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.

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.

 Mona Mourshed, partner from McKinsey & Company, Dubai, spoke about her passion for education and why she cares so deeply about education. Mona leads the regional public sector practice and is co-leader of the global education and human capital initiative.

She started her career in the New Jersey office of McKinsey and moved to Dubai after a year. She has been with McKinsey for the last seven and half years and has been very successful in her career.  She has worked on a wide range of topics from economic growth to healthcare to education. Besides having an impressive career, she mentors female students in Dubai and also sits on the Steering Committee of the Next Generation Conference, to be held in Jordan. The focus of the conference will be on youth unemployment and education reform in the Middle East and private sector leaders from across the region will be attending the conference.

She generally doesn’t plan her career beyond the next three months but has a big dream. She dreams of a world where we have high student outcomes in literacy and numeracy in all the countries around the world. She dreams of a word where education can empower people and enable them to have a better future. She believes that education can catapult through adversity and social classes. Every child has a right to education and she is doing her part to reform the education system in Middle East and Asia.  Lets all think about what we can do to educate children and transform the world.

The ebullient winner of the Rising Talents award, Emilie Goodall, New Philanthropy Capital.

The exemplary leaders - this year’s “Rising Talents”

From left to right: Maryana Iskander (Planned Parenthood Federation of America), Marina Flindell (JPMorgan Chase) Mona Mourshed (McKinsey & Company)

I will be interviewing Marina Flindell, Executive Director in the Special Credit Group of JPMorