Barron’s 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance

Lael Brainard, director of the National Economic Council, is helping President Joe Biden set and implement a sweeping economic agenda. Katie Haun, the federal prosecutor turned venture capitalist, raised a $1.5 billion fund at Haun Ventures and is poised to help shape crypto’s future. Ji-Yeun Lee, the managing partner at PJT Partners, manages an advisory firm involved with such transactions as AerCap’s acquisition of GE Capital Aviation Services and
AbbVie
‘s (ticker: ABBV) purchase of Allergan, while helping to develop the next generation of deal makers. 

All these women, and many more, grace Barron’s fourth annual list of the 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance, which honors established and emerging leaders in financial services, the corporate world, nonprofit organizations, and government. Included are senior leaders at the nation’s biggest banks, brokerages, and asset managers; finance executives steering some of the largest technology companies; economists and public servants; and investors managing billions of dollars at a critical time for the economy and the financial markets.

This year’s roster has 24 newcomers. Among them are Janel Jackson, who oversees roughly $2.1 trillion of assets as Vanguard’s global head of exchange-traded funds capital markets, and economist Claudia Sahm, creator of the Sahm Rule recession indicator, who has challenged conventional economic thinking at a time when monetary policy is in uncharted waters. Another first-timer: Lauren Taylor Wolfe, co-founder of Impactive Capital. As one of the few female hedge fund managers, she is in demand as a speaker, and used that platform last year to urge male peers to get off the sidelines and support women’s rights.

Our latest list features more women with ties to government than in the past, a reflection of seismic changes in economic and regulatory policy as the Federal Reserve raises interest rates and regulators grapple with the growing impact of technology companies and the rise of cryptocurrencies. Among this group are Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan, who has become a lightning rod for her antitrust agenda, and Hester Peirce, a Republican member of the Securities and Exchange Commission and an outspoken critic of some of its enforcement actions. She has been nicknamed “crypto mom” for her support of cryptocurrencies.

Barron’s draws on internal and external nominations to build each year’s list. This year, we received nominations from a wider array of sources than in the past, including our colleagues; past honorees; nominees’ clients, co-workers, and former classmates; and industry leaders. The volume of nominations, and their descriptive detail, made clear that we have only scratched the surface of female talent in the financial world.

The final listing, arranged alphabetically, was selected by a panel of Barron’s writers and editors. All honorees were chosen for their achievements throughout the past year, their influence within their organization, and their potential to shape the future of finance. The list includes only women who work in the U.S. Our sister publication in London, Financial News, publishes an annual list of the 100 Most Influential Women in European Finance.

Barron’s is publishing online profiles of all the women on the list in alphabetical order, beginning with the first 20 this week. You can read them here.

Women now hold a record 8% of chief executive jobs at
S&P 500
companies. They account for half of the Federal Reserve Banks’ boards of directors and held 32% of S&P 500 board seats as of the end of last year, according to Equilar, a corporate-leadership research firm. While start-ups led solely by women got a paltry 2% of total venture-capital funding last year, that still amounted to $4.3 billion—the second-highest amount after 2021’s $8 billion, according to PitchBook.

“Many of us feared that the decades of hard-fought progress toward equity for women would be undone. Yet, as we have emerged from the pandemic and despite these added burdens, we have seen bright spots in women’s gains in senior leadership,” says Tara Van Bommel, senior director of Catalyst.

One positive development is a broadening of the paths that can get women to more powerful perches. For example, companies are expanding their views on the backgrounds needed for someone to become a successful CEO. That’s showing up in the numbers: 29% of corporate chiefs appointed globally in the 12 months ended June 2022 had no prior C-suite experience, compared with just 17% in the prior period, according to a study by recruiter
Heidrick & Struggles.

Barron’s list reflects the varied career trajectories that have taken women to the top echelons of financially focused companies. For example, Lynn Martin, a newcomer to our roster, is president of the NYSE Group, the parent of the New York Stock Exchange. She worked as an
IBM
computer programmer, and her back-office technology expertise positioned her to take a prominent role at the exchange as finance became more digital. Lori Beer, who oversees a $12 billion information-technology budget at
JPMorgan Chase
(JPM), is a former software engineer and the first chief information officer to sit on the bank’s operating committee.

More women are becoming chief financial officers. They accounted for 16% of CFOs at S&P 500 companies last year, with the majority promoted into that role in the past couple of years, reflecting both an increased focus on gender diversity and high CFO turnover, according to Russell Reynolds Associates.

