Attending the Women’s Forum was an enriching, inspiring and empowering experience for me. I met entrepreneurs and leaders from different walks of life, ranging from non-profit and fashion to politics, media and banking. I was inspired by the women I met who are making a difference in the world and are so passionate about what they do. Attending the conference really made me ask myself: “What am I passionate about and what do I want to do for the rest of my life?”

Three people who stood out for me were:

• Wendy Lu Habe: she set up a Private Equity Fund that provides capital and business experience to women owned enterprises in Africa and gets returns of over 30%. There are only 5 women private equity funds in the world and I wonder, how much potential remains untapped and waiting for the right investors? She had the most amazing smile; looked very young and energetic even though she has two sons and two grandchildren. I don’t know how she does it but I guess there is hope for those who want to follow her footsteps. She was also the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards Jury member and has worked to empower South African Women.
• Mona Mourshed: I could identify with her dream of improving the education system and enabling people to change their lives, and was inspired to see the work already done by her and others. We have kept in touch even after the Forum and she sent me a copy of her work “How the World’s Best-Performing School Systems Come Out on Top” (download PDF, 9 MB). I was able to connect her with a friend of mine in India who is the Head of Education and Ability Confederation of Indian Industry. I strongly believe that education is what transforms lives and I hope to make a difference in this arena.
• Maryana Iskander: She has worked for a top consulting company and now works in non-profit. She said, “Lot of smart people spend a lot of time thinking about the future and forget to live in the present.” Her worlds remain with me even after I left the conference and I hope to make the most of each moment of my life rather than worrying about the future.

There were many other women I met and have kept in touch with. We can collectively build trust in our societies and make this a better place. It is about trusting and willing to take a chance on people. This is an excellent support network for women and I hope to return to the Women’s Forum.

The WF07 was a whole experience to remember. First of all, because of the other students in our group, which were all from different countries and backgrounds but made me feel like family. And I learned something unique from each of them. Then, the experience of meeting so many successful women sharing with us their experiences in business, government or academia: they “told” me it’s possible to get what you want, if you try hard enough. Only 15% of the attendees were men — for once a minority — but their viewpoints also made a strong impression.

Three ideas that I brought home:

• “Women take decisions with 75% of the knowledge while men do it with 25%”, a speaker said. For me, that means that we should take bigger risks and turn our fears into strengths.
• Trust is a necessary feature of the world, but creating it requires self-knowledge, openness and understanding of other people’s points of view.
• Writing on the blog in a foreign language (my mother tongue is Spanish) was a real challenge: but now that I’ve started, I don’t expect to stop.

Going to the Women’s Forum this year as a member of the student’s delegation has been an amazing experience. I’ve been interested in women’s issues and challenges since my master, when I made my dissertation about women entrepreneurs in Brazil. At this time, I hadn’t completely realized all the challenges women face in society and in the job market. And I became so excited about this study that I decided to continue to do my research on the subject for my PhD thesis at HEC, in Paris.

Participating in the Women’s Forum 2007 was therefore a wonderful opportunity. Not only could I attend sessions and panels with women and men who make a difference in the world, but I also had the pleasure of interviewing some of them, leveraging the work that we did with the blog.

During this three days in Deauville, I was impressed to see how much women have improved. Indeed, seeing all the successful and courageous women from all over the world who participate in the forum, it becomes clear that we have made some real progress. However, we also realize that there is still a lot do to. Women are not yet well represented in positions of responsibility in private and public spheres. How can it still be true in the XXI century? And, more importantly, how can there still exist some practices concerning women, particularly in some African and eastern countries, which go against the most basic human rights? It is a world of paradoxes. This is why the theme of this year was so pertinent: trust. Trust is the basis of any relationship between human beings.

