Illustration: Ryan Melgar for Bloomberg Markets
Wall Street Veteran Kelly Loeffler Guts DEI for Trump
Her marching orders set up a clash at the federal Small Business Administration, an agency obligated by Congress to help disadvantaged businesses.
Not long ago, Kelly Loeffler was the public face of Wall Street. By 2018, she was earning $1 million a year as chief communications and marketing officer at the New York Stock Exchange’s parent company, which had joined the rest of corporate America in promoting diversity. That year NYSE named its first female president in two centuries; the following, it started recruiting women and minorities to serve on listed companies’ boards. In the financial district, State Street Corp. had installed a bronze statue called Fearless Girl, standing as a defiant foil to Charging Bull.
Things look different now—for Wall Street, and for Loeffler, who’s shifted her focus to Main Street.