Laura Sloate

When Laura Sloate first sought to work on Wall Street in the late 1960s, a potential employer told her she had three strikes against her. One, she was a woman. Two, she lacked the typical educational background of a stock analyst. And three, she was blind.

What that individual failed to see was Laura's incredible intelligence and perseverance - two qualities that later catapulted her to become an extremely successful stockbroker, managing million-dollar funds and earning the respect of her peers. At age 29, she co-founded Sloate, Weisman Murray & Co., an investment firm through which she currently manages the historically well-performing Strong Value Fund.

To say that Laura is driven to succeed is an understatement. Each day the lifelong New Yorker rises at 3:45 a.m. to listen to the top news stories, check stock quotes and exercise by climbing up and down 75 flights of stairs in her Manhattan apartment building with her guide dog, Newton. In her Wall Street office, she utilizes the latest in computer technology and screen readers to absorb what a co-worker describes as "as much information as humanly possible," oftentimes doing what seems like 10 tasks at once.

"My parents raised me to be confident and independent," says Laura, who lost her sight at age 6 due to detached retinas. "I learned to view blindness as a minor disability that needs to be worked with to get a job done - nothing more."

A 1966 recipient of an RFB&D Scholastic Achievement Award, Laura used RFB&D recorded textbooks heavily throughout her education to "level the playing field." Originally aspiring to become a history professor, she earned a bachelor's degree in medieval history from Barnard College and a master's degree in modern European history from Columbia University. But a lingering interest in the stockmarket turned her toward Wall Street. Although investing is a difficult field, Laura says she loves that it is so results oriented. "If you prove you can make money for people, you succeed," she explains, noting that she rarely tells people on the phone about her disability.

Helping others succeed is important to Laura as well. Besides guiding thousands of investors toward their dreams, she has been a donor and board member at RFB&D, Barnard, and New York's Metropolitan Opera, where she estimates she's attended hundreds of performances. She also taught as an adjunct professor at Columbia University's School of Business.

"I hope I've helped to dispel some prejudices," she says. "Not seeing is not a death sentence. In fact, it's not even a sentence."