Marissa Wesely is the Chief Executive Officer of Win-Win Strategies, a new non-profit social enterprise that connects the power of business with the deep assets of women’s organizations to empower women globally. Win-Win Strategies grew out of the Win-Win Coalition, a global network of companies, women’s organizations, and foundations, for which Marissa acted as Coordinator until assuming her current role.
Marissa has served as an Advisor to the “Path to Empowerment” series hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Corporate Citizenship Center, and was a 2014 Fellow at Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative and a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center, affiliated with the Center’s Global Women’s Leadership Initiative. Marissa is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Board of Directors of Global Fund for Women. Marissa speaks and writes regularly on issues of women’s rights, including as the author of the 2015 cover story in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, “Empowering Women at the Grassroots.”
Prior to 2014, Marissa was a partner in the global law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and was regularly recognized as a leading lawyer in banking and finance. As a long-standing advocate for women’s rights in diverse settings, Marissa has received many awards, including the ABA’s 2014 Margaret Brent Women Lawyers of Achievement Award. Marissa lives in New York City with her husband, and has one daughter who is the cartoon editor of The New Yorker.