Blink and you could've missed it
Edition 75
Happy Sunday!
Own our beauty
Remember when the Miss Universe contest was owned by Donald Trump? Well, how times change! In 2022, the pageant and its parent company Miss Universe Organization (MUO) has been bought by a Thai celebrity media tycoon Jakapong "Anne" Jakrajutatip for $20 million. It’s the first time the organisation will be non-American, and woman owned, and boy does she have big plans for it.
What’s lined up? A ‘Miss Universe Water’ - Anne promises it will make you beautiful. And a new comprehensive revenue structure for the Miss Universe brand, beyond the traditional channels of income generation. The MUO per its new owner will focus on “sustainable business development.” And that includes a plan for a ‘One Universe platform’ that will “unite women from all backgrounds to showcase their beauty and talent on one stage.”
Anne is an outspoken activist of transgender rights, being a transgender woman herself. She is also the CEO and biggest shareholder of JKN Global Group Plc. which conducted the full acquisition of MUO. This makes Anne and JKN sole owners and shareholders of MUO, including all the businesses, brands, and trademarks such as the Miss USA and the Miss Teen USA pageants. (Read more on Asia News Network)
First woman to launch a billion $ hedge fund
Blink and you’d have missed it! This should’ve been plastered all over the front pages of global financial papers but buried deep in the news was the story of Divya Nettimi. This month she became the first woman to launch her own billion-dollar hedge fund. The Stanford and Harvard Business School grad previously worked at Goldman Sachs and Viking Global Investors. (Read more on Bloomberg)
Expect another billion-dollar woman led hedge fund to launch in 2023. Mala Gaonkar, a 52 year old investor’s firm SurgoCap Partners is expected to launch then, with at least $1 billion investment. (Read more at She the People)
Gender parity & MBA schools
University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton 2023 MBA class is the first in its 140-year history to be majority female. In comparison, other top ranked U.S. B-schools lag far behind. (Read more on Bloomberg)
In the meantime, in Europe which has traditionally lagged U.S. business schools when it comes to gender parity — Oxford Saïd Business School is breaking the trend. The school released its 2023 MBA class profile — which shows an increase in the number of women from 44% to 48% in a class of 313 students. Compare that to INSEAD (38%), London Business School (37%), HEC Paris (36%), IESE (38%), SDA Bocconi (35%), National University of Singapore Business School (37%), and CEIBS (40%). Only Cambridge Judge Business School with a 47% ratio of women students comes close to Oxford’s numbers. (Read more at Yahoo Finance)
The “great breakup”
A new report by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.org paints a pretty dismal picture of the state of play of Women in leadership in the United States. And frankly, this would be representative of much the planet. (Read the report ‘Women in the workplace 2022’)
The report found women leaders in corporate America are leaving their jobs at the highest rate since the attrition survey began 5 years ago — 10.5 % in 2021-22, compared to 9% for men. The survey included women from senior managers all the way to the C-suite. It was based on employment data from 330 companies and surveys of more than 40,000 employees.
Other depressing stats from the report:
Women leaders are 2x as likely as men leaders to be mistaken for someone more junior.
37% of women leaders have had a coworker get credit for their idea, compared to 27% of men.
Women leaders are 2x as likely as their male counterparts to spend substantial time on DEI work.
40% of women leaders say their DEI work isn’t acknowledged at all in performance reviews.
For every 100 men who are promoted from entry-level to manager, only 87 women are promoted, and only 82 women of color are.
Women make up 40% of managers, with only 1 in 4 in the C-suite being a woman; and with only 1 in 20, a woman of color.
There were a few positives in the report. Consumer packaged goods, media and entertainment, healthcare, and the public and social sectors saw the highest retention of women from entry-level to the C-Suite.
Every other sector is simply too dismal to mention!
It’s ugly for women politicians
It seems decency is a thing of the past in U.S. politics. If the chants on January 6th in the halls of the Capitol building of “Nancy, where are you?” weren’t terrifying enough, this week brought that nightmare home for the U.S. Speaker. Literally!
