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Speaker Bios


Opening Remarks and Fireside Chat

  • Dr. Condoleezza Rice
  • Thomas Gottstein
  • Lydie Hudson
  • Iris Bohnet

Purpose Driven Leadership: Creating Positive Change

  • Kristin Groos Richmond
  • Lisa Skeete Tatum
  • Mirjam Staub-Bisang
  • Melanie Whelan
  • Lydie Hudson

Finding Alpha and Closing the Investment Gap

  • Sarah Chen
  • Dr. Nannette Hechler-Fayd'herbe
  • Emma Crystal

A Paradigm Shift in Fashion

  • Tiffany Chen
  • Veronica Chou
  • Jasmine Mullers
  • Arizona Muse
  • Marisa Drew

Leadership in the Age of Digital Transformation

  • Amy Klement
  • Kelly Steckelberg
  • Najoh Tita-Reid
  • Lauren Washington
  • Laura Barrowman

Fireside Chat with Dr. Janet L. Yellen

  • Dr. Janet L. Yellen
  • Urs Rohner
  • Lara Warner

At the Crossroads of Climate Change

  • Marte Borhaug
  • Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland
  • Lara Warner

Transforming Companies through Diversity and Inclusion

  • Cheryl D. Alston
  • Andrea Jung
  • Della Sabessar
  • Judith Williams
  • Iris Bohnet

Fireside Chat with Mellody Hobson and Closing Remarks

  • Mellody Hobson
  • Lydie Hudson
Anchor: opening

Opening Remarks and Fireside Chat

Dr. Condoleezza Rice

US Secretary of State (2005-2009)

Condoleezza Rice is the Denning Professor in Global Business and the Economy at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, the Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy at the Hoover Institution, and Professor of Political Science at Stanford University. She is also a founding partner of Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC, and became the Tad and Dianne Taube Director of the Hoover Institution on September 1, 2020.

From January 2005 to January 2009, Rice served as the 66th Secretary of State of the United States, the second woman and first black woman to hold the post. Rice also served as President George W. Bush’s Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (National Security Advisor) from January 2001 to January 2005, the first woman to hold the position.

She has authored and co-authored numerous books, most recently To Build a Better World: Choices to End the Cold War and Create a Global Commonwealth (2019), co-authored with Philip Zelikow. Among her other volumes are three bestsellers, Democracy: Stories from the Long Road to Freedom (2017); No Higher Honor: A Memoir of My Years in Washington (2011); and Extraordinary, Ordinary People: A Memoir of Family (2010). She also wrote Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft (1995) with Philip Zelikow; edited The Gorbachev Era (1986) with Alexander Dallin; and penned The Soviet Union and the Czechoslovak Army, 1948-1983: Uncertain Allegiance (1984).

In 1991, Rice co-founded the Center for a New Generation (CNG), an innovative, after-school academic enrichment program for students in East Palo Alto and East Menlo Park, California. In 1996, CNG merged with the Boys & Girls Club of the Peninsula, an affiliate club of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America (BGCA). CNG has since expanded to local BGCA chapters in Birmingham, Atlanta, and Dallas. Rice remains an active proponent of an extended learning day through after-school programs.

Since 2009, Rice has served as a founding partner at Rice, Hadley, Gates & Manuel LLC, an international strategic consulting firm based in Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C. The firm works with senior executives of major companies to implement strategic plans and expand in emerging markets. Other partners include former National Security Advisor Stephen J. Hadley and former Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates.

Rice currently serves on the boards of Dropbox, Inc., an online storage technology company; C3.ai, an AI software company; and Makena Capital Management, a private endowment firm. In addition, she is Vice Chair of the Board of Governors of the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and a trustee of the Aspen Institute. Previously, Rice served on various additional boards, including those of: the George W. Bush Institute; the Commonwealth Club; KiOR, Inc.; the Chevron Corporation; the Charles Schwab Corporation; the Transamerica Corporation; the Hewlett-Packard Company; the University of Notre Dame; the Foundation for Excellence in Education; the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts; and the San Francisco Symphony.

In 2013, Rice was appointed to the College Football Playoff Selection Committee, formerly the Bowl Championship Series. She served on the committee until 2017.

Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Rice earned her bachelor's degree in political science, cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Denver; her master’s in the same subject from the University of Notre Dame; and her Ph.D., likewise in political science, from the Graduate School of International Studies at the University of Denver.

Rice is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and has been awarded fifteen honorary doctorates.

Dr. Thomas Gottstein

Chief Executive Officer, Credit Suisse

Thomas P. Gottstein is the Chief Executive Officer of Credit Suisse Group AG. He is based in Zurich.

Before assuming his current role he served as CEO Swiss Universal Bank and the CEO of Credit Suisse (Schweiz) AG from 2015 to early 2020. Prior to that, he was the Head of Premium Clients Switzerland & Global External Asset Managers within the former Private Banking & Wealth Management division from 2013 to October 2015. From 2009 to 2013 he was the Head of Investment Banking Coverage Switzerland and Co-Head of Credit Suisse's European Equity Capital Markets team, part of the Global Market Solutions Group (GMSG), from 2007 to 2009.

Mr. Gottstein joined the Investment Banking Department of Credit Suisse First Boston in Switzerland in 1999. He began his career at UBS where he held several positions. He has over 20 years of banking experience, including 13 years in London.

Mr. Gottstein holds a PhD in Finance and Accounting and a degree in Business Administration and Economics from the University of Zurich.

Lydie Hudson

Chief Executive Officer of Sustainability, Research and Investment Solutions, Credit Suisse

Lydie Hudson is the CEO of Sustainability, Research and Investment Solutions and a member of the Executive Board of Credit Suisse Group. In her role, Ms. Hudson oversees the bank’s development of innovative research, advisory, and investment solutions for wealth management, corporate and institutional clients. Furthermore she is responsible for the firm’s sustainability strategy – including driving the product and advisory offering. Ms. Hudson also co-leads Credit Suisse’s employee culture strategy.

Previously, Ms. Hudson was the Group Chief Compliance and Regulatory Affairs Officer. In this role, she oversaw Credit Suisse's compliance and regulatory environment, the bank’s policies and controls while serving as an executive on the firm’s Audit Committee and Financial Crime and Conduct Committee. Prior to that, Ms. Hudson was the Chief Operating Officer for the Global Markets division and a member of the Global Markets Management Committee. In this role she oversaw strategy, technology, and operations for the division. In addition, she worked in various management and strategy roles across the Equities, Fixed Income, and Asset Management departments. Prior to joining Credit Suisse in 2008, Ms. Hudson worked at Lehman Brothers and The Boston Consulting Group.

