By Morey Stettner
Investor's Business Daily
October 7, 2011
When Nancy Barry joined the board of Women's World Banking in 1981, she didn't expect to burst into tears at a meeting.
But she was fed up with her full-time job at the World Bank, and her emotions boiled over.
With WWB, a nonprofit that provides loans to entrepreneurial women through a global financial network, Barry sought to increase microcredit to the poor.
Suddenly at this meeting, she couldn't contain her frustration as a World Bank executive.
"I cried in front of 20 very accomplished women who were global leaders in their field," she told IBD. "I told them I felt like I had hit a glass ceiling at the World Bank. They responded with love and support. At that moment, I knew they had given me something special."
Uplifted, Barry persevered at the World Bank and expanded its small-business portfolio from zero to $3.3 billion in 10 years.
