Sheryl WuDunn
Encyclopedia
Sheryl WuDunn is a Chinese American
business executive, author, lecturer
, and the first Asian American
to win a Pulitzer Prize
.
A senior banker focusing on growth companies in technology, new media and the emerging markets, WuDunn also works with double bottom line
firms, alternative energy
issues, and women entrepreneurs. She has also been a private wealth adviser with Goldman Sachs
and was previously a journalist
and business executive for The New York Times
. She is now senior managing director at Mid-Market Securities
, a boutique investment banking firm in New York serving small and medium companies.
At the Times, WuDunn ran coverage of global energy, global markets, foreign technology and foreign industry. She oversaw international business topics ranging from China's economic growth to technology in Japan, from oil and gas in Russia to alternative energy in Brazil. She was also anchor of The New York Times Page One, a nightly program of the next day's stories in the Times. She also worked in the Times's Strategic Planning Department and in the Circulation Department, where she ran the effort to build the next generation of readers for the newspaper. She was one of the few people at The Times who went back and forth between the news and business sides of the organization.
She earlier was a foreign correspondent in The New York Times Beijing
and Tokyo
bureaus, and speaks Chinese
and Japanese
. While in Asia
, she also reported from other areas, including North Korea
, Australia
, Burma and the Philippines
. WuDunn, recipient of an honorary doctorate from Middlebury College, will be a senior lecturer at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs in the fall of 2011. She is a commentator on China and global affairs on television and radio shows, including NPR, Colbert Report and Charlie Rose.
, Sheryl WuDunn grew up in New York City
in the Upper West Side
of Manhattan
. She attended Cornell University
, graduating with a B.A. in European History in 1981. For three years, WuDunn worked for Bankers Trust Company as an international loan officer. After this, she earned her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School
and M.P.A. from Princeton's
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
.
WuDunn married reporter Nicholas D. Kristof
in 1988. After working for The Wall Street Journal
and other publications, WuDunn joined the staff of The New York Times
as a correspondent in the Beijing bureau in 1989. She currently serves on the Cornell University
Board of Trustees, is a member of the board's finance committee, and previously served on the board's investment committee. She also served on the advisory council of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
at Princeton University
.
WuDunn worked for a time for Goldman Sachs as a vice president in its investment management
division as a private wealth advisor, before leaving to write a book.
She won the Pulitzer Prize
with her husband Nicholas D. Kristof for her reporting from Beijing about the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
. WuDunn and Kristof were the first married couple ever to receive a Pulitzer for journalism. In addition to the Pulitzer, she also won a George Polk Award and an Overseas Press Club
award, both for reporting in China
.
In 2009, WuDunn and Kristof received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize
's 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2011, WuDunn was listed by Newsweek
as one of the 150 Women who Shake the World.
and Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia
are non-fiction
Asian studies
books which examine the cultural, social, and political situation of East Asia
largely through interviews and personal experiences. Her third best-selling book, also co-written with Kristof, was published by Knopf in September 2009. It is titled: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
.
Chinese American
Chinese Americans represent Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...
business executive, author, lecturer
Lecturer
Lecturer is an academic rank. In the United Kingdom, lecturer is a position at a university or similar institution, often held by academics in their early career stages, who lead research groups and supervise research students, as well as teach...
, and the first Asian American
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...
to win a Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
.
A senior banker focusing on growth companies in technology, new media and the emerging markets, WuDunn also works with double bottom line
Double bottom line
Double bottom line is a business term used in socially responsible enterprise and investment.While all businesses have a conventional bottom line to measure their fiscal performance—financial profit or loss—enterprises which seek a second bottom line look to measure their performance in...
firms, alternative energy
Alternative energy
Alternative energy is an umbrella term that refers to any source of usable energy intended to replace fuel sources without the undesired consequences of the replaced fuels....
issues, and women entrepreneurs. She has also been a private wealth adviser with Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is an American multinational bulge bracket investment banking and securities firm that engages in global investment banking, securities, investment management, and other financial services primarily with institutional clients...
and was previously a journalist
Journalist
A journalist collects and distributes news and other information. A journalist's work is referred to as journalism.A reporter is a type of journalist who researchs, writes, and reports on information to be presented in mass media, including print media , electronic media , and digital media A...
and business executive for The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. She is now senior managing director at Mid-Market Securities
, a boutique investment banking firm in New York serving small and medium companies.
At the Times, WuDunn ran coverage of global energy, global markets, foreign technology and foreign industry. She oversaw international business topics ranging from China's economic growth to technology in Japan, from oil and gas in Russia to alternative energy in Brazil. She was also anchor of The New York Times Page One, a nightly program of the next day's stories in the Times. She also worked in the Times's Strategic Planning Department and in the Circulation Department, where she ran the effort to build the next generation of readers for the newspaper. She was one of the few people at The Times who went back and forth between the news and business sides of the organization.
She earlier was a foreign correspondent in The New York Times Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
and Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
bureaus, and speaks Chinese
Chinese language
The Chinese language is a language or language family consisting of varieties which are mutually intelligible to varying degrees. Originally the indigenous languages spoken by the Han Chinese in China, it forms one of the branches of Sino-Tibetan family of languages...
and Japanese
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
. While in Asia
Asia
Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...
, she also reported from other areas, including North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, Burma and the Philippines
Philippines
The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...
. WuDunn, recipient of an honorary doctorate from Middlebury College, will be a senior lecturer at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs in the fall of 2011. She is a commentator on China and global affairs on television and radio shows, including NPR, Colbert Report and Charlie Rose.
Biography
A third generation Chinese AmericanChinese American
Chinese Americans represent Americans of Chinese descent. Chinese Americans constitute one group of overseas Chinese and also a subgroup of East Asian Americans, which is further a subgroup of Asian Americans...
, Sheryl WuDunn grew up in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in the Upper West Side
Upper West Side
The Upper West Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan, New York City, that lies between Central Park and the Hudson River and between West 59th Street and West 125th Street...
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
. She attended Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
, graduating with a B.A. in European History in 1981. For three years, WuDunn worked for Bankers Trust Company as an international loan officer. After this, she earned her M.B.A. from Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School is the graduate business school of Harvard University in Boston, Massachusetts, United States and is widely recognized as one of the top business schools in the world. The school offers the world's largest full-time MBA program, doctoral programs, and many executive...
and M.P.A. from Princeton's
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school has granted undergraduate A.B. degrees since 1930 and graduate degrees since 1948...
.
WuDunn married reporter Nicholas D. Kristof
Nicholas D. Kristof
Nicholas Donabet Kristof is an American journalist, author, op-ed columnist, and a winner of two Pulitzer Prizes. He has written an op-ed column for The New York Times since November 2001 and is known for bringing to light human rights abuses in Asia and Africa, such as human trafficking and the...
in 1988. After working for The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
and other publications, WuDunn joined the staff of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
as a correspondent in the Beijing bureau in 1989. She currently serves on the Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
Board of Trustees, is a member of the board's finance committee, and previously served on the board's investment committee. She also served on the advisory council of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs
The Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs is a professional public policy school at Princeton University. The school has granted undergraduate A.B. degrees since 1930 and graduate degrees since 1948...
at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
.
WuDunn worked for a time for Goldman Sachs as a vice president in its investment management
Investment management
Investment management is the professional management of various securities and assets in order to meet specified investment goals for the benefit of the investors...
division as a private wealth advisor, before leaving to write a book.
She won the Pulitzer Prize
Pulitzer Prize
The Pulitzer Prize is a U.S. award for achievements in newspaper and online journalism, literature and musical composition. It was established by American publisher Joseph Pulitzer and is administered by Columbia University in New York City...
with her husband Nicholas D. Kristof for her reporting from Beijing about the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
Tiananmen Square protests of 1989
The Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, also known as the June Fourth Incident in Chinese , were a series of demonstrations in and near Tiananmen Square in Beijing in the People's Republic of China beginning on 15 April 1989...
. WuDunn and Kristof were the first married couple ever to receive a Pulitzer for journalism. In addition to the Pulitzer, she also won a George Polk Award and an Overseas Press Club
Overseas Press Club
The Overseas Press Club of America was founded in 1939 in New York City by a group of foreign correspondents. The wire service reporter Carol Weld was a founding member...
award, both for reporting in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
.
In 2009, WuDunn and Kristof received the Dayton Literary Peace Prize
Dayton Literary Peace Prize
The Dayton Literary Peace Prize, which was first awarded in 2006, "is the only annual U.S. literary award recognizing the power of the written word to promote peace." Awards are given for adult fiction and non-fiction books published at some point within the immediate past year that have led...
's 2009 Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2011, WuDunn was listed by Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
as one of the 150 Women who Shake the World.
Books
WuDunn has co-authored three best-sellers with her husband. China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising PowerChina Wakes
China Wakes: The Struggle for the Soul of a Rising Power 1994, by husband-and-wife reporters Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, gives impressions and vignettes from their stay in China.- Summary :...
and Thunder from the East: Portrait of a Rising Asia
Thunder from the East
Thunder from the East: A Portrait of Rising Asia is a 2000 book co-authored by husband and wife team Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. It is a nonfiction study of contemporary Asia.-External links:**...
are non-fiction
Non-fiction
Non-fiction is the form of any narrative, account, or other communicative work whose assertions and descriptions are understood to be fact...
Asian studies
Asian studies
Asian studies, a term used usually in the United States for Oriental studies and is concerned with the Asian peoples, their cultures, languages, history and politics...
books which examine the cultural, social, and political situation of East Asia
East Asia
East Asia or Eastern Asia is a subregion of Asia that can be defined in either geographical or cultural terms...
largely through interviews and personal experiences. Her third best-selling book, also co-written with Kristof, was published by Knopf in September 2009. It is titled: Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide is a book by the husband-wife team of Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn published by Knopf in September 2009...
.