Silda Alice Wall Spitzer (born December 30, 1957) is an American businesswoman and lawyer who was the First Lady of New York from January 2007 until March 2008, when her then husband,

Eliot Spitzer Eliot Laurence Spitzer (born June 10, 1959) is an American politician and attorney who served as the 54th governor of New York from 2007 until his resignation in 2008 after a prostitution scandal. A member of the Democratic Party, he was also ...

, was governor. She has worked in the private, nonprofit, and public sectors in the areas of green/sustainability issues, youth service/education, and human rights and women's financial and other empowerment. Currently, she is director and principal at NewWorld Capital Group, a

private equity firm A private equity firm or private equity company (often described as a financial sponsor) is an investment management company that provides financial backing and makes investments in the private equity of a Startup company, startup or of an existin ...

investing in environmental and energy-related products and services. She is also co-founder and CEO of woman-owned ''New York Makers'', a digital magazine and marketplace covering New York State.

Early life

Born Silda Alice Wall, she grew up in

Concord Concord may refer to: Meaning "agreement" * Harmony, in music * Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other words Arts and media * ''Concord'' (video game), a defunct 2024 first-person sh ...

, the county seat of

Cabarrus County Cabarrus County ( )Talk Like a Tarheel
, from the North Carolina ...

in south-central North Carolina. Her father, Robert, was a hospital administrator, and her mother, Trilby, was a homemaker. She was raised as a

Southern Baptist The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), alternatively the Great Commission Baptists (GCB), is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist organization, the largest Protestantism in the United States, Pr ...

. She graduated ''

summa cum laude Latin honors are a system of Latin phrases used in some colleges and universities to indicate the level of distinction with which an academic degree has been earned. The system is primarily used in the United States. It is also used in some Sout ...

'' from

Meredith College Meredith College is a private women's liberal arts college and coeducational graduate school Postgraduate education, graduate education, or graduate school consists of academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qu ...

in 1980 with a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Culture, language and peoples * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England * ''English'', an Amish ter ...

and history. She received a

Juris Doctor A Juris Doctor, Doctor of Jurisprudence, or Doctor of Law (JD) is a graduate-entry professional degree that primarily prepares individuals to practice law. In the United States and the Philippines, it is the only qualifying law degree. Other j ...

from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

in 1984.

Personal life

She married

on October 17, 1987, and had three daughters: Elyssa, Sarabeth, and Jenna. In December 2013, Wall and her husband announced the end of their marriage.

Career

Wall began her legal career with

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates (known as Skadden) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational law firm headquartered in New York City. The firm comprises approximately 1,700 lawyers and is the fourth highest ...

, specializing in mergers, acquisitions and corporate finance. She next joined The

Chase Manhattan Bank JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A., doing business as Chase, is an American national bank headquartered in New York City that constitutes the consumer and commercial banking subsidiary of the U.S. multinational banking and financial services holding ...

, N.A. as a member of its international legal group. She is a founding co-chair of Project Cicero, the annual New York City book drive that builds classroom libraries in under-resourced schools. She served on the New York Blue Ribbon Commission on Youth Leadership and the board of the

Children's Museum of Manhattan The Children’s Museum of Manhattan is located on West 83rd street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. It was founded by Bette Korman, under the name GAME (Growth Through Art and Museum Experience), in 1973. The museum adopted ...

from 1995 until January 1999, where she was a member of its executive committee and chaired its program committee. In 1996, she co-founded Children for Children, a not-for-profit organization, to engage children from an early age in volunteering and service. She served as its president and chair until 2007. CFC has become the youth service division of

Points of Light Points of Light is an international nonprofit, nonpartisan organization headquartered in Georgia, United States dedicated to engaging more people and resources in solving serious social problems through voluntary service. Each year, Points ...

and is now called generationOn. As the wife of former

New York Governor The governor of New York is the head of government of the U.S. state of New York. The governor is the head of the executive branch of New York's state government and the commander-in-chief of the state's military forces. The governor ha ...

, she was the First Lady of New York from January 2007 until March 2008. From 2008 to 2011, she was managing director at Metropolitan Capital Advisors, a woman-owned hedge fund. Currently, she is director and principal at NewWorld Capital Group, a private equity firm investing in growth equity and infrastructure project finance environmental opportunities, including

energy efficiency Energy efficiency may refer to: * Energy efficiency (physics), the ratio between the useful output and input of an energy conversion process ** Electrical efficiency, useful power output per electrical power consumed ** Mechanical efficiency, a rat ...

, clean energy, water, waste-to-value, and environmental products and services. She is also co-founder and CEO of a woman-owned ''New York Makers'', a digital magazine and marketplace covering New York State. Among her not-for-profit activities, Spitzer serves as the vice-chairperson of Urban Green Council, is on the Ceres president's council, and the Sustainable Endowments Institute's advisory board. She also served on the boards of Points of Light and generationOn until 2015. She is a board member at

and the Center for Law, Brain, and Behavior, and is an honorary trustee of No Bully.

Honors

*She was awarded an honorary doctorate from Meredith College in 2012.

References

External links