The Women’s Forum is not only a gathering of important women (and men) but also a place where people discuss about the future, the environment, politics, world conflicts and current crisis, such as the one in Darfur. Long-term and concrete initiatives have also been created and put into practice since the first edition of the Women’s Forum, in 2005. One of the most interesting of these is the Cartier Women’s Initiative Award, with the support of McKinsey & Company and INSEAD. Five women entrepreneurs, one from each continent, have received a prize from Cartier, as well as a US$ 20 000 grant and coaching support for one year. The projects have a real impact. One example is the one of Lucie Avoaka, the African Laureate this year, whose project is a healthcare provider in the underprivileged region of Abobo, in Ivory Coast.

What I took from the Women’s Forum as a lesson is that we have to continue to fight for our dreams. All the interesting women to whom I talked to or interviewed during the forum had a couple of things in common: they had a passion for what they do and they were not afraid of taking risks, of fighting for their ideals. This is really inspiring.

After the Rising Talents awards, the Cartier Women’s Initiative award and the Women for Education initiative, which were at the center of this year’s Women’s Forum, I would like now to grant my very own awards to some of the people I met at the conference. Here is my personal selection:

The One with the Most Guts Award – Obviously, this one goes to Lebanese journalist May Chidiac, who was attacked and severely injured in 2005 for criticising Syria’s prominent presence in Lebanon. The current instabilities in Lebanon still haven’t prevented her from keeping on doing her job and promoting freedom of speech.

The Most Determined Award – I’d like to give this one to both Jobeda Ali and Maryanna Iskander, the Rising Talents I had the chance to interview. I had really inspiring conversations with them that kind of shook up my bourgeoise morals. Thanks girls.

The Best Sense of Humour Award – This one should definitely go to Ms Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, vice-president of the Republic of South Africa, who made a very nice point saying that women should all stay in bed. I totally agree with that. The jury also grants a special mention to Bonnie Fong, one of the members of the Student team, for her dry jokes.

The Rock Star Award – This one goes to Anne Lauvergeon, CEO of Areva, who was just impossible to interview because of the army of fans and journalists constantly surrounding her.

The Best Hair Style Award – Let’s reward originality, with the fashion designer Angel Chang. She also won the Cartier Women’s Initiative award for North America. I wish her good luck.

The Best Ideas Award – OK, this one was created specially for Aude Zieseniss de Thuin, founder and CEO of the Forum. Establishing an international women-only network isn’t that bad of an idea, right?

I was very glad and curious when I arrived in Deauville the evening before the Women’s Forum. My fellow students looked smart and friendly, and the coming days fairly unusual.

I was amazed by the way the organizes have been able to convince a vast group of powerful people to spend some of their time at the meeting. The WF offered me the opportunity to speak with the Head of communication at McKinsey Paris, with a Partner at McKinsey NY, with Carlos Ghosn of Renault, with Maria Emilia Menezes (Exec Director of Wallace Pharma) and so many others. I learned alot from them all, and I learned even more being confronted to the many Asian and African women at the conference. I was delighted to discover how strong, dynamic and decisive women they were. Figures like South-African Vice Prime Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka or Yolanda Conyers, VP and Chief diversity officer at Lenovo, impressed me much.

I also realized (thanks to an analysis by my co-blogger Ivonne) how strange it can be to discuss about women’s conditions globally when, in fact, in many developing countries this discussion has not even begun yet.

I was delighted to learn that my 2006 student delegation fellows Prudence Mutowo and Pardis Sabeti have been selected as “Rising Talents” for the 2007 Women’s Forum (see also these previous posts for more on the 07 RTs).

It is no surprise, though, as these 2 friendly young women are real brains and committed scientists in their countries: The American Pardis Sabeti is an Assistant Professor at Harvard in Systems Biology and Organismal and Evolutionary Biology, after shooting-star studies at MIT, Oxford University and at Harvard Medical School. Prudence Mutowo, from Zimbabwe, works as a doctoral researcher on micro-organism archea at the University of Nottingham.

Prudence and Pardis both received the 2006 “L’Oréal For Women Science Fellowship”, an L’Oréal-UNESCO award, given to young female scientists.

