Founder
Global Fund for Widows
As President and Founder of the Global Fund for Widows, Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers has raised millions of dollars towards the little known and overlooked root source of global poverty: Widowhood. Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers innovated a financial inclusion platform, a “microbank” that is bringing transformative financial access and empowerment to the world’s poorest and most vulnerable. With this innovation in financial inclusion, Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers has economically empowered over 100,000 widows and their children throughout the emerging markets through the establishment of 239 microbanks.
In addition to accomplishments in the field, Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers advocates for widows at the highest level, including presenting regularly at the UN Security Council, the Human Rights Council, the US Congress and Department of State, and the House of Lords. After drafting, negotiating, and meeting with over 100 UN Member States in 2021, Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers’ strategic advocacy resulted in the unanimous adoption of the world’s first UN General Assembly resolution, AR 76/252 “Addressing the situation of widows” which recognized the issue of widowhood and called for global social protections for them.
For her groundbreaking work in financial inclusion, women’s rights, economic development, and peacebuilding, the Egyptian-American has been conferred with 2023 Crains’ Notable Nonprofit Leaders, the Business Council for Peace Women Forward – Financial Catalyst Award, the Acquisition International Excellence in Financial Innovation Award. In 2021, Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers received the honor of a lifetime with a nomination for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Employment History:
Credit Suisse Asset Management
2001-2006: Vice President — Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers was a Vice President in the Alternative Investment Group of Credit Suisse. Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers had direct responsibility for over $1 billion of leveraged loan and high yield fixed income assets within a $10 billion leveraged structured products and separate accounts portfolio. Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers enjoyed analytic responsibility for the real estate, technology, gaming, retail, financial institutions and insurance sectors. During her tenure at Credit Suisse, Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers valued capital structure of high yield corporates including bank loans, bonds and mezzanine financing and identified and executed relative value and capital structure arbitrage strategies in primary/secondary markets. Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers formulated trade recommendations and portfolio strategy. Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers negotiated pricing, covenants, and credit agreements for new issues and bank loan amendments. In addition to initiating lender response against off market corporate actions, Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers directed various stages of the bankruptcy processes. Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers also authored responses to client RFPs, successfully securing $1.25 billion in separate account mandates.
Merrill Lynch
2000-2001: Assistant Vice President — Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers was a founding member of Merrill Lynch’s Mutual Fund Research Group, where she produced institutional style research for retail customers, including offering customers with assessed value generated and or lost by a manager’s asset allocation, stock selection, active management strategies to identify sources of alpha and underperformance.
JPMorgan Securities
1995-2000: Associate — Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers was an associate in the Emerging Markets Fixed Income Research Group, where she conducted award winning research on the financial institutions, steel, cement, construction, and oil and gas sectors in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. Ms Ibrahim-Leathers’ research and capital markets participation was instrumental in the pricing and issuance of over $4 billion of structured and standard corporate debt. In addition, Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers regularly assessed relative value opportunities, and frequently authored trade recommendations. Ms. Ibrahim-Leathers also published ground-breaking research on various Latin debt market issuers, ultimately earning her the Institutional Investor 1997 Award.
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