Launch of a new year and The Chief Brief
2021's start has been bumpy, but the ladies are showing us how it's done!
Welcome to The Chief Brief, my newsletter spotlighting global leaders, who just happen to be women. For years it’s frustrated me no end, that when I open my chosen news outlets there is barely a story featuring women, let alone diverse, global leaders. To save you the hunt, I’ll update you every week on the news that’s grabbed my attention. I’ll also introduce you (their public profiles, of course) to the newsmakers in the driving seat of innovation or breaking barriers, but most importantly the women changing and influencing the world.
The Chief Brief, is a first step to building a globally connected community of women leaders. If you enjoy reading the brief, please spread the word!
The Headliners
There was so much hope riding on the start of 2021 when we all went into the holiday season, gripping our wine glasses for dear life! Vaccines, a new U.S. President, a Brexit deal, travel corridors, deal flows and global trade making a comeback. The reality maybe as disappointing as our ability to keep New Year resolutions but leave it to the ladies to show us how it’s done!
Wall to wall news coverage of the insurrection at Capitol Hill may make the most positive of us think the era of liberal democracy is in its death throes. It’s given world leaders a pause for thought about the role of the United States in the world. But holding up the light in the darkness has been the power of women preserving that democracy with the blue tide at Georgia’s senate run-off elections and the driving force of Stacey Abrams and her team at Fair Fight, along with LaTosha Brown at Black Voters Matter. Read more at The Guardian
China’s crackdown on pro-democracy activists was almost overshadowed by the antics of Trump supporters on the Hill. Betting on the world being too distracted and inward looking to step in with any meaningful force, China’s getting on with its own agenda. This, when Carrie Lam’s government is also flipping U.S sanctions imposed on them. Using it instead to financially cripple activists. But it’s young activists like Agnes Chow (described as the the ‘Real Mulan’) who are showing the world, despite imprisonment, the fight for freedom can go on. Read this at The Financial Times & also this at The Financial Times. In addition, do read the Radio Free Asia
The Science of it all
This week, Moderna’s vaccine joined the elite ‘approved for use’ club in the EU and the UK. That’s brought a small dose of positivity to a region battered by the new Covid variant, exponentially rising cases, and the return of lockdowns. It’s once again spotlighted the women developing the biggest and quickest scientific breakthrough in human history. Read Bloomberg for an opinion on why all the prominent vaccines are developed by women
Meet the 13 women (you read that right!) scientists saving lives
NIH-Moderna:
Dr. Melissa J Moore A tenured professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, she started on the company’s advisory board and joined Moderna as CSO in 2016, changing the trajectory of mRNA research. Read more about her at The Guardian
Moderna worked closely with Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett and her team at the NIH to develop the Covid vaccine. She has been famously lauded by NIH Director Dr. Fauci, for being at the forefront of vaccine development. Read more about her at NBC News
Dr. Lisa Jackson is Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute’s (KPWHRI) principal investigator (PI) for the Vaccine Safety Datalink Project sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She conducted the Phase 3 trials of Moderna’s vaccine and is set to do the same for J&J. Read more about her at W&M News
Oxford-AstraZeneca:
Dr. Sarah Gilbert started with finding new ways to change brewing yeast, and went on to developing vaccines for Malaria, Ebola, Mers and now Covid-19. To think, this mother of triplets almost left science while studying for her doctorate! Thank goodness she didn’t! Read more about her at the BBC
Dr. Teresa (Tess) Lambe is associate professor at the Jenner Institute at Oxford University and says of her team’s 10 month accomplishment: “It has been all hands to the pump, it's been seven days a week and there's been no break. It's been relentless. Luckily it's paid off,” Read more about her at The Irish Times
BioNTech-Pfizer:
The Chief Medical Officer of BioNTech Dr. Özlem Türeci and her CEO husband Ugur Sahin need no introduction, after the couple became the ground-breaking scientists first past the post in the western world’s vaccine development race. Read more about the FT’s People of the Year
