Full Bio

In 1996, Jacki Zehner was the youngest woman, and first female trader, to be invited into the partnership of Goldman Sachs. After leaving the firm in 2002, she became a Founding Partner of Circle Financial Group, a private wealth management operation consisting of a small group of women committed to effectively managing their families’ assets and philanthropic activities. She is an active member of Golden Seeds, an angel investing network that invests in women-led ventures, and an Advisory Board Member of the philanthropic voice of New York, Contribute magazine. An impassioned philanthropic visionary committed to the economic empowerment of women, she serves on the boards of The Women’s Funding Network, The Breast Cancer Research Foundation, The Center for Work Life Policy, her alma mater The University of British Columbia, and is President of The Jacquelyn and Gregory Zehner Foundation. She is a frequent media commentator on women’s success in the workplace, women and wealth, investing, current market events, and high-impact philanthropy.

Throughout her fourteen-year career at Goldman Sachs, she remained one of very few senior women traders on Wall Street and actively participated in numerous recruiting and mentoring activities aimed at both attracting and retaining women professionals. In 1999 Ms. Zehner left her role as manager of the mortgage-backed trading desk for an executive office appointment in which she assumed a broad human capital management role. She assumed responsibilities in the areas of leadership development, diversity, performance evaluation, promotion, succession planning and recruitment. She served on multiple internal committees including the firm’s Partnership Committee, Diversity Committee, Compliance and Control Committee, and Pine Street, Goldman’s Leadership Development Initiative. Her vision of creating community among high-impact women led to the creation and launch of Goldman’s ASCEND Initiative, a Leadership Exchange which connects, educates, and empowers the firm’s most influential women clients.

Ms. Zehner has been recognized as a “Wall Street Trailblazer”; a “next-generation role model” for women navigating the complex constellation of work, family, and civic service; and is the recipient of multiple leadership awards. Her work continues to be informed by her own journey from humble beginnings to Wall Street success. She learned early on the power of the dollar working as a cashier in her father’s grocery store. Twenty-five years later the journey continues at Circle Financial Group, where eighteen high net worth women work together to thoughtfully direct their time, treasure and talent to make a difference in the world. The group also serves as a think-tank, attracting diverse thought leaders on matters of investing, current affairs, and social responsibility.

Through multiple platforms, Ms. Zehner leverages her unique access and expertise by bridging knowledge and resources across the corporate, philanthropic, and nonprofit sectors. Her strong belief in women’s need to individually and collectively assert their economic clout fuels her ongoing engagement across these realms.

She lives in Connecticut with her husband, Greg Zehner, and two young children. Greg - a retired Goldman Sachs Partner, recent Yale Divinity Graduate and now acting pastor - shares his wife’s commitment to social activism.