Click here to register for this event
This event is generously sponsored by Professionals for NonProfits (PNP)

Victoria Bjorklund is a Partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP where she heads the Firm’s Exempt Organizations Group. She advises public charities, private foundations, boards, and donors.

In 2001, Ms. Bjorklund was appointed by the Secretary of the Treasury to serve as one of six exempt-organization members on the IRS’s Tax Exempt/Government Entities Advisory Committee and served as Chair for 2004-2005. In June 2005, she received the IRS Tax Exempt Division Commissioner’s Award for “ground-breaking service” to the Advisory Committee.

Ms. Bjorklund was named a David Rockefeller Fellow for 1997-1998 as a rising civic leader in New York City. From 1989 through 2001, she served as a director, secretary and still serves as pro bono legal counsel for Doctors Without Borders, the emergency medical relief organization that was awarded the 1999 Nobel Peace Prize. She is also a director of and pro bono counsel for the Robin Hood Foundation. She chaired the ABA Tax Section Committee on Exempt Organizations from 2001 through 2003 and now serves as Co-Chair of the Subcommittee on International Philanthropy. Ms. Bjorklund was honored in May 2002 as ABA Tax Section “Pro Bono Lawyer of the Year” in recognition of her 9/11 work. She also accepted the “Pro Bono Firm of the Year” award from the NYS Bar Association in recognition of the Firm’s 9/11 work. The Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York City and Lawyers Alliance of New York, Inc. honored Ms. Bjorklund for her outstanding volunteer service in responding to the legal needs arising from September 11. In 2003, she received the Commissioner’s Award, the highest honor the Commissioner of Internal Revenue can bestow, for her “timely, creative and nimble response to 9/11’s unprecedented legal challenges.” In 2005, she received the Assistant Commissioner’s Award for her contributions to the IRS Advisory Committee. In 2006, Ms. Bjorklund was appointed to the Board of Trustees, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton.

Ms. Bjorklund speaks and writes frequently on exempt-organization subjects. Every year since 1989 she has spoken at the ALI-ABA Charitable Giving Program on “Choosing Among Private Foundations, Supporting Organizations, and Donor-Advised Funds,” a topic she also addresses at the annual Georgetown Conference. She is the co-author with Jim Fishman and Dan Kurtz of New York Nonprofit Law and Practice (LexisNexis, 2d Ed. 2007).

She earned her J.D. at Columbia University School of Law, a Ph.D. in Medieval Studies from Yale University, and a B.A. magna cum laude from Princeton University, where she graduated in three years and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Ms. Bjorklund is a former member of the Firm’s Pro Bono Committee and in 2006, she was appointed co-chair of the Diversity Committee.

Ronna D. Brown is President of the Philanthropy New York, a nonprofit membership organization of more than 285 grantmaking foundations and corporations in the tri-state New York area and beyond. Its members award approximately $4 billion annually to charitable organizations in New York and around the globe. Its mission is to promote and support the practice of effective philanthropy for the public good.  

Prior to joining Philanthropy New York in August, 2007, Ronna was the President of the BBB Center, a 501 (c) (3) organization that engages research and educational projects for the Better Business Bureau system.   In addition, Ronna served for nine years as the President and CEO of the BBB of Metropolitan New York and its foundation.   During her tenure in the BBB system, she was also a board member of BBB’s Wise Giving Alliance, a national philanthropic watchdog organization. Ronna was the co-chair of the original Standards Review Panel that created the current guidelines used by the BBB system nationwide for reviews of local and national charities.

Before her service in the Better Business Bureau system, Ronna was the Deputy Bureau Chief of the Consumer Frauds and Protection Bureau of the New York State Attorney General’s office. Ronna is also a past chair of the Committee on Consumer Affairs and member of the NonProfit Committee at the New York City Bar Association. She is on the Board of Directors of Governance Matters. Ronna is admitted to the practice of law in New York and California.