Power Moves
Omicron alert
Happy Sunday!
Omicron - yes, that’s the word of the week indeed. But first up, lets talk about the power moves seen through the course of the past few days in global boardrooms and the women who are about to shake up the boards of some of the biggest corporates in the world.
Inditex in the family
The world’s most powerful woman in fashion is now Marta Ortega (This Tatler feature is a great introduction to her). Inditex founder Amancio Ortega’s 37 year old daughter has been groomed for the role all her life, but the announcement of her appointment as Chairman of Inditex as of April 1st, took everyone by surprise. Everyone expected her to become boss, just not right now, and not in the middle of a struggling global retail environment. Inditex says well, they think they’re in a strong position for having a new boss.
Inditex is the largest company in Spain’s blue-chip Ibex 35. It has a market value of €87 billion and owns 8 brands: Zara, Pull&Bear, Massimo Dutti, Bershka, Stradivarius, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterqüe. It is also a family controlled company, where founder Amancio is still very much a strong influence.
Working at Inditex since she was 15 years old, Marta’s most recently been at the helm of Zara, involved in its brand building and fashion proposals. The El Pais newspaper reports that when she takes over from current chair Pablo Isla, she will head the Inditex group and supervise all its operations. She will also continue her close involvement with Zara. But unlike her current role, she will no longer be as involved with the daily management of the group’s financial performance.
Don’t expect Marta to also suddenly break with her usual private persona in this new role. The El Pais speculates that splitting the role of Chair and CEO at Inditex is a formula is aimed at shielding yet another notoriously publicity shy Ortega from too much exposure (the family is famous for steering clear of the public eye). The public face of Inditex will be Óscar García Maceiras who will be appointed as CEO. He is currently Inditex’s general secretary and secretary of the board.
Disney’s new boss
Bye Bye Bob Iger, finally! It’s taken Disney a while to find its new Chair (Bob stepped down in 2020 as CEO, but stuck around as Chair till a new one could be found). When they did, it seems they didn’t go far to find a fit. But on the upside the 98 year old company now has its first female Chair in Susan Arnold. She’s been on the Disney board for 14 years, and has been an executive at Carlyle Group, having previously also held roles at Procter and Gamble and McDonald's.
“That it has taken so long to officially elect the former private equity executive as chairperson signals a bumpy process to clear a low bar,” is how Reuters Breaking views writer Jennifer Saba has described Susan’s appointment in her analysis. She writes:
“Disney’s appointment could have been more thoughtful. Arnold has been a member of Disney’s board since 2007. That puts her well above the average tenure of directors at companies in the S&P 500 Index, which stands at nearly 8 years, according to executive search firm Spencer Stuart. Arnold is bumping up against Disney’s own corporate governance guidelines that state the board won’t nominate for re-election any non-management director after completing 15 years of service. That could mean the possibility of another change of the guard on Disney’s board when she hits her term limit.” — Jennifer Saba, Reuters Breaking Views
Nationwide’s first woman boss
Debbie Crosbie has become the Nationwide’s first female CEO in its 175 year history .The UK's largest building society’s, and the second biggest mortgage lender has posted some pretty strong earnings this year, mostly driven by the demand for mortgages and a seemingly recovering economy. But Covid took a toll on Nationwide forcing it to abandon plans last year to push into business banking. It looks like poaching Debbie who is currently retail bank TSB’s CEO, might mean that plan is back on the table. Debbie became CEO of TSB after missing out on the top job at CYBG, now called Virgin Money.
Unilever’s new legal eagle
Maria Varsellona is taking up the mantle of Chief Legal Officer at Unilever. She takes over from Ritva Sotamaa who retires from the company at the end of March 2022. Maria is General Counsel & Company Secretary for global technology company ABB. Prior to that role she was Chief Legal Officer of Nokia, as well as President of Nokia Technologie. Before joining Nokia, she held senior legal positions in Tetra Laval Group, Switzerland; GE in Italy; and Hertz Europe.
Omicron
Ok, let’s talk about the Covid elephant in the room!
