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
Andrea E. Utecht is the former Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of FMC Corporation, an S&P 500 multinational agrochemical manufacturing company. She also served until January 2024 as
Sue Bettman is a Partner at Brunswick Group, the world’s leading critical issues advisory firm, where she advises clients on financial transactions, litigation and corporate crises. Sue is an independent
Seasoned executive seeking Board of Director opportunities in order to utilize vast skill set which includes co-founding private equity firm that specialized in high yield and distressed debt, restructuring and
