Mary Pat Christie is a respected leader in the high yield and distressed debt capital markets industry where she excelled at placement and structuring of debt for highly levered businesses.
Through this experience she has become knowledgeable in many industries including healthcare, energy, utilities, aerospace, automotive, telecommunications, retail, restaurants, casinos and hospitality, steel and manufacturing businesses. Currently she is a partner in the Hampshire/Christie Opportunity Zone Fund, where she has helped raise equity capital to invest in opportunity zones projects along the Northeast corridor.
Mary Pat currently serves on the boards of Carrier Clinic, a substance abuse rehabilitation facility in Skillman New Jersey; Seton Hall University Board of Regents, Orexo, a specialty pharmaceutical company headquartered in Uppsala Sweden; and Accelerate 360, a media and distribution company.
Mary Pat’s unique experience as First Lady of New Jersey has allowed her to see public policy up close and personal. Through this office she has advocated for a better path for our citizens who are re-entering the workforce after a period of incarceration. These collaborative efforts, along with a better approach to drug and alcohol addiction for our prisoners, has resulted in a lower prison population and a reduction in the recidivism rate from 37% in 2010 to 31%, in most recent studies.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, she established with her husband the New Jersey 30 Day Fund, which raised $1 million and distributed 100 percent of the fund in $3,000 grants to New Jersey small businesses devastated by the pandemic.
Another highlight of Mary Pat’s philanthropic work is chairing the Hurricane Sandy New Jersey Relief Fund. Mary Pat launched this organization in the aftermath of the second worst natural disaster in our country’s history. She enlisted the help of the corporate community, to personally raise over $41 Million and distribute 95% of the money collected to programming and services. The NJ Grantmaker Report cited HSNJRF as the #1 funder of NJ Sandy recovery efforts.
Mary Pat received her MBA from Seton Hall University and her undergraduate degree in Finance from the University of Delaware. She lives in Mendham NJ with her husband Chris, to whom she has been married since 1986.
They have four children.