Ms. Hudson was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2017 where she is serving a 5 year term. In addition, she currently sits on the board of Good Shepherd Services, a large non-profit in New York.

Ms. Hudson holds an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School where she was honored for her exceptional contribution to the HBS community. She holds a B.A. from Middlebury College where she graduated cum laude and with honors.

An American, Ms. Hudson is married with two sons and lives in Zurich, Switzerland.

Dr. Iris Bohnet

The Albert Pratt Professor of Business & Government, and the Academic Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School, Co-Director of the Women and Public Policy Program, Member of the Credit Suisse Board of Directors

Iris Bohnet, the Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government, is the Academic Dean of Harvard Kennedy School. She is a behavioral economist, combining insights from economics and psychology to improve decision-making in organizations and society, often with a gender or cross-cultural perspective. Her most recent research examines behavioral design to de-bias how we live, learn and work. She is the author of the award-winning book What Works: Gender Equality by Design, and advises governments and companies on the topic around the world. Professor Bohnet is the co-director of the Women and Public Policy Program and the faculty chair of the executive program “Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century” for the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders. She serves on the boards, advisory boards or as a patron of Credit Suisse Group, Applied, Edge, genEquality, TaketheLeadWomen, We Shape Tech, Women in Banking and Finance, and the UK Government’s Equalities Office as well as numerous academic journals. She was named one of the Most Influential People in Gender Policy by apolitical in 2018 and 2019, a Leading Thinker of Victoria, Australia, 2016-2019, and has received an honorary degree from the University of Lucerne, Switzerland, in 2016. She is married and the mother of two children.

Anchor: leadership

Purpose Driven Leadership: Creating Positive Change

Kristin Groos Richmond

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Revolution Foods

Kristin co-founded Revolution Foods in 2006 and has served as its CEO since inception. Her career has spanned from corporate finance at Citibank to education. She was formerly the Vice President of Resources for Indispensable Schools and Educators and co-founded the Kenya Community Center for Learning in Nairobi. In addition, Kristin is an Aspen Institute Pahara Fellow, an Ashoka Fellow and an Education Pioneers Fellow. She served on the White House Council for Community Solutions and is a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.

Under Kristin’s leadership, Revolution Foods has supported its school and community partners with over 34 million meals during the first 5 months of the pandemic. Check out the team's hard work in this video.

Lisa Skeete Tatum

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Landit

Lisa Skeete Tatum is founder and CEO of Landit, a personalized career pathing platform created to increase the success and engagement of women and diverse groups in the workplace. The platform offers a turn-key “one size fits one” solution that enables companies to attract, develop, and retain diverse high-potential talent.

Previously, Lisa was a General Partner for over a decade with Cardinal Partners, a $350M+ early-stage healthcare venture capital firm. Lisa also worked for Procter & Gamble, GE Capital, and founded her own consulting practice.

Lisa serves on numerous high growth, public, and non-profit boards, including Stryker Corporation (NYSE: SYK), Union Square Hospitality Group, Cornell University Board of Trustees, McCarter Theater, The Lawrenceville School, and the Harvard Business School Board of Dean’s Advisors.

Lisa received her BS in chemical engineering from Cornell University and her MBA from Harvard Business School. She is a member of the Kauffman Fellows Class 4 and a 2012 Henry Crown Fellow of the Aspen Institute.

She has been featured in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fast Company, Vanity Fair, Fortune, Inc., CNBC, BBC Business and named one of the Most Impressive Women Entrepreneurs by Inc. Landit was named one of the Top 10 Innovations That Made Women’s Lives Better by Fast Company.

Mirjam Staub-Bisang

Head of BlackRock Switzerland

Mirjam Staub-Bisang is Head of BlackRock Switzerland and a member of the EMEA Executive Committee as well as a Senior Advisor to BlackRock Sustainable Investing.

Prior to BlackRock, Mirjam was CEO and co-founder of Independent Capital Group AG an investment management firm focusing on sustainable investing based in Zurich. Mirjam also served as a non-executive director on the boards of several public and private companies and was chairwoman and member of the investment committees of several institutional investors such as pension funds and endowments. Prior to these roles she held senior positions in asset management and private equity at Commerzbank, Swiss Life, Quadrant and Merrill Lynch in London and Zurich. Today she serves on the board of the global retailer Bata as a non-executive director.

Mirjam holds a PhD in Law from the University of Zurich and an MBA from INSEAD. She authored the standard work ‘Sustainable Investing for Institutional Investors: Risks, Regulations, Strategies’ and co-authored the second edition of ‘Infrastructure as an Asset Class’. 

In 2009 she was elected a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum.

Melanie Whelan

Managing Director, Summit Partners

Melanie has spent her career building consumer brands in industries ripe for disruption, with a focus on companies that thrive on unique consumer experiences and shared community. 

In early 2020, Melanie joined Summit Partners as a Managing Director on the Growth Products & Services team. Summit Partners is a leading growth equity firm currently managing over $19 billion in capital. Since 1984, the firm has partnered with over 500 high growth businesses across North America, Europe and Asia. Melanie focuses primarily on partnering with entrepreneurs leading high-growth consumer and technology-enabled services.

Prior to Summit, Melanie was CEO of SoulCycle. She joined SoulCycle in 2012 as COO and spent three years building and leading operations before her promotion to CEO in 2015. Under her direction, SoulCycle grew from eight NYC-based studios to nearly 100 studios in 18 markets across three countries. She led the company's diversification efforts, which included launching a vertically integrated, direct-to-consumer e-commerce platform and building a media division to drive audience and revenue growth strategies, including a 24/7 SiriusXM channel.

Previously, Melanie led Business Development for Equinox where she was part of a team that executed a multi-brand strategy with the U.S. launch of Pure Yoga, the creation of Blink Fitness and the acquisition of SoulCycle. Earlier in her career, she was a member of the founding team of Richard Branson's U.S. air carrier Virgin America and worked in corporate development at Starwood Hotels and Resorts.

Melanie currently serves on the Board of Directors of Chegg (NYSE: CHGG), the Board of Trustees of Southern New Hampshire University, and the GO Project, a non-profit focused on K-8 education inequity in New York.

She holds a BA in engineering and economics from Brown University and is a member of the Aspen Institute’s 2018 class of Henry Crown Fellows.

Lydie Hudson

Chief Executive Officer of Sustainability, Research and Investment Solutions, Credit Suisse

Lydie Hudson is the CEO of Sustainability, Research and Investment Solutions and a member of the Executive Board of Credit Suisse Group. In her role, Ms. Hudson oversees the bank’s development of innovative research, advisory, and investment solutions for wealth management, corporate and institutional clients. Furthermore she is responsible for the firm’s sustainability strategy – including driving the product and advisory offering. Ms. Hudson also co-leads Credit Suisse’s employee culture strategy.

