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Nov. 2, 2005
Hinton Native Sylvia Mathews Named One of World’s 50 Women to Watch by Wall
Street Journal
By David M. Kinchen
Editor, Huntington News Network
Hinton, WV (HNN) --- Hinton native Sylvia Mathews has been chosen by the
Wall Street Journal as one of “The 50 Women to Watch -- 2005.” The
selection was not limited to the United States; it spans the globe.
Mathews, 40, is in good company: Among the others are Carly Fiorina, Oprah
Winfey, Margaret Whitman of Ebay and many other superachievers. They were
honored in a special section of the Monday, Oct. 31, 2005 Wall Street
Journal, which had as a cover illustration a color photo mosaic of all 50
women.
Mathews, daughter of Dr. William Mathews, a retired optometrist and Hinton
Mayor Cleo Mathews, is chief operating officer of the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation in Seattle, WA. According to the Wall Street Journal article by
Marilyn Chase, Mathews “shapes strategy on health and education grants for
the $28.8 billion philanthropy launched by the Microsoft founder.” Last
year, the Gates Foundation approved $1.465 billion in grants, Chase wrote.
During the 1990s, Mathews served the Clinton Administration in various
posts, including deputy chief of staff to Clinton at age 32. Her first post
was staff director of the National Economic Council at age 28; she was
deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget at age 34.
Mathews is a 1987 cum laude graduate of Harvard University, majoring in
government and – like Clinton – was a Rhodes Scholar. Before joining the
Clinton Administration she worked for two years at McKinsey & Co., one of
the world’s top consulting firms, in New York City.
When he was informed about his daughter’s selection as one of the world’s
top 50 women to watch in business, Bill Mathews expressed delight and said
his daughter, a granddaughter of Greek immigrants, was an achiever who was
interested in politics and government at an early age, working at the age of
7 on the campaign of Jay Rockefeller when he ran for governor of West
Virginia.
U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-WV, is quoted in the article as saying he would
like to see Sylvia Mathews as Gov. Mathews or U.S. Sen. Mathews some day.
Rockefeller is a big fan of Sylvia Mathews; reporter Marilyn Chase quotes
him as saying about Mathews: “There’s an inner calm which I suspect has a
lot of tempered steel in it.”
She stayed with the Clinton Administration until the end in early 2001 and
was hired by the Gates Foundation in January 2001.
