Sallie Krawcheck is putting her money where her mouth is. The former Merrill Lynch and Citigroup executive announced Wednesday that she has agreed to buy the global women's network 85 Broads from its founder, the former Goldman Sachs executive Janet Hanson.
In a post on her LinkedIn account (which happens to have 187,000 followers), Krawcheck said "I am investing in 85 Broads because investing in women is smart business. And women investing in themselves and in others, as they do through the network, is even smarter business."
The group was founded by Hanson in 1997 with other women who worked at Goldman's then headquarters at 85 Broad Street in New York. The group says it has more than 30,000 paid members from 130 different countries, and has moved beyond Wall Street firms to include women from many industries; it also has 37 regional chapters and campus clubs for undergraduate and graduate students. Following Krawcheck's investment, Hanson will retain an investment stake in 85 Broads, she said in a statement, and will become chairwoman emeritus of the group. No financial details of the Krawcheck investment were divulged.
In her post, Krawcheck says that for most of her high-profile career, "I tried to avoid the topic of being a woman in business, vaguely concerned that talking too much about it would hold me back in some way. My standard response: "Oh gosh, I never really think about being a woman in business. I'm just focused on getting the job done." However, she said that over the past year—she was ousted by Bank of America in September 2011—she said she's been "thinking about it….a lot."
