Investing in Purpose: Andrea Chapman's Journey from Rural Roots to Faith-Fueled Finance

Int'l Business Times

22-05-2025

Andrea Chapman, CEO of Kāleos.
A town of 1,500 residents, no traffic lights, and a legacy of tight-knit community and quiet faith may not be the likeliest place for a Wall Street-caliber investment strategist to emerge. But for Andrea "AC" Chapman, it was exactly the environment she needed to build the foundation for her life's mission: unlocking potential in people and institutions the world too often overlooks.
Now the CEO of Kāleos, a financial firm disrupting the way nonprofits, especially faith-based ones, grow and manage wealth, Chapman is penning a book due out later this year that mirrors her professional ethos. The common thread? Empowering others to realize the value they already possess. "I wrote the book for people who feel stuck. These are the individuals who don't believe they have anything to offer or who are too distracted to tap into their inherent abilities," Chapman explains. "We all have capacity, but that capacity often goes unrealized."
Chapman would know. Her path to becoming a nationally recognized financial leader wasn't linear, nor was it easy.
Growing up in Blounts Creek, North Carolina, Chapman was surrounded by love, faith, and community, but not opportunity. "It's one of those towns where everyone knows everyone, and you're more than likely related to someone in town, and if you don't pursue something, it's very easy to get stuck," she says.
Some of her classmates never made it out. She mentions tragic losses to exposure of negative influences, grim reminders of what could have been.
Education became her lifeline. After excelling academically, Chapman earned admission to a renowned university, home to the only undergraduate trust and wealth management program in the country. Thanks to the program's strong industry ties, graduates typically walk into high-paying banking jobs. But Chapman graduated in 2009, in the shadow of the global financial crisis. "Banks weren't hiring. That safety net we were promised didn't exist anymore," she recalls. "So I had to pivot."
That pivot came in the form of a meeting with James Mason, a private equity investor and co-founder of Flood Mason Holdings, who took a chance on her and threw her into the deep end. She recalls, "It was intense. But I learned fast, worked hard, and actually became the only intern in the firm's history to close a deal."
The experience was formative. It also sparked a realization: the world of investment wasn't just about wealth; it was about strategy, opportunity, and impact.
Years later, that mindset would lead her to Kāleos Group Inc., where she now serves as CEO. Kāleos exists to bridge the gap between nonprofits, particularly small, faith-based organizations, and endowment-style investment strategies typically reserved for elite institutions. "Most smaller nonprofits have never had access to that kind of accelerated growth, partly because there's been a historical minimum investment threshold of roughly $10 million," Chapman says.
By aggregating resources and offering sophisticated investment access to smaller organizations, Chapman and her team are empowering churches, ministries, and community-based nonprofits to build long-term financial sustainability. "Many of these churches raise millions collectively every week, but more than 90% don't invest. Their money is sitting idle in checking accounts. We're bringing biblical financial stewardship to the forefront, not just as a moral imperative but as a practical strategy," she says.
Over the past year, Chapman has been traveling the country, speaking at churches, conferences, and conventions to share Kāleos' message and build trust with faith leaders. She's also building out a video-based content library to democratize access to financial education.
Chapman's drive to give back traces directly to her roots. Raised in a faith-based household, she credits her parents for laying the foundation. Her mother served as minister of music at their church, while her father, a self-taught investor and long-time church trustee, instilled in her a passion for financial literacy. "He taught me the basics of investing early on," she says. "That became the foundation for everything else."
But perhaps the most profound influence was her late grandmother, who passed in 2017. "She was my favorite person in the world. A brilliant fundraiser. She secured generous donations for not only our home church but an entire network of churches," Chapman says. "When I talk about Kāleos, I often think of her."
It's no coincidence that Chapman's life and career mirror her grandmother's legacy, but with an investment banker's toolkit. Where her grandmother raised funds door-to-door and church-to-church, Chapman is building an infrastructure to grow those funds for generations.
Chapman's forthcoming book, expected in Q4, isn't just a memoir or a business how-to. It's a guide for anyone who feels unseen or underutilized. "It's not just about unlocking potential in individuals," she notes. "It's about systems and communities. Just like there are people who don't realize their value, there are entire organizations and nonprofits that aren't realizing their financial capacity."
Kāleos and the book are two sides of the same coin, one professional, one personal, both driven by the same conviction: that everyone, and everything, has potential waiting to be activated.
Looking back, Chapman sees divine alignment in the twists and turns that led her here. "We are all carrying something significant that is divinely designed to serve the world. Manifesting your capacity on the earth bears many similarities to giving birth. One of the key purposes of distractions in our lives is to prevent us from ever carrying, laboring over, and delivering what is inside of us. If we focus on other things that divert our attention (including our own insecurities), we will abort the process of birthing what we are gifted and called to do."