Name: Winners of the Goldman Sachs & Fortune Global Women Leaders Award
Uploaded: 2019-10-22
Duration: 18 min 18 s
Description: Lara Ayoub, and Xuemei Fei receive the honor.

Welcome, welcome, we've got a few minutes to talk together before we announce these extraordinary winners, the women, entrepreneurial game changing women who are gonna change the world and are gonna be supported thanks to this wonderful award. But before we do could we just take a moment and talk about the amazing Goldman- Sachs women that are here that are part of this community? It's an unbelievable group and I was just saying to you backstage I remember A number of years ago, if you go back a decade ago, right, we tried to get a great group of senior women to represent the firm here. It was honestly, it was a struggle. And today, we have so many senior women partners that want to be here. We're actually debating, who, such a wonderful group that's here. It's a diverse group, and it's, I'm really excited about it. Really proud. You should be proud it is a big achievement to have increased the numbers that, that you have in the way that you have. I just before we dig into how you've done all that and what your commitment to women and gender equity is, we should mention that this conference is not just a birthday for this community, it's a milestone for you to. Your first year at CEO was wasn't really launched but it felt like it was launched at this conference last year. It was my It was my first day I October 1 last year. Yeah. Out in California was my first day as CEO and I arrived first morning arrived at this conference, and it was I've got very, you know very warm feelings about that. We'll see how warm it all is five years from now, seven years from now when it's all done. But it was an exciting way, and also I think a good marker- Yeah! In terms of, I think one of the things you have to do when you take on one of these jobs is you've got to stand up for a handful of things that are really important to you. Mm- hm. That are gonna matter to you to the legacy that you want to create. Right. And Putting that marker down around my focus on diversity, inclusion for our organization. I think the opportunity, the privilege to participate in the conference was a good way to really put a pin in that. So let's talk a little bit about what some of the accomplishments have been in this year. Anything actually that you'd tell us about, but particularly some of the things for women. Well, I mean, you take one of these jobs, I think the accomplishments are you got through the first year, and you're moving forward. Right. The one thing I will say it went quickly. Yeah. I mean, I think about the conference last year, it seems like five minutes ago. But Goldman Sachs is doing just fine, but I'm really trying to evolve and I'm really trying to make it a more modern organization. I'm really trying to take all the good things about its focus, its content, its seriousness, its innovation, its entrepreneurship, but also make it more modern, more approachable, more authentic, more human. And I think we're often running. I've also tried to really make sure the organization is oriented toward clients. It's a client business. And I think the compass has to be constantly focused on our clients not in the context of how it feels for us, but how our clients experience us as an organization. And I think we've made progress on that. With respect to diversity and inclusion, there's no way I look at our industry broadly. There's no way to put positive spin on where the industry is or where it's been. It's. There's definitely progress but it's not worth should be. I think one of the things I've tried to do is in the contexts that my leadership in the organization, I've tried to make it in enormous priority to provide leadership for the organization to move us forward. And to really increase the diversity of the organization, the openness of the organization, the inclusion in the organization. And I'm trying to do it by practically challenging the organization to move ahead. Right. And I talked last year about the fact taht we hire the 2500 to 3000 people out of school a year and it was just inacceptable to me. That wasn't a com [ pletely diverse group and couple of years a go I wen to a board and I said we're gonna change that And we're gonna do it over the next few years and I'm pleased to say that two years in, we've basically gotten there. What I learned this summer group, the group that will come in next summer and start in 2020 it's over 50 % women. We had targeted 10 % black professionals, 14 % Hispanic professionals. And we're meeting those goals but that's just a step. If you really wanna get to a diverse organization, you've gotta set other things in place to change the way you hire and lateral hiring is an enormous problem. So we put a [ UNKNOWN ] into place, and we're pushing harder and thinking about how we bring people in laterally. But the big thing That I think I'm doing and I'm trying to do is to publicly hold this accountable. Right. So we put out in a public way kind of a summary of the things we were commited to doing aspirational as an organization [ INAUDIBLE ] and in context, so I lost my mic. In the context of that But we put it out there publicly and it's a way of saying to the organization hey, this is what we're trying to do and we're gonna hold everybody accountable. And you link it to compensation, but more importantly you link it to the representations you make so that you know you're gonna be accountable for moving it forward. One thing I'm always very moved by when I interview CEOs or very very senior executives when they take on Big things that are gonna be their legacies, later on, is the patience and the resilience they have to say the same thing, over and over