Nov

Kathleen Murphy on Fortune’s List of Powerful Businesswomen

Fortune recently announced their list of the 50 Most Powerful Women in Business, which included 44-year old Kathleen Murphy who graduated from my alma mater, Fairfield University in Fairfield, Connecticut. Kathleen is ranked 40th on Fortune’s list of powerful businesswomen as the CEO of ING’s Wealth Management division.

Kathleen earned her bachelor’s degree in economics and political science at Fairfield University in 1984 and then went on to earn her juris doctorate degree with honors from the University of Connecticut. She went on to work in the law department of Aetna Financial Services (later acquired by ING), which allowed her to gain a solid understanding of the business side of the company. Just four years ago she moved from the legal side to the business side.

Kathleen’s career is very inspirational. With women accounting for only 15.6% of the 10,145 corporate officer positions in the 500 largest corporations (a number that has remained relatively flat for the past four years according to Catalyst, an organization that researches women in business), Kathleen Murphy was asked about the challenges of being a women in a male-dominated business setting to which she responded by saying, “My view is that, as a woman, you have a bigger burden in establishing yourself, but if you are good and deliver, then you establish that credibility. Be relationship-driven, but most of all, deliver.”