Catching up with Pardis, I was wondering why there were so few women involved in sciences. “We need a better science education, and more role models in sciences”, she says, and this is one of the key aspect of her job as an Assistant Professor: teaching scientists and teachers-to-be how to communicate about science. “Children should also be given the chance to see the people behind a project.” Project Runway, a reality show showing designers realizing their project, could be a good source of inspiration for something similar in sciences.

Nevertheless, she shows a great enthusiasm in attending the Women’s Forum for the second time, this time as part of the Rising Talents delegation. “It’s a great network, and there was a good balance between all generations coming together, and meetings for the Rising Talents Group, where we could discuss the issues applying to our stage of career.”

The 2007 Women’s Forum is over, but this blog will remain and continue. We don’t know exactly how yet, but we are exploring options. The creation of the blog was a passionate collective adventure involving executives from the WF, tech people, mentors, sponsors, but particularly a group of twelve students from seven business schools. Most of them are non-native English speakers, and arrived in Deauville without prior blogging experience. Yet they delivered an amazing collaborative portrait of the Forum: its themes, its faces, its characters, its key moments, its atmospheres, its strong words and its soft tones are all reflected on this site in more ways than we could expect, in texts and pictures. It was a genuine pleasure to meet them and “coach” their enthusiasm, creativity and engagement. More from them will be added here in the coming days, as they will reflect on their experience at the Forum

But for now, let’s just thank them for their passionate work, and wish them success. Here they are, gathered at the Deauville beach before heading back to their schools. From the left, standing: Louis Chenard (ESSEC), Alix de Poix (member of the WF Board), Gersende Piganeau (coordinator of the students group), Coralie Prin (ESSEC), Manasi Ramanna (London Business School), Joysy John (London Business School), Bonnie Fong (INSEAD), Ivonne Arciniega (IESE), Annachiara Torciano (Stockholm School of Economics), Margit Trollnas (Stockholm School of Economics), Camilla Quental (HEC), Bruno Giussani (coach/editor of the group). Front: Natiq Shamim (Stockholm School of Economics), Jonathan Citadelle (ESSEC) and Bruno Vinay (COO of the WF). (Photo Mario Farinato)

Fashion designer Angel Chang was one of the five winners of the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards (see also this previous post). She design luxury apparel with “performance” elements and functional designs: special stain-proof, wrinkle-free and odor-free material, color-changing silkscreen prints, 3D optical illusion prints, fiber optics…). Fashion & technology in one. This young designer uses super fabrics like the dress she’s wearing in this video interview, which changes color with the temperature. Watch the interview here, on 360FashionTV.

Herminia Ibarra, Chaired Professor of Organizational Behaviour, INSEAD commented, “What has made you successful in the past in not necessarily what will make you successful in the future.”

Wang Yuan, Deputy Director, China Development Bank, mentioned that in the financial services women are on par with men as they are educated and compete on merit. Women have the confidence to succeed. In china, women get 6 months of paid maternity leave and husbands get 2 weeks. This is generous compared to the west!

To their credit, financial services sector puts the most effort, time and money into recruiting MBA students. But are there enough role models? What can we do to create more women in power within the finance sector. Organisations need to showcase their senior women and focus on attracting and retaining talented young women. Start educating women at a young age and introduce them to wide range to subjects and career choices. Women look for balance and growth in the organisations that they join. Be willing to adapt and be flexible to their needs. Nurture young talent and develop them by giving stretch assignments and coaching. Put this as a requirement for managers’ performance appraisal. Female senior managers need to mentor other women to help them grow.

Traditionally, finance has been dominated by men but we might need to create a level playing field so that women can also compete. Think creatively how work is designed and how career paths evolve. Can we deconstruct work so that we can creatively think of providing more flexibility. ‘Children and family’ is not just a women’s problem. We don’t make them on our own! Men are also looking for the same flexibility and balance in life.

Is it true that women are worse than men in playing the game of politics? Women tend to be direct and it may be that they don’t know how to play this game or that they dislike playing politics. Instead of focusing on the negative aspects of power and politics (i.e. when somebody gets what they did deserve), think about how you can sell your ideas and enlist people in what you want to do. By thinking of the positive aspects of politics, women can develop themselves to have greater impact and influence.

