Webber, Franklin win top Women to Watch awards

Amy Webber, CEO of Cambridge Investment Research Inc., and Mary Beth Franklin, veteran business journalist and contributing editor at InvestmentNews, were honored Tuesday evening in New York as the recipients of two InvestmentNews Women to Watch awards recognizing the achievements of women in the financial advice industry.

Webber won the Alexandra Armstrong Lifetime Achievement Award and Franklin the Trailblazer Award.

Both Webber and Franklin stand out for their high-profile and impactful roles in the broad financial advice industry.

"I’m honored and humbled," Webber said. A bedrock lesson she learned early in her more than 30-year career in the financial advice industry is to "do what’s right, even when no one is looking," she said. "Today, if you continue to do that, good things will come. I believe in that and it’s helped me."

"I am honored and delighted to accept this year’s Trailblazer award in recognition for my efforts to change the conversation about retirement income planning," Franklin said. "I am proud that Social Security and Medicare are now important elements of financial planning, but I could not have done it without the platform InvestmentNews gave me."

Webber, one of less than a handful of women CEOs leading a broker-dealer, rose through the executive ranks at Cambridge, a leading independent broker-dealer, to become its chief executive in 2017. And Franklin, the doyenne of Social Security, was in the spotlight for her work in financial journalism in Washington, a boy's club when she started covering Capitol Hill in 1979 for United Press International.

The Alexandra Armstrong Lifetime Achievement Award is named for financial planning pioneer and leader Armstrong, who has spent more than five decades helping women plan strong financial futures and promoting the financial advice business as a top career for women. The award is given annually to one outstanding woman annually in the financial advisory and investment sphere.

In total, 40 women received awards and honors at Tuesday's event for their work across the financial advice and planning industries, in categories ranging from Rising Star to Portfolio Power Performer.

Since 2008, when Webber became president of Cambridge Investment Research, the firm's total revenue has climbed from $241 million to $1.37 billion, and the number of producing financial advisers has grown from about 1,300 to more than 3,800. In addition to her work at Cambridge, Webber has served on the boards of the Financial Services Institute, a leading trade group for independent broker-dealers and registered investment advisers, and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Inc.

"From a young age, I chose the superhero Wonder Woman to be my idol," Webber said. "Fast forward 40 years, she is still with me."

It wasn't her crime-fighting skills, though impressive, that Webber found most important about the superhero. Instead, it was the inspiration she provided that gave Webber the ability to find her own strengths and superpowers, and, most importantly, to help others find their own.

"The people matter most," Webber said. "Our purpose is to make a difference, and we do this so many ways, each and every day."