What do we know?
Short answer? Scientists are still figuring it out.
But they advise caution, mask wearing and social distancing till they do. Omicron is showing an unusually high number of mutations that have the potential to make the virus more transmissible and less susceptible to existing vaccines. There is some evidence Omicron can also reinfect people more readily. But there is as yet no firm evidence that it is more dangerous than previous variants like Delta which is the most prevalent in the new surges seen across the world.
Where has it been found?
After being first identified in South Africa and Botswana, cases have now been identified in at least a dozen countries on every continent except Antarctica.
What have the South Africans found?
Considering they were the first to report it to the WHO, they have the patient zero information that could be critical in determining how to handle the variant. Dr. Angelique Coetzee, chairs the South African Medical Association, and has been a regular on international news networks this week talking about her and her team’s critical findings.
Her early observations have been that Omicron may cause only mild illness. But she caveats that saying South Africa’s cases have been mostly among young people, who are less likely overall to become severely ill. Dr. Angelique has said that South Africa’s hospitals have not been overwhelmed by patients infected with the new variant till now, and most of those hospitalised have not been fully immunised. Most patients she has seen have not lost their sense of taste and smell, and have had only a slight cough.
How’s the world reacted?
Short answer? It’s being described as ‘travel apartheid.’
Dr. Ayoade Olatunbosun-Alakija co-chair of the Africa Union Africa Vaccine Delivery Alliance puts it eloquently in her opinion piece in The Guardian:
“Travel bans are an important way to contain the transmission of Covid-19, but in this instance the measure is merely performative, given that the variant is already on several continents. What we’re left with is the assumption that the ban is as discriminatory and racist as Africa’s inequitable access to vaccines, diagnostics and therapeutics. It is a myth to say that vaccine hesitancy in Africa is the cause of low vaccination rates. The US, one of the most vaccine-hesitant countries in the world, and with billions of surplus doses, has just under 60% full vaccination coverage, while some countries in Africa have less than 2%, owing to a lack of supply.” As Dr. Ayoade points out “there is evidence that this variant was circulating in the Netherlands before it was officially identified in South Africa.”
She points at African epidemiologists having a unique ability for pandemic preparedness and believes the quick response of identifying this new variant has resulted in the economies of these countries paying a heavy price. But most pointedly Dr. Ayode asks us, why are we all so surprised?
“The emergence of another variant was an inevitable result of the failure of the international system, and a response driven by domestic politics rather than global solidarity on the part of high-income countries. We knew this was where the hoarding, the delays with intellectual property (IP) waivers and the lack of cooperation on sharing technology would leave us. It was always going to end in more dangerous variants.”
What’s the WHO view?
The World Health Organization's (WHO) chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan thinks it is too early to say if vaccines would be need to be reworked in light of the data at hand, but is telling the world, ‘don’t panic’.
“How worried should we be? We need to be prepared and cautious, not panic, because we're in a different situation to a year ago. Delta accounts for 99% of infections around the world. This variant would have to be more transmissible to out-compete and become dominant worldwide. It is possible, but it's not possible to predict.” — Soumya Swaminathan
What’s global travel looking like?
Here is a snapshot by region of major travel curbs reported by Reuters. It’s mighty useful if you were planning to hop on a plane to head to family, or for time in the sun during the Christmas holidays. Just make sure you double check for updates on the destination country’s own website, since the situation is fast changing
So, to Christmas or not to Christmas?
I totally get the quandary, what to do? I am grappling with it, despite my double vaccinations being topped off with a lovely Pfizer booster this week. So I guess, it really does come down to a personal and business choice now — unless the government where you live mandates otherwise.
