History

Our Founding

The Glenmede Trust Company was founded in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1956 by four children of Joseph N. Pew, founder of Sun Oil Company, to serve as the corporate trustee for the trust they had endowed to honor their parents. The Pew Memorial Trust, as it came to be known, funded with Sun Oil Co. stock, made donations to support charitable organizations that shared the family’s beliefs and philosophies in the fields of education, medicine, religion and social welfare. The creation of Glenmede enabled the family to establish six other charitable trusts with specific missions. (READ MORE)

During the 1970s, diversification of The Pew Trusts’ concentrated stock holdings became a priority. With that diversification came sophisticated investment strategies to preserve principal, achieve capital appreciation, and generate income to meet distribution requirements. This was a significant turning point in the Company’s history.

Although Glenmede was entrusted with outside assignments as early as 1960, it was not until 1978 that a formal service offering for families, foundations, and endowments was created. Over time, a comprehensive range of wealth advisory services was built to complement the core service of investment management and trust administration.

History as a Foundation for Growth

By the close of the 1990s, Glenmede had expanded its presence outside of Philadelphia to include offices in Princeton and Morristown, New Jersey, Wilmington, Delaware, and Cleveland, Ohio. Today, Glenmede is a national trust company, chartered under the National Bank Act and supervised by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, serving more than 1,700 clients located throughout the country. In 2009, Glenmede announced the opening of a New York office to enhance our existing footprint within that market.  (READ MORE)

Having managed its own proprietary equity and fixed income strategies for more than 25 years, Glenmede’s SEC-registered investment advisor, Glenmede Investment Management (“GIM”), provides access to those strategies for the institutional marketplace. GIM has $5 billion of institutional assets under management for Glenmede’s proprietary family of mutual funds and also serves corporations, public plans, foundations, endowments, and not-for-profit clients.

The Strength of Independence

The financial services industry is characterized by a long history of ongoing consolidation and reorganization, notwithstanding the unprecedented turbulence of 2008. The unfortunate result of this is the loss of personal relationships between clients and the firms that serve them. Glenmede has quietly followed its own course and remained fiercely committed to independence. On its own, Glenmede possesses the scale and resources to attract accomplished professionals and offer a wide range of wealth advisory services and investment strategies. We steadfastly believe that all stakeholders – our clients, employees, and shareholders – are best served by our continued independence, stability, and a culture in which client interests take precedence.

Glenmede has evolved since its founding, but its values as a company have remained consistent – our goal and daily task is to ensure that these same values continue to define Glenmede for the future.