Meet 3 Powerful Women at the Pinnacle of Finance. Who are Driving the World's Financial Industry? Get to Know 3 Names Who are Making All the Difference in the Global Market.
The month of March marks the worldwide celebration of women’s achievements in various spheres. Highlighted by the observance of International Women’s Day on March 8, Women’s Month also underpins the women’s rights movement, which has brought attention to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence against women.
As the world commemorates the social, cultural, and political accomplishments of women this month of March, Fullerton Markets puts a spotlight on three women who have been pivotal in the world of finance.
Are you ready to meet the 3 powerful women in the finance industry?
Barbara Rockefeller
Founder, Rockefeller Treasury Services
If Wall Street had a surname, it would be Rockefeller. It is no secret that the family has dominated American finance since the infancy of the stock market. But while the most well-known Rockefellers in history are men, one of the brainiest ones in the past decades is, in fact, a woman.
Barbara Rockefeller is the founder of Rockefeller Treasury Services. The firm specializes in international market consulting that focuses on currency management, as well as foreign exchange forecasting. She has consistently provided daily currency and economic analysis for FXStreet readers as an excerpt from her Daily Currency Briefing newsletter distributed to central banks, multinational corporations and fund managers, and retail traders. Rockefeller covers the intersection of fundamental and technical analysis in her daily newsletters.
Known as the first advisor to name exact, specific stops and profit targets in the trading advice, Rockefeller is the only advisor to publish the exact gain and loss of every trade daily.
Rockefeller has a bachelor’s degree from the prestigious Oregon-based Reed College – known for its high standards of scholarly practice, creative thinking, and engaged citizenship. She also holds a master’s in international affairs from Columbia University in New York City.
Before founding the Rockefeller Treasury Services, Barbara worked at Citibank and other banks as a risk manager, new product developer (Cititrend), FX trader, advisor and loan officer.
Barbara performs FX-related consulting, with projects ranging from fraud cases, the foreign currency payout to victims in the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund, and corporate exposure management. She also taught “The Fundamental of Foreign Exchange” in over twenty countries, including Spain, Turkey, Denmark, Nigeria, Thailand, Hong Kong, and New Zealand.
The author of a training course on the fundamentals of FX at www.earnforex.com, Rockefeller has also presented lectures on technical analysis at the Money Show and Technical Analysis Expo in Paris.
Rockefeller championed technical analysis at a time when only a handful of people in the industry could even grasp the concept. In 2004, Technical Analysis of Stocks and Commodities magazine interviewed her as “Trader of the Month”.
Among Rockefeller’s published books are How to Invest Internationally (Franklin Covey, 1999), CNBC 24/7—Trading Around the Clock, Around the World (Wiley, 2000), The Global Trader (Wiley, 2001), Technical Analysis for Dummies (4th edition, 2019), The Foreign Exchange Matrix, with co-author Vicki Schmelzer (Harriman House, 2014) and The Baby Boomer Survival Guide, with co-author Nick Tate (Humanix Books, 2014)
Barbara Rockefeller is featured in Mario Singh’s book Secret Conversations with Trading Tycoons where she shares how she got started in trading, an insight into her training methodology, and gives powerful advice to new traders, among a treasure of invaluable information.
Secret Conversations with Trading Tycoons is Singh’s third book. He is a global financial expert, a bestselling author, and CEO of multi-awarded brokerage firm Fullerton Markets.
Christine Madeleine Odette Lagarde
President, European Central Bank
To most people, becoming a champion swimmer, a prominent lawyer or a multi-degree scholar can be considered achievements of a lifetime. But Christine Lagarde, who rose from the humblest beginnings (both her parents were schoolteachers) to become the second most powerful woman in the world, has done all that and more. Born in Paris, France, Lagarde grew up with her brothers in Le Havre, an urban city-commune in the Normandy region of northwestern France. She was part of France’s national synchronised swimming team as a teenager and went on to study in the United States under the American Field Service scholarship after her baccalaureate.
In her time studying in the US, Lagarde interned as a Maryland congressional assistant, helping her office correspond with French-speaking constituents.
Lagarde then obtained master’s degrees in English, labour law, and social law from the Paris West University Nanterre La Défense. She also holds a master’s degree from the Institut d'études Politiques in Aix-en-Provence and has honorary doctorates from KU Leuven (Belgium) and Université de Montréal.
Adjudged consistently as among the top 10 most powerful women since 2011 by Forbes magazine, Christine received in 2019 the CARE Humanitarian Award and the Atlantic Council.
An officer of the Order of Légion d'honneur, the highest French order of merit for both military and civil, Lagarde also has the rank of commander in Order of Mérite Agricole.
"I learned that you can constantly improve, and that you should not be shy about your views, and about the direction that you believe is right." ~Christine Lagarde
In 2019, right before the world was plunged into a pandemic, Lagarde was nominated as president of the powerful European Central Bank (ECB) by the European Council – the first female to assume the influential position. The ECB is the prime component of the Eurosystem and the European System of Central Banks. One of seven institutions of the European Union, the ECB is one of the world's most important central banks.
Prior to this position, Lagarde was the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for two terms – again, the first female to hold the post. She previously held various senior titles in the French government, including minister of the economy, finance and industry, minister of agriculture and fishing, and minister of foreign trade. She was also the first woman to become finance minister of a G8 economy – in fact, adjudged by the Financial Times as the best finance minister in the eurozone in 2009. Lagarde was also the first female chair of the major international law firm Baker & McKenzie.
Mary Callahan Erdoes
CEO, JPMorgan Chase
The chief executive officer of JPMorgan Chase’s Asset & Wealth Management line of business is female – and that says a lot about how far the boardroom glass ceiling has been shattered.
Mary Callahan Erdoes has held senior roles across Asset & Wealth Management before becoming its CEO in 2009 since joining the firm 25 years ago. As part of the JPMorgan Chase Operating Committee, the firm’s most senior management team, she has helped steer one of the largest and most respected investment managers and private banks in the world, with US$4 trillion in client assets and a 200-year-old legacy.
Raised in Winnetka, Illinois, Erdoes is an alumna of the all-girls Roman Catholic Woodlands Academy of the Sacred Heart in Lake Forest, Illinois. She completed her bachelor’s degree at Georgetown University as a mathematics major – the only woman to complete the major at Georgetown at that time. She earned her MBA at the prestigious Harvard Business School.
"There is no substitute for hard work. There is a little luck along the way, but there is no substitute for really super-hard work, first in, last out." ~ Mary Callahan Erdoes
Erdoes has been included in the 50 Most Influential list of Bloomberg Markets since 2012. She is on Business Insider’s list of the 25 most powerful women on Wall Street and has been named one of the most powerful women in the world by Forbes.
Prior to joining JP Morgan, Erdoes was employed at Meredith, Martin & Kaye, a fixed-income speciality advisory firm, where she was responsible for credit research, trading, and individual portfolio management. She started her career with Stein Roe & Farnham, then moved on to Bankers Trust, where she worked in corporate finance, merchant banking, and high-yield debt underwriting.
Mary joined JP Morgan Asset Management as head of fixed income for high-net-worth individuals, foundations, and endowments, and was appointed CEO of JP Morgan Private Bank in 2005. In fact, she has been mentioned as a potential successor to JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon.
Over the decades, global publications have had no trouble naming women who are trailblazing the financial industry. The lead set by these women, as well as the education and tools available in the finance market continue to inspire and break boundaries for those who are yet exploring the industry. The list of powerful women in the finance industry is expected to grow longer and stronger in the coming years.
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