Transcript


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I was looking at different programs and
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thinking about my own career path up
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until then there were so few people in
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senior positions who looked like me
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which is really confusing because I'm
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from New York which is an incredibly
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diverse place where you would think
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there'd be a lot of women and a lot of
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people of color and women of color
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leading businesses and there just aren't.
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If you look at venture capital in the US
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and and the U.S. is about 70% of global
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venture capital it's over ninety five
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percent of it goes to white male
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founders which would be fine if white
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males were ninety five percent of the
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population but it's a bit strange when
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they're thirty percent of population.
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Every year the New York Times compares
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the number of female CEOs in the Fortune
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500 compared to the men named John. About
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half the world's population is female
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but only 3 percent of the world's
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population are called John. To me,
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empowerment is like an existential issue
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it's a basic human need it is about
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being able to take decisions for
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yourself.
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The UN's fifth sustainable development
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goal is a call to action for all of us
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men and women to work together to
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achieve gender equality. One of the most
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interesting initiatives the school's
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embarked on in the last few years is a
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new executive program called Women
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Transforming Leadership. And this brings
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women from around the world together to
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support each other to think about their
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own leadership style and also to think
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about how they want to lead their
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organizations in future. In our study
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we've been interviewing women who have
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been in the program we've interviewed
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over a hundred women now
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and essentially we're looking at what
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shaped their journey and when did they
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feel they became a leader. When we ask
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the same question to both men and women
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we've got very different answers
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initially. With men we very often got
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references to experiences in childhood,
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adolescence, being captain of a sports
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team head boy in school. Now when we
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asked the same question to initially the
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female CEOs in our example they were
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typically much more focused on when I
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got my first profit-and-loss
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responsibility a fairly recent promotion
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definitely something that happened
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within their professional career. We told
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them that others had mentioned these
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earlier moments and more often than not
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they would respond well of course I've
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had similar experiences I've just never
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considered them as leadership. You have
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to spend your time doing something you
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are passionate about.
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I remember speaker coming to speak to us
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during the MBA and she had such a strong
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purpose and I remember thinking what is
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my purpose I came into the MBA with no
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clear idea of where I wanted to go
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afterwards I really wanted to use the
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year to explore. Things really started to
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turn around after the MBA as far as
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going from the NGO world and to the
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impact investment world I think that
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Oxford gave me a platform and it gave me
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access to a whole new world of
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opportunities that a lot of other women
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of color don't get. The inspiration for
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make tomorrow
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was really very unplanned I was towards
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the end of the MBA and happened to come
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across a really hard-hitting climate
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change article. I think the article just
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kind of helped me reconnect with that
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core passion of what I really care about
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and being in Oxford, being in this kind
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of supportive environment meant that I
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kind of felt safe to explore that and I
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knew that I had all these new skills and
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connections that I could use to really
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really try and build something to make
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an impact in that space. The goal of the
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company is ready to help corporates
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better understand what
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about climate change and what they can
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do about it. I would want every
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prospective female student to Said
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Business School to know that this is a
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place where they can realize their
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ambitions and their aspirations, and that
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when they leave us they can achieve
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whatever they want. My big dream is to
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you know help thousands of entrepreneurs
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skills social businesses in the U.S. in
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Africa across from emerging markets and
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know that I'm part of a wave of
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inclusive capitalism, inclusive impact
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investment. Two months ago if he had
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asked me I would say hopefully I can
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have a role that makes a difference
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but I feel pretty confident now in
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saying that at some point in my career I
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want to be part of the c-suite and I
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used to think that was a really 
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inappropriate thing to say and that if I
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said it people would look at me and be
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like wow she's really cocky and I just
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don't feel like that anymore so that's
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like a big one for me personally. When
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the world challenges Oxford Answers.
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[Music]