Previously, Ms. Hudson was the Group Chief Compliance and Regulatory Affairs Officer. In this role, she oversaw Credit Suisse's compliance and regulatory environment, the bank’s policies and controls while serving as an executive on the firm’s Audit Committee and Financial Crime and Conduct Committee. Prior to that, Ms. Hudson was the Chief Operating Officer for the Global Markets division and a member of the Global Markets Management Committee. In this role she oversaw strategy, technology, and operations for the division. In addition, she worked in various management and strategy roles across the Equities, Fixed Income, and Asset Management departments. Prior to joining Credit Suisse in 2008, Ms. Hudson worked at Lehman Brothers and The Boston Consulting Group.

Ms. Hudson was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2017 where she is serving a 5 year term. In addition, she currently sits on the board of Good Shepherd Services, a large non-profit in New York.

Ms. Hudson holds an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School where she was honored for her exceptional contribution to the HBS community. She holds a B.A. from Middlebury College where she graduated cum laude and with honors.

An American, Ms. Hudson is married with two sons and lives in Zurich, Switzerland.

Anchor: investment

Finding Alpha and Closing the Investment Gap

Emma Crystal

Head of Sustainable Client Solutions and Market Head Northern and Western Europe, Credit Suisse

Emma Crystal is a Managing Director of Credit Suisse in the International Wealth Management division, based in Zurich and a member of the IWM Management Committee. Emma leads the Northern & Western Europe business and heads the Sustainable Client Solutions Group, establishing an integrated delivery around sustainability for the bank’s clients. Promoting an inclusive and empowering culture to work and succeed in, Emma is an executive sponsor of the bank’s LGBTQ & Ally network. 

Prior to her current functions, Emma held a number of senior leadership functions in Zurich focusing on European clients as well as covering Family Offices for the UK and Nordic markets as part of Credit Suisse's Ultra High Net Worth Clients Group based in London. Before joining Credit Suisse, she worked at Deutsche Bank for 10 years in global markets.

Sarah Chen

Co-Founder, The Billion Dollar Fund for Women

Named Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum, Sarah’s career spans across venture capital (VC) and innovation, in Asia and the US. She is Co-Founder of The Billion Dollar Fund for Women, a global consortium of venture funds that have now pledged to invest (and are actively deploying) beyond $1 billion towards women-founded companies, to begin to address the venture investment gap where women founders receive less than 3% of total VC funding. Going Beyond The Billion, her mission is now to catalyze the larger landscape of capital, working with the top of the capital stack of limited partner investors to drive returns through diversity, collectively.
Previously, she pioneered a corporate venture capital unit within $13Bn publicly traded Asian conglomerate, Sime Darby, investing in later-stage biotechnology companies. Since then, she has been at the forefront of multi-million cross border investments, structuring and executing commercialization plans for her portfolio companies. Named Forbes 30 Under 30, she is a recognized speaker and adviser on VC/innovation and women in leadership, having been featured among others on Der Spiegel, the Wall Street Journal, and at the United Nations.
Driven by a mission to fuel women's power and influence, she currently sits on multiple boards including 131 & counting, a bipartisan effort backed by Bloomberg Government and Holland & Knight to fete the unprecedented number of women serving in the House and Senate in the US and encourage more qualified women to run for office; and Lean In Malaysia, which she co-founded, a platform accelerating women into leadership, recognized as the voice of credibility for professional women issues in Muslim- majority Malaysia. Sarah holds a Bachelor of Laws, LL.B (Hons.) from King’s College London. A proud Malaysian, she spends her time between the US- Asia.

Johara Farhadieh

Executive Director & Chief Investment Officer, Illinois State Board of Investments

Johara Farhadieh serves as the Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer at the Illinois State Board of Investment (“ISBI”), managing a $18.1 billion dollar defined 4benefit fund and a $4.2 billion dollar deferred compensation (“DC”) plan for the State Employees’ Retirement System, the General Assembly Retirement System, the Judges’ Retirement System, the Illinois Power Agency, and the State of Illinois Deferred Compensation Plan. In this position, Mrs. Farhadieh is responsible for all investment operations, managing and executing ISBI’s investment policies and assisting the trustees in the strategic direction of ISBI.

Under Mrs. Farhadieh’s leadership, ISBI developed into one of the nation’s leading pension funds with key accomplishments including the restructuring of the defined benefit fund, as well as a full re-enrollment of the DC plan. Most recently, the American Investment Council ranked ISBI’s private equity portfolio performance #1 for the ten years ending June 30, 2019. Mrs. Farhadieh also leads the continued effort of promoting diversity and inclusion within ISBI.

Mrs. Farhadieh received her Master of Business Administration with honors from the Kellstadt Graduate School of Business at DePaul University and a Bachelor of Science in Finance from the DePaul University College of Commerce.

Mrs. Farhadieh was recently recognized in Crain’s Chicago Business 2018, 40 Under 40 list. Mrs. Farhadieh is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago, New America Alliance, Women Investment Professionals, the National Association of Securities Professionals, and the National Association of Government Defined Contribution Administrators. In addition, Mrs. Farhadieh serves on the La Rabida Children’s Hospital Foundation Board. In her free time, Mrs. Farhadieh enjoys spending time with her husband and two sons at their home in Chicago, Illinois.

Katherine “K.C.” Krieger

Chief Investment Officer, Family Office Investment Services, LLC

Katharine “K.C.” Krieger is the Chief Investment Officer of Family Office Investment Services, LLC. Working closely with Eli Broad and the Broad Foundations’ investment committee, she manages $2 billion in assets for The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and The Broad Art Foundation—as well as overseeing the Broad family’s personal investments. 

K.C. leads asset allocation, due diligence, investment selection, and risk management across asset classes. In addition to investing with best in class investment managers, K.C. oversees an active co-investment program, manages a concentrated portfolio of individual stocks and executes hedging strategies. Prior to joining Broad, K.C. was a Senior Consulting Associate with Cambridge Associates, an investment advisor to non-profit institutions and high-net-worth families.

K.C. was nominated as a finalist for CIO magazine’s “Innovation Award” for most innovative foundation chief investment officer and honored as an “Investor in Education” by NYA in 2018. In addition, K.C. was named top 30 female limited partners in private equity and top 30 family office rising stars by Trusted Insight in 2016. 

K.C. is a member of the investment committees for the Broad Institute, a biomedical research institution, City of Hope, a cancer research and treatment organization, the James Irvine Foundation, an independent foundation dedicated to supporting low-income workers in California and the Broad Stage, a performing arts center. In addition, K.C. sits on the board of trustees at Marlborough School, a secondary school for girls.