Here in the U.K. the Boris Christmas party train is well underway, but his own advisor Professor Peter Openshaw (a member of the U.K Government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) has gone on record to say “the chances of getting infected were too high” to have a party:
“Personally, I wouldn’t feel safe going to a party at the moment, if it involves being indoors in an enclosed space where you’re close to other people, and people are not wearing masks. Even if they’ve been tested and vaccinated, I wouldn’t feel safe.” - Prof. Peter Openshaw
News-Makers to know
In Government & Policy
Goodbye Mutti, Hello Annalena
Say hello to a whole new bunch of folks in power in Germany. It’s a three way coalition led by Olaf Schulz — between his Social Democrats party (SPD), Greens and the Free Democrats (FDP) which is a pro-business party. Its even being described as a “traffic-light” coalition (named after the parties’ red, green and yellow colours).
One name you need to get familiar with is, the Green’s boss in charge, Annalena Baerbock — She is now the country’s first female foreign minister, and that’s making the likes of China a tad nervous. Reports suggest she is probably going to be an outspoken foreign minister considering she’s made her feelings about Germany's previous foreign policies pretty clear (and she’s not been impressed). She recently urged a tougher stance against Beijing resulting in China's embassy in Berlin hitting back, saying the world needs "bridge builders instead of wall builders." How much power Olaf will actually give her remains to be seen according to German media reports. They highlight that most foreign policy during Angela Merkel’s 16 year tenure was conducted from the chancellery.
You can get a peek into her thinking and approach about the policy challenges Germany faces and the more immediate crisis created by COVID-19 with her first interview with Der Spiegel magazine.
Nuclear may not be out of fashion
Jennifer Granholm thinks it is not the end of the road for nuclear energy in California. The U.S. energy secretary believes renewed public support for nuclear, a low carbon source of energy could potentially allow the state to reconsider closing its last nuclear power plant.
In Business & Tech
Should’ve bought twitter
When I saw the news that Cathie Wood bought twitter stock as Jack Dorsey announced his resignation, I knew I’d done my portfolio some serious disservice by umm’ing and ahh’ing at the news instead. The way Ark Invest has performed, you know she’s probably going to hit jackpot with that move!
Three of her funds snapped up nearly $49 million of Twitter shares (approximately 1.11 million shares) as the stock slid on Jack’s news. The last time she went that big on Twitter in a day was back in July.
Setting a reminder for self: Got to keep an eye for that next twitter dip -perhaps when new and seemingly shy and retiring CEO Parag Agrawal upsets Wall Street somehow?
Brazil’s Nubank slashes valuation
Brazilian digital bank Nu Holdings slashed the targeted price range for its U.S. stock market flotation by about 18% this week, making its valuation come in at roughly $40 billion. Nubank’s founders David Velez (who is also the CEO), Edward Wible (CTO), and Cristina Junqueira (now the boss of Nubank Brazil) seem to be following a recent trend seen amongst fin techs looking to list across the world, as a recent global sell-off in technology stocks weighs on IPOs (think Mobikwik’s news last week).
But the Nubank IPO pricing story is a complex complex one, per Tech Crunch, They’ve done the analysis of what this means for not just Nubank but Brazilian fintechs overall. You can read the analysis here.
Betting big on hydrogen
Martina Merz has a plan for Thyssenkrupp’s hydrogen future, and she’s betting big. While currently making up a small portion of the German industrial group’s revenues, H2 is expected to play a massive role in the energy transition over the next decade or two.
The Thyssenkrupp’s CEO is logically therefore pushing for H2 subsidiary Uhde Chlorine Engineers (UCE) to be IPO’ed in the second quarter of next year. According to The Handelsblatt, the company could be valued for as much as €4-6 billion. Proceeds from the IPO per the German paper, will be used to strengthen the group’s finances and once more allow the distribution of a dividend to shareholders. The Handlesblatt also reports that the IPO process is being handled by Citigroup and Deutsche Bank.
European Officials agree
The cost of producing green hydrogen with renewable energy is set to fall and the capacity to produce it in Europe and nearby countries will likely surpass current targets by 2030, per European Union officials. They’ve also signalled a significant shift in the bloc’s focus when it comes to H2. Rather than personal mobility, the EU’s hydrogen strategy will now focus on the decarbonisation of heavy industries like steelmaking and chemicals, which cannot fully electrify and need liquid and gaseous fuels as feedstock or for high-temperature heat.
