Margaret Ellen Pender, Principal
Margaret Ellen values having an authentic relationship with colleagues and clients of Anchor Investment Management as opposed to transactional dealings. She believes that establishing these genuine relationships with colleagues and clients allows Anchor to function and perform at its highest levels—clients can rely on Anchor to see them through any situation from a firm foundation built on trust.
Part of Margaret Ellen’s youth was spent in the small town of Kingstree, South Carolina before her family moved to Columbia around the time she reached third grade. She graduated from Hammond School and earned a scholarship to Presbyterian College where she received a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration. During her undergraduate study, Margaret Ellen became interested in banking during an internship and studied abroad for a semester at the London School of Economics. She launched her career at Wachovia Bank in retail banking and ran a branch before leaving to pursue cost accounting for a small business. Margaret Ellen grew bored with cost accounting around the same time Pat Dorn was creating Anchor Investment Management. After a meeting arranged by mutual acquaintances, she joined him in building his business. He mentored her into fiduciary and client relations duties while she simultaneously ran the day-to-day operations of Anchor which is still her role today.
When Margaret Ellen isn’t helping clients or running the office, she enjoys hunting, fishing, and boating with her Boykin spaniel “Decoy.” She also serves on the boards of both her alma maters and with The Sounds of Grace as one of their board members.