Nancy Pelosi’s 82 year old husband Paul Pelosi was attacked in their home in San Francisco, when the Speaker was in Washington DC. Mr. Pelosi’s skull was fractured with a hammer by a 42 year old assailant, known for his conspiracy theory posts on social media. As he was attacking the elderly partner of the 3rd most powerful politician in the U.S., David Depape was heard by police shouting, ‘Where’s Nancy?” He has now been charged with attempted murder. (Read more on CNN)
Another G7 New PM
In addition to the U.K’s 3rd PM in as many months, far right leader Giorgia Meloni became Italy’s first female Prime Minister this week. Her maiden speech saw her distance herself from fascism (the foundations on which party was built). It was an act welcomed by more moderate commentators and viewed as "performative" by her critics. She is now under the gun to stand true to her inaugural words with the immediate challenge of how to deal with two migrant rescue boats on Italy’s shores. The boats belong to NGO’s flying the flags of Norway and Germany. (Read more at The Guardian)
Quick backgrounder: Giorgia is no feminist. She opposes female quotas in boardrooms and the parliament. And she has appointed just 6 women to her 24-strong cabinet. Get to know the new Italian PM in the BBC story below:
Can’t ignore the British elephant in the room
We’re all sick of it by now, but the one realisation I’ve had in the past month of living through the U.K.’s various crises - Life never works out the way you plan. Last weekend I was supposed to have finally moved back into my home, after months of refurbishment and delays. It was going to be my silver lining in a dismal economic environment that’s already driven the build cost astronomically high. The move didn’t happen, supply delays continue, and my home is still a building site. That’s life.
Rishi Sunak, the U.K.’s new Prime Minister promised integrity and the rebuilding of trust and unity in his first speech as PM this week. He probably never thought he’d be giving that speech, let alone moving into No.10 just 7 weeks after being rejected by his party in favour of Liz. Talk about a comeback kid.
Liz Truss on the flip side, also likely did not expect her party and pals to boot her out after backing her absolutely insane policies through an unnecessary long leadership fight with Rishi. And definitely not within 45 days. They did. She left, and her outgoing speech at the door of No.10 reeked of a person in complete denial of her catastrophic failures. By bringing her daughters into the public eye at that moment, I’m not sure she did them any favours either. But thankfully in the U.K. we mostly leave politicians’ kids alone. Even Larry the No.10 cat seem to be eyeing them with concern.
Get to know the women in the Sunak Cabinet
If you’ve never heard of the ‘back once again’ U.K. Home secretary Suella Braverman, you’re not missing much. She’s probably one of the most right wing of politicians within the U.K.’s conservative party (my apologies if your politics skews to the extreme right - you’re probably not going to like much of what I write).
Suella also probably didn’t expect to get caught breaching security protocols when she was Liz’s minister in charge of the U.K.’s internal security (as Home Secretary). She did. She had to quit. And SHE was the straw that broke Liz’s proverbial camel’s back. When she gave Rishi, her backing, Suella in all likelihood must’ve hoped for a decent gig in return. But what she got back from the new ‘integrity’ PM was the 3rd most powerful job in government, just 6 days after she had to quit it.
I’m guessing Liz’s bestie and her Deputy PM Therese Coffey didn’t expect to remain in the U.K. cabinet either - she has. But strangely in a role she has no experience in - The Environment. Turns out with Rishi declining to attend COP27, it’s pretty clear this government doesn’t care about Climate Change.
Penny Mordaunt stays on as leader of the house of commons, despite challenging the new PM for the role till the n’th hour.
Kemi Badenoch ran against Rishi in the 1st leadership race 2 months ago. She continues as International Trade Secretary and additionally has been given the job for Minister for equalities.
Gillian Keegan has become the UK's 10th education secretary in 12 years (don’t get me started on the history of that gig!)
Michelle Donelan is now the U.K.’s culture, digital, sports Secretary.
Victoria Prentis is the new Attorney General. (Read the full list of U.K. ministers on Reuters.
Women are fewer and far between in this government led by a ethnic minority man. Under a quarter (22%) of Rishi’s cabinet are women. Less than Liz’s 32%, Boris Johnson’s 24% and Theresa May’s 30%. As for people of colour - that’s a grand total of 5 out of 31 cabinet members.
It doesn’t bode well for the first man of colour in No.10, who has a world of expectations from every minority group, resting heavy on his shoulders.
But then again it is the conservative party. Reshuffles happen. Backs are stabbed. Numbers fluctuate and life is unpredictable. Just like the revelation this morning that the Russians hacked good ol’ Liz’s phone when she was still Boris’ foreign secretary. (Read more at Sky News)
As it turns out, unless it kills you— no matter who you are - life does always work out in the end.
Well, maybe not if you are Liz Truss #Hakunamatata.