[ by Melanie Gretchen and Howard Haykin ]

Sallie Krawcheck, former Merrill Lynch president, is buying 85 Broads, a global organization that supports women.  The announcement helps clarify Ms. Krawcheck’s post-Wall Street plans, a subject of much speculation over the last year and a half.

[C-I Note:  Kudos for Ms. Krawcheck, who was capability of moving into any number of Wall Street positions, including SEC Chair.  Ms. Krawcheck will provide superior leadership to an organization that has 30,000 women in 130 countries.]

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May 15, 2013, 9:44 am
Krawcheck Agrees to Buy the Women’s Network 85 Broads

Sallie L. Krawcheck, a former executive of Bank of America and Citigroup, has agreed to buy 85 Broads, a global organization that supports women.

Ms. Krawcheck is buying the organization from its founder, Janet Hanson, a former executive of Goldman Sachs, according to an announcement by 85 Broads on Wednesday. Financial terms were not disclosed.

“I look forward to working with 85 Broads’ members to expand our mission of empowering women around the world — as women invest in themselves and each other through the network,” Ms. Krawcheck said in a statement. “I believe we’re at a tipping point of women’s engagement in the economy, and our community’s ability to play an important role in that is exciting, as we move from advocacy of women to the smart business of real investment in women.”

The announcement helps clarify Ms. Krawcheck’s post-Wall Street plans, a subject of much speculation over the last year and a half. Ms. Krawcheck left her job as head of Bank of America’s wealth management division during a management shake-up in 2011.

Since then, she has become involved in start-ups like the online broker Motif Investing and built a following on Twitter and LinkedIn, writing on financial topics and sharing personal stories.

“For most of my career, I tried to avoid the topic of being a woman in business, vaguely concerned that talking too much about it would hold me back in some way,” Ms. Krawcheck wrote on LinkedIn on Wednesday. “But I’ve been thinking about it over the past year…..a lot.”

“I am becoming involved with and investing in 85 Broads because investing in women is smart business,” she continued. “And women investing in themselves and in others, as they do through the network, is even smarter business.”

Ms. Hanson, the group’s founder, will keep an ownership stake and become chairwoman emeritus.

“Sallie’s decision to become the next steward of 85 Broads is exciting to me because she is passionate about the role women are playing on the global stage, and she understands the transformational power of connection,” Ms. Hanson said in a statement. “With Sallie at the helm, 85 Broads will enable women from all parts of the globe to advance and achieve their greatest career objectives and leadership aspirations.”

85 Broads, which was founded in 1997, is a “global membership community” of more than 30,000 women, representing 130 countries with more than 40 regional chapters and campus clubs, the announcement said. Its members include entrepreneurs and executives.

The name 85 Broads is a reference to the address of the former headquarters of Goldman Sachs on Broad Street in Manhattan, where the founding members worked.
 

[Dealbook, 5/15/13]