Welcome to The Chief Brief. Every Sunday, I spotlight global, diverse, and innovative female leaders, and the news influencing them to change the world. The CB curates news from around the world, breaks down the story, and helps you connect with the women making news! And its a passion project to build a globally connected community of women leaders.
Happy Sunday!
Let’s talk about
Scandals and cock-ups
They seem to be all encompassing when it comes to public life, politics and leadership. Even Covid hasn’t seemed to slow them down. Most of us can’t be bothered anymore to pay attention to the scandal sandpit, the graft, or the constant stream of headlines of yet another exposé. If the absurdity of some do catch the eye, once you stop laughing it leads you to wonder if the claims of becoming a kinder society, are just that - tall claims.
Let’s kick it off with the now, ex-U.K. health secretary Matt Hancock. The married father of three was found ‘kissing’ his married mother of three millionaire aide, in his office. Most of us are probably wishing we could un-see that video. After being offered the U.K. Prime Minister’s full support, he was booted out just 24 hours later. But then again, the allegations of graft against him were getting to the size of a mountain, and BoJo probably thought it wise to use the ‘breaching social distancing rules’ excuse to fire his biggest headache.
But who exactly is this mysterious aide working for just £15,000 a year? Gina Coladangelo’s a multi-millionaire. A former lobbyist, wife of retailer Oliver Bonas’ founder and head of the company’s PR, her job was to “challenge” Hancock for 15 days a year. In addition to her role at Oliver Bonas and at the Hancock office, she was also a board member at companies awarded with health contracts during the Covid crisis, including one that is run by her brother. Cozy indeed.
Take a flight across the Atlantic and the Chief Prosecutor of Costa Rica, Emilia Navas shows us scandal of a slightly more familial nature. She announced on Friday that she will resign and retire in August, after criticism of her inability to prosecute major cases. During her three-and-a-half years in office, she has had to recuse herself from eight proceedings due to conflicts of interest. The “Cochinilla” scandal, involving alleged bribes to government officials in exchange for infrastructure contracts, would have been the ninth. Emilia’s husband is a lawyer representing MECO, one of the construction companies accused of bribing government officials.
Hillary Clinton, meet Michał Dworczyk. That’s just one of the many emails that’ve popped up on Russian encrypted messenger system Telegram. Hillary probably knows that Michal is the Poland PM’s top aide, Michał Dworczyk. The country’s ultra-conservative leadership faces a growing scandal as the private emails of top officials including PM Mateusz Morawiecki are being leaked to the public. The emails range from talks around purchasing vaccines, to how the government plans to handle protests against abortion restrictions.
And these were just scandals from this week! Earlier this year, the resignations were flowing like the river Ganges during flood season.
Lee Seong-yong, South Korea's air force chief had to resign earlier this month. He apologised and took responsibility for the death of a member of the force who committed suicide after being sexually harassed by a colleague.
Canada’s governor general Julie Payette had to resign after an external report found that the Queen’s representative had overseen a toxic work environment in which staff were bullied to tears.
In Peru, the now-former foreign minister Elizabeth Astete became one of the many officials to step down amid the scandal over politicians receiving jabs well before the general public. A similar vein of vaccine-gate hit Argentina and South Africa. Slovakia saw a slightly different version of Vaccine-gate topple a government, while in Germany, mask-gate forced resignations.
Corruption scandals chopped off heads in Estonia, while in the Netherlands the impact of the childcare benefits scandal is still reverberating. A caretaker government led by Mark Rutte is finding Covid is just one problem to deal with, in a list that is growing faster than you can say, list. Polarisation, the decline in trust and rise in extremism means, the risks ahead are high for any sort of political stability in the Netherlands, or other places similarly exposé-d.
That these scandals are still breaking news, and corruption, harassment and bullying are still part of the fibre of our society can be a depressing thought. But perhaps we can take heart that such exposé are swiftly making their way into the public sphere.
