Barbara Hackman Franklin

BARBARA HACKMAN FRANKLIN is President & CEO of Barbara Franklin Enterprises, a private investment and consulting firm headquartered in Washington, DC. Previously, she served as the 29th U.S. Secretary of Commerce, the highest-ranking woman in the George H.W. Bush Administration. Her historic mission to China in 1992 for President Bush helped normalize commercial relations with that country. She continues to be an active and respected advocate for American companies operating in foreign markets, notably China. She served four terms on the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiation and as an Alternate Representative and Public Delegate to the United Nations. An expert on corporate governance, auditing and financial reporting practices with over twenty-five years of service on corporate boards, she is a director of four public companies: Aetna, Inc., The Dow Chemical Company, GenVec Inc., and MedImmune, Inc. as well as the Washington Mutual Investors Fund.