The third iteration of the European Commission’s hydrogen joint undertaking, launched on Monday (29 November) was called the “Fuel Cell and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking.” It has now been renamed the “Clean Hydrogen Partnership”.
This week European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen further underscored that focus by stating high gas prices due to strong demand and lower stocks have driven up the cost of making the carbon-emitting version (grey H2), meaning cleaner technology can start to compete. The EU’s objective according to von der Leyen is to bring the cost of green H2 “below €1.8 per kilo by 2030.”
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Caught My Eye
The Good to know
‘Big Bag’ design circularity
Sisters Carla, Ornella and Mora Basilotta, owners of Fracking Design in Argentina are converting oil industry waste, into fashion. They recycle the plastic sacks used by oil and gas firms (based in the country's Vaca Muerta shale formation) into shoes, bags and purses.
Vaca Muerta is a massive shale formation the size of Belgium, holding not just significant oil reserves but is considered the second largest natural gas reserve in the world. Companies here use thousands of the bags to hold sand (frac sand) used during the production process. Most of these so called “Big Bags” are not recycled but burned, releasing significant greenhouse gases.
Per the sisters, a single fracking well uses approximately 30,000 - 40,000 tons of sand and about 26,500 bags. The plastic that Fracking Design recycles they say is “equivalent to 1,100 trees that would be needed to absorb the carbon dioxide that these sacks would generate if they had been burned.”
Afghanistan Watch
EU diplomacy
Several European countries, including France, are looking into opening a joint diplomatic mission in Afghanistan. If it works out, EU ambassadors could open a dialogue with a Taliban that the world refuses to recognise as a legitimate government. This in turn, could help facilitate aid for the millions of women and children at risk of hunger and death in the country.
Ban on forced marriage
The Taliban has issued a decree barring forced marriage in Afghanistan, saying women should not be considered “property”. The decree also states: “Both (women and men) should be equal,” and “no one can force women to marry by coercion or pressure”.
Sporty
The Women’s Tennis Association took a pretty drastic decision this week that is being applauded around the world — it suspended activities in China until it is satisfied over the treatment of one of its players, Peng Shuai, by the Chinese state. WTA’s boss Steve Simon wants to know Peng is safe, and nothing else will suffice as an answer.
About a month ago Peng posted a detailed note on social media about sexual abuse by retired vice-premier Zhang Gaoli. Thirty minutes later her online presence was scrubbed. She disappeared, only to re-emerge in a strange Chinese government setup conversation after concerns were voiced by her fellow players in the WTA. She then disappeared again.
“If we walk away from what we have requested, what we are telling the world is that not addressing sexual assault with the respect and seriousness that it requires is OK, and it is just not.” - Steve Simon, CEO WTA
This Guardian story delves into what is quickly developing into one of the oddest stand offs we’ve seen in recent history: the governing body of women’s tennis against the governing global power of the coming century.
Entertaining Stuff
Royal lawsuit
Megan Markle won her lawsuit against the Mail on Sunday for publishing parts of a private letter to her father. The fight in the UK appeals courts between the Duchess of Sussex and the paper had become quite ugly with revelations of information sharing with the authors of a book (which she told the court she had forgotten about), email exchanges with her then communications chief to discuss the wordings of the letter in case it was leaked to the press, or the use of the word “daddy” to address her father to evoke empathy in case the letter indeed found its way into the public domain.
The court’s decision to focus on case law instead of wide ranging issues surrounding the royals, allows Megan to put down a strong marker over her privacy - and the slam-dunk ruling allows her to avoid any awkward cross-examination as a witness. But the legal win hasn’t moved the needle for the Duchess in the court of public opinion. That remains as divided (and toxic) as before.
Royal birthdays
Wishing a very Happy Birthday to Princess Aiko, the only child of Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako who turned 20 on Wednesday. This weekend for her has marked what the Japanese call the “coming-of-age ceremonies” at the Imperial Palace in central Tokyo.
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