Success Stories
  • Gabriele ApfelbacherGabriele Apfelbacher
    Ms. Apfelbacher serves as independent non-executive director on the board of Kroll Bond Rating Agency Europe Limited where she is also a member of the audit committee. In addition, Ms. Apfelbacher is a member of the Supervisory Board (Aufsichtsrat; non-executive director equivalent in a two-tier board system ) of Nomura Financial Products Europe GmbH where she also serves on the Audit and Risk Committee and on the Remuneration Committee. Ms. Apfelbacher is also a current senior counsel and former partner at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP. She is seeking board opportunities where her Supervisory Board experience, as well as her capital markets, M&A and financial sector expertise will enable her to be a strong contributor. Building on her working, studying and living experience in the U.S. and in Germany and her strong intercultural and interpersonal skills, she is considering board positions in the U.S. and in Europe. Ms. Apfelbacher was instrumental in building Cleary Gottlieb’s German practice, with expertise in capital markets, M&A, corporate governance and the regulation of financial services. Based on her involvement in international and multi-office transactions and other matters and representation of clients from different cultures, she has extensive experience and enjoys working in an international and cross-cultural setting. Ms. Apfelbacher is an accomplished senior professional with the proven ability to think strategically about the development of a practice or business and the necessary flexibility to take advantage of changing market dynamics. Through her involvement in numerous mission-critical and innovative capital markets and M&A transactions she built a reputation as a fearless and creative problem solver with a strong commercial acumen who stays calm under pressure. Based on her capital markets and M&A transactional and board advisory work for major financial institutions, including Deutsche Bank, Commerzbank, UniCredit Bank, LBBW and BayernLB, Ms. Apfelbacher gained deep insight into the financial sector. Through her work with financial advisors, such as Citi, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, on numerous high-profile fairness opinion projects she is particularly well-versed in the demands on boards in M&A situations. As a partner at Cleary Gottlieb Ms. Apfelbacher performed leadership roles through her four year service on the ten-member global Executive Committee of the firm and a three year term as one of the two co-leaders of the firm’s partner and counsel candidacy evaluation and discussion process. While on the firm’s Executive Committee which is in charge of all strategic and policy decisions on behalf of the firm, Ms. Apfelbacher was involved in major strategic projects, such as geographic and practice area expansion and other priorities for the firm. The composition of the firm’s Executive Committee with 10 members from 6 different countries and otherwise diverse backgrounds provided her with governance experience in a truly diverse body. Ms. Apfelbacher joined the Supervisory Board of Nomura Financial Products Europe, Nomura Group’s EU registered broker dealer, in November 2021. She was also appointed to the Supervisory Board’s Audit and Risk Committee and Remuneration Committee. Nomura Financial Products Europe is a so-called large investment firm and is supervised by the German financial regulator BaFin. Previously, Ms. Apfelbacher was a member of the Supervisory Board and chair of the Corporate Governance Committee of Corestate Capital Holding S.A. (public – Frankfurt Stock Exchange (regulated market, Prime Standard, SDAX® – ISIN LU1296758029)), a Luxembourg-headquartered real estate asset manager. As a member of Corestate’s Supervisory Board, Ms. Apfelbacher was involved in the oversight of significant strategic initiatives at Corestate, including a capital increase and various changes in the composition of Corestate’s Management Board (Vorstand). In her role as chair of the Corporate Governance Committee, she initiated the coordination of Corestate’s ESG reporting with its financial reporting and the integration of Corestate’s ESG initiatives into its overall business model. Ms. Apfelbacher resigned from Corestate’s Supervisory Board together with all other then Supervisory Board members as a result of a de facto change of control at Corestate at the end of November 2020. Ms. Apfelbacher is a contributor to the Investors for Diversity initiative in Germany and a co-author of a study on the influence of institutional investors on German board diversity. She is also a member of the Advisory Board of the European Banking Institute (EBI), the non-profit European platform for academic research and intellectual exchange among regulators, industry professionals and advisors in the area of banking regulation. Ms. Apfelbacher was included in the list of the 100 most influential women in German business published by Manager Magazin (December 2018). Ms. Apfelbacher holds an LL.M. from Columbia Law School where she was a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar, a doctorate in law from Regensburg University and two German legal exams from the State of Bavaria. She is an alumna of the German National Scholarship Foundation (Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes). Her native language is German and she is fluent in English.
