Sporting summer
and secret weapons
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!
It’s summer, its 2021. The sun is shining, vaccination rates (in the G20 at least) look promising. In the developed world people are latching on to sports like a lifeline to sanity, desperately trying to make up for the lost fifteen Covid ridden months. If you’re in the U.K. today, expect it to be about nothing else. This morning has already been full of singing and chanting fans doing parades on every street in my neighbourhood. God forbid you aren’t a sports fan - tough luck! Today you’re just going to have to bite the bullet, because there will be no escaping it.
Setting the scene for today’s Sports Sunday - Yesterday, Aussie and World No.1 Ashleigh Barty won her maiden Wimbledon title as she beat World No.13 , Czech player Karolina Pliskova in a nervy final to become the first Australian women's champion for 41 years. Ash won the first 14 points to take early charge in a 6-3 6-7 (4-7) 6-3 win on the 50th anniversary of her idol, Evonne Goolagong Cawley's maiden win at Wimbledon in 1971. She touchingly dedicated her Saturday win to to Evonne.
“I hope I made Evonne proud.” - Ash Barty
Today though, it will be the Italians and the men taking centre stage - In tennis, it is the Wimbledon Men’s finals with Italian Matteo Berrettini battling Novak Djokovic.
In football, the English are desperately hoping to finally win the Euro Cup after decades of trying. But they have already had one set back, having been firmly told ‘Nope’ to the request for the Wembley theme song today being “it’s coming home.” You’d think they might not want to jinx their chances by being over-confident. But, songs aside, the Euro 2020 finals will be a nail biter. The English want it so badly they can taste it, but the Italians aren’t going to make it easy. Expect them to put up a tough fight for that cup.
At the core of these Summer sporting events though has been the trialling of Covid-safe, in-person attendance of mass events. Center court at Wimbledon for example, was at capacity (15,000) for the women’s finals. The Euro 2020 has also seen fans packed in, tested, but maskless. Now scientists are warning that the data suggests these mass sporting events are creating a surge in Covid cases. Some are even pointing to the higher cases amongst men in recent weeks being caused by the Euro 2020.
In the shadow of these rising cases, and new, more highly transmissible Covid variants, the Olympic flame this weekend entered the final leg of its journey to the opening ceremony on July 23. But the Covid shadow has loomed so large that the Tokyo Olympic Committee had to finally stop flip flopping, and announce there would be no spectators at this year’s Games. Tokyo has entered its 4th emergency, and polls show many Japanese oppose even holding the event this year - so the news wasn’t surprising.
But to not have cheering crowds to lift spirits will come as a massive disappointment to all those athletes who had to put their hopes and dreams on hold in 2019. They have trained through lockdowns, gone through the pain of tightly run qualifiers, multiple testing, and Japanese quarantines. Now, almost within reach of their Olympic dreams they are hoping to high heaven they don’t catch the virus, as they compete in the world’s toughest show!
As we all figure out how and where to watch our favorite athletes win and lose in less than a fortnight, here are a few nuggets of hope that should cheer us:
1) Britain's Olympic team in 2020 will have more female athletes than males for the first time, and many countries are set to follow that trend in the years ahead!
2) The arbitrary rule about testosterone levels has been used for and against trans athletes qualifying and competing in women’s sports. But now two biologically female athletes have vowed to fight the Olympic committee’s call on the controversial rule. On a fast track for Olympic medals, Namibian track and field stars Christine Mboma and Beatrice Masilingi, both 18 years old have been banned from competing in the women's 400m race at the Tokyo Games. The committee’s reasoning: the two girls’ natural testosterone levels are too high. A decision based on a science that is arguably incomplete, that criteria seems no longer acceptable to the athletes themselves.
2) Allyson Felix has 9 Olympic medals, 6 of them are Gold. She holds the most track and field World Championship medals, she is also about to dominate her 5th Olympic games! And she is doing it all while being a mom. After a very public and ugly bust-up with Nike about her contract and pregnancy, she’s recently launched her own shoe company. But even more impressive, is that she, in partnership with Athleta and the Women’s Sports Foundation has launched a $200,000 grant program to help cover childcare costs for mom athletes in Tokyo this month. Talk about a champion’s spirit!
3) Naomi Osaka’s going to bring it at the Olympics! She’s declared her game is going to be just as impactful as the new world she has opened for athletes taking care of their mental health. As she wrote in TIME: 'It's O.K. Not to Be O.K.'
4) That kind of openness by an athlete of Naomi’s stature has allowed young breakthrough players like Emma Raducanu to handle criticism about performing under pressure, and do it well.
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Caught my eye
Secret weapon
What scares off Chinese incursions in the disputed waters of the South China Sea? The U.S. Department of Defense would say, American battleships, but the Philippines has discovered a much simpler deterrent.
