Sallie Krawcheck

Sallie L. Krawcheck is the Chair of Ellevate. Ellevate Network (formerly 85 Broads) is the global professional woman’s network, with thousands of women from across industries and around the world. Ellevate Asset Management has partnered with Pax World on the Pax Ellevate Global Woman’s Index Fund, the first and only mutual fund of its kind, investing in the 400 top-rated companies in the world for advancing women. These businesses are united in the recognition that investing in women is simply smart business.

Krawcheck is the past president of Global Wealth & Investment Management for Bank of America, the largest wealth management business in the world, at $2.2 trillion in client balances. Its operating businesses include Merrill Lynch and US Trust.

She has a track record of turning around and innovating to drive growth in a number of businesses. These include:

• Reversing the decline in Merrill Lynch’s profitability and Advisor headcount and stabilizing US Trust while at Bank of America, gaining share across the wealth management businesses;
• Separating research from investment banking at Citi, to restore the business’ reputation and profitability in the wake of the Wall Street research scandal;
• Substantially growing Sanford Bernstein’s research business by avoiding the conflicts of investment banking; and
• Integrating and launching the innovative MerrillEdge, Merrill Lynch’s online offering.

In addition, alone among senior Wall Street executives, Krawcheck reimbursed individual investor clients for a portion of losses incurred during the financial downturn from poorly performing products sold by Citi and, later again, at Bank of America.

Prior to joining Bank of America, Krawcheck was the chief executive officer and chairman for Citi Global Wealth Management, responsible for the Citi Private Bank, Citi Smith Barney and Citi Investment Research. During her time at Citi, she was also a member of the senior leadership committee and executive committee.

Krawcheck joined Citi in October 2002 as chairman and chief executive officer of Smith Barney, where she oversaw the global management of the Smith Barney and Citi Investment Research businesses. In 2004, she was appointed chief financial officer for Citigroup. In this role, she was responsible for a number of asset dispositions, including the sales of Travelers P&C and Citi Asset Management.

Prior to joining Citi, Krawcheck was chairman and chief executive officer of Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. She began her career as a research analyst, covering the financial services industry, a role in which she was consistently ranked first in her field by “Institutional Investor.”

Krawcheck was recently named number 9 on Fast Company’s “100 Most Creative People in Business 2014” list, as well as one of “10 Up and Coming Leaders to Watch” by Entrepreneur Magazine. During the research scandals, Fortune Magazine called her “The Last Honest Analyst” and noted that hers was the most influential voice for research quality and integrity. She has been listed as one of Forbes’ and Fortune’s “Most Powerful Women” in business and U.S. Banker’s top “Woman to Watch.” She is a past recipient of CNBC’s “Business Leader of the Future Award,” was one of Time magazine’s “Global Business Influentials,” Fortune’s “Most Influential Person Under the Age of 40” and an “Institutional Investor” top CFO in financial services. She was recognized by the World Economic Forum as one of its Young Global Leaders. Krawcheck’s embrace of social media as a means of including more people in her frank business conversations has garnered her 887,000+ (and growing) followers as one of LinkedIn’s Influencers and 31,000 followers on Twitter.

A native of Charleston, South Carolina, Krawcheck attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on the Morehead Scholarship and graduated in 1987 with academic honors in Journalism and Political Science. In 1992, she received a Master of Business Administration from Columbia University.

An active participant in the affairs of her alma maters, Krawcheck has endowed her former secondary school, The Porter Gaud School, with the Krawcheck Scholarship, a needs-based scholarship awarding full tuition to students of exceptional aptitude. She is a member of the board of 2U. She is a member of the System Risk Council, chaired by Sheila Bair; is on the Bretton Woods Committee, the board of Carnegie Hall, the investment committee for The University of North Carolina and the board of overseers of Columbia University Business School. Krawcheck is a past member of the Board of Directors of Dell Inc, Blackrock and of the NY Economic Club.