  • Marcy S. CohenMarcy S. Cohen
    Marcy S. Cohen is Managing Director and Chief Legal Officer for the Americas for ING Group’s structured finance, commercial banking and financial markets businesses in the U.S., Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. ING Group is a global financial institution based in the Netherlands with shares listed on the New York Stock Exchange and as of December 31, 2012, had total consolidated assets of approximately EUR 1.2 trillion. Ms. Cohen serves as a member of the ING Americas Regional Management Team responsible for ING Bank’s strategic direction and management throughout North and South America. She also serves as a member of the Americas Operational Risk and Compliance Committees. She regularly conducts risk assessments for each of the firm’s major business lines and develops mitigation measures to best manage the identified risks. Internal audit reports to her in connection with special investigations and audits. She currently leads ING’s global efforts to achieve compliance with the complex new regulatory structure imposed on large global financial institutions by Dodd Frank, FATCA and Basel III. She was instrumental in moving all of ING’s swap and derivatives activities with U.S. persons from the firm’s European and Asian branches to the New York office enhancing revenues and profitability. She is also responsible for various ongoing strategic initiatives and is currently managing a think tank charged with creating new entities, business lines and revenue streams in the U.S. Earlier in her career, Ms. Cohen honed her business and legal skills working in similar senior roles for various other major global financial institutions such as BNP Paribas, WestLB and Republic N.Y. Corporation. In each of these positions she was deeply involved in major business and strategic initiatives and has become well versed in the business and legal aspects of complex financial products such as derivatives, structured finance, corporate finance and investment management. She successfully navigated through complex high profile cross-border matters involving new and existing businesses such as the establishment of a private banking subsidiary in Switzerland, the acquisition of an English gold bouillon bank, the acquisition of a private equity firm in Japan, the resolution of regulatory investigations and third party claims related to the alleged window dressing of financial statements by several major Japanese insurance companies through the use of derivatives, cross border money laundering and sanctioned countries matters and the restructure of several major manufacturing companies as well as Greek shipping companies. Working proactivity and calmly under pressure in high stakes matters she has created and successfully managed crisis management teams consisting of public relations firms, executive management and attorneys. Ms. Cohen has held leadership roles in various professional organizations and is a frequent speaker at industry conferences. She has been active in a variety of civic and charitable activities serving on a number of not-for-profit boards and providing support to organizations involved in the arts as well as those providing educational and medical support to disadvantaged children. What sets Ms. Cohen apart from many of her peers is her business and global focus and ability to build consensus. She has experience working on transactional and regulatory matters in Europe, Asia and the Americas. Her strong business focus and high cultural fluency enable her to function at a high level of effectiveness on a global level.
  • Susan L. BlountSusan L. Blount
    From 2005 to 2015, Susan Blount served as General Counsel of Prudential Financial, Inc. (Prudential), a leading provider of insurance, retirement and asset management products and services. In that role, Ms. Blount led the company's global law, compliance, business ethics and external affairs organization. During that time, Ms. Blount was a member of key senior management committees including the Office of the Chairman Group, the Enterprise Risk Committee and the Capital and Financial Controls Committee. Ms. Blount joined Prudential in 1985 as a staff attorney in the company's commercial real estate organization. Before being appointed General Counsel, she held various positions of increasing responsibility, including Chief Investment Counsel, Vice President and Corporate Secretary, and Associate General Counsel and Head of Shareholder Service. Prior to joining Prudential, Ms. Blount was an Associate at Kirkland & Ellis. In 2017, Ms. Blount was an Advanced Leadership Initiative Fellow at Harvard University. Since 2016, she has taught as an adjunct professor at the University of Texas School of Law. Ms. Blount is active in professional and community service. She currently serves on the University of Texas Law School Foundation, the Executive Committee of the Center for Women in Law and the Nantucket Historical Association. Ms. Blount has also served on the Boards of organizations such as Montclair State University, the Leadership Council for Legal Diversity, the Association of Corporate Counsel and the New Jersey Law and Education Empowerment Project. She has also been a faculty member at Stanford University's annual Directors' College and a participant in Stanford's Institutional Investors Forum. Ms. Blount graduated from The University of Texas at Austin with a bachelor's degree in history and a juris doctor with honors.