K.C. is a CFA® charterholder and graduated with a  B.A. in Economics magna cum laude from Colby College, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa, was a George F. Baker Scholar and received the Christian A. Johnson Award in Economics. K.C. and her husband live in Los Angeles with their three children.

Sonja Laud

Chief Investment Officer, LGIM

Sonja joined LGIM in January 2019 from Fidelity International where she held the title Head of Equity, responsible for the Global, Equity Income and UK Portfolio Managers as well as the Investment Director team.  

Initially at DWS Group in Frankfurt, where she was an award-winning global equities portfolio manager, she then moved to Schroders in London where she managed several global, European and UK equity funds with a focus on high-dividend stocks. After eight successful years, she moved to Barings where she launched and managed global multi-asset portfolios and was a voting member of the asset allocation group before joining Fidelity International as Head of Equity. 

Sonja has completed a Global Executive MBA program at TRIUM (LSE, NYU Stern, HEC) and has MSc, EMIM from ESCP Europe. She is a CFA Charter holder

Dr. Nannette Hechler-Fayd’herbe

Global Head of Economics & Research and Chief Investment Officer IWM, Credit Suisse

Nannette Hechler-Fayd’herbe is Chief Investment Officer of International Wealth Management (IWM) and Global Head Economics & Research of Credit Suisse.

She has been with Credit Suisse since 1999, originally joining the group as the Head of Swiss Fixed Income and Credit Research at CSFB. In 2006 she transferred to Credit Suisse’s Private Banking division, where she was put in charge of global fixed-income and credit strategy advice. In 2011, as Head Global Financial Markets Research, she extended her responsibility to the research coverage of all asset classes for the Private Banking division. In August 2013, she became Head Investment Strategy, directly driving the investment strategy of all discretionary and advisory investment solutions of Credit Suisse.

She is a long-standing member of the Global Investment Committee and previously was a board member of the Credit Suisse Pension Fund Switzerland for several years and a board member of the International Capital Markets Association.

Ms. Hechler-Fayd’herbe is married and the mother of two children. In her spare time she enjoys playing the piano and likes to go sailing around the Mediterranean with her family as often as possible.

Anchor: fashion

A Paradigm Shift in Fashion

Tiffany Chen

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Techstyle

Tiffany is the founder of Techstyle, a digital marketplace for sustainable fabrics. Realizing the severity of environmental problems through exposure to her family’s garment business, Tiffany launched Techstyle in October 2018, with the mission to catalyse sustainability in the Fashion supply chain. Previously, Tiffany worked as an equity research analyst at UBS, specializing in consumer sector. She is experienced in servicing private equity clients in commercial due diligence and IPO deals. Tiffany holds an MBA from INSEAD and a Commerce / Arts bachelor degree from the University of Melbourne. Since 2019, she has been YIO’s Vice President. 

Veronica Chou

Chief Executive Officer, Everybody & Everyone

Witnessing polluting apparel production, intrigued by the potential of material science, and affected by the body ideals of the fashion industry, Veronica Chou founded eco-innovative, size inclusive womenswear Everybody & Everyone. Veronica has led a major investment into the Karl Lagerfeld brand, as well as a wide range of businesses focused in fashion tech and sustainability, including TheTot, Refinery29, A Thousand Fell, Polymateria, Dirty Labs, Perfitly, and Carbon Engineering etc. Veronica was the President of Iconix China from 2008-2015, successfully launching 12 mass market American brands in China, opening 1000 stores. She is a special advisor to The Copenhagen Fashion Summit.

Jasmine Mullers

Vice President, Chief Partnerships Officer & Partner, Pangaia

Arizona Muse

Fashion Model and Environmentalist

Marisa Drew

Chief Sustainability Officer and Global Head of the Sustainability Strategy, Advisory & Finance Group, Credit Suisse

Marisa Drew is the Chief Sustainability Officer for Credit Suisse and the Global Head of the Sustainability Strategy, Advisory & Finance Group. She is responsible for setting the sustainable strategy and ambition for the bank and for creating and facilitating sustainable investments on behalf of Credit Suisse's wealth management, institutional and corporate clients. Ms Drew chairs the Sustainability Leaders Committee and serves on the ESG Steering Committee, the Climate Risk Strategy Steering Committee and the UK Reputational Risk Committee of the bank.

Ms Drew has been with Credit Suisse for 18 years and in the investment banking industry for over 30 years. Prior to her current role, she established the Impact Advisory and Finance department in 2017 which she ran until mid 2020. From 2013 to 2017, she was the Co-Head of Investment Banking and Capital Markets for EMEA and before this, she was the Global Co-Head of the Global Markets Solutions Group, encompassing Equity Capital Markets, Debt Capital Markets, Leveraged Finance and Equity and Debt Structured Derivatives Products. Before joining Credit Suisse, Ms Drew worked for Merrill Lynch for eleven years and prior to receiving her MBA, she worked in private equity and for the investment bank, Kidder Peabody.

Ms Drew serves on the advisory boards of numerous leadership, sustainability, humanitarian, environmental and civil society organizations. She sits on the Advisory Board of the Milken Institute Center for Strategic Philanthropy and is a Trustee of the Credit Suisse Foundation. She is also a member of the FCA’s Markets Practitioner Panel and of several High Level Working Groups (HLGs) sponsored by the World Economic Forum and the UN, including acting as co-chair of the HLG for Humanitarian Aid and the Oceans Panel. Ms Drew's external activities also include EMEA Advisory Board roles for The Wharton School and UK charity, Room-to-Read.

Ms Drew has been recognized by the BBC as one of the Most Powerful Women in Britain and by Fortune Magazine as one of the 50 Most Powerful Women in International Business. Ms Drew has also been recognized by Financial News in its "Most Influential Women in Finance" list from 2007 through 2018.

Ms Drew received a BA in Finance and Marketing with distinction from the University of Virginia's McIntire School of Commerce in 1986 and an MBA with distinction from the Wharton School in 1992.

Anchor: digital

Leadership in the Age of Digital Transformation

Amy Klement

Managing Partner, Imaginable Futures

Amy is the managing partner of Imaginable Futures. Amy was previously responsible for Omidyar Network’s work in Education, Financial Inclusion, Property Rights, and Consumer Internet & Mobile initiatives in key geographies. She has held board seats or observer roles with Teach for All, Andela, Bridge International Academies, Imagine Worldwide, Kiva, Living Goods, Social Finance US, Mimoni, and Off Grid Electric.

Prior to Omidyar Network, Amy worked for eBay where she served as vice president of relationship marketing and as vice president of product strategy and operations.