Six CFOs are on Barron’s list, including Susan Li, named to that position at
Meta Platforms
(META) in the fall. At 37, Li is one of the younger additions to this year’s selections. While she spent a short time at
Morgan Stanley
(MS) as an investment-banking analyst after graduating from Stanford at 19, Li has been at what was then Facebook since 2008.

While the list typically honors women who have been in their roles for at least a year, Li has spent 15 years in the finance department. And she is the highest-ranking woman at Meta, which is trying to find its footing as its core social-media business decelerates, even as it faces increased regulatory scrutiny.

Li joins two other influential tech CFOs—Amy Hood of
Microsoft
(MSFT) and Ruth Porat of
Alphabet
(GOOGL)—in an industry that still has a dearth of women leaders. The CFO role is a powerful one, not just in technology, but more broadly, as rising financing costs spotlight how companies allocate resources, and investors focus more on cash flow and profitability. 

Almost 10% of Barron’s 2023 Top 100 are founders or co-founders of the firms they run. Wolfe co-founded Impactive in 2018, having caught the entrepreneurial bug in high school while participating in competitions through DECA, a student organization for budding business leaders. Her advice to those with similar ambitions: “Take risks sooner and have confidence in your convictions. There’s never going to be a perfect time.”  

Veteran investment manager Sarah Ketterer, who launched Causeway Capital Management in June 2001, also has suggestions: “Identify both a need in the marketplace and business partner or partners you greatly admire and enjoy. Importantly, your partner should have complementary skills.”

Many women on Barron’s list have leveraged their roles to increase their impact. Ariel Investments’ president and co-chief executive, Mellody Hobson, raised almost $1.5 billion in the first year of a private-equity initiative called Project Black, which helps minority-owned businesses grow big enough to become top suppliers for Fortune 500 companies. This is just her latest effort to try to narrow the racial wealth gap.

Jean Hynes, chief executive of Wellington Management, is helping to change the makeup of the firm—and the industry. When she joined Wellington in the 1990s as an administrative assistant, the asset manager’s executives were primarily white and male. But Hynes, who rose through the ranks to run the
Vanguard Health Care
fund (VGHCX) before becoming CEO, has prioritized attracting a more diverse group of talent. She has also organized dinners with female investors, taught business-school classes, and worked with organizations such as 100 Women in Finance to try to engage more women in the financial-services industry.

The United Nations has praised Mindy Lubber, chief executive of sustainability-focused nonprofit Ceres, for her ability “to change not only hearts and minds but also the way money flows around the world,” as she has expanded the coalition of investors allocating money to combat climate change. Lubber has stepped up her advocacy as a backlash grows in some states critical of investing in companies focused on the green economy.

More women hold critical positions in finance than ever before, even though Covid-19 took a temporary toll. Some 12 million women left the labor force during the pandemic; it has taken three years for the female labor force to return to its prepandemic size, compared with less than two years for men.  

Along the way, the pace of gains slowed. Only 40% of board seats went to women last year, down from 45% in 2021—and more are going to candidates with CEO and CFO experience—areas where women are making strides but remain underrepresented, according to Heidrick & Struggles.

But it is the hollowing-out of the pipeline to tomorrow’s C-suite that is raising the most alarms. Women held 26% of C-suite jobs and 28% at the senior-vice-president level last year—a six to seven percentage-point increase from the level five years earlier. But improvement lower down the corporate ladder, in the ranks of vice presidents and senior managers, increased by just three percentage points, McKinsey/LeanIn.org reports.

Having women in senior leadership tends to generate more diversity lower down in the ranks, according to a report on gender diversity from J.P. Morgan. It also can help retain talent.

As in years past, many of the women on our list mentor junior employees, especially women. PJT’s Lee has prioritized talent development, creating a recruiting program to identify promising individuals in underrepresented populations and among people with liberal-arts backgrounds like hers. Lee is also known for shaping—and redirecting—employees’ careers.

For women assessing whether a company is a good fit, Vanguard’s Jackson recommends looking for leaders who look like them and are willing to be mentors. “Look for companies that are committed to fostering psychological safety, or you’ll find yourself exhausted from pretending to be someone else,” she says. “If you look around and don’t see anyone who’s passionate about your development, you’re in the wrong place.”

This year’s Barron’s Top 100 women should be on investors’ radar; they offer a look at what might lie ahead.

Write to Reshma Kapadia at reshma.kapadia@barrons.com