Barbara Hackman Franklin President and CEO
Barbara Franklin Enterprises
Former U.S. Secretary of Commerce
Director of Aetna or its predecessors from 1979 to 1992 and since 1993
Barbara Hackman Franklin is President and Chief Executive Officer of Barbara Franklin Enterprises (private investment and management consulting firm).From 1992 to 1993, she served as the 29th U.S. Secretary of Commerce. Prior to that appointment, Ms. Franklin was President and Chief Executive Officer of Franklin Associates (management consulting firm), which she founded in 1984. She has received the John J. McCloy Award for contributions to audit excellence, the Director of the Year Award from the National Association of Corporate Directors, an Outstanding Director Award from the Outstanding Director Exchange, and in 2007 was named by Directorship Magazine as one of the 100 most influential people in governance. Ms. Franklin was Senior Fellow of The Wharton School of Business from 1979 to 1988, an original Commissioner and Vice Chair of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission from 1973 to 1979, and a Staff Assistant to the President of the United States from 1971 to 1973. Earlier, she was an executive at Citibank and the Singer Company. Ms. Franklin is a director of The Dow Chemical Company (chemicals, plastics and agricultural products) and is also a director or trustee of three funds in the American Funds family of mutual funds and a director of J.P. Morgan Value Opportunities Fund. She is Chairman of the National Association of Corporate Directors, Chairman Emerita of the Economic Club of New York, a director of the US-China Business Council, and a member of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board Advisory Council. Ms. Franklin is a regular commentator on the PBS Nightly Business Report.
