Ambassador Melanne Verveer serves as the Co-Founder and Chair of Seneca Women and Executive Director of Georgetown University's Institute for Women, Peace and Security. In 2009 President Obama appointed Verveer to be the first ever Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues at the US State Department. Ambassador Verveer worked on behalf of Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to coordinate foreign policy issues and activities relating to the political, economic and social advancement of women and girls.

Prior to her role at the U.S. State Department, Ambassador Verveer served as Chair and Co-CEO of Vital Voices Global Partnership, an international nonprofit she co-founded. Vital Voices invests in emerging women leaders and works to expand women’s roles in generating economic opportunity, promoting political participation, and safeguarding human rights. Prior to her work with Vital Voices, Ambassador Verveer served as Assistant to the President and Chief of Staff to the First Lady in the Clinton Administration.

Ambassador Verveer has a B.A. and M.A. from Georgetown University. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and has served as the 2013 Humanitas Visiting Professor at Cambridge University. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the U.S. Secretary of State's Award for Distinguished Service.

In fall 2015, Ambassador Verveer and Kim Azzarelli published Fast Forward: How Women Can Achieve Power and Purpose. Fast Forward chronicles how women are harnessing their growing economic power and leadership to invest in women and girls in order to yield extraordinary dividends for people, organizations, and countries.

Kim Azzarelli is Co-Founder of Seneca Women and serves as a Director’s Fellow at the MIT Media Lab. A leading corporate, legal and technology executive, Kim has significant experience in launching and building programs with Fortune 100 companies, including Apple, Bank of America, Bloomberg, iHeartMedia, Intel, P&G, Toyota and Walmart, among others. Together with Ambassador Melanne Verveer, Kim is co-author of the best-selling book Fast Forward: How Women Can Achieve Power and Purpose and co-host of the podcast Seneca’s Conversations on Power and Purpose.

Prior to her work with Seneca, Kim held senior public affairs and legal roles at Newsweek, Goldman Sachs and Avon. At Newsweek Daily Beast, she served as Senior Vice President, leading strategy, partnerships and philanthropy for Women in the World. At Goldman Sachs, she led the billion-dollar donor advised fund, Goldman Sachs Gives. At Avon, she served as Vice President, Legal and Public Affairs and Corporate Secretary and served on the Board of the Avon Foundation.

Prior to joining Avon, she practiced corporate and securities law at Latham & Watkins and clerked for U.S. District Court Judge Harold Ackerman. Kim has served as an adjunct professor at Cornell Law School, co-founded Cornell Law School’s Center for Women and Justice and is a co-author with Justice Sandra Day O’Connor of "Sustainable Development, Rule of Law and the Impact of Women Judges.” Kim is a graduate of Cornell Law School and Cornell University and began her career at JP Morgan as a financial analyst in the venture capital group.

One of the nation’s leading finance and securities lawyers, with a distinguished three-decade career, Sharon Bowen is Chair of the New York Stock Exchange, the first woman and first person of color to hold that position. Previously, she was the first African-American to be appointed as Commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission. She was sworn in on June 9, 2014 and served in the CFTC until 2017.

Prior to her role in the CFTC, Commissioner Bowen was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and appointed by President Obama to serve as Vice Chair and Acting Chair of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (SIPC). Previous to her work in the Obama administration, Commissioner Bowen had a renowned three-decade career in corporate and transactional law as an associate at Davis, Polk & Wardwell and later as associate and partner at Latham & Watkins.

She currently serves on the Board of the Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (NYSE:ICE) and certain of its affiliates as well as on the Board of Neuberger Berman. Commissioner Bowen has served as a member of the Board and Emeritus Board of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, Inc., the Boards of New York City Economic Development Corporation, and Public Education Needs Civil Involvement in Learning (PENCIL). She is also a recipient of the 2011 Diversity Trailblazer Award of the New York State Bar Association and was selected as the New York City Bar Association 2007 Diversity Champion and the Metropolitan Black Bar Association 2006 Lawyer of the Year.

Commissioner Bowen holds a BA in Economics from the University of Virginia and a JD-MBA from Northwestern University. During her time at Northwestern Law, she served as Managing Editor of the Northwestern Journal of International Law and Business. Commissioner Bowen has also served as a former Executive Member and Chair of the Law School Board.