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Local angle: Charleston, S.C.

Business world star Krawcheck honored with Distinguished Young Alumni Award

CHAPEL HILL -- Sallie L. Krawcheck, who has quickly become one of the highest-profile women in American business, will be honored tonight (Oct. 3) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with the General Alumni Association’s 2003 Distinguished Service Award.

Krawcheck, a 1987 Carolina graduate, was chosen one year ago by Citigroup to run Smith Barney, its new brokerage and equity-research spin-off. At 38, she runs a global business of 13,000 brokers and analysts. Her appointment came amid a troubled time for investor confidence in the big firms, and Citigroup was one of those in the center of the storm. Sanford Weill, then chair and chief executive officer of Citigroup, called her appointment "a giant leap forward" in restoring the confidence of skeptical investors.

She is ranked 14^th on Fortune’s annual list of the most powerful women in business. That’s the latest in a long list of accolades from the business press. Fortune featured Krawcheck on its May cover with the headline "In Search of the Last Honest Analyst." Money called her "The Straight Shooter"; Time named her one of its 2002 Global Influentials; and Institutional Investor named her an all-star analyst three years in a row in the late 1990s.

Krawcheck, a native of Charleston, S.C., starred in high school track, ranking among her state’s best in the high jump. She won a Morehead Scholarship to UNC, one of the most generous four-year merit awards in the country. She graduated Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in journalism and political science, then earned a master of business administration degree from Columbia University.

She began her Wall Street career as an analyst at Salomon Brothers, then moved to Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. In 1994, she joined Sanford C. Bernstein Co., a small investment-research firm where analysts earned a reputation for being fiercely independent. She started as an analyst covering securities and life insurance, then was director of research and executive vice president of Bernstein’s parent company, Alliance Capital Management, before being named chairman and chief executive officer in 2001.

The General Alumni Association’s Distinguished Young Alumni Award continues a 13-year tradition honoring alumni age 40 or younger whose achievements bring credit to the university. Among the past 27 recipients of the awards are basketball star Michael Jordan, soccer player Mia Hamm and author Kaye Gibbons. The association is a self-governed, nonprofit organization serving alumni and friends of the university.

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Photo URL: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/alum/krawcheck_sallie.jpg

Contact: Doug Dibbert at (919) 962-7050
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