About: Abigail Disney, Vice Chair, Shamrock Holdings Inc

Profile

Abigail is Vice Chair of the board of Shamrock Holdings Incorporated. Founded by the Disney Family in 1978, Shamrock Holdings is a leading investor in domestic and international private equity transactions and real estate, as well as publicly traded securities. Shamrock currently invests close to 2 billion dollars in five distinct fund areas. The Shamrock Capital Growth Fund does private equity investing in small to medium size media companies ranging from telecom to technology to publishing.

Abby is the Honorary Chair of The New York Women's Foundation, of which she was a board member for over 14 years. The mission of this organization is to raise and disperse funding for community based organizations devoted to economic empowerment for women and their families. Last year the Foundation gave away more than 2 million dollars in grants and other support to organizations run by and for women throughout New York City.

Abby has acted as investor, advisor and executive producer on a number of documentaries since 2005. She is currently at work on a feature-length documentary about women's exceptional leadership in promoting peace in Liberia during that country's long and brutal civil war.

As a philanthropist/activist, Abby has provided capital and seed support to a diverse set of organizations working to promote women's leadership, to address global conflict, economic inequity and global environmental sustainability including The White House Project, the Ms. Foundation for Women, and to the Global Fund for Women, Association to Benefit Children, and when the groundbreaking periodical Ms. Magazine was in danger of extinction, she worked with Gloria Steinem and a group of other passionate funders to form Liberty Media for Women to secure the future of Ms. Magazine for future generations.

For the last ten years Abby has also spoken to a wide variety of women's groups, community foundations and financial professionals across the country about the power of women's funding and the importance of pursuing a life of engaged and intelligent volunteerism.

Abigail is a Founder and the President of the Daphne Foundation, a progressive, social change Foundation that makes grants to grassroots, community-based organizations working with low-income communities in New York City. Since 1991, the Daphne Foundation has made over four million dollars in grants in areas ranging from women's rights to AIDS advocacy, children's health, labor conditions, religion, and environmentalism. The Foundation provides ongoing general operating support to its grantees, along with grants for technical assistance, infrastructure improvement and fundraising assistance.

Abby received her Bachelors degree from Yale University, her Masters degree from Stanford University, and her Doctorate in English from Columbia University. While pursuing her Ph.D., Abby taught English and American Literature at Iona College.

Abby serves on the board of the Roy Disney Family Foundation, the White House Project, and the Global Fund for Women, the Fund for the City of New York, as well as on a special advisory committee to the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, and on the advisory boards of the Association to Benefit Children, and the HIV Law Project.

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