again, to people within their organizations who have been treasured performers for many, many years. And now you're asking them to do something that's very, very different, and then hold them accountable in a public way. That That, to me is the ultimate leadership skill because you generate that moment where I'm saying this to this treasured person in a fresh way, even though I've just had it 75, 000 other other times, because we all need to get on board, but this very big thing. I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about what it takes to be that kinds of leader and how you can make sure that you and your agenda scales Without wearing yourself out. Well change, change is hard. Someone said last night and one of the discussions people don't like change They don't. People, people do not like change, they want to, they want to move forward and do what they're doing but they don't like to change. So to get people to change to your point, I mean, this is this is very simple, but this is one of the things I think about. There are certain things that you have to say over and over again. You have to save them so many times that it feels like you're driving yourself crazy. And just what do you think. Just when you think you've absolutely said it so many times you can't say it again. People are probably just starting to hear you. And you have to say it again. And it's It's an aspect of kind of communication in a big organizational context. And it's definitely bigger if you are dealing with tens of thousands of people or hundreds of thousands of people. But I think it's important that you repeat things. And I think also you have to recognize as a leader, taking the other side When you say something, people are listening, and so, the counter to that with some things. I know when I'm in a meeting and we're talking about something strategic that we want to spend time on, if I say, you know, I kind of think we should consider whether or not we should turn left, there's a portion of the organization that's gonna be running left. Right Just because I said we're considering it in other words, let's get ahead of where leadership wants to go. And so there's this balance of people do listen. But on some things that are really change, the big things as you're talking about. Yeah You've got to save them, you got to tell people you got to say You have to tell them, you've got to tell them what you said. You've got to do it over and over again and hopefully over time, if you live by those actions and that's very very important that leaders live by the actions, you actually will start to make progress. So, before you bring these two extraordinary young women, could you please tell us a little bit about lunch with GS? Sure. I mean this was another, this fell into the category of. Another thing we're talking about saying how can we use our platform to actually move forward on something we think is very, very important. There is an enormous gender gap around capital getting to women that are starting businesses, getting to women that are allocating capital that are asset managers. By the way, it's not just women. It's also People of color, other diverse populations, that just the capital is not getting there. So we decided to create a platform, use our resources as an investing platform. When we created, a year ago, Launch With GS, we committed $ 500 million to it to start. We've funded about $ 100 million so far. We've had over 6, 000 businesses. That our women founded or founded by black professionals or other diverse professionals come to us. We've interviewed or seriously thought about 2000 of those businesses and we've made a handful of investments and will continue to deploy capital and so we're trying to use Our platform and the resources of the organization to try and a much more directed way to get capital moving in that direction. And so we're excited about it. And just big bottom line, why does entrepreneurship mean so much? Well, entrepreneurship, when I think about and this is a I know this is a global audience, but it's a It's a US- centric audience, to some degree. Entrepreneurship and innovation, in this country, in this economy, is so important to our economic vitality. And also, some of the things that really make us unique and different. And so all of us, I think, have to support innovation and entrepreneurship in a variety of different ways. And we've tried, as an organization You know given our platform to do what with the variety of programs that tried to get capital and education. Yeah. To entrepreneurs that is starting businesses. 10, 000 women which we talked about here has directed over $ 140 million to women that are running businesses in developing economies. We now in the partnership with the IFC where we funded. In terms of loans to try to get lending capital from institutions, about a billion and a half dollars into that community. And so we're trying to find ways to use our platform to accelerate that entrepreneurship because it creates, it creates jobs, it creates growth, and it's vitally important both here in the US and around the world. Speaking of what's vitally important, it's time for us Dave and I would like to welcome to the stage. Two of our winners of the Goldman Sachs Fortune 2019 Global Women Leaders Awards, Lara Ayoub of Jordan, the Digital Director of Al Mamlaka TV, Co- Founder of SADAQA and Xuemei Fei of China, CEO of Yunnan Holyflora Horticultural Industry Company. Please welcome these winners to the stage. [ APPLAUSE ] [ APPLAUSE ] [ MUSIC ] Congratulations. How are you? Congratulations, nice to see you. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations, nice to see you. Congratulations. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for being here. