Member Snapshot: Laree Estes Perez ’76

Life Member

“They say you can take the girl out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of the girl,” says Laree Estes Perez ’76 in explaining her affinity for her home state of New Mexico. But in the case of Perez, you couldn’t accomplish either. Despite a high-flying career in finance and service on multiple corporate boards, Perez lives along a dirt road in Corrales, New Mexico, just outside Albuquerque. There, her neighbors ride their horses to the post office, she can take her German shepherd to work each day, and she gets to wear her “uniform”—jeans and a denim shirt. Each quarter, Perez travels to Detroit, where she is a consultant for DeRoy and Devereaux; to Houston, where she serves on the board of Reliant Energy; to North Carolina, where she’s on the board of Martin Marietta Materials; and to numerous cities in Texas and beyond to meet with her clients, whom she describes as “high-net-worth individuals.”

Perez, who belongs to a well-known New Mexico ranching family, came to Baylor through the influence of her maternal grandmother. “She was the most educated member on either side of my family, and she had gone to Baylor,” Perez says. “My family felt like if I was going to get a good education, there was no place else but Baylor.”

After graduation, Perez began her financial career at E. F. Hutton and later moved to Merrill Lynch. She was a top nationwide producer at both companies. In 1993, she launched her own company, Medallion Investment Management Company. It was such a success that a Boston-based investment firm bought her out in 1996. At that point, just when Perez and her husband decided to “enjoy life and not work so hard,” tragedy struck—Perez’s husband was killed in a plane crash in June of 1996.

“It just turned my world upside down,” she says. “My prayer was that I would become a better person and that I would go on with life and be of service to others.” Deciding that work was the best medicine, she relaunched her career—and found the same success. In addition to her activities as an investment consultant, she maintains ownership and management of her portion of the family ranch, primarily a cattle operation. Perez also serves on several charitable boards, is a former member of the Baylor Board of Regents, and served as Republican National Committeewoman from New Mexico. An avid outdoorswoman, she has hiked and climbed mountains on several continents and biked two thousand miles across China.