Kelly Steckelberg

Chief Financial Officer, Zoom

Kelly Steckelberg brings to Zoom extensive leadership and finance experience. Most recently, she was CEO of Zoosk, where she previously held positions of CFO and COO. Prior to Zoosk, Kelly was the Sr. Director of Consumer Segment Finance of Cisco. Kelly has also held various roles in finance at Cisco Webex, Epiphany, PeopleSoft, and KPMG.

She has a MA in accounting from The University of Texas at Austin. Kelly is a board member of the Episcopal Community Services of San Francisco and loves to travel, having been to over 60 countries. 

Najoh Tita-Reid

Global Head of Marketing, Logitech

Najoh is the Global Commercial Marketing, Head for BTC and BTB, and the Global Marketing Reinvention Leader at Logitech. In her role as Marketing Reinvention Leader, she is responsible for reimagining, redefining and reinventing the global marketing function. She is first Global Marketing Head for the Commercial Organization, focused on driving performance marketing and sustainable profitable growth. After a career in FMCG and Healthcare, at Procter & Gamble, Merck, and Bayer, Najoh was inspired to join the technology industry based on the opportunity to directly contribute to the meaningful transformation the industry makes in improving lives.

Lauren Washington

Cofounder, Black Women Talk Tech and Fundr

Lauren is the co-founder of Black Women Tech Talk, the largest membership organization and only conference for black women founders, and Fundr, a platform that automates seed investing for angel investors and startups. Prior to this, she founded KeepUp, which won the world’s largest business plan competition, 43North, and spent her corporate career developing marketing strategy for over 100 global companies. She has a BA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and an MBA from Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management.

Laura Barrowman

Chief Information Officer, Credit Suisse

Laura Barrowman oversees a staff of over 12,000 globally as Chief Information Officer of Credit Suisse, working in the firm’s Chief Operating Officer Division. Based in London, Laura focuses on setting direction for all IT and ensuring the integrity of production environments within the bank’s control framework.

During her 25-year tenure at Credit Suisse, Laura has held many leadership positions in the various IT organizations. Most recently, she served as the Chief Technology Officer responsible for the firm’s technology infrastructure, while previously acting as Chief Information Officer for Technology Services. Also during her tenure at Credit Suisse, she led the Production & Shared Testing Services Group, and was formerly the Head of Information Technology for the Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) region.

Known as an innovative leader, Laura has honed her client relationship and vendor management skills, while developing a keen ability to bridge the gap between technical and non-technical persons. She has a proven track record of successful execution, delivery and problem solving, while simultaneously managing complex global projects and organizations.

Laura joined Credit Suisse First Boston in September 1994. Throughout her career at Credit Suisse, Laura has passionately championed and empowered females through leading women’s groups, such as the IT Women’s Champions. She is also very committed to the advancement and globalization of STEM programs – and the overall proliferation of elevated educational opportunities for children. She sits on the Board of Teach For All.

Anchor: yellen

Fireside Chat with Dr. Janet L. Yellen

Dr. Janet L. Yellen

Chair, Board of Governors, US Federal Reserve System (2014–2018)

Dr. Janet L. Yellen is a Distinguished Fellow in Residence at the Hutchins Center on Fiscal and Monetary Policy at the Brookings Institution. From February 2014 to February 2018, under the Obama and Trump Administrations, she served as chair of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, making history as the first woman to be appointed to that position.

Prior to her four-year term as chair, Dr. Yellen served as vice chair of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors and, from 2004 to 2010, as president and chief executive officer of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

While serving as a member of the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors (1994–1997), Dr. Yellen was appointed by President Bill Clinton as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. From 1997 to 1999, she also chaired the Economic Policy Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. Earlier in her career, she served as an economist with the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors.

Dr. Yellen enjoyed an accomplished career in academia as an assistant professor at Harvard University (1971–1976) and a lecturer at the London School of Economics and Political Science (1978–1980). In 1980, she joined the faculty of the University of California at Berkeley, where she was named the Eugene E. and Catherine M. Trefethen Professor of Business and Professor of Economics.

Currently, she is a professor emeritus at the Haas School of Business.

A Keynesian economist, Dr. Yellen has written on a wide variety of issues in macroeconomics and labor economics. She is a member of both the Council on Foreign Relations and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has served as president of the Western Economic Association International, vice president of the American Economic Association and a fellow of the Yale Corporation.

She is the recipient of the Wilbur Cross Medal from Yale, the Adam Smith Award from the National Association for Business Economics and the Paul H. Douglas Award for Ethics in Government from the University of Illinois Institute of Government & Public Affairs. She has also received honorary doctorate degrees from Brown University, Bard College, the London School of Economics and Political Science, NYU, the University of Warwick and Yale. In 2014, she was named by Forbes as the second most powerful woman in the world, and in 2015, Bloomberg Markets ranked Dr. Yellen first on their annual list of the 50 most influential economists and policymakers.

Born in Brooklyn in 1946, Dr. Yellen was her high school valedictorian. She graduated summa cum laude from Brown University with a degree in economics in 1967. Dr. Yellen went on to receive her Ph.D. in economics from Yale University in 1971 — the only woman among that doctoral class. She wrote her dissertation under the supervision of Nobel laureates James Tobin and Joseph Stiglitz.

Dr. Yellen is married to Nobel Prize-winning economist George Akerlof. Their son, Robert, is also an economist.

Urs Rohner

Chairman of the Board of Directors, Credit Suisse Group AG

Since 2011, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Credit Suisse Group AG. Previously, Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors (2009-2011), Member of the Executive Board, Chief Operating Officer and Group General Counsel at Credit Suisse (2004-2009). Between 2000-2004, Chairman and CEO of ProSiebenSat.1 Media. (2000-2004) and Partner at Lenz & Staehelin attorneys at law (1990-1999). Graduated in Law from University of Zurich in 1983. Since 2015, Member of the Board of Directors, GlaxoSmithKline plc. Vice-Chairman of the Swiss Bankers’ Association and Member of the Board of the Institute of International Finance, as well as other industry associations.

Lara Warner

Group Chief Risk and Compliance Officer, Credit Suisse

Lara J. Warner is the Group Chief Risk and Compliance Officer and a member of the Credit Suisse Executive Board. As the Group Chief Risk and Compliance Officer, Lara provides a single point of accountability for risk management, while building a best-in-class Risk and Compliance capability.

Prior to the unification of the two formerly independent Risk and Compliance functions in August 2020, Lara Warner acted first as the Chief Compliance and Regulatory Affairs Officer, from 2015 to early 2019, when she was appointed to the Credit Suisse Executive Board. In this role, she oversaw Credit Suisse's compliance and global regulatory environment as well as the banks' policies and controls.

