Head, U.S. Taxable Low Duration
Portfolio Manager Fixed Income Division
T. Rowe Price Associates
Baltimore, Md.
Cheryl Mickel joined T. Rowe Price Associates in 1989 as a trading assistant and often found herself one of the few, the only, or the first Black woman in almost every subsequent setting. By then she had experienced growing up in the first and only Black family in her neighborhood. Thanks to Jamaican immigrant parents, that experience “was a reality filled with the possibilities of achievement and success, not one that was burdened with a focused awareness of the divides that racial differences can create,” she explains. It shaped her approach to work.
“As I look back, I see this as both a gift and a privilege, because it allowed me the confidence to focus on my work, not on my gender or race,” she says. Mickel heads T. Rowe Price’s U.S. Taxable Low Duration team and is co-portfolio manager of its Stable Value Intermediate Term strategies and recently launched U.S. Short Duration Income Fund. She is a member of the Fixed Income and MultiAsset Steering Committees and Black Leadership Council. Her team manages over $80 billion for individual and institutional investors.
“[The firm] is well-aligned with my values,” Mickel says. “I have been the fortunate benefactor of a series of circumstances and opportunities that I have been able to embrace. From that privilege comes an obligation.” With Black women representing less than 1.5 percent of portfolio managers, she works to increase their presence in the field. “It’s an important part of my role as a senior Black female in an industry largely white and male. Despite my not liking visibility per se, it’s an implicit responsibility to create a visible path for underrepresented men and women interested in pursuing STEM fields and finance.”
Mickel attended Dartmouth College, and graduated from University of Baltimore and from The Sellinger School Executive Program at Loyola University of Maryland.
