Mary Ellen Stanek

Mary Ellen Stanek built Baird Advisors into a respected active fixed income manager over more than two decades as CIO. She manages the Baird Aggregate Bond Fund and related strategies with a focus on high-quality intermediate bonds, disciplined duration management, and sector rotation. Stanek is known for consistent risk-adjusted returns and a conservative, quality-biased philosophy. She has been repeatedly recognized in industry rankings as one of the leading women in fixed income and received recognition from Barron's and Morningstar for long-term manager quality. Her approach emphasizes avoiding large interest rate bets in favor of sector allocation and security selection, a philosophy that has produced consistent results across multiple rate cycles. Over her tenure, Stanek has mentored a generation of fixed income analysts at Baird, building a durable institutional investing culture rooted in rigorous credit research and disciplined portfolio construction.