Katalin Karikó fled from communist rule in Hungary in the 1980s hiding all her money in her daughter’s teddy bear, fought her way past the critics of RNA research in the 1990s, brought up an Olympic gold winning daughter and now her work on the Covid vaccine has her in the running as a favourite for the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Read more about her at France 24
Pfizer’s head of vaccine research Kathrin Jansen has done vaccine magic at least twice before. But she took the impact of Covid19 on New York personally. Nothing else mattered to her but development of the vaccine. Watch her 60 minutes interview on CBS
Novavax:
From being a farmer’s daughter in rural India with not enough money for shoes to go to school, to leading an all-female vaccine development team at Novavax, Dr. Nita Patel's personal story as interesting as her genius research papers. Read more about her at Science
Sputnik V:
Under Chief researcher Dr. Elena Smolyarchuk, who heads the Center for Clinical Research on Medications at Sechenov University, Russia was able to claim pole position in the vaccine development race back in July with the Sputnik V, though the efficacy of the vaccine has questioned across the world since. Read more at Business Standard
Sinopharm:
Major General Chen Wei, from the Chinese Academy of Military Medical Sciences is predictably not on social media but she did lead the phase 3 trials of two of the Chinese vaccines developed by Sinopharm. She’s been celebrated in China and won the country’s People’s Hero award for her contributions. Read more about her at CGTN
Bharat Biotech:
You won’t find much about her online, but Dr. K Sumathy is the brains behind the homegrown Covaxin developed by Bharat Biotech and backed by Indian PM Narendra Modi who has celebrated it as a homegrown solution for a country in desperate need for it. She is also the mastermind who developed vaccines for Chikungunya and Zika. Read more at The Financial Express
Johnson & Johnson:
J&J’s Janssen Institute’s Global Head of Viral Vaccine Discovery and Translational Medicine Dr. Hanneke Schuitemaker has worked on HIV & Ebola vaccines and is now geared up for the Phase 3 trials for the J&J Covid Vaccine. Read more about her at J&J
Policy matters, but only to fix a crisis
Turns out 5 times is the charm, or not. A 5th draft of Japan’s gender equality policy had conservatives hot under the collar. The issue? Allowing women to have a different surname to their spouse. That idea was dropped, and quickly. Read more at The Diplomat
Over the holidays, pro-European Maida Sandu defeated the incumbent Kremlin backed President Igor Dodon 58-42% in Moldova’s Presidential elections. The election of the 48-year-old Harvard Alum and former Prime Minister of Moldova has put an EU-sized spanner in the works for Kremlin’s vision of Moldova, which it considers in its “zone of privileged interests.” Read more at Visegrad Insight
Dr. Vjosa Osmani, Kosovo’s 47-year-old Speaker of the Assembly has taken on the role of acting President of Europe’s youngest country. Her predecessor stepped down to be tried for war crimes. She has called for elections on February 14th to get the people’s mandate, to clean up the country’s corruption and war crime riddled politics. Read more at The Times
Go big or go home! That’s Vietnam’s motto when it comes to promoting women’s participation in state management. The country’s Prime Minister wants 60% of key positions in state agencies to be held by women by 2025. Read more at Vietnam Plus
Will she, or won’t she? Become the first woman to join China’s power broking inner circle - the politburo standing committee, that is. The answer about Su Chunlan’s future is being made as difficult to figure out, as the whereabouts of Jack Ma. She’s certainly primed for the role, after years of being the only woman in the Politburo itself. Read more at The Diplomat
The Innovators are innovating
SuperGLUE, (created in 2019 by Facebook, New York University, the University of Washington, and DeepMind researchers) set a new benchmark for Artificial Intelligence (AI). The benchmark was created to gauge research progress in language understanding and adapting to issues like gender and racial bias by AI. Microsoft and Google’s AI models are already beating human performance on it. Read more at Venture Beat
Amsterdam’s ambition to become Europe’s Silicon Valley isn’t a secret. But the city’s bro-scene like other tech hubs can be challenging, for the uninitiated. The city’s female VCs such as Janneke Niessen, Eva de Mol, Laura Rooseboom and others are determined to change that. Read more at Silicon Canals
Diversity and inclusion have gone mainstream in the United States with data driven program strategies. Kanary’s is the first Black and female-founded DEI technology company in the U.S and Mandy Price and Star Carter have now raised $3 million in their seed round and a total $4.6 million to date. Read more at Tech Crunch
Have you met?
Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala - She was set to become the first African and woman (and was everyone’s choice, except Donald Trump) to be Director General of the World Trade Organization. But the meeting to confirm her appointment was suddenly cancelled. Also in the running for the top job (& will also take on the title of the first woman to lead the WTO, if she is appointed instead) is South Korea’s Yoo Myung Hee. The meeting hasn’t been rescheduled yet, so keep your eyes peeled as Joe Biden becomes U.S President. Read more at CityAM
Deborah Zurkow is shaking up the investment world’s boys club! She is Global Head of Investments at Allianz Global Investors, and a member of the Executive Committee. Deborah took on responsibility for leading AllianzGI’s investment platform in January last year, which comprises Alternatives, Equities, Fixed Income and Multi-Asset strategies. Read more at Portfolio Advisor
On the move
India: It’s rare to see a woman head up a booze company. Even rarer in India. Hina Nagarajan, currently Diageo’s Africa emerging markets boss, will take over as CEO of India’s biggest liquor company, United Spirits (Diageo owns it) in July. Read more at The Times of India
Singapore: She’s the first woman to head a Singapore bank and OCBC Bank’s first female CEO. Helen Wong’s biggest strength? She knows China like the back of her hand. Read more at The Straits Times
Thailand: Ali Baba’s South East Asian arm Lazada has the company’s first female country CEO. Jessica Liu has been around the Chinese e-commerce block and knows the Ali Baba formula down pat. Read more at Deal Street Asia
Tunisia: ‘An American-trained engineer, inventor, and Silicon Valley entrepreneur,’ is how Olfa Hamdi is described in the North Africa Post. Tunisair’s new CEO will need all the grit and innovative spirit of that description to turn around a troubled airline. Read more at North Africa Post
Nigeria: After a stellar 30-year career, Nneka Onyeali-Ikpe has become Nigeria’s Fidelity Bank’s first female head. Read more at Pulse
United States: Dava Newman’s been reaching for the stars and redefining how far we humans can go in space for a few decades now. Her ground-breaking work has landed her squarely at the top of the MIT Media Lab (after its troubled year) as its first female director. She starts in July 2021. Read more at MIT News
Caught my eye
The CIA wants diversity ya’ll. The agency is hiring! Read more at ABC News
Germany’s boards have a female problem, and they want quotas to solve it. Read more at Euronews
Mining giant BHP has been trying to shake off its ‘boys club’ image for 4 years. It’s not doing too bad in achieving that either! Read more at The Sydney Morning Herald
Moscow’s finally hiring women to drive its trains. Read more at Kyiv Post
The sporting spirit is alive
The 43rd Dakar rally, touted as the toughest rally race in the world is being held January 3-15th in Saudi Arabia this year. Despite calls for boycott to support Saudi women driving activists who have been imprisoned, the race is ongoing with 9 serious female challengers. Read more at Jalopnik
Katie Sowers, the NFL’s first female coach to make it to the Superbowl will not return to the 49’ers, just one season after breaking the glass ceiling. Read more at CBS Sports
It’s been a man’s world on the cricket pitch, but Australian umpire Claire Polosak is about to change 144 years of test match history. And it’s not the first time she’s done it. Read more at ESPN cricinfo
This week in History
Nancy Pelosi may have dominated the news cycle all week, but she was first elected Speaker of the House of Representatives on January 4th, 2007. That year, she also became the first woman to hold the office.
The People’s Republic of China was first recognised by the United Kingdom on January 6th 1950.
A Must Watch
Celeste Headlee: 10 ways to have a better conversations
And I leave you with the Tip of the Week from Sarah Cooper’s
‘Tricks to Appear Smart In Meetings - How to get by without even trying’ 2021 Calendar
(The best Christmas present ever and a must share)
Meeting Speak Cheat Sheet
“This wasn’t on my calendar” = I deleted this from my calendar
“Duly noted” = I’ve already forgotten about it
“Lets table that” = That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard
“Can you repeat that?” = I was looking at my phone
“To your earlier point…” = I’m kissing your ass
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