Entrepreneur responds to personal profile questions – Austin American

Name:Jill Holup

Age and place of birth: 52; Youngstown, Ohio.

Immediate family: Tod Meinke, husband, data architect at MAP Health Management; Riley Meinke, age 12, student at Hill Country Middle School; Milo, age 8, Labrador retriever; Maya, age 7, tabby cat-in-charge.

Education: Bachelor of business administration in finance from the University of Texas at El Paso; MBA from the Haas School of Business, University of California-Berkeley

Occupation: Mom, wife, entrepreneur, co-founder of Callegro Investments. Callegro is a three-year-old company I started with a longtime friend and former colleague. We’re both recovering portfolio managers who worked for big companies in the past, so this is our baby. We both have decades of experience in real estate investment and, when we saw the dislocation of so many master-planned developments after the Great Recession, we formed Callegro to invest in them. Most of our projects are located in the Southeast, where similar to Austin, there is a huge in-migration of folks moving from other areas for jobs, weather and lifestyle. We also provide property management and consulting, including for clients here in Austin.

What’s your career ambition? I have been blessed with a wonderful career. My goal is to build an organization that creates value for my investors, is big enough to allow me to hire and mentor young people and is still challenging and fun for my business partner and me. Also, I have always wanted to write either a novel or a children’s book. Ultimately, the plan is to retire and devote more of my time to travel and charitable endeavors.

Civic or other nonprofit activities: Finance Committee, Austin Humane Society; treasurer of CFA Society of Austin.

What qualities in people draw you to be their friend? Kindness, a sense of humor and kindred spirits.

What is one interesting fact about you that people probably don’t know? I lived in Guayaquil, Ecuador, for a semester after high school graduation.

My pet peeve is: I’m appalled by mean-spirited people and cruelty to animals and those who are unable to defend themselves.

What is the last book you read? I read lots of books. The last fiction book I read was “Me Before You” by Jojo Moyes, my book club’s selection. Now, I’m reading John Irving’s new book “Avenue of Mysteries,” and I have “Grand Pursuit: The Story of Economic Genius” by Sylvia Nasar, on my nightstand.

Most exciting or dangerous thing I’ve ever done: My husband and I went to Africa for our honeymoon — talk about exciting. We loved everything about it, including the people, the culture, the food and of course the wildlife. We were able to visit three different game preserves and saw and photographed the “big five,” including an elephant, leopard, lion, rhino and cape buffalo, in addition to Victoria Falls.

What is your favorite business in the Westbank? The Westbank Community Library. I love having a friendly local library. When it was closed for renovation this summer, we missed it so much.

My most humorous moment was: My husband and I went to the wrong address for a party. We had been invited by some people we didn’t know very well, so we didn’t realize we were at the wrong party until after we had been there for more than an hour and had eaten dinner. We still laugh about that one.

Hobbies: Sports, fantasy football is a favorite pastime, stock trading, fishing, reading and travel. I love traveling to new, exciting places. We visited San Miguel de Allende and Mexico City this past summer, a wonderful family trip. Next summer, we’re planning a mini-tour of baseball stadiums in the Northeast.