Goldman Sachs has named Layli Miller-Muro, Founder and Executive Director of Tahirih Justice Center, as one of the “100 Most Intriguing Entrepreneurs” of 2012. She will be honored this October at Goldman Sachs’ Builders and Innovators Conference in Newport Beach, California, which will also feature attendees Bill Clinton and Malcolm Gladwell.
The Goldman Sachs award goes to leaders in organizations across a wide spectrum of fields, from finance to philanthropy, and aims not only to recognize achievement, but also to help recipients grow stronger by fostering discussions between established leaders in the fields and newer innovators at the Builders and Innovators conference in October. David Solomon, co-head of investment banking at Goldman Sachs, said, “This gathering is the first of its kind, bringing together emerging entrepreneurs from a diverse set of industries with more seasoned entrepreneurs to discuss how to build great and enduring companies that reshape their industries and make the world better through innovation.”
Tahirih is a recognized leader in international women’s rights and works to protect courageous immigrant women and girls fleeing violent abuses, including rape, human trafficking, female genital mutilation, forced marriage, and domestic violence. In Houston, Baltimore, and Greater Washington, DC, Tahirih provides free legal and social services and, at a federal level, engages in public policy advocacy to ensure that laws provide women and girls with long-term protection from violence. The national non-profit has long been recognized as a leader and innovator in its field, receiving under Layli’s leadership the 2007 Washington Post Award for Management Excellence and many other awards.
Through its innovative use of pro bono attorneys, Tahirih is able to quintuple its resources and turn every $1 donated into $5 of impact. Marshaling the resources of over 1,000 lawyers at large law firms, Tahirih has won 99% of its cases during the last 15 years and assisted over 14,000 women and children. In 2012, in addition to receiving the Goldman Sachs award, Layli was named one of Newsweek/Daily Beast’s 150 Most Fearless Women in the World and received the Diane Von Furstenberg People’s Voice Award.