In golf it takes time to practise your swing, similarly it takes time to get to know your colleagues and build relationships with your clients. Talk to three people you don’t know, call three people you haven’t talked to in a while and call three clients everyday. Share a little personal story as it helps build relationship. To be successful, you need to build a network outside your career path. Make yourself valuable to the company and learn from different environments. Another suggestion was to get your clients to talk about how great you are to your boss. It is very important that you build a great reputation both inside and outside the company.

Finally more women are willing to support others and spend the time to mentor younger women. In the past, when we had very, very few women at the top it was hard for them to compete but now as the numbers are increasing they are enabling more women succeed. Mobility and flexibility is important and it’s a question for everyone in society as to how we can take advantage of flexibility without impacting our reputation or adversely affecting career progression.

Fintan Farrell, Director, European Anti Poverty Network, expressed his opinion that Hedge Funds are widening the wealth divide and have a destabilising effect on the economy. He thinks that hedge funds have no regard for the impact on lives and spread precarious employment. An investment banker in the audience disagreed with him and expressed her views on what hedge funds do. Coming from a finance background, I do understand that hedge funds are only open to a limited range of qualified investors. They create a lot of wealth for themselves but that does not mean that it is unfair or illegal.

I think that there should be public debate on this as people don’t fully understand the role that hedge funds play. Sometimes people are misinformed by media and then they perpetuate these thoughts unknowingly.

Marina Flindell, one of the “Rising Talents” from JPMorgan is passionate about what she does, is extremely humble about her achievements and has a beautiful, energising smile. She says that she was shocked when she first heard that she had been selected as one of the Rising Talents. She is very excited to be one of the 20 Rising Talents and said that this recognition has boosted her energy and enthusiasm to do even more.

At the age of 30, she co-founded the Pushkin Academy of Russian Heritage in New York. What started in a rented Manhattan public school with 17 students has now grown to 90 students aged 2.5 years to 9years. She said, “we wanted our children to be bicultural providing an environment for them to learn and speak Russian. ” Establishing a business was tough but she is very happy with the results. Marina also has an 11month old daughter who accompanies her on Saturdays to the Pushkin academy for the Mommy and Me class.

It’s great to see her energy and I was inspired by how she manages to have a successful career and a baby and give back to society through this social project. This gives many young women the hope that we can also have it all. It is hard to think big on your own but when you get the right support it becomes easier.

Marina feels that she has been extremely lucky for having met the right people at the right time. She is thankful for her incredible parents who motivated her to achieve her dreams, her supportive husband who wants her to work, amazing boss who understands her and wonderful mentors and friends who challenge her. She believes that her network has been very useful and the trust that she has received from others has enabled her to trust others and develop them.

I believe in the old adage that the harder you work, the more luck you find. I hope that young women can learn from Marina and build their network of mentors, coaches and supporters and thereby make their own luck.

I attended a grand lunch at Hotel Royal where Rama Bijapurkar, Market Strategy Consultant from India shared her views on social entrepreneurship. Rama is a very dynamic and articulate speaker; she really introduced me to some new ideas that had never crossed my mind before.

Even though I have a Computer Engineering degree, I didn’t think much about how poor people could use technology so easily. Well you don’t need to be literate to use an ATM, laptop or a cellphone in India… The country is changing very fast and technology is making a huge impact on people at the lowest income lowels (vegetable sellers, tailors, masseurs, etc). C.K. Prahalad in his book Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid refers to how some companies are focusing on profit making by eradicating poverty. Companies can profit from the masses and also enable the people at the bottom of the economic pyramid to improve their economic condition.

Necessity is the mother of invention. NGOs have a lot of innovation as the need is severe and passion to deliver is strong. They however do not have the scale and don’t know how to commercialize their innovation. If private sector could help in this area we can create new possibilities. According to Rama the poor are very innovative as they have to think creatively in order to survive. With mentoring, support and coaching we can develop social entrepreneurs and develop market mechanisms that support a new world.

