Webinar: “Women and Wealth”

Rebecca Blumenstein has been deputy managing editor of The New York Times since February 2017, where she heads the digital report and focuses on making The Times an essential destination for business, economics and technology coverage. Previously, she was deputy editor in chief of The Wall Street Journal. Before that, she was the Journal’s Page One Editor, appointed in September 2011, and a deputy managing editor and international editor since December 2009. Ms. Blumenstein has also served as managing editor of WSJ.com and the China bureau chief, overseeing China coverage for the Journal. Prior to moving to China in the summer of 2005, Ms. Blumenstein served as chief of the Journal’s New York Technology Group, which covered the historic mergers and changes in technology that recast the telecommunications industry.  Before that, she was the group’s deputy chief and a reporter covering AT&T Corp.  and WorldCom Inc. Ms. Blumenstein joined the Journal in 1995 as a reporter in the Detroit bureau, where she covered General Motors.  She began her journalism career at The Tampa Tribune, and then later moved to Gannett Newspapers and Newsday, where she covered breaking news and the New York State legislature. She received a 1993 New York Newswomen’s Award for best deadline writing for her coverage of the aftermath of the Long Island Railroad shootings.  In 2003, she was part of a team that won the Gerald Loeb Award for deadline writing for coverage of WorldCom.  She oversaw the China team that won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting in 2007. She was named to the Aspen Institute's Henry Crown Fellowship for 2009. In 2011, Ms. Blumenstein co-founded and moderated the Journal’s Women in the Economy Task Force, a select group of business executives and experts who convened a data-driven examination of the competitiveness of women in the workforce. Ms. Blumenstein holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and social science from the University of Michigan, where she was editor in chief of the Michigan Daily. A native of Essexville, Michigan, Ms. Blumenstein lives in Maplewood, NJ and has three children. Her husband, Alan Paul, is a writer and author of “Big in China,” a book about her family’s adjustment to China, “One Way Out: The Inside History of the Allman Brothers Band” and “Texas Flood: The Inside Story of Stevie Ray Vaughan.”

Nicole is region head of the New York Private Wealth Management (PWM) business and is also head of the PWM Sports and Entertainment Solutions (SES) offering, which her team launched in 2018. SES offers clients in the sports and entertainment industries advice and access to the firm’s global resources and network. She is also a diversity champion for US PWM and co-head of the Firmwide Black Network. Previously, Nicole was head of the Mid-Atlantic PWM business, leading the Philadelphia and Washington, DC offices. She joined Goldman Sachs in 1999 as an associate in PWM in New York and was named managing director in 2011. Prior to joining the firm, Nicole worked at JP Morgan in New York. Nicole serves on the Board of Trustees of the Brookings Institute, where she is a member of the Investment Committee and previously served as a founding board member of Public Prep Charter School Network in New York and the Executive Committee of the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce. Nicole earned a BS in Accounting from Hampton University and an MBA from Columbia Business School.

Kim F. Grant is the Strategic Communications Planning and Paid Media Executive for Bank of America, Merrill and Global Markets. A 23 year veteran of BofA, Kim leads a diverse and dynamic team tasked with harnessing consumer insights and designing communications strategies across paid, owned and earned channels. She is responsible for all paid investment and activation in traditional, digital, emerging media and content for this global brand. Kim is a veteran judge of the prestigious Festival of Media Global and Effie Awards. She has served on the Turner and Warner Digital Client Councils and is a current member of the Brand Innovators Client Council. A graduate of Wake Forest University, Kim resides in Charlotte, North Carolina with her husband, two teenagers and two dogs.

Barri Rafferty is the head of Communications, where she oversees Wells Fargo’s media relations, external and internal communications, storytelling, reputation management, brand strategy and management, advertising, sponsorships, and heritage and museums. She directs a team of more than 500 communicators and marketing professionals who serve various stakeholders, including the company’s approximately 266,000 employees. A strategic and collaborative leader with deep experience in communications strategy, change management, brand marketing, and business transformation, Barri plays a key role in the evolution of Wells Fargo’s communications and marketing function that is helping redefine the company’s culture, voice and narrative. Barri joined Wells Fargo in July 2020 from Ketchum, where she was the agency’s president and CEO — the first woman at the time to be the CEO of a top-five public relations agency. Her accomplishments as CEO of Ketchum included repositioning the agency to better meet the needs and challenges of the global and digital marketplace. Under her leadership, the agency won significant recognition, including being the most-awarded PR firm at Cannes in 2019, 2018, and 2017. During her tenure at Ketchum, she helped transform and build reputations for some of the world’s largest and most respected companies and brands, including Gillette, P&G, Wendy's, 3M, Frito-Lay, and HPE. A strong advocate of diversity and inclusion, Barri was a founding member of Omniwomen — an initiative to increase the number, seniority, and influence of women in leadership roles. At Ketchum, she drove policy changes to create a more inclusive workplace. She has spoken on gender parity and unconscious bias at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, and Dalian, China, as well as at TEDxEast. Barri was on the PR Council’s board of directors and serves on the national board of Step Up, an organization empowering girls from under-resourced communities to become confident, college-bound, and career focused. She also currently serves as a board member for the Women Business Collaborative, which is helping accelerate parity for business women, and is a committee chair for C200, a global organization for women business leaders. Barri's thought leadership has been cited by CNBC, FORTUNE, The Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Fast Company, Dallas Morning News, PRWeek, and others. In 2020, Barri was named Outstanding Agency Professional of the Year by PRWeek, and included in PRovoke’s 2020 Influence 100 list of influential in-house communicators from around the world. She also will be honored as a 2020 Matrix award honoree by the New York Women in Communications. She holds a master’s degree in corporate communications from Boston University and an undergraduate degree from Tulane University. She is based in New York City.