Barbara Byrne

Current public company boards: ViacomCBS

Executive experience: Barbara is former vice chairman of investment banking at Barclays and at Lehman Brothers, and the first woman to be named vice chairman at either firm. Barbara started her investment banking career in Lehman Brothers Energy Group following four years at Mobil Corporation, and expanded her client base to advising companies from diverse industries in rapidly changing market and technology environments. In addition to holding senior leadership positions in both the Energy and Technology Investment Banking Groups, Barbara co-chaired Barclays Senior Client Coverage Council, which was charged with identifying and driving best-in-class client centered effective coverage and solutions.

Barbara is a trusted advisor to leaders of global companies and organizations. Over the course of her career, Barbara built client partnerships with leading global companies in the energy, technology, and consumer industrial industries. Barbara’s judgment has been sought by CEOs and corporate boards, as she led teams which pioneered unique financial and team approaches to strategic corporate challenges. These engagements resulted in many “first of its kind” financings and transactions that enhanced both her clients’ and her firm’s competitive position and value. Barbara values transparent communication to build high-integrity, resilient, impactful partnerships to achieve strategic goals for organizations and their stakeholders. While at Barclays, Barbara led a number of initiatives targeted at social impact and partnerships of NGOs, governments and clients to invest commercial solutions to social challenges. She led Barclays engagement with the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where she was a member of the Gender Parity Task Force.

Additional information: Barbara is a trustee of the Institute of International Education. She is also a Lifetime Member of the Council of Foreign Relations. She is a member of Columbia Business School’s Executives in Residence. She is a former member of the British American Business Council, New York City Board, and of the board of trustees of Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley. American Banker named Barbara in the top 5 of the “25 Most Powerful Women in Finance” for 8 consecutive years through 217. She received American Banker’s Lifetime Achievement Award in Finance. Barbara is a frequent keynote speaker at events and forums including The World Bank, The United Nations, The New America Foundation and The World Economic Forum in Davos and New York (on the Gender Initiative) in addition to guest market commentary for Bloomberg and CNBC. Barbara attended Mount Holyoke College as a first-generation scholarship student from neighboring Holyoke, Massachusetts. She graduated magna cum laude with a degree in economics. Barbara and her husband, Tom, have three daughters and one son and maintain their principal residence in Princeton, New Jersey.