Global repercussion
& Mutti's long goodbye
Welcome to The Chief Brief. Every Sunday, I spotlight global, diverse, and innovative female leaders impacting the world around them. I curate and break down stories from across the world that caught my eye and help you connect with the women you should know, if you don’t already! Welcome to my passion project of building a globally aware and connected community of women leaders.
Happy Sunday!
You know summer’s over when you see the pace of life pick up, and change starts coming fast and furious. Yesterday I walked past two young men in a park in London, sitting quietly on a bench, soaking in the peace under a late summer sun. They stuck out like sore thumbs in an English park, still dressed in what they probably left Kabul in - worn looking peraahan tunbaans (long top and loose trousers).
At the start of this month, Afghans who were left behind woke up to a new/old nightmare as U.S. and NATO forces left the country in a rush, taking the few they could evacuate with them. It was just weeks before the twentieth anniversary of 9/11. Around the world people were once again being bombarded with horror stories of evacuations, killings, and another generation of women headed back behind the veil. Empty promises are already being broken with women’s protests violently stopped, and in the first of their rights removal - a Taliban ban on women’s sports. (Read the vision Afghan women had built for themselves as a goal for 2024 here & every aspect of what you need to know about what is happening now in Afghanistan here.)
Those young men were probably far too young to have memories of what brought twenty years of U.S. and NATO presence in Afghanistan. But for me, my memories of 9/11 are clear as day, even though I was on the other side of the planet in Australia. Mere months away from wrapping up my master’s degree in journalism, I remember walking into my apartment, exhausted after a long day at school, an internship at an Australian broadcast news company, and then the final shift at the restaurant/bar where I worked almost every evening. My Norwegian roommate was glued to the television, which was odd for her considering she thought television was vacuous. At first, I thought she was watching a movie with one of the twin towers ablaze. Then I saw the ‘Live’ news logo, and a second plane fly into the tower. The rest of the night is still a blur, like for many across the world. It was spent desperately trying to track down friends and family who lived or worked near the towers. It was all for naught. The phone lines were down.
But it was 9/11’s long term impact on places not directly connected to New York, or Washington D.C. that really stayed with me as a life lesson. That when a tragedy or a crisis of this magnitude occurs, ours has become a world so small that the consequences reverberate everywhere. Over the next few months an internship at a prestigious Brisbane based newspaper was spent tracking the terror money trail all the way to the Afghan border. That investigation got me an offer for my first ever job -to be the paper’s conflict zone reporter at the ripe old age of 21. But as the dust settled from the twin towers, the global economy began its depression. Jobs were lost in the U.S., in Europe, in Asia, and Australia was no exception. I lost my first dream job, before I ever began it.
Starting life during times of adversity teaches you to respect circumstance. It also teaches you resilience, redemption and recognising new opportunities. My career may have pivoted toward financial journalism out of necessity, but it allowed me access to senior roles in India’s burgeoning media industry, which would’ve been a decade or two away in a developed market. And thus, a global career was born.
A crisis destroys much in its wake. It takes humans to the depths of sorrow, desperation and sadness. It creates what seem insurmountable challenges. Since 9/11 we have seen time and again how a crisis in one part of the world changes the whole world dramatically. From the financial crisis in 2008, the EU sovereign debt crisis in 2010, to the Covid pandemic that still has us in its grip. They’ve all drastically changed the way we work, trade, the rules we follow. They’ve speeded up technological advances and made us more aware of our impact on the planet. Critically, these crises have created new opportunities and careers that we couldn’t have dreamt of twenty years ago. I for one am excited to try yet another career pivot on the twentieth anniversary of my first one.
But my most important realisation has been the sense that, every crisis and its global reverberation over the last two decades seem to have made us kinder, to ourselves and to those around us (social media aside). So, as we remember those who lost their lives in 9/11 or the many killings around the world since; Or those who have died of Covid over the past few months - in this I take hope. Hope that we have become kinder as a species. That will be redemption enough for surviving.
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Policy matters
Mutti’s long goodbye
This week, we began saying our goodbyes to Angela Merkel’s 16 years of a steady hand at the tiller of the boat that is Germany, and the EU. She steps down on September 26th, leaving Germany geographically and politically split. Merkel’s plans post Chancellorship are simpler than what lies ahead for the country. She plans to do nothing at all!
Merkel has said that since she entered politics at the age of 37, she’s never been able to think about what else she’d love to do. “And because I’ve reached the age of 67, I also don’t have endless time. I want to think very carefully in the now-approaching phase of my life about the question of what surfaces in me. Do I want to write, speak, hike, do I want to be at home, do I want to travel the world? It could indeed be that I will visit African countries.” - Read more here.
Under “mutti” or mum as she is often referred to, Germany’s turnaround story has taken it from being 'the sick man of Europe,’ to the continent’s economic powerhouse. But Merkel’s successor from her party (CDU), Armin Laschetin is struggling at the polls. What lies ahead, seems at the very least a bumpy road ahead for the EU, and an infinite combination of political coalitions with their own agendas for Germany.
No nepotism, for now
Deny it all she will, the people of the Philippines aren’t yet convinced by Davao’s Mayor and presidential daughter Sara Duterte declaration. She has said she is not running for president in next year's election after her father agreed to run for vice president.
"Yes, I am not running for a national position, as we both agreed only one of us will run for a national position in 2022," Sara told a local news outlet ABS-CBN.
President Rodrigo Duterte this week accepted his ruling PDP-Laban party's nomination for vice president during a national convention. His candidacy is largely seen by critics as a way to hold on to power and circumvent the constitutional limit of a single six-year term for presidents.
