Bridget Burkhardt

Bridget Burkhardt graduate from University High School. She earned a bachelor's degree from Brown University in 1995 and a graduate degree from Harvard Business School in 2000. Her career experience includes working as an investor. She has been affiliated with Bridges Fund Management, Nordic Soccer Club, and South Burlington Library Foundation.[1]

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I was raised in rural central Illinois before leaving to attend Brown University. After graduation, I worked in investment banking and private equity in New York before earning an MBA at Harvard Business School. After moving to London in 2001, I joined Bridges Fund Management where I helped make investments in businesses in economically struggling areas of England with the goal of creating lasting economic improvement.

In 2004 I moved back to the US and joined a venture capital firm that invested in women- and minority-owned businesses. In 2006, I transitioned to ShoreBank International, where I specialized in helping microfinance institutions and banks raise funds to create wealth and improve lives in underserved communities around the world. I worked with SBI until 2013 before taking a career pause to raise children.

I have been married to my wonderful husband, Fritz, for nearly 22 years, and we have two school-aged sons. We moved to South Burlington in 2010, and I was eventually inspired to run for the South Burlington School Board, on which I served from 2016 to 2022. In 2022, I returned to Bridges as a portfolio manager where I support and advise our companies in the healthcare and addiction treatment sectors.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

I will work hard to combine my sense of responsibility to others with the analytical, finance, negotiations, and policy skills I have developed during my career and community service to help develop creative policy solutions that will make Vermonters’ lives better.Vermont is a wonderful place to live, but it is not working for everyone. We need to make sure that all Vermonters have access to basic necessities like food, permanent housing and healthcare along with the educational and job opportunities they need to create and sustain fulfilling lives for themselves and their families.We have limited resources as a state, and we need leaders who are willing to make difficult decisions about how to allocate those resources most effectively. We need to be very transparent with and accountable to the taxpayers who provide those resources.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Education, affordable housing, healthcare, the environment, civil rights, and responsible economic development are all issues that I am deeply passionate about.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

To be an effective legislator, I believe one needs to be able to process a large amount of information

about a wide range of topics in order to understand the challenges facing constituents and assess the

potential impact of proposed solutions. A good legislator should also be able to combine empathy for

people from a range of backgrounds with an understanding of data and financial information to help set priorities and make tough decisions about how to allocate limited resources. A legislator also needs to be good at forming connections with other people, which takes strong listening skills, kindness, honesty, and vulnerability. Most of all, I think a great legislator must be willing to solicit a wide range of viewpoints from constituents and use that information to help guide their work.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

I have deep empathy for people from a wide range of backgrounds. I grew up in a very small town where most people worked on farms or in factories but have also worked with CEOs and founders of companies and non-profits around the world. I am a hard worker and willing to put in the time to read and process a lot of information about a range of topics, which is something I particularly had to do during my tenure on the school board as I didn't have a background in education. I have decades of experience in creating budgets and forecasts and analyzing financial information. During my time on the school board, I saw the impact of many of the issues facing Vermont and how those issues interact with one another. For example, rising healthcare costs are not only impacting patients but also school budgets and in turn property taxes. I am willing to admit when I don't know something and take the time to learn more before forming an opinion or making a decision.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

Oddly, the first international event I remember is the oil embargo in the late 1970s. I was 4 or 5 at the time, and my father owned a gas station. I remember visiting him at work and seeing most of the cars in our small town lined up to buy gas.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My very first job was babysitting, which I started doing when I was 11 (times were different way back then) and continued to do throughout high school. My first office job was working as an assistant in a pediatric dental office during the summers between my college years. I worked in the dining hall at college all four years. My first job after college was as a financial analyst at an investment bank.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

Stick Season by Noah Kahan

What committees interest you?

Ways & Means, Appropriations, Commerce & Economic Development, Education, Human Services, Environment & Energy, General & Housing

What are your views on financial transparency and government accountability?

I think financial transparency and government accountability are critical to our jobs as legislators. I think true transparency means more than sharing the numbers of how taxpayers’ money is spent and includes explanations in layperson’s terms about how funds are spent and the resulting impact of those expenditures.