Regularly during the school year, the Dean hosts roundtable discussions with prominent guests who have utilized their law degrees in a variety of nontraditional ways. Over lunch with a small group of students, guests speak autobiographically about their work experiences, sharing valuable insight about how they found their chosen path. Please note that the roundtables are informal and off-the-record.
Dr. Herta von Stiegel LLM ’87, who will be the Dean’s guest on Thursday, April 30, is the founder and executive chair of Ariya Capital Group Ltd., a financial services and project development firm, which focuses on clean energy and infrastructure investments in Africa.
Dr. von Stiegel has over 25 years of international management, finance, and board-level experience. She has a consistent track record of building and leading highly regulated financial service businesses with specific expertise in banking, clean energy, and cross-border risk management in Europe, North America, and emerging and frontier markets.
During her 17 years in banking, Dr. von Stiegel has held senior positions at Citibank, JP Morgan, and AIG in London and New York. Until 2005, she was Managing Director at AIG Financial Products, where she held a leading position in the investment banking division with net revenues in excess of $800 million. A tax lawyer by training, she serves on several corporate and non-profit boards, including CHAPS Clearing Company Ltd, as its first independent chair.
Dr. von Stiegel is the chair of the Kenya Chapter of WomenCorporateDirectors (WCD), the only global membership organization and community of women corporate directors. She is founder and former chair of the Prince’s Trust Women’s Leadership Group, a network of female philanthropists who want to make a dramatic and lasting impact on the lives of disadvantaged women in the UK. She authored The Mountain Within – Leadership Lessons and Inspiration for your Climb to the Top. Consequently, she was the leader of a multi-national and multi-ability team to summit Mount Kilimanjaro and Executive Co-producer of the award-winning film The Mountain Within, which chronicled the expedition.
Dr. von Stiegel is a highly sought-after speaker and commentator on topics such as climate change, energy, emerging markets, leadership, women in business, and the banking crisis. She has lectured at leading universities, including the Said Business School at Oxford University, the London School of Economics, the London Business School, the University of Cambridge, McGill University, and the London Metropolitan University. She has been featured on CNBC, Fox, Bloomberg, the BBC, SA FM (South African radio), BBC Radio 4, and in financial print media, including the Financial Times.
Born in Transylvania, Dr. von Stiegel is based in Nairobi, Kenya. She has lived and worked in numerous developed and emerging markets. She is a citizen of the United States and the United Kingdom, bilingual in English and German, and fluent in Romanian.
The Dean’s roundtables are open to 18 interested NYU School of Law JD and graduate students. In order to achieve a representational mix of students, we will designate a proportionate number of seats to JD students and graduate students, respectively, to be assigned on a first-come, first-served basis. The roundtables will begin at 12:30 P.M. in Snow Dining Room. If you would like to attend a roundtable, please sign up in advance by emailing Ken Seagreaves at ken.seagreaves@nyu.edu. Please indicate whether you are a JD or graduate student, and whether you have any dietary restrictions.