The Mary Ann Jorgenson Board Empowerment Award was created to celebrate the 10th Anniversary of DirectWomen and to honor the co-founder of DirectWomen, for whom the award is named.
The Award will be presented on occasion to a lawyer who has advanced the goal of DirectWomen to prepare women attorneys for board service and to increase the number of women on the boards of public companies. To be considered for the award, a candidate should display the following characteristics:
Hillary A. Sale is an influential business leader and consultant as well as a recognized expert in financial services, ESG, securities, crisis management, compliance, corporate governance, strategy, and leadership. She has been a member of the FINRA Board of Governors since 2016, where she Chairs the Regulatory Policy Committee and
Alan L. Beller is senior counsel at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton based in the New York office. Mr. Beller’s practice focuses on a wide variety of complex securities, corporate governance and corporate matters. Mr. Beller advises regularly senior officials of both U.S. and non-U.S. entities on these subjects, including
Mary B. Cranston is a Retired Senior Partner of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP, an international law firm. She was the Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Pillsbury from January 1999 until April 2006, and continued to serve as Chair of the firm until December 2006. She was Firm Senior
Cynthia Gibson is an experienced C-suite executive, independent director and an audit committee financial expert. Her M&A background includes global acquisitions, joint ventures and divestitures. She also has deep experience
Global C-suite Leader, Board Member, Trusted Advisor Adept with private and public company board structures/cultures. MBA; LLM, Taxation; JD A track record of consistently achieving innovative solutions for companies and
Jannie K. Lau is a former S&P 400® technology company executive who currently advises a diverse portfolio of companies on business growth and transformation, environmental, social, and governance (ESG) matters,
