Alexa Von Tobel

Von Tobel is from Jacksonville, Florida. Her mother, Darlene Marie von Tobel, is a nurse practitioner and her father, the late Dr. Harry M. Von Tobel, worked in a private practice specializing as a developmental pediatrician. Von Tobel received a B.A. in psychology from Harvard College. She is married to Michael Ryan Jr.; they met at Harvard. The couple has three children.

After graduation, she worked as a trader at Morgan Stanley before leaving to be the Head of Business Development at Drop.io.

Von Tobel came up with the idea for LearnVest in 2006 while working at Morgan Stanley when she realized she and most other people had never had any formal education about how to manage their personal finances. In April 2009, Von Tobel closed a $4.5 million series A round of funding led by Accel Partners. LearnVest raised a total of $72 million while a private company, from investors including Accel Partners, American Express Ventures and Northwestern Mutual Capital.

On March 25, 2015, Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Co., based in Milwaukee, announced it would acquire LearnVest for a reported price of $375 million. After LearnVest’s acquisition, Alexa became Northwestern Mutual's first-ever Chief Digital Officer, leading product and technology strategy as the company achieved $35 billion in annual revenue. She later became Chief Innovation Officer, overseeing Northwestern Mutual’s venture arm.

In 2019, Von Tobel launched a new early stage venture capital fund, Inspired Capital, along with Penny Pritzker. Inspired Capital's latest fund totaled $330 million, bringing the firm's commitments to nearly $1 billion.