While all 50 honorees of the 50 Top Women in Wealth for 2011 deserve recognition for their accomplishments and leadership, as we have done each year since the 50 Top Women's inception, we are taking some extra time to look at certain members of the list, this year grouped by the major roles they play in wealth management.
View the 50 Top Women in Wealth home page for more reporting and this year's complete list of honorees.
SHEILA BAIR
Sheila Bair, who left the FDIC on July 8, has seen the agency through good times and bad during her five years of service at the helm of the agency, with some of the most far-reaching changes in regulation coming to fruition on her watch. On July 20, the FDIC announced that Bair would be joining the Pew Charitable Trust as a senior advisor on Sept. 7.
Bair was appointed to the chair of the FDIC midway through 2006, as the boom times were still booming. The Kansas Republican was more in tune with strict-constructionist regulation than might have been expected from someone with her background. After all, her political career flourished in association with Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan.: she had been a top Republican staffer in the Senate and also acted as legal counsel to the New York Stock Exchange.
View the 50 Top Women in Wealth home page for more reporting and this year's complete list of honorees.
PHYLLIS BORZI
Phyllis Borzi, head of the Department of Labor's Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), says that her greatest achievement over the past year has been "developing and completing" the DOL's fee disclosure rule that enables participants in 401(k) plans to understand the dramatic effect that fees play in their overall returns.
Borzi told AdvisorOne in an email that she has built her career on the advice her father gave her: "If I work hard, play by the rules even when others do not, treat people with respect, fairness and honesty, and be patient, I can ultimately achieve my goals." Ironically, she continues, "that is not the way many people view the route to success in business, including in the financial services area, but it is the path I have chosen to follow in my career and it has worked for me."
View the 50 Top Women in Wealth home page for more reporting and this year's complete list of honorees.
ROSA "ROSIE" RIOS
Rosa "Rosie" Gumataotao Rios may not be the first Latina to become Treasurer of the United States. Indeed, five others have held the position. Nonetheless, she is a trend-setter.