The country’s Coast Guard had suspected for a while that its female operators seem to be able to get Chinese ships to speedily leave disputed territorial waters. They’ve come to believe it is the voice of women and their effectiveness with the spoken word that accounts for those speedy departures compared to the Coast Guard’s men. Backed by proof of Chinese vessels quickly departing after being hailed by female coast guard officers, they arranged a special training course exclusively for women, as radio operators. It culminated in the graduation of 81 female radio operators for the Philippines Coast Guard.
More comfortable heels
After all the hoo-hah about soldiers marching in high heels in a military parade, Ukraine’s defense minister has acquiesced. Well, sort of anyway.
Female soldiers will be given “more comfortable” heels with a different kind of lacing, following a sexism outcry that I wrote about in last week’s Chief Brief. Defense Minister Andriy Taran instead announced this week that there will be “a new model of footwear.”
Why regular military issue boots for female soldiers marching in a formal military parade aren’t the solution, is a head scratcher indeed!
Tech stuff
Mumzworld
Dubai-based Mumzworld has been bought by Jeddah-based Saudi conglomerate Tamer Group. Described as the region’s first “woman-led e-commerce transaction,” the Middle East’s largest online children-goods retailer’s sale underscores the growth of e-commerce in the region. The deal comes amid increasing competition for business, including Mumzworld competitors that are backed by Softbank.
Mumzworld was founded in 2011 by Ataya and Leena Khalil, The two will remain material shareholders in the company and retain their seats on the board.
Investment collective
Eastern Europe’s tech sector is blowing up. But as any founder in the region will tell you, there just aren’t enough VCs to go around. And there are definitely very few women.
So, four female VCs got together and decided to do something about it. Lumus Investment Collective was formed by Terezia Jacova, Vladimira Cincurova, Lucia Cerchlanova, and Zuzana Zamborska. They launched the collective in July 2020, making their first investment in May 2021. The angel investment club is dedicated to bringing more female investors onto capitalisation tables of startups in central and eastern Europe and now has roughly 200 members, all women.
Policy matters
Ballooning cabinet
India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has read the the writing on the wall. His botched efforts to tackle Covid, international criticism, and domestic anger halfway through his second term, all added up to him cleaning house. This week he announced a re-shuffled cabinet and to shore up his support added members from the states he has politically weakened in. The reshuffle and 36 new additions mean the expanded Indian government Cabinet has ballooned from 52 to 77 members. Talk about disguised unemployment!
But while Mr. Modi claims to be focussed on women voters, just 14.7% of the cabinet, i.e. 11 of the 77 are women. And that’s one bit of news that will be presented as all sugar and no spice to the wider world. Expect the Indian government to parade these 11 as some sort of magical achievement of women in a country with a population of 1.39 billion people, 50% of which are women. Also expect Mr. Modi’s long time supporters and ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Smriti Irani to be front center of that “women’s emancipation” parade. Looks like the 33% reservation of seats in the Lower House of the Indian Parliament will forever remain, just a bill. Level playing fields aren’t yet a thing for Indian women.
If you do business or have dealings in/with India, it’s worth noting the profiles & portfolios below!
The two high profile ministers in the Modi cabinet remain:
1) Nirmala Sitharaman continues as Union Finance Minister & gets the additional charge of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.
2) Smriti Irani remains Minister of Women and Child Development (WCD) But she has been relieved of the Ministry of Textile.
Also safe are BJP party regulars:
3) Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti remains Minister of State (MoS) in the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, as well as the Ministry of Rural Development
4) Renuka Singh Saruta continues as MoS in the Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
Below are the newest members of the Modi club:
5) Anupriya Patel, has been appointed MoS in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. She is the head of Apna Dal, a Uttar Pradesh (Indian state) based party and ally of the BJP
6) Shobha Karandlaje is now MoS in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers' Welfare.
7) Darshana Jardosh is MoS in the Ministry of Textiles and Ministry of Railways.
8) Meenakashi Lekhi a Supreme Court lawyer has been appointed MoS in the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the Ministry of Culture.
9) Annapurna Devi has been appointed as MoS in the Ministry of Education.
10) Dr Bharati Pawar is now MoS in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
11) Pratima Bhoumik, has been given charge of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment as a Minister of State (MoS).
Business not as usual
SPAC by women
Bill Gates-backed solar power firm Heliogen Inc will merge with a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC) to go public in a deal that values the combined entity at about $2 billion. Athena Technology Acquisition Corp (ATHN.N), is a rare animal in the SPAC world - in that it is led by women.
Athena raised $250 million in its initial public offering in March, and is helmed by CEO Phyllis Newhouse, a retired military officer and cybersecurity veteran, and venture capitalist Isabelle Freidheim, who also co-founded fintech firm Magnifi. The Heliogen merger with Athena will generate $415 million of proceeds for the combined company, which post-merger will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "HLGN".
