 We have heard a lot lately about the vital mission to empower women economically, increase their presence at the highest levels of finance and maintain responsible business practices. But for Muriel Siebert, these have been her highest priorities for decades. Known as the first woman of finance, Siebert began her career earning $65 a week as a research trainee. She never looked back and quickly went from industry specialist to partner. By 1967, she founded her own brokerage firm and became the first female member of the New York Stock Exchange. She soon added another first to her name, becoming the first female superintendent of banking for the state of New York under Governor Hugh Carey. Ladies and gentlemen, Muriel Siebert. I came to New York with $500 and a used Studebaker from Cleveland, Ohio. I had a place to sleep, my sister's couch. I got a job as a trainee in research and started to do business with some institutions based on the research that I was doing. I had been given airlines, which is not a very feminine, wasn't considered to be feminine at the time, but it got me a lot of business. But I could not be paid equally. And I switched firms a few times and I was getting discouraged because it's very hard when a man that's doing the same work is making twice what you're making. So one day I asked Gerald Sy, one of my clients, Jerry, what firm can I go to where I'll be paid equally? And Jerry said to me, don't be ridiculous, you won't. Buy a seat, work for yourself. And I said, don't you be ridiculous. And he said, I don't think there's a law against it. Well, I went through a few of the hurdles, like getting a loan approved. Mr. Rockefeller had to approve it. One of the other banks had agreed to loan me money against securities, which I had accumulated. So I was borrowing against listed stocks. And in the middle of the process, they said, well, sorry, we decided we cannot make the loan. So I asked the person that was head of the trust department at Chase Bank. I said, Joe, his name was Joe Dibi. And I said, Joe, I guess I'm not getting the seat. Bank pulled out and Joe called somebody from the Chase Bank and Mr. David Rockefeller approved their loaning me money against securities. So I got the seat on the stock exchange. That did not take care of, though, the ladies room. They had a ladies room on the floor of the exchange, but nobody told me about it for two and a half years. That was pretty rough. And for the first 10 years that I was a member, I could say 1,365 men and me. There was a two-month exception to that statement. When a firm put a seat in a woman's name because they were merging and they wanted the seat to stay with the firm. But so I did what I had to do and that was it. Things have changed. They have changed for the better. We're seeing women who ever thought there would be a woman that was head of the SEC. I mean, things have just changed. And I am honored, deeply honored to get this award because in so doing, we encourage other people. And that's the thing we have to keep doing. There's a lot of new businesses, there's a lot of new technologies, technology. Women have the ability and it's up to us to give them the encouragement. And I'd like to thank you for this wonderful honor. I will cherish it.