Her body, Her decision
Mexico's Supreme Court this week unanimously ruled that penalising abortion is unconstitutional. The decision means that courts can no longer prosecute abortion cases and follows the historic legalisation of the right in Argentina, which took effect earlier this year.
The ruling in what is the world's second-biggest Roman Catholic country was in stark contrast and a major victory for advocates of women's health and human rights, with parts of the U.S., specifically Texas making headlines for putting tougher laws in place against it. Here is more from the Thompson Reuters Foundation about the laws on abortion worldwide.
Biz & Tech news to know
China’s gene harvest
If you’ve used a prenatal test from BGI, you better read this.
A Reuters investigation has found the Chinese gene company which sells prenatal tests around the world developed them in collaboration with the country’s military. And it is using the tests to collect genetic data from millions of women for sweeping research on the traits of populations.
US government advisers it seems had warned in March that a vast bank of genomic data that BGI Group, is amassing and analysing with A.I could give China a path to economic and military advantage. The technology they believe could propel China to dominate the global pharma sector, and has the potential to create genetically enhanced soldiers, or engineered pathogens.
The company says it stores and re-analyses left-over blood samples and genetic data from the prenatal tests, which are sold in at least 52 countries. The test is mainly used to detect abnormalities such as Down’s syndrome in a foetus but also captures genetic information about the mother, as well as personal details such as her country, height and weight, but not her name.
BGI claims it stores the data of only women in China. But more than 8 million women having taken the test globally. While no evidence has been found to show the company has violated patient privacy agreements or regulations, its own privacy policy says data collected can be shared when it is “directly relevant to national security or national defence security” in China. A 2019 Chinese government regulation that genetic data can be a national security matter, and with China restricting foreign researchers from accessing gene data on Chinese people since 201 means - that claim of respecting international laws sounds pretty dubious.
Fashion’s back
Live shows are coming back for the Italian fashion industry. So gear up for Milan Fashion Week 2021. The physical shows/events will account for 125 of the 173 scheduled for show week, which will run from Sept. 21 to 27th. All of course predicated that the attendees and participants have a “Green Pass.” That’s the magic pass allowing access to Italian schools, bars, restaurants, cinemas and other indoor venues by certifying the person holding it is fully vaccinated, has read negative to a test or recovered from COVID-19 in the previous six months.
Prada, Fendi, Giorgio Armani, Versace, Missoni, Salvatore Ferragamo, Marni, Max Mara, Jil Sander, Alberta Ferretti, Etro and MSGM are among the established names who will present their collections in-person. Emilio Pucci, Dsquared2, Antonio Marras, GCDS and Philipp Plein are some of the brands sticking to the digital format this year.
On the move
In the U.S.
Renate Nyborg has been appointed as the new CEO of Tinder, the dating-app giant Match Group Inc's leading brand. Renate was Tinder’s General Manager for the past year. She was previously with Headspace and Apple, and also founded Pleo, a human-centric app design and development studio.
It’s Animal Farm out there!
Megan Ross has been named Chicago’s Lincoln Park Zoo’s first female president, and CEO in its 153-year history. Megan received her doctorate from the Georgia Institute of Technology after conducting a study on the effects of ultraviolet light on bird behaviour (birds see ultraviolet light as a fourth primary colour that humans do not). She subsequently got her “dream job” in 2000 as Lincoln Park Zoo’s curator of birds.
Hayley W. Murphy has been named The Detroit Zoological Society (DZS) new director and CEO. A Doctor of Veterinary Medicine, Haley is the first woman in the zoo's 93-year history to hold the position. She’s moving to DZS from Zoo Atlanta where she was deputy director.
In Brazil
Marcele Lemos has been appointed as the new CEO, Latin America Region of Coface, which specialises in trade credit insurance and adjacent specialty services. She joins the company’s Executive committee and will report to Xavier Durand, Group CEO. Marcele originally joined the Coface team in 1999 as a Risk Underwriter and was most recently Chief Operating Officer of the North America Region for the company.
In South Africa
Zimkhita Buwa is the newly appointed CEO of Quintica South Africa, a workflow platform company. She was previously COO at Brighthouse and is a Board Member of Siliconcape and the founder of Techpearlz. She was also listed in Inspiring Fifty’s Africa list.
Be a sport
Teen sensation(s)
There was a lot of nail biting, cheering, and comments like: “Can you believe how awesome they’re playing? They’re just kids!” and “Can the U.S. Open crowd quiet down and stop stressing and distracting these girls,” comments in my house last night. And it ended with a massive cheer - for both teenagers who miraculously played the most fantastic final match of a grand slam. But more so (we do have an obvious soft spot for other Brit immigrants!) for the new US Open champ Emma Raducanu.
She became the first British woman in 44 years to win a Grand Slam singles title. And shocked the tennis world by being the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam. That means, instead of the 7 back-to-back games most champions win, Emma won 10. An unheard-of feat indeed.
The 18 year-old overpowered Leylah Fernandez, a 19 year-old from Canada - winning 6-4 6-3. Their showdown lasted an hour and 51 minutes and was the first major tennis final between two teenagers in 22 years.
Emma started the summer ranked 366th and the 12th-ranked British player, she is now the world No 23. Last night’s prize money may have topped off at $2,500,000 (£1.8m) for Emma and $1.25 million for Leylah, but I’m guessing sponsors are going to be lining up around the bloc here on in for both these amazing new champs on the bloc. WTA just got a lot more exciting with these two!
Must Watch
“Costa Brava Lebanon” has been taking the international film festival circuit from Venice to Toronto by storm! And for good reason.
Director Mounia Akl says her feature debut transcended being simply a movie for her. It became a symbol of resistance for her, the cast and crew when last year’s deadly blast tore through Beirut, just a day after she had convened the team. Listen to Mounia explain the process and the drive behind this timely and touching movie.