Arty Stuff
Miniature Women
Miniature paintings flourished in Persia around the 13th century, despite Islam’s strict ban on figuration and creating human likeness. Soon after, the genre emerged in the Ottoman Empire, as well as India, especially during the Mughal Empire in the 16th and 17th centuries. But women’s perspectives have historically been missing in the art form - drowned out by culture, patriarchy and western influences. Now women artists from the Middle East and South Asia are not just reclaiming the lost form, but reinventing miniatures.
Artists like Shahzia Sikander, Hayv Kahraman, Arghavan Khosravi, Hamra Abbas, and Hiba Schahbaz are shaking up the traditional style through their own narrative and doing so using a variety of media, including video and sculpture, focussing on women-centric stories. To say their paintings are thought provoking, is putting it mildly.
Have you met
The women judging Cannes
The Cannes film festival season has kicked off, Masques et tout. This year promises to be one to remember, not just because it is the first hybrid Cannes Film Festival after the pandemic, but more so because le jury is led by 5 amazing femmes! (I will stop my awful French attempts right here!)
French singer-songwriter Mylène Farmer: One of the most successful artists of France, the singer-songwriter her debut in 1984 with the single Maman a tort. Considered a music legend she has sung and worked with the biggest names in the music business. Her eighth album, Bleu Noir (2010), topped the French charts for three consecutive weeks, and her last studio album Désobéissance, released in 2018 to critical acclaim.
French actress Mélanie Laurent: She is the daughter of a ballet teacher and a voice actor and had her breakthrough with Don’t Worry, I’m Fine (2006), for which she won her first César Award for Most Promising Actress. She is also a director, and won her second César for the 2015 documentary Tomorrow.
French actress and director Mati Diop: Mati is recognised both as an accomplished director and actress. In 2019, she became the first Black female contender for Palme d’Or when she was nominated for her film Atlantics. It eventually won the Grand Prix at the festival. Cherry on top? She was also the film’s director. She made her acting debut with 35 Shots of Rum (2008) and subsequently appeared in notable films such as Simon Killer (2012) and Fort Buchanan (2014).
Austrian director Jessica Hausner: Known as one of the greatest filmmakers in Europe, she started off as a writer for the short film Kilometer 123,5 (1994) and made her directorial debut with the film Flora in 1995. Her third film, Lovely Rita (2001),shot her to global recognition having also been screened in the ‘Un Certain Regard’ section at Cannes. Jessica’s last film Little Joe (2019) was nominated for Palme d’Or at the festival.
American actress Maggie Gyllenhaal: She made her acting debut in Waterland (1992), a film directed by her father Stephen Gyllenhaal. Two years later, Maggie starred in the cult classic Donnie Darko (2001) but made her mark as an official Hollywood A-lister with the 2002 film Secretary that earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Comedy or Musical.
Joining the fab five are Spike Lee, who will serve as the President of the Jury. He is the first Black person to hold the position. The other three jury members are Brazilian director Mendonça Filho, French actor Tahar Rahim, and South Korean icon Song Kang-Ho.
On the move
In the U.S.
Neha Parikh, has become the new CEO of Google-owned navigation service app Waze. The 41 year old was the youngest and first female to lead travel website Hotwire and is a board member of online used car retailer Carvana and Tailwind Acquisition Corp. An Expedia alum, Neha began her career as a consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Sarah Korman is the new general counsel at Biotech company Absci, which filed to go public last week. Absci is in the business of developing technologies to accelerate the process of drug discovery. She was most recently general counsel and corporate secretary at San Diego biotech company NEUVOGEN and previously head of intellectual property for final drug products at Amgen.
In the U.K.
Hayleigh Lupino has been appointed as LSE listed brewer Marston’s new Chief Financial Officer. She takes up the role from October 3, when she will also be appointed to the firm's board. Hayleigh is currently Marston’s director of group finance and also serves on the Carlsberg Marston’s Brewing Company board as a non-executive director.
In U.A.E
Sharon Nishi has been appointed GM’s Middle East Chief Marketing Officer across the Chevrolet and GMC brands, replacing Kelly MacDonald who repatriated to the US in her new role as Director of Chevrolet Truck Marketing in North America. Sharon will be based in Dubai and began her career with GM in Canada in 1987. Over the years, she has held numerous leadership positions across sales and marketing.
In South Africa
Bilha Ndirangu becomes the first woman and Kenyan to lead the Africa Leadership Academy (ALA). She will be the the prestigious institution's first non-founder CEO. Bilha was previously CEO of African Talking (AT), a pan-African company supporting software developers.
In South Korea
Cho Ju-yeon is the new chief marketing officer of South Korean supermarket chain Homeplus. Cho made headlines in 2016 when she became the first female CEO of McDonald’s Korea.