WSJ Women To Watch List – The Whopping Two That Represent Private Equity
A Wall Street Journal special report called “The 50 Women to Watch” outlines the most important female decision makers in business. It reveals that, despite a groundbreaking year for women in politics, Hillary Clinton’s “18 million cracks" in the glass ceiling does not apply to the corporate world. I believe the writer uses the encouraging term, “pipe dream.” Fewer women hold corporate-officer jobs at Fortune 500 companies than did in 2005, and even then, a mere 16.4% of those jobs were held by women, the article reports. In finance, the list is lacking without the likes of Erin Callan, former CFO of Lehman Brothers (now at Credit Suisse), Sally Krawcheck, formerly of Citigroup, and Zoe Cruz, formerly of Morgan Stanley. Despite that, ladies like Barbera Desoer at Bank of America, Terri Dial of Citigroup, and Ruth Porat of Morgan Stanley held it down for Wall Street. But private equity? Forget it. The only PE representation comes from outside of the U.S., with a whopping two women, at numbers 43 and 47. If you’re not yet acquainted, I’d like to introduce Maha Al Ghunaim and Phuti Malabie. Also noteworthy on the LP side: Jane Mendillo, the recently appointed CEO and President of Harvard Management Co, the company that manages Harvard’s $36.9 billion endowment.