In early 2019, Lara Warner became the Group Chief Risk Officer overseeing Credit Suisse's global risk management framework and driving strategic and sustainable returns on risk to reflect the risk appetite of the bank. In addition to identifying, analyzing and mitigating internal and external risks, her mandate in this role included shaping Credit Suisse's risk profile holistically.

From 2010 to 2015, Lara Warner was the Chief Financial Officer for the Investment Banking division.

Prior to that, she was the Global Head of Fixed Income and Economic Research, and before that, served as Head of US Equity Research. Lara Warner joined Credit Suisse in 2002 as a senior equity research analyst covering the cable television, wireline and wireless telecommunications services and satellite industries.

Prior to joining the Credit Suisse, Lara was a senior research analyst at Lehman Brothers and before then she spent 10 years at AT&T, where she held a number of leadership roles including Director of Investor Relations and Chief Financial Officer for AT&T's Competitive Local Exchange business unit efforts in the US.

In addition to being a member of the Executive Board of Credit Suisse, Lara is a member of the board of Credit Suisse Holdings (USA), Inc., Credit Suisse (USA), Inc. and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (US subsidiaries) since 2019.

Lara Warner’s other activities and functions include her board memberships of the Pennsylvania State University Board of Visitors, the Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program, and the Harvard Kennedy School - Dean's Executive Committee. She is also Chair Emeritus of the Women's Leadership Board of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. She sponsors a number of university scholarships including the Lara Warner Scholarship at Pennsylvania State and the Lara Warner Scholars Program and Women’s Initiatives of the Women and Public Policy scholarships at Harvard University

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Pennsylvania State University.

Anchor: climate

At the Crossroads of Climate Change

Marte Borhaug

Global Head of Sustainable Outcomes, Aviva

Marte is responsible for Aviva Investors’ efforts to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) across its investments. Her team delivers thematic research and engagement campaigns with companies and governments across three pillars – People, Earth and Climate - on issues including renewable energy, biodiversity and inequality. They also co-manage the firms’ sustainable funds, including the Climate Transition Franchise. Marte is passionate about innovation and civil society collaboration and is working on connecting AI’s customers with their money through Tumelo’s shareholder activism tech platform. She also mentors start-ups at social accelerator BGV and advises Rosa UK which funds grassroots women's organisations.

Elisabeth Brinton

Executive Vice President New Energies, Shell

Elisabeth has more than 25 years of experience in creating and growing power and digital technology businesses. She has worked as a senior executive and member of the Executive Committee in leading utility businesses in the US and Australian markets.

She is a successful technology entrepreneur and experienced director on corporate and venture boards. She recently joined Shell from AGL Energy, Australia’s largest integrated power company, where she was the EVP of New Energies and a member of the Executive Team. While at AGL, she grew the renewable power business, built the world’s first residential virtual power plant, grew and sold a profitable smart metering solutions business, ran AGL Ventures and developed an award-winning go-to-market retail alliance with Amazon that improved customer margin, reduced churn and grew the customer book.

Elisabeth started her career in consumer marketing and technical product development, working on both the agency side and in-house for major brands in food and consumer packaged goods (CPG). Seeing early opportunities in digital transformation and customer-centric, technology-based solutions, she founded her own company BPR in Silicon Valley, grew it into a profitable business before selling it to International food giant Albert Fisher.
She was subsequently the Global Marketing Director and founding executive team member of LoudCloud, the pioneering internet and cloud-based digital SaaS company. Elisabeth led LoudCloud’s growth into a $1 billion + unicorn venture, leading to what was at the time one of the largest tech IPO’s in history. From 2008-2013 she was Chief Customer Officer of SMUD in California with P&L responsibility for the 2,000 employee, $6 billion fully integrated electric utility business (generation, trading, retail, transmission and distribution). Under her leadership, SMUD earned independent J.D. Power ranking as #1 Utility in North America.
In 2014 she joined PG&E reporting to the Executive Chairman and CEO, as Corporate Strategy Officer where she helped turn around the two regulated utilities post the San Bruno crisis and led growth at the unregulated holding company, delivering a strong share price recovery.
Elisabeth holds a triple major from Principia College in Elsah, IL in English, Chemistry, and the History of Science & Sustainability, is a Harry S. Truman Scholar and is a graduate of Singularity University’s Global Senior Executive Technology Leadership Program. She is also a passionate equestrian and owner of the FEI-ranked Eventing champion horse, “Celebration”.

Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland

Former Prime Minister of Norway & former Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO)

Considered the “mother” of sustainable development, Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland attributes her passions for public health, the environment, and political activism to her father, a doctor and cabinet minister. At the tender age of seven, Dr. Brundtland joined the children’s organization of Norway’s Labour Party, and has been a member ever since. The early seeds of internationalism inspired by her family took deeper roots during her experience at Harvard, working with distinguished medical experts from around the world. As an environment minister, Prime Minister, and party leader, she gained international recognition as a leader on key global challenges, the environment, human rights, sustainable development, and global security issues. 

Dr. Brundtland completed her medical studies at Oslo University. As a young mother and newly qualified doctor, she won a scholarship to the Harvard School of Public Health where her vision of extending health beyond the confines of the medical world into environmental issues and human development began to take shape. 

Later employed with the Ministry of Health in Oslo, Dr. Brundtland focused on children's health issues. In 1974 she was asked to serve as Norway’s Minister of the Environment focusing on the links between public health and the environment. 

During the 1970s, Dr. Brundtland lobbied for women’s rights and progressive family policies, and gained a political reputation at home, as well as international recognition in environmental circles. At age 41, Dr. Brundtland became the first woman Prime Minister of Norway—and the youngest person ever appointed. Her cabinet of eight women and nine men represented the highest level of gender equality in history as Dr. Brundtland continued to lead her country for more than a decade. 

Dr. Brundtland chaired the World Commission on Environment and Development, the Brundtland Commission, which popularized the concept of sustainable development in its landmark report, “Our Common Future.” Their recommendations provided the momentum for the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. 

She returned to her roots in medicine serving as Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) - a position utilizing her considerable skills as a physician, environmentalist, politician, and activist. Under her forward-thinking leadership, WHO confronted the global threat of the SARS virus and her rapid response and information networking are largely credited with helping prevent the widespread growth of the disease. Dr. Brundtland also intensified the debate on global health as key to economic development, and began programs to curb malaria, tobacco use, tuberculosis, and AIDS, as well as a new focus on chronic diseases, diet, and nutrition. 

