Ward McKinley

Ward McKinley founded Growth Preservation, under which he ran the G&P Fund LLC and the Highland Fund LLC until both closed in 2026. He went on to found Copernicus Hedge Fund LP. He holds a BA and an MA in Architecture from Tulane University, and a certificate in Asset & Portfolio Management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

He began trading in 1999, in the last full year of the dot-com boom. He then followed his training into practice, joining New York City as a city planner in early 2001 with responsibility for Battery Park City. For his work on the rebuilding effort that followed September 11th, he was recognized by both the Mayor and the Governor of New York.

He later co-founded Transept Ventures, a real estate investment firm focused on Austin, Texas. After exiting that position, he returned to the markets and established Growth Preservation to manage capital for others.

Ward lives in Vail, Colorado with his son. He is also the founder of Charity Good, a humanitarian relief and arts-access charity.

The architecture training is not incidental to how he invests. A building has to stand up before it can be beautiful, and the arithmetic that keeps it standing is not negotiable — but the arithmetic alone has never made anything worth looking at. He takes the same view of a portfolio.