Muriel Siebert

Muriel Siebert was an American business executive whose successful ventures in the realm of high finance helped expand opportunities for women in that field.

Siebert attended Western Reserve University in her hometown from 1949 to 1952 but did not complete a degree. In 1954 she moved to New York City, where, over the next six years, she worked as an analyst at three financial services companies. After serving as a partner at three others, she became in 1967 the first woman to buy a seat on the New York Stock Exchange. Shortly thereafter, in 1969, she formed her own discount brokerage firm, Muriel Siebert & Co., Inc. In 1977 she became the first woman superintendent of banking for the state of New York. At the same time, she served as director of New York City’s Urban Development Corporation and Job Development Authority (both from 1977 to 1982). She resigned in 1982 to run for the U.S. Senate. After losing the election she returned to her own company, where she was chairman and president from 1983.

In 1990 Siebert established the Siebert Entrepreneurial Philanthropic Plan (SEPP), which donated to charity half of the net profits from new securities underwriting at Muriel Siebert & Co., Inc. Siebert was inducted into the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 1994. In 1999 she developed the Personal Finance Program, a financial-management-skills program taught in New York City high schools. Changing the Rules: Adventures of a Wall-Street Maverick, an autobiography coauthored with Aimee Lee Ball, was published in 2002. In 2003 Siebert appeared in Risk/Reward, a documentary film about women on Wall Street. In both September 2005 and September 2008—following Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Gustav, respectively—she announced that her company would sell stock that was donated to the American Red Cross without taking a commission.