Dr. Brundtland left WHO in 2003 after succeeding in getting support for the first ever negotiated agreement on a major public health issue: The Tobacco Convention. That same year she was recognized as Scientific American’s Policy Leader of the Year for initiating and coordinating a rapid worldwide response to SARS. “There is a very close connection between being a doctor and a politician,” she has said. “The doctor tries to prevent illness, then tries to treat it if it comes. It's exactly the same as what you try to do as a politician, but with regard to society.”

Dr. Brundtland served as a member of the United Nations “High-level Panel on Threats, Challenges, and Change.” The panel’s 2004 report, “A More Secure World: Our Shared Responsibility,” includes sustainable development as an integral part of a new vision of collective security, and the proposal for “Responsibility to Protect,” the principle applied in 2011 in the cases of Libya and Cote d’Ivoire. 

In May 2007, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, named Dr. Brundtland, as well as Ricardo Lagos, the former President of Chile, and Han Seung-Soo, the former foreign minister of South Korea, to serve as UN Special Envoys for Climate Change. 

Also in 2007, she became a founding member of the “Elders,” a group of 11 leaders called together by Nelson Mandela and chaired by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who contribute their wisdom, independent leadership, and integrity to tackling the world’s toughest problems with the goal of conflict resolution and making the world a better place. She is a member of the Board of the “United Nations Foundation,” initiated by Ted Turner and his generous gift of $1 billion to the UN and its causes. She also served as a member of “The Independent Commission on Nuclear Non-Proliferation and Disarmament.” In 2010 the UN Secretary General appointed her a member of his “High Level Global Sustainability Panel.” 

Dr. Brundtland travels and lectures extensively as a leading voice on climate change, for a healthier and better educated world, and a champion of sustainable development, which she defines as “meeting the demands of the present generations while preserving the rights of future generations to meet their own needs.” 

Her numerous awards include the 1988 Third World Prize for leadership on sustainable development, the Indira Gandhi Prize 1989, and der Internationaler Karlspreis zu Achen 1994. She also received the International Environment Prize from the City of Göteborg in Sweden, and in 2004 the Blue Planet Prize from the Asahi Glass Foundation, Japan. She holds numerous honorary degrees from major universities, including Oxford, Harvard, and Yale, as well as Cape Town and the All India Institute. 

But, perhaps her most prized award is her unofficial title in her native Norway, where she is affectionately known as “Landsmoderen,” or “mother of the nation.” 

Recently recognized for her contributions in health systems, Brundtland was awarded the Geneva Forum for Health Award, as her critical role in the WHO has helped facilitate initiatives on sustainable development.

Sara Menker

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Gro Intelligence

Sara Menker is the founder and CEO of Gro Intelligence. Gro is AI for agriculture. Gro’s platform automatically harvests vast amounts of disparate global agricultural data, transforms it into knowledge, and generates insights for a rapidly changing industry. Prior to founding Gro, Sara was a Vice President in Morgan Stanley’s commodities group where she managed an options trading portfolio. Sara is a Trustee of the Mandela Institute For Development Studies (MINDS). Sara was named a Global Young Leader by the World Economic Forum and is a fellow of the Aspen Institute. Sara received a B.A. in Economics and African Studies at Mount Holyoke College and the London School of Economics and an M.B.A. from Columbia University.

Lara Warner

Group Chief Risk and Compliance Officer, Credit Suisse

Lara J. Warner is the Group Chief Risk and Compliance Officer and a member of the Credit Suisse Executive Board. As the Group Chief Risk and Compliance Officer, Lara provides a single point of accountability for risk management, while building a best-in-class Risk and Compliance capability.

Prior to the unification of the two formerly independent Risk and Compliance functions in August 2020, Lara Warner acted first as the Chief Compliance and Regulatory Affairs Officer, from 2015 to early 2019, when she was appointed to the Credit Suisse Executive Board. In this role, she oversaw Credit Suisse's compliance and global regulatory environment as well as the banks' policies and controls.

In early 2019, Lara Warner became the Group Chief Risk Officer overseeing Credit Suisse's global risk management framework and driving strategic and sustainable returns on risk to reflect the risk appetite of the bank. In addition to identifying, analyzing and mitigating internal and external risks, her mandate in this role included shaping Credit Suisse's risk profile holistically.

From 2010 to 2015, Lara Warner was the Chief Financial Officer for the Investment Banking division.

Prior to that, she was the Global Head of Fixed Income and Economic Research, and before that, served as Head of US Equity Research. Lara Warner joined Credit Suisse in 2002 as a senior equity research analyst covering the cable television, wireline and wireless telecommunications services and satellite industries.

Prior to joining the Credit Suisse, Lara was a senior research analyst at Lehman Brothers and before then she spent 10 years at AT&T, where she held a number of leadership roles including Director of Investor Relations and Chief Financial Officer for AT&T's Competitive Local Exchange business unit efforts in the US.

In addition to being a member of the Executive Board of Credit Suisse, Lara is a member of the board of Credit Suisse Holdings (USA), Inc., Credit Suisse (USA), Inc. and Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (US subsidiaries) since 2019.

Lara Warner’s other activities and functions include her board memberships of the Pennsylvania State University Board of Visitors, the Aspen Institute's Business and Society Program, and the Harvard Kennedy School - Dean's Executive Committee. She is also Chair Emeritus of the Women's Leadership Board of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government. She sponsors a number of university scholarships including the Lara Warner Scholarship at Pennsylvania State and the Lara Warner Scholars Program and Women’s Initiatives of the Women and Public Policy scholarships at Harvard University

She holds a Bachelor of Science in Finance from Pennsylvania State University.

Anchor: diversity

Transforming Companies through Diversity and Inclusion

Cheryl D. Alston

Executive Director and Chief Investment Officer of the Employees’ Retirement Fund of the City of Dallas, Texas

Andrea Jung

President and Chief Executive Officer, Grameen America

Della Sabessar

Head of Diversity and Inclusion, Credit Suisse

Della Sabessar is a Managing Director based in New York and serves as the Global Head of Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) for Credit Suisse, where she leads the D&I team’s efforts to enhance the diversity of our workforce and foster an inclusive culture. Additionally, Della and her team actively support our sustainability agenda in collaboration with the newly established Sustainability, Research and Investment Solutions (SRI) function.

Della has been with the bank for 17 years. Prior to her current role, Della served as the Bank's Global Head of Experienced and Campus Recruitment, and was responsible for managing the Experienced and Campus Recruitment teams, Internal Mobility and Onboarding across the globe. Della has also served as an HR Business Partner for several years including as the Americas Head of HR for the Equities department. In 2010, she assumed the newly created role of Head of Internal Mobility, leading a cultural shift in a space now recognized as a key differentiator for Credit Suisse. Della is also credited with establishing the Bank's Real Returns program to on ramp talented professionals who have taken a career break as part of a successful global gender recruitment campaign. Most recently, she led the implementation of our new global recruitment model by insourcing several vendors to drive a shift in service quality. 

