Deb Giarusso serves as senior program manager for UNI Advance Iowa and the Iowa Center for Employee Ownership (IA-CEO), facilitating and expanding knowledge of sustainable business structures to all stakeholders for thriving quality of life in local communities.  Deb spent 35 years building her expertise in both corporate and investment finance. Her professional experiences include corporate financial analysis for Oscar Mayer Foods in the early 1990s, managing a multi-million-dollar family investment portfolio for over 30 years, and a founding principal of an RIA firm during the financial crisis of 2008.  Additionally, Deb taught both graduate and undergraduate finance courses at the University of Northern Iowa for twenty years.

Deb holds the designation of CFA® charter holder, CFA Institute, earned her MBA from the University of Iowa in 1986 and recently earned the Certified Exit Planner (CExP) designation.