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Sheila M. Berry

Biography

Sheila Berry designed her own double major at Stanford, where she graduated with distinction and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. As a Fulbright scholar, she then studied the effects of NAFTA's ratification on Mexican economic development. Now she intends to combine a master's degree in public administration with an M.B.A. from Harvard. The demanding goals Sheila has set for herself are consistent with her character: working as a private banking analyst at J.P. Morgan Chase, she helped support her father financially while he earned his law degree at the age of 61. Sheila and her sister were raised by their father after their mother died of cancer when Sheila was seven.

The daughter of a Hindu father who immigrated from India and a Jewish mother from New York, Sheila has drawn from her multicultural background to bring diverse people together. She volunteers with the Sponsors for Educational Opportunity Career program, which prepares predominantly low-income students of color for competitive positions in finance, technology, and philanthropy. "Helping to tear down barriers between people and their dreams is truly rewarding," Sheila says. As a Fulbright scholar working at a bank in Mexico City, she encouraged her Mexican teammates to formulate a strategy to convey the benefits of saving in a way that brought lower-income women into the formal banking system.

As a social entrepreneur, Sheila intends to have an impact on the world by fostering alliances and investments that stimulate production and local ownership. "I am tremendously excited," she says, "to determine how governments and foundations can partner with corporations to spur economic growth in low-income areas of developed and developing countries."

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