Remembering Muriel Siebert, an ‘Icon’ for Women

For a generation of women on Wall Street, Muriel F. Siebert was more than just a leader in finance; she was their point of reference.

“The conversations always begin with Muriel,” said Susan S. Solovay, who, as one of the few women at the brokerage firm E.F. Hutton & Company, first met Ms. Siebert in the early 1980s. “All roads led to her. She was at the very beginning for women.”

Ms. Siebert, who died on Saturday in Manhattan at the age of 84, was in many ways a leader: the first woman to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange, a pioneer of the discount brokerage business and the first woman to be superintendent of banking for New York State.

On Monday, her friends and admirers remembered the more intimate aspects of her personality: her infectious smile, the red cowboy boots she wore and the pub on the Upper East Side, Neary’s, where she was a regular.

“I and so many women on Wall Street are so grateful for what a trailblazer she was,” said Sallie L. Krawcheck, 48, a former big bank executive who is the owner of the women’s network 85 Broads. “We talk about the challenges women face today â€" and they do exist, and they can be significant. But at least we’ve got ladies rooms.”

It was Ms. Siebert, of course, who lobbied to get a ladies room on the seventh floor of the New York Stock Exchange by warning the exchange’s chairman that she would arrange to have a portable toilet delivered.

That pragmatic approach to effecting change characterized many of accomplishments, her admirers said.

“I don’t think she sat there and beat the drum a lot,” said Adena T. Friedman, 44, the chief financial officer of the Carlyle Group, a large private equity firm. “But she beat the drum through her actions.”

Ms. Friedman, a former executive at the Nasdaq stock exchange, never met Ms. Siebert. But in the stock exchange business, “hers was a name everyone knew,” Ms. Friedman said.

Years of working in a male-dominated world gave Ms. Siebert a thick skin, and she had a reputation for toughness. But her friends said she also had a warm side.

“Every time I saw her, she told me she loved me,” said Ann F. Kaplan, 66, the chairman of the Circle Financial Group, who was a longtime partner at Goldman Sachs.

At holiday parties and other gatherings, Ms. Siebert, who was known as Mickie, was an unmistakable presence.

“Despite her tiny stature, she really filled a room,” said Jacki Zehner, 48, a former Goldman partner who is the president of Women Moving Millions, a nonprofit focused on philanthropy. “You knew when Mickie arrived.”

Ms. Siebert was involved in a number of women’s groups, allowing her to meet women of a younger generation who were making their way on Wall Street. She was a founding member of one such group, the Committee of 200, in 1982.

“Muriel is an icon for women in finance,” said Kathryn Swintek, 60, the chair of the Committee of 200. “She is bigger than anybody.”

And yet, Ms. Siebert was disappointed that the rest of Wall Street was not moving as quickly as she was. After buying her seat on the exchange in 1967, she remained the only woman admitted for nearly a decade.

Today, despite progress in some areas, women make up a small percentage of top executives in finance - suggesting that Ms. Siebert’s work is still unfinished. Though Ms. Siebert owned her own financial firm, women-owned firms are still a rarity.

“A lot has changed on Wall Street for women, but there’s still so much farther that we all have to go,” said Alexandra Lebenthal, 49, the chief executive and principal owner of the financial firm Lebenthal & Company, which her grandparents founded in 1925.

Ms. Lebenthal, who said she was in her late 20s when she met Ms. Siebert, has recently been a “direct competitor” of Ms. Siebert’s firm. Yet they shared a common bond.

“There are very few women-owned businesses on Wall Street,” Ms. Lebenthal said. “It’s interesting because that is an area where there actually is opportunity for advancement if you have the strength to go out and start your own firm.”

Several women recalled encountering Ms. Siebert a number of times over the course of their careers, running into her at parties or seeking out her advice.

Ms. Solovay, who was at E.F. Hutton, met with Ms. Siebert again before starting a hedge fund, Pomegranate Capital, in 2006. The idea behind Pomegranate was to invest in other hedge funds run by women.

“She was very smart, very intense and very direct,” Ms. Solovay, now 54, recalled. “Her advice was always very supportive â€" you have to stick it out, get through it and just do what you need to do.”