In the midst of the packed schedule organised by the Forum for the Chinese Delegation, I managed to catch Huang Hung, CEO of China Interactive Media Group (CIMG), for a few minutes to get her thoughts on the Women’s Forum, the activities of the Chinese Delegation and the entrepreneurship landscape in China.

This is not the first time Hung has attended the Women’s Forum. She believes that the Forum plays a critical role in bringing forward women’s point of view. It encourages women leadership to express their views on a wide range of issues, from business and politics to social responsibility and the alleviation of poverty. In addition, the Women’s Forum differs from other women’s conferences because it does not shy away from “feminity”, as evidenced by the beauty and fashion lounges in the Discovery Hall. In her mind, women leaders should be free to express their feminity should they wish to, and should not feel the need to look like a man. In this regard, I believe that “feminity” is regularly associated with “weakness”, and unfortunately this association is often formed by women themselves.

On the events organised for the Chinese delegation, she highlighted two in particular. First, she enjoyed the address given by Laurence Parisot, Chairman of the CEO Council in France. The session gave the delegation a glimpse of how other countries perceive China: the pros and the cons. The political and regulatory risks discussed were also particularly useful for members of the Chinese Government present in the delegation. Second, the session on “How to build an international brand”, led by Cartier, Chanel and Remy Martin, was particularly relevant, as more Chinese companies are eager to graduate from being the “factory of the world” and to move onto building its international brand identity.

As one of China’s most prominent women in publishing, Hung described China as one of the most exciting places in the world right now for entrepreneurship. The size and growth of the market mean that “a lot is possible”. On the downside, she understands that the current infrastructure and regulatory environment in China can be difficult for young companies. Entrepreneurs often find it difficult to find cheap financing, legal and accounting services, amongst others. So, a word of advice for all the budding entrepreneurs in China? Hung summarises it in one concise word: ”Persistence”.

Rebecca Wei, the first woman Partner elected in McKinsey’s Greater China Office and leader of the McKinsey Women Initiative in Asia-Pacific, certainly fits the bill to answer that question. Rebecca began by highlighting the differences between the values of women in different regions of China. In China, family responsibilities are central to the discussion – there is a strong sense of obligation for women to fulfil the “role of the daughter”. In Taiwan, the norm is for many women to stay home after marriage. In Hong Kong, women have the most independence, financially and personally, and “look for the meaning of life”.

Having said that, Rebecca believes that professional women seeks two common things: mentorship and work-life balance. The McKinsey Women Initiative addresses the former by ensuring that every woman has a mentor and by building a community spirit in the work place. “Women need to have a sense of belonging [more than men]; women want to have friends to talk to after a bad day at work”. On keeping mothers in the workforce, McKinsey has a flexible programme which can be designed to reduce working hours or to minimise business travel. Importantly, she highlighted that women on maternity leave cannot be “left on the platform”, and should be ensured that they are able to integrate fully when they return.

According to Rebecca, the McKinsey’s Greater China office has not lost a single woman due to maternity in the last five years. Whether that is driven by the intrinsic character of the McKinsey women or by the Firm’s flexible programme (or, perhaps, both), that is an impressive stat and certainly a step in the right direction.

Yesterday Friday we all discovered the winners of the Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards (see this previous post for details), five women entrepreneurs (see picture), one from each region of the globe (Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America). When Bernard Fornas, President and CEO of Cartier International, announced the winners, he said that they took 7 hours discussing to make the decision. Not only me, but I guess a lot of people in the WF wondered: what criteria did they take into account for the evaluation?

Today I spoke to Freja Day, from Cartier International, and she told me that the evaluation is very rigorous. The three main criteria are: creativity (the degree of innovation of the overall business concept and idea); sustainability (financial impact of the business, indicating its long-term success); impact (community impact of the business, in terms of job-creation and impact on the immediate or broader environment).

The jury is composed of outstanding individuals of the business world, the non-profit sector and the academic field. There are five jury panels, one per continent, representing a variety of profiles, countries and cultures. The jury members all voted for the projects of the finalists.

