Powerful Women: Meredith Whitney

You have to give credit to someone who breaks away from the norm. Males mainly dominate the banking business, so it’s a refreshing change of pace to see a strong and opinionated woman make strides in the financial world.

Meredith Ann Whitney is one of those women. At 42 years old (born on November 20, 1969), Whitney is the second youngest most powerful woman in business, according to Fortune. Her career as a banking analyst and frequent contributor to CNBC, Fox Business, and Bloomberg News paved roads to her own advisory firm, Meredith Whitney Advisory Group LLC.

Whitney excelled at school throughout her youth and was a member of the highly exclusive Lawrenceville School’s first co-ed graduating class. She managed to graduate with honors from Brown University.

In 1993, Whitney joined Oppenheimer as a research associate specializing in the Oil and Gas Industry and in two years time she joined Oppenheimer’s Specialty Finance Group. In 1998, Whitney moved on from Oppenheimer for a short hiatus to become the head of Wachovia’s financial institution research. In 2004 Whitney returned to Oppenheimer to cover banks and brokers but left again in 2009 to establish her own firm.

Whitney has always held strong opinions in the financial world for most of her career. In 2001 she rose to fame after writing a report on Citigroup. From that point forward, people listened to her opinions and those who were skeptical met them with strong criticisms, even though her reports have been known to be accurately written.

Although Whitney is frequently the center of harsh criticisms she never strays from who she is: a very smart, well educated woman who knows exactly what she wants and will stop at nothing to get it.

Ally | Elite.

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