| Michaela L. Walsh | |
| Birth Place: | Kansas City, Missouri, U.S. |
| Alma Mater: | Manhattanville College |
| Known For: | Founder and first president of Women's World Banking |
Michaela L. Walsh (born in Kansas City, Missouri),[1] financier, banker, founder and first president of Women's World Banking. Walsh was one a handful of women working on Wall Street in the 1950s[2] when she became the first female manager to represent Merrill Lynch in its Beirut, Lebanon office in 1960.[3] In 1970, Walsh became the first woman to make partner at the Wall Street brokerage firm Boettcher and Company.[4] In 1972, Walsh joined the Rockefeller Brothers Fund as a program associate, which led to her attending the 1975 World Conference on Women held in Mexico City, where the idea of Women’s World Banking emerged.[5] In 1978, Walsh served as a project director at the US Congressional Office of Technology Assessment where she consulted on appropriate technology.[6] Walsh became a co-founder of Women’s World Banking and its first president, a position she held from 1980 to 1990.[7]
Walsh attended Manhattanville College for one year before finishing her education at Kansas City University (now UMKC). She attended Hunter College (CUNY), earning a degree in English literature in 1971.