Freja also said that the social impact of the project is very important, especially in emerging countries. The analysis of the business plans, showing the sustainability of the projects in the next three, five or ten years, counted a lot as well.

The Award is a long-term project and is going to be repeated. So, women entrepreneurs of the world, prepare your business plans for next year’s Cartier Women’s Initiative Awards!

When I saw her speaking Portuguese while walking around in the Women’s Forum, I was happy to find someone who speaks my native language. Only after I learned that she was one of the “Rising Talents“. Joana Loureiro is a real woman entrepreneur. She is the General Manager of Junior Achievement in Portugal, the world’s largest organisation dedicated to educating students about entrepreneurship.

Joana told me that she knew Junior Achievement in the United States, where she followed a post-graduation course on Management of non-profit organizations. She then had the idea of bringing it to Portugal. Today, Junior Achievement Portugal has already established a network made up of over 600 volunteers and 600 teachers in 13o schools.

The advice she gives to people who think of becoming entrepreneurs are: first you have to try, to experiment. And the other important aspect is that you have to be willing to take risks. She said that in Portugal, for example, people tend to be very averse to risk.

With the importance of entrepreneurship growing in the world, it is quite amazing to see initiatives such as Joana’s in the Women’s Forum. We can hope that more women (and men) would be inspired by her and help create an entrepreneurial culture in other countries too.

When I arrived at this conference I had no idea what an ecological footprint was. After being in the conference I was curious to find out more about this topic (ah, and of course about the Dongtan eco-city, which plans to opens its doors in 2010 and be an environmental, economical, social and cultural sustainable city). OK, it’s not good. According to a website quiz, my total footprint is 15. If everyone lived like me, we would need 8.3 planets. Please check yours, it would probably make me feel better, unless you are really ecologically conscious.

According to a panel with Chris Luebkeman (Head of Foresight for Arup), Livia Tirone (Portuguese architect) and Noni Allwood (Cisco), two important factors are energy and people. Population is increasing by the second and during your lifetime, the planet will increase from 6 to 9 million. In China, 600 million people are expected to move to urban areas in the years ahead.

After hearing all of this information I got worried. But, there is hope, big hope. Sustainable construction (for example, buildings which demand lower energy), lower fuel consumption, recycling, etc. are a reality. So, when you are planning to move, consider about living in a sustainable city. If they are not ready, look for sustainable constructions, buildings which consume less energy. And think about your lifestyle, even if you don’t think it matters, it does. Just look up your ecological footprint and you will know.

Virginie Dangles-Marie always loved animals. Her childhood dream was to be a veterinarian. And she became one. She made her studies at the École Vétérinaire Nationale d’Alfort, in France. But because of difficulties in this profession due to the economic reality, she decided to follow a research master on cancer research, a subjet that also interested her. After the master, she completed a PhD and today she is a prominent researcher on cancer at the Institut Curie, in Paris.

Virginie received the Mitjavil National Academy of Medicine Fellowship award and is also a nominated member of the French Ministry of Agriculture’s National Commission of Teachers and Researchers. She is one of the young women selected in the “Rising Talents” program, launched by JP Morgan and the Women’s Forum with the support of Egon Zehnder International, which aims at creating every year an international network of women between 25 and 35 years old, who have demonstrated particular passion, commitment and social involvement, making them inspiring women for the future.

I asked Virginie — selected this year among the WF’s Rising Talents — what would be her advice for women who wish to pursue a career in science. Her answer was: you must have passion for what you do. Another important thing is that you should try to get the maximum of information you can about the opportunities and possibilities in this type of career, and try to bring this “plus”, this “exotic touch” to what you do.

Today I spoke to another amazing woman, Hasina Kharbhih. She looks like any other charming young woman from India, who talks about her achievements with great simplicity as if she had set up just another NGO. In fact, she is a great innovator who over the last ten years has weaved a web of cooperation between people and organisations who did not understand each other, let alone work together, to help young victims of trafficking.

