Who are the most influential, powerful and inspiring women in and around wealth management? For the third year in a row, AdvisorOne presents for your consideration a list of 50 such women drawn from academia, government, money management, companies that partner with advisors and wealth managers themselves. (See the Top Women in Wealth home page for additional reporting.)
We believe the 50 Top Women in Wealth lead by example. They lead with courage. They lead despite being forced to make sometimes painful choices between their careers and their families in a different way, with differing expectations, than most men have had to face.
They lead men, to be sure, but we also submit that their leadership is of special interest and inspiration to other women who already are forging, or contemplating beginning, their own careers in a financial services world that remains dominated by men.
They are exemplars of the success women can have in wealth management, but the fact that we feel it important to recognize these successful people as women is a sign that much remains to change before wealth management and our society is truly gender-blind.
The Top 50 are real-life examples of women who have succeeded in a man's world, but most will tell you that they didn't do it alone. They had mentors and guides, many of them men. Many also feel a responsibility to get the word out that wealth management in all its manifestations is a great career choice, one in which some of the unique strengths of women can be exercised to great effect.
Some of the women are making repeat appearances on the 2011 list, such as Mary Schapiro of the SEC and Sallie Krawcheck of Bank of America/Merrill Lynch. Regulators like Phyllis Borzi of the Department of Labor and Elizabeth Warren of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have grown in influence on the national stage over the past year.
However, we also made sure to include women who are not household names on the scale of the
aforementioned honorees, but whom we think are thought leaders in specific areas–such as the academics Olivia Mitchell and Tamar Frankel.
