Our goal is to help people prepare for the end of life with tools that make a daunting task easier and more personal.
Here's our story.
Alison A. Winter, Founder and CEO
Alison enjoyed a highly successful thirty-five year career with Northern Trust, the preeminent wealth management company serving affluent individuals and families in the United States and globally. She served as Co-President of Personal Financial Services, and on the Management Committee during her last five years with the company before retiring in 2006.
Over the course of her career, Alison worked with thousands of individuals and families on their investment and estate planning goals, and in the process experienced firsthand the issues that can derail even the best of plans on paper. After helping her dad and sister navigate their own end-of-life plans, she founded Gracious Exit as a way to share her experience and tools with others.
Alison earned her B.A. degree from San Francisco College for Women, her MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and is a longtime Chartered Financial Analyst. In her spare time, she can be found doting on her grandchildren, putting together spectacular photo books, and capturing family history for future generations.
Leigh Winter Martin, Co-Founder
Leigh has spent her career building brands and delivering awesome customer experiences, most recently at Liquid Robotics and Cisco. She is passionate about getting to the core of what customers need, and making it easy for them to get things done in the simplest, clearest way. Which is exactly the goal of Gracious Exit, and why she was excited to go into business with her mom.
She earned her B.A. in Economics from Williams College, and followed in her mom’s footsteps with an MBA from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. In her spare time, Leigh can be found outside with her three boys or managing one of her many fantasy football teams.