She founded and heads the Impulse NGO Network and is one of the Women Forum’s Rising Talents. A management graduate from a good university in India, Hasina decided to defy expectations of a successful career in business to found an NGO which started off by helping rural women in the Indian state of Meghalaya gain a livelihood producing handicrafts. Through close contact with rural communities she saw the increasing numbers of young women and children who fell victims of trafficking and forced labour. This prompted her to focus on this larger challenge, and to persuade local government, the police, the media and local communities to work with her to help these young boys and girls. Now she is running a home centre, she trains the police, educates other NGOs and has built up a network of 11 centres in her state to help victims of trafficking.

She has managed her NGO network with the efficiency and systemic view of the best businesses, measuring results and ready to restructure and innovate to improve effectiveness.

Hasina has received enormous recognition from her work on the part of the international community. She is advising the Anti Human Trafficking Unit of the United Nations and has represented India as Commonwealth Youth Ambassador for Positive Living, among others.

She talks with great passion about the need for NGOs to take a holistic view of the problem of trafficking and work together among themselves and with governments and other institutions. She will make this plea to the larger NGOs who are active in this field, and judging by how many she has been able to persuade so far, I have no doubt she will succeed.

Maryanna Iskander belongs to those women who make me feel bad about myself. Kind and brilliant, warm and available, she is one of those who have the courage to dedicate themselves to something meaningful to them and to society, when many others chose the “easy way” of more conventional careers. She is now working as the Vice-President of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA), which is the largest provider of reproductive health care in the US, and offers birth control, HIV and STD tests and cancer detection services to 3 to 5 millions people, mainly disadvantaged women, in the United States.

When she is asked why she took the step to embrace such career, she answers in the simplest way: “Well, I thought about something I really care about, this is how women usually advance, you know”.  According to her, enabling a woman to control her fertility is at the very root of her participation in society. This is all about female empowerment and having the possibility to make choices: to choose when it is the right time to give birth, given the expectations towards environment, job and life.

The reason why Maryanna made me feel bad when I met her is the way she talks about what she does. Most people try to ease their conscience about making the world a better place by giving a few hours a week after work to a special cause. She chose to make her job of this commitment towards society, like this is the most obvious thing to do. And her job can be really challenging. Although only 3% of the PPFA activities are related to abortion, this is enough to raise constant and strong opposition in the US. Maryanna faces this situation with confidence and lucidity: “Women’s health shouldn’t be a political issue”.

What would be the next step for her then? Stay passionate and committed as a full-time activity, and maybe run an organisation by herself one day.

At the first glance one can understand why Maud Fontenoy had been chosen to be one of the WF “Rising Talents“. Maud has been through incredible projects, she is the first woman to have sailed around the world against winds and currents in 2007. She is also the first woman to have crossed the Atlantic and pacific Oceans rowing. Maud has been awarded Chevalier de l’ordre National du Mérite as recognition of all her successful projects.

When asking her the difficulties of being a woman in such ambitious projects, she first answered, “my arms were not muscular enough”. More seriously, Maud told me that as a woman she may have been under a bit more pressure because people looked more at her in those activities where men represent usually the majority.

Maud is handling many new projects. She is trying to share all what she discovered around the world, particularly with children. The creation of an educational programme called “Jeunes aventuriers” to teach young children to respect the environment they live in has been one of her important moves for the ecological cause. She wrote two books about her world tour depicting her life on board. One of those, “Le sel de la vie“, is very personal. Maud has been involved in projects and associations for a long time. “I created my first association when I was 21″ but she now enjoys developing projects that have a greater impact within France and the rest of the world because the cameras are focusing on her, and that offers her a good platform for passing her messages along.

Talking with her, people would notice that she speaks a lot with her hands. I guess that is quite normal for a woman with Italian origins that rowed all over the Earth. That gives “the message I’m trying to deliver more intensity and a greater impact” and it is also a way to illustrate her sentiments when talking to children.

