was planned for Dec. 11, 2024 at the Rye Presbyterian Church in Rye, N.Y.
Donations in Beth’s memory may be made to the Irish Georgian Society and the New York Historical Society.
