40 Years on the Front Lines: A conversation with Marilou Moursund

Interviews

Feb 3

Introducing Read/Watch/Listen.

I received some feed back to include an audio only option. I first received this feedback from my wife, so I ignored it of course. Then it came from several others.

She was right, per the usual.

Audio only can be found on both Spotify and Apple.

Linked here: Spotify | Apple

In October of 2025, I began to think about who I could interview for the Practitioner’s Brief. So I started in my own back yard with my new business partner and friend Marilou Moursund.

Marilou has been in the investment management business about as long as I’ve been alive. Not only is she experienced, she’s smart. We have nicked named her Grok, after Elon Musk’s Ai large language model.

Marilou along with our partner, Laura Ehrenburg-Chesler, founded Crossvault Capital Management over two decades ago, later to be joined by Sarah Doerr. The breadth and depth of our investment management experience spans well over 100 years.

During our conversation we covered Marilou’s background, the origin of the firm, the transition to Prime Capital, investment trends and crises, and bringing the first “bro” into the office. We also touched on women in the investment management industry, what that was like in the 80s, and what traits make women great investors.

The video interview is condensed a bit.

John Cervantes, CFA

John Cervantes is a Partner and Senior Investment Advisor at Crossvault Capital Management, LLC, where he leverages over 17 years of experience advising and managing investment portfolios for families of high and ultra-high networth.

Before joining Crossvault Capital Management, John served as a Senior Investment Advisor at Texas Capital Bank, where he was also a voting member of the bank’s Investment Strategy Committee. Prior, he held the position of Senior Investment Manager at Merrill Lynch, managing $1.25 billion in client assets for one of the largest wealth management practices in the country. In this role, John managed a suite of investment strategies, focusing on U.S. Value Equity and Global Asset Allocation. He also developed the team’s Private Equity processes, including fund selection and client allocations.

John began his career at JPMorgan Chase before transitioning to USAA. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation and earned his BBA in Finance from the University of Texas at San Antonio.

John resides in San Antonio, Texas with his wife, Kaycee, and their two children, Edee and John Kelly.

https://www.crossvault.com/

40 Years on the Front Lines: A conversation with Marilou Moursund

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