“I’m almost 50 – half the world’s population didn’t even exist when I was born.”
Chris Luebkeman, Director for Global Foresight and Innovation, Ove Arup, UK

“We are not running out of energy resources. We are not running out of capital. But we are running out of time.”
Fatih Birol, Chief Economist and Head of the Economic Analysis, Division, International Energy Agency, Turkey, on climate change.

“Women are not worse than men at office politics, we just don’t want to play it. We’re more direct. We find the whole political game offensive.”
Deborah Hopkins, senior advisor and managing director at financial giant Citi.

“The right of interference is today not only legal but desired, indeed almost imperative.”
Bernard Kouchner, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, on the moral imperative in foreign policy.

“We would be lying to ourselves if we think that fixing climate change will be for free.”
Fatih Birol, Chief Economist and Head of the Economic Analysis, Division, International Energy Agency.

“The Women’s Forum for Economy and Society should be renamed the ‘Women’s Forum for Economy, Society and the Environment’.”
Sheri Xiaoyi Liao, President, Global Village of Beijing, China

“Men should never take the gentleness of a woman for weakness. Often, the gentler they look, the stronger they are.”
Runa Khan, Executive Director of the Bangladeshi humanitarian NGO “Friendship”

Tensie Whelan from the Rainforest Alliance sees a paradigm shift in the making. Until now businesses have maintained a mentality of bottom line versus sustainability. Now, some businesses are looking at reinventing their technologies and processes to improve the bottom line while also addressing the environmental concerns of society and individuals. Tensie Whelan calls it the revolution of design.

She says this is happening because of the influx of a young generation of CEOs who are more environmentally aware, of companies becoming more international and their brand valuable but vulnerable, and of governments not always effective so that NGOs have turned to businesses.

The examples of L’Oreal and Renault show how sustainability can be one of the foundations of business performance. Alice de Brauer from Renault believes measurement of the impact of a sustainable business is crucial. It is essential to get the financial community – so far a laggard in this process – see the business value of sustainability. It is also essential for consumers to see the value proposition of a sustainable product.

Making a business sustainable can bring potential, from cost reductions to a stronger brand and a differentiation advantage. It can also create new markets and motivate employees. But to be successful it needs to look at the entire value chain, and it must develop effective metrics to measure and communicate progress to consumers, investors and employees.

So perhaps it is not so useful any more to talk about corporate social responsibility, which focuses on business obligations instead of opportunities. We should rather talk about a revolution of design, where innovation within and outside companies is accelerated to change products and processes. In this environment, organisations which can anticipate trends and address unspoken social and consumer demands first can gain tremendous advantage while also attracting the best talent. This is a much more effective way to talk about the role sustainability can play in a business. It puts innovation and business opportunities centre stage, which is where they belong.

The “Women for Education” prize, organized by the Elle Foundation and the Women’s Forum with the support of Renault, La Poste and in collaboration with the NGO Aide et Action, has just been awarded to Chekeba Hachemi (photo) and her NGO , Afghanistan Libre, an organization working for the economic, social and political development of young Afghan girls and women in Paghman, in the Kabul province.

The operation “Women for Education” (more info on the Elle Foundations’ blog) was launched last May in both Elle magazine (France) and nine of its international editions around the world. Three projects were finally chosen among 50+ that were submitted. The other two finalists were microcredit and vocational training for women in Benin, presented by ECIDEC; and a social entreprise for reintegration of girls and adolescents victims of sexual exploitation in Laos, presented by AFESIP.

It is so amazing to think that so many influent women are actually packed in here for a few days. Even though you can’t actually tell  who’s who (unless scruitinizing everyone’s pass, which might not be the best way to fit in), you definitely KNOW every single woman here has done somthing meaningful and important, whether in advertizing, publishing, business or even circus (and that makes me feel pretty much like a tourist here, but that’s a different story) . And that’s what’s so great about this whole forum thing : If they had decided to create a “Men’s Forum for Economy & Society” instead, I guess the entire city of Deauville wouldn’t be enough, and they would have needed a much much bigger place to hold it (probably some huge city in Brazil or something)