One of the best ways to fight poverty is to educate women and give them economic opportunity. Microfinance institutions are at the center of that solution. I’m looking forward to seeing more and more people getting involved in this effort. 

–Sheryl WuDunn (March 2010) 

Sheryl WuDunn, an advocate for global women’s issues and proponent of the empowerment of women through microfinance and education, will be a keynote speaker at Opportunity’shttp://www.opportunity.org/opportunity-international-conference/Fall Microfinance Conference[/intlink], Oct. 8-9, 2010, in Washington, D.C. 

WuDunn is the Pulitzer Prize winning co-author, with husband and New York Times reporter Nicholas D. Kristof, ofhttp://www.opportunity.org/blog/celebrate-international-women%e2%80%99s-day-with-%e2%80%9chalf-the-sky%e2%80%9d/Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide[/intlink]. As a speaker at Opportunity’s conference, she’ll be discussing the movement to emancipate women and fight global poverty by unlocking women’s power as economic catalysts. 

WuDunn is senior managing director at Mid-Market Securities, an investment banking boutique serving growth companies in the middle market, including companies founded and run by women. This year, WuDunn was honored for Half the Sky with the Beacon Award from theWhite House Project, a nonpartisan organization that seeks to advance women’s leadership in all communities and sectors. 

Sheryl WuDunn was the first Asian-American reporter to win a Pulitzer Prize, which she won for her reporting from the Beijing bureau of the New York Times.

Previously, she has worked at The New York Times as both an executive and a journalist. Among her roles, she was an editor for international markets, energy and industry, and a foreign correspondent for The Times in Tokyo and Beijing, where she wrote about economic, financial, political and social issues. She has experience in the financial sector as a vice president in the role of investment advisor for private clients in the investment management division at Goldman Sachs, and as a commercial loan officer at Bankers Trust. 

Sheryl WuDunn is a pragmatic, passionate and inspiring advocate for the untapped potential of economically marginalized women in the developing world. We’re thrilled she’ll be sharing her insights and experiences with attendees at the conference. For more on Sheryl WuDunn, and to register for the conference, visit ourhttp://www.opportunity.org/opportunity-international-conference/fall conference page[/intlink].