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] It is so exciting to have you. Thank you. So exciting to have you. Lara I'm gonna have you tell us first a little bit about your winning project .>> Thank you very much. First of all allow me to thank Goldman Sachs and Fortune for this amazing award and recognition. It comes at an important time in my life. And I'd also like to thank. Vital Voices [ INAUDIBLE ] For all the support they have extended to the women leaders of their network over the nine last years. And to be honest, my project comes out of a sense of urgency, okay for the women of Jordan when I was transitioning from in 2012 From television, I worked in digital media for the last 16 years. When I was transitioning from print to television, I was also transitioning into motherhood. So how many mothers do we have in the audience? So you all understand the challenges of being a mother. I was in my mid- thirties. But I wasn't prepared for the challenges that came with the work life balance. Okay. And because of that I wish I knew what mentoring could've done to me earlier if I was equipped to know that I could be enabled, that I have rights, I have labor rights, I can negotiate and ask for better conditions at work. So during that transition, I also cofounded an NGO called Saddake, which means friendship. I said that wrong, I apologize. Yes, it's okay. Saddake means friendship in Arabic. And the reason that we established Saddake was because We needed to create family friendly work environments for women of origin that can help her enter the workforce and stay there. So there are three milestones for women and in anyone's life when she graduates from school, university and work and enter the workforce that is the first phase, and the second phase is. When she decides to have a family, if she decides to have one, that's 15 years later and then when she leaves to retire. My challenge came in the middle of my life. When I come to these summits, I looked at all of you. I say, Okay, there's CEOs in 60s and the 70s and 50s There is possibility. And when I look at the young girls of Jordan, because to give you a background about Jordan. 70 % of the women in Jordan are under the age, the population of Jordan, are under the age of 30. And more women are in university than men, yet We, the economic participation doesn't exceed 18 % the last decade. And the three barriers to entry to the workforce are lack of daycares, lack of transportation and pay and equity. Sources office focusing on increasing Economic participation by creating daycares and focusing transportation Well done. And this project will focus on girls in schools and universities to give them a 360 coaching experience where they can Learn their labor rights, learn their gender, what gender inclusion means? So that they can go to a job interview and demand exactly the right conditions for them. To prepare them, to let them know life skills, wellness. I was just in Brazil. I came back from Brazil with Vital Voices where I was Pampered by Vital Voices actually, [ LAUGH ] and their partnership to the partnership between Vital Voices and Johnson and Johnson, which I discovered this partnership happened in a in a summit like this Well then well then and the network is essential to grow the network so that you as a woman can expand and then once again Thank you so much. Congratulations. Congratulations. [ APPLAUSE ] Today, welcome. Thank you. Please tell us about your project. Okay. Hello, everybody. It's my honor to be here. So I should say Scott's message To give these opportunities. I'm FEI from Yunnan Holyflora horticulture industry. CEO of this company, and also the [ UNKNOWN ] Women graduate, So, it's an honor to be here to share my project that growing rose Louis Plato as the founder of this company, I have spent 20 years in flower industry. After graduating from [ UNKNOWN ] I inspired how to give back to society, so that I want to give out support To the left behind a woman. That is where the husband and children have to work in the setting for living. So, they are so determined, and they are so strong to sacrifice everything to keep the family running. So, that is my project is aiming t help this woman Giving them some techniques and the skills to help them manage more profitable products, such as roads. With our help, they can increase their income about 27 times. So that's wonderful. It is. That is. It's great. Yeah. [ APPLAUSE ] But by sharing skills and practical techniques, I think we also can give them very good products. And with company where purchase also products they produced. So that is very helpful, this kind of things I think like core structure design that organically matched the profit. Business and model to the think that's like as strong socially need. So that is, I think is very helpful for this woman. They just want to have the. The Dream they want have their own family farm so I can help them to give the code let them come tree. So I think government says 10 pence on one project is really give me some hope and inspired me a lot. Beautiful. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. [ APPLAUSE ] We are out of time. You can learn more about these extraordinary women, these extraordinary projects and of course, the wonderful work that Goldman Sachs is doing on many fronts behind the scenes in your program and on your app. Just join me in congratulating them once again. [ APPLAUSE ] Thank you and knowing that all this work is. Is gonna be planting seeds all over the world for women and their families everywhere and thank you David. Thank yo. Thank you for having us. Really appreciate it. Thank you very much. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

Winners of the Goldman Sachs & Fortune Global Women Leaders Award 

Leadership

Lara Ayoub, and Xuemei Fei receive the honor.