Della joined Credit Suisse in 2003, after two years as a HR consultant in various Credit Suisse divisions via Resource Solutions Inc. She has also held various recruiting roles at PricewaterhouseCoopers and Proxicom. 

Della holds a Bachelor of Arts in History as a graduate of Bernard M. Baruch College, City University of New York.

Judith Williams

Head of People Sustainability and SVP, Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer, SAP SE

Judith has been at the forefront of the culture change movement in technology and entertainment – with a deep focus on analytics and strategies to identify and disrupt bias in social systems and corporate culture.

She joined SAP in September 2018 as Head of People Sustainability and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer leading both diversity and inclusion and business health programs at SAP.

Previously, she ran an organization which consults with start-ups, venture capitalists, and accelerators on embedding diversity and inclusion into the foundations of their organizational cultures.

Judith has also been instrumental in the development of the ReFrame Project, a partnership between the Sundance Institute and Women and Film. The project addresses systemic barriers in the Hollywood ecosystem, and encourages gender parity at every level in film, TV and media.

Prior to that as Global Head of Diversity for Dropbox, Judith was responsible for all diversity and inclusion programs, as well as corporate social responsibility. Her efforts increased the pipeline of women and underrepresented minorities at Dropbox, creating a more inclusive corporate culture and forming deeper ties into the communities where the company operates.

In addition, Judith was the Diversity Programs Manager at Google where she directed the unconscious bias work stream, and built strategies for recruiting, retention, and advancement of the company’s technical employees. She was instrumental in implementing Google’s widely praised unconscious bias training program which was the first to call out hidden prejudices as a major contributor to the systemic lack of diversity in the tech industry.

Judith lives in San Francisco, CA.

Dr. Iris Bohnet

The Albert Pratt Professor of Business & Government, and the Academic Dean of the Harvard Kennedy School, Co-Director of the Women and Public Policy Program, Member of the Credit Suisse Board of Directors

Iris Bohnet, the Albert Pratt Professor of Business and Government, is the Academic Dean of Harvard Kennedy School. She is a behavioral economist, combining insights from economics and psychology to improve decision-making in organizations and society, often with a gender or cross-cultural perspective. Her most recent research examines behavioral design to de-bias how we live, learn and work. She is the author of the award-winning book What Works: Gender Equality by Design, and advises governments and companies on the topic around the world. Professor Bohnet is the co-director of the Women and Public Policy Program and the faculty chair of the executive program “Global Leadership and Public Policy for the 21st Century” for the World Economic Forum’s Young Global Leaders. She serves on the boards, advisory boards or as a patron of Credit Suisse Group, Applied, Edge, genEquality, TaketheLeadWomen, We Shape Tech, Women in Banking and Finance, and the UK Government’s Equalities Office as well as numerous academic journals. She was named one of the Most Influential People in Gender Policy by apolitical in 2018 and 2019, a Leading Thinker of Victoria, Australia, 2016-2019, and has received an honorary degree from the University of Lucerne, Switzerland, in 2016. She is married and the mother of two children.

Anchor: closing

Fireside Chat with Mellody Hobson and Closing Remarks

Mellody Hobson

Co-Chief Executive Officer and President, Ariel Investments

As Co-CEO, Mellody is responsible for management, strategic planning and growth for all areas of Ariel Investments outside of research and portfolio management. Additionally, she serves as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Ariel Investment Trust - the company’s publicly traded mutual funds. Prior to being named Co-CEO, Mellody spent nearly two decades as the firm’s President. 

Outside of Ariel, Mellody is a nationally recognized voice on financial literacy. She has conducted extensive research on minority investing patterns and pens a column for Black Enterprise Magazine. Her leadership has also been invaluable to corporate boardrooms across the nation. She currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board of Starbucks Corporation; a director of JPMorgan Chase; and a director of Quibi, a short-form video content company. She previously served as Chairman of the Board of DreamWorks Animation until the company’s sale and was also a long-standing board member of the Estée Lauder Companies. 

Mellody’s community outreach includes her role as Chairman of After School Matters, a Chicago non-profit that provides area teens with high-quality after school and summer programs. Additionally, she is vice chair of World Business Chicago; co-chair of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art; and a board member of the George Lucas Education Foundation and Bloomberg Philanthropies. She also serves on the board at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Mellody is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Rockefeller Foundation Board of Trustees, and serves on the executive committee of the Investment Company Institute. 

Mellody earned her AB from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of International Relations and Public Policy. In 2019, she was awarded the University’s highest honor, the Woodrow Wilson Award, presented annually to a Princeton graduate whose career embodies a commitment to national service. She has also received honorary doctorate degrees from Howard University, Johns Hopkins University, St. Mary’s College, and the University of Southern California. In 2015, Time Magazine named her one of the “100 Most Influential People” in the world. 

Lydie Hudson

Chief Executive Officer of Sustainability, Research and Investment Solutions, Credit Suisse

Lydie Hudson is the CEO of Sustainability, Research and Investment Solutions and a member of the Executive Board of Credit Suisse Group. In her role, Ms. Hudson oversees the bank’s development of innovative research, advisory, and investment solutions for wealth management, corporate and institutional clients. Furthermore she is responsible for the firm’s sustainability strategy – including driving the product and advisory offering. Ms. Hudson also co-leads Credit Suisse’s employee culture strategy.

Previously, Ms. Hudson was the Group Chief Compliance and Regulatory Affairs Officer. In this role, she oversaw Credit Suisse's compliance and regulatory environment, the bank’s policies and controls while serving as an executive on the firm’s Audit Committee and Financial Crime and Conduct Committee. Prior to that, Ms. Hudson was the Chief Operating Officer for the Global Markets division and a member of the Global Markets Management Committee. In this role she oversaw strategy, technology, and operations for the division. In addition, she worked in various management and strategy roles across the Equities, Fixed Income, and Asset Management departments. Prior to joining Credit Suisse in 2008, Ms. Hudson worked at Lehman Brothers and The Boston Consulting Group.

Ms. Hudson was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2017 where she is serving a 5 year term. In addition, she currently sits on the board of Good Shepherd Services, a large non-profit in New York.

Ms. Hudson holds an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School where she was honored for her exceptional contribution to the HBS community. She holds a B.A. from Middlebury College where she graduated cum laude and with honors.

An American, Ms. Hudson is married with two sons and lives in Zurich, Switzerland.