Deborah Winshel

Deborah Winshel is a Senior Lecturer on the faculty of Harvard Business School teaching the first-year required course, Leadership and Corporate Accountability.

She is an experienced business and non-profit leader whose vision and strategic direction have helped shape organizations as diverse as BlackRock, Robin Hood Foundation, The Metropolitan Museum of Art and JP Morgan. She has extensive experience advising organizations on ESG and the balance between social and financial considerations and outcomes.

Most recently, Deborah was a Managing Director at BlackRock and was the Global Head of Social Impact, a newly created platform using the firm’s own capital to invest in ideas and initiatives that support BlackRock’s commitment to economic mobility, building financial resiliency and a more sustainable economy. Her team was also responsible for building employee connectivity with the firm and their communities and helping to drive DEI objectives within and outside of BlackRock. She served as Chair and President of the BlackRock Foundation and was responsible for the firm’s cornerstone philanthropic investment in climate technologies driving to net zero.

She also served as Global Head of Impact Investing, responsible for launching the firm’s sustainable investing and ESG platform and establishing BlackRock as a leader in the field. She helped educate clients on ESG and how to incorporate these considerations in investment portfolios. She also helped the firm communicate to companies its corporate governance and ESG priorities.

Deborah started her career as a management consultant at Strategic Planning Associates, and after attending HBS, joined JP Morgan. During her 13-year career in JP Morgan’s NY and London offices, she worked in corporate finance and in M&A, specializing in the consumer and retail sectors. As a Managing Director in investment banking, she advised clients on financial and strategic issues and spearheaded the global auto practice.

Deborah transitioned to the non-profit world to apply her financial and strategic training to mission-driven organizations. In these roles, she led the organization’s key strategic imperatives, driving sustainable growth and advising on responsible and ambitious governance: first, as Executive Vice President and CFO at the Metropolitan Museum of Art where she had also operational responsibility for buildings, construction, security and restaurants, in addition to all finance functions; then, after a 2-year family sabbatical in Italy, as President and Chief Operating Officer of The Robin Hood Foundation, a leader in venture philanthropy and a pioneer in impact investing

Ms. Winshel is a frequent speaker and often quoted in the press on sustainability, innovation and financial security, and the application of a quantitative framework to the measurement of social outcomes. She co-authored “Adapting Portfolios for Climate Change,” BlackRock’s first publication on climate-aware investing and “Exploring ESG: A Practitioner’s Perspective,” the firm’s first primer on ESG.

She serves on the Board and is Governance Committee Chair of The Shed, a new $500MM cultural arts center in Hudson Yards, NYC. She was a founding board member of Immigrant Justice Corps and a founding member of the Financial Stability Board’s Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD), helping to develop a global framework to improve and increase reporting of climate-related financial information.

AWARDS & HONORS

• Named one of the "50 Most Powerful Women in New York" by Crain’s in 2013.
• Recipient of the HBS Women's Association of Greater New York's "Women Who Inspire Us" award in 2014.
• Recipient of the HBS Club of New York’s John C. Whitehead Social Enterprise Award in 2018.
• Recipient of the 2021 Harvard Business School Alumni Achievement Award.