That would mean, somewhere there is a person brave enough to be a whistleblower, and another person brave enough to put it in the public domain. A kinder, cleaner, more morally conscious society maybe a goal that is yet achievable. We can only hope.
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Policy matters
Negotiations: for peace & fair elections
Libya’s foreign minister Najla Mangoush brought her A-game to Berlin this week. At the ‘Second Berlin Conference on Libya’ at the German foreign office, the country’s first female foreign minister showed the world just how far the war-torn country has come. It’s been a long road for Libya of conflict, death and mayhem since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising against then head of state Muammar Gaddafi.
The meeting in Berlin aimed to make progress on removing mercenaries and other foreign forces from Libya, months after a ceasefire called for their withdrawal. And more importantly, agreeing the steps towards securing a free and fair election in December. The former criminal and human rights lawyer’s big achievement? That there is now an initial understanding between Turkey and Russia, (which back opposing sides in Libya) to pull out around 300 Syrian mercenaries from each side of the conflict.
“Hopefully within coming days mercenaries (on) both sides will be withdrawn.” Najla Mangoush
Europe’s not anti-American, we swear
There have been plenty of accusations flying about that the EU’s digital law is anti-American, including from the White House. And I’ve heard that thought shared plenty amongst policymakers and business leaders, even as recently as a week ago. So this week’s Financial Times interview with Europe’s digital boss piqued my interest. Forced to respond to the accusation as Europe and the U.S. try to normalise relations, Margrethe Vestager defended the Digital Markets Act. Looks like the DMA (currently a recommendation) will end up getting tweaked to fit a bigger picture scenario (A.K.A the China threat)
The policy puts new rules in place for big enough platforms that could be considered "gatekeepers." Vestager has said the proposed legislation is intended to focus on how Big Tech's dominance over lesser companies has affected the market. She said the EU wants to figure out "who should be in the scope" and said the DMA wasn't supposed to be targeted at any one business or nationality.
Business not as usual
Boardroom quotas
Hong Kong
The demand for a larger female presence on boards was considered ‘noise’ for many of the companies on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX) till not long ago, but it looks like that’s changing. The HKEX’s board quota proposal may’ve caused a few people to push back agains the move, but it’s gaining increasing support. From presenting the age old argument that board seats should be about ‘merit’ rather than ‘gender’ HK listed companies are recognising they need to look outside their own little black books to find that meritorious candidate, who also happens to NOT be part of their boys club.
Inclusion is slowly but surely happening. The top 50 companies on the Hang Seng Index filled 24 per cent of their 42 open director seats with women last year, according to the latest Heidrick & Struggles board monitor report. That compared with just 6 per cent in 2019, 5 per cent in 2018, and 20 per cent in 2017. But 37 per cent of Hong Kong’s boards were all-male last year too, so that quota is very much needed to level playing field for qualified women.
Europe
The 2021 Heidrick & Struggles board monitor report for Europe shows the share of seats going to male and female executives was almost even: 52% went to men and 48% to women. (This is comparable to the figures in last year’s report from a smaller group of countries; the share of seats going to women was higher than in the United States, where the figure in 2020 was 41%.)
There were notable variations across countries in terms of gender and average age. Boards in Denmark filled the highest share of seats with female directors, at 61%, and the lowest share was in Ireland, at 31%. In many countries, including France and Germany, boards have quotas for the share of female directors, and now that most boards have reached those quotas, companies are adding new directors with backgrounds that are diverse in other ways. It is notable that more than half of the seats filled by women, 54%, were filled by active executives, while women filled only 46% of the seats going to retired executives.
Tech stuff
Google deserts London
Google has deserted early stage startups in London! That’s as melodramatic as I can make the news that the seven story Google Campus in that was a core part of the East London skyline, and at the heart of London’s silicon roundabout will not be reopening.
In keeping with the tech-giant’s focus on WFH, it will be offering support to founders on-line. Understandably not every founder is enthusiastic at the prospect, but Google will end up saving bundles.
“This shift (WFH) demonstrated that, similar to the support we provide in other advanced startup ecosystems like the US and Germany, we can provide support for startups right across the country without a physical space.” - Google Statement
Ed-Teching
Ed-Tech ballooned in India over the past few years, giving rise to a whole lot of Unicorns in the country. But thanks to the pandemic, demand for cutting-edge education technology has soared in Europe and the United States too.
Priya Lakhani’s AI edtech startup CENTURY Tech, which builds AI technologies to improve education and transform learning in schools worldwide is the latest to cash in. In an oversubscribed round, two thirds of which were new investors (including MIT Solve’s philanthropic venture fund Solve Innovation Future), the company just secured $6.5 million (nearly £4.7 million) in funding.
E-commerce’s women
I missed these reports a few weeks ago, but it’s never too late to share data that is so relevant. Do click and read them, as they are too complex to summarise coherently here.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC)’s two latest reports talk about the e-commerce markets in Southeast Asia and Africa having the potential to grow by over $280 billion and $14.5 billion respectively between 2025 and 2030. In both cases the IFC says those numbers can be achieved by increasing the number of women selling on online platforms and by providing them with better training and financial support.
The reports Women and E-commerce in Southeast Asia, and Women and E-commerce in Africa found that COVID-19 has accelerated the growth of e-commerce and digital entrepreneurship in the regions and more women have embraced digital business. Do read the reports to find out how these amazing females entrepreneurs can be supported.
Have you met
Elif Aktug, Swiss banking’s latest secretive star
Elif Aktug has joined an elite group of Swiss banking bosses as a partner at the secretive Swiss bank Banque Pictet & Cie SA. Elif is the first woman appointed to its top management body in the bank’s 216-year history. So far, the bank has only had 43 individuals (all men, all white) serve at the highest level.
Elif has been a fund manager at the bank’s asset management arm and part of a broader leadership group. She was named partner alongside founding-family-member Francois Pictet, bringing the number of current partners to 9. Pictet is based in Geneva with more than 600 billion francs ($713 billion) AUM and the bank boasts a level of profitability far beyond larger, publicly-listed peers.
Natalie Sarich-Dayton, Dairy Queen of West Australia
Natalie Sarich-Dayton has been appointed as the first female CEO of Australia’s oldest (135 year old) diary company ‘Brownes Diary.’ She replaces Tony Girgis who led the company through ownership and strategic change.
Natalie was previously Brownes Diary’s sales and marketing director and a driving force behind Brownes Dairy's return of the iconic 'Milkos' home delivery service, which became a lifeline to the Western Australia community during the COVID-19 lockdowns. It won the company a Gold trophy in the Stevie Awards for Women in Business, as well as Social Idea of the Year in the annual Mumbrella Awards, and "best COVID Pivot" by the Australian Financial Review.
Caught my eye
Three kids are a problem
Hokan video, owned by search giant Baidu seems to have really mucked up Father’s Day. In an advert to celebrate it decided to promote China’s new 3 child policy, by interviewing 8 men. Unsurprisingly all 8 had lovely things to say on having a third child. For example, how women could make their bodies healthier to have them. But, none of the men talked about the physical, financial, career or emotional impact on the women who’d have to carry the babies.
China’s women understandably were outraged. They also highlighted that none of the companies supporting the Third Child policy had made any changes to benefits or jobs to support women who may consider having another baby.
India Walton
It is kind of exciting to see the first woman (and one of colour) become Mayor of Buffalo in upstate New York. Why am I waffling on about a non-internationally relevant city in the United States you ask? Well, a) it is New York State’s second largest city b) I went to graduate school in near-by Syracuse c) Critically elections like these paint a clear picture of the changing profile of the U.S.’s Democratic Party.
India Walton is a 38 year old a community activist, nurse and union leader. And she strongly identifies as a socialist. A mother at 14, and born on the wrong side of the tracks, she defeated Byron Brown the four-term mayor of Buffalo in a Democratic primary. Her win is also a major political prize for the party’s left wing, which supported her run. Walton is all but assured to win the general election in November, with no Republican standing.
Be a sport
F1 future is women
Catherine Bond Muir has done it! She has spent the past four years trying to convince sponsors, promoters and organisers at the top tier of motorsport that W Series, the international women’s-only motor-racing series that she founded, is not just a good idea but a necessary one. Having secured a partnership with this year’s Formula 1 season, all eight races in this year’s W Series will take place alongside Formula 1 Grands Prix—on the same tracks, just one day apart. The series began this week with a race in Spielberg, Austria, on June 26. It will now move on to races in Silverstone, England; Mogyoród, Hungary; Stavelot, Belgium; Zandvoort, Netherlands; Austin, Texas; and Mexico City, among other locations.
It’s been nearly 45 years since a woman qualified and competed in a Formula 1 World Championship race. Out of the more than 900 drivers who have raced in an F1 Grand Prix, only two have been women. (The first was Maria Teresa de Filippis, in 1958; the second was Lella Lombardi, in 1975 and 1976.)
Maddie’s fight
We’ve talked before about Maddie Groves’ fight against Swimming Australia and her allegations of sexual abuse in the sport. She seems to have opened a Pandora’s box for Swimming Australia with her vocal battle. At least six former elite swimmers will now reportedly detail their experiences of abuse in the sport. SA said it was, as yet, unaware of the nature of those claims. Other reports of poor culture in the sport, including incidents of fat-shaming of female swimmers have also surfaced.
The artsy stuff
Smells like sexism
Kanal-Centre Pompidou, the recently renovated Brussels outpost of Paris’s famed Centre Pompidou opened in 2018. After being shut through the pandemic, its now in a new kind of trouble. The institution’s board of directors overruled an independent jury’s appointment of Kasia Redzisz as director.
It wouldn’t be a big deal if they hadn’t then subsequently and unanimously voted to split the museum’s directorship between her and Bernard Blistène, the outgoing director of the Paris institution. The lack of support for Kasia is striking considering her impeccable track record serving as senior curator of Tate Liverpool and who met the standards of a jury comprising the directors of London’s Whitechapel Art Gallery and Madrid’s Museo Reina Sofía.
Mossad Amazons
Historian Michael Bar-Zohar is known for his expertise in all things Mossad. The Israeli secret service specialist is also famous for his biographies of David Ben-Gurian and Shimon Peres. He’s now turned his pen to give 23 women who have shaped the Israeli intelligence service their place in history with a new book called ‘Mossad Amazons.’ From the stories of Isabel Pedro who procured the plans for Egypt’s Aswan Dam, Cheryl Bentov (codename Cindy), to Aliza Magen-Halevi who became the first female deputy Mossad chief. Mossad Amazons counters the usual image of a Testosterone filled Mossad. The book’s reviews though have been a tad mixed.
Must Watch
The Cannes Lions 2021 may have gone virtual this year, but the winners list is an impressive one. The Lions were predictably dominated by the likes of Omnicom Media and WPP, but what caught my eye was the winner of four of the Grands Prix awards.
I’d been quite taken with AMV BBDO’s #wombstories campaign for Bodyform/Libresse when it released, and was delighted the Lions jury agreed. The campaign won across the categories of Film, Film Craft, Titanium, and Health & Wellness.
Sunday Reads
Argentina’s Aunt Jemima
Argentina’s racial history is complex. Like other colonies it had its fair share of migration, slavery and atrocities against native Argentinians. And like many countries today, Argentina is grappling with the fluidity of race and the ways in which ‘whiteness has been deeply interlinked with economic and political power.’ This Washington Post article explores The history behind the removal of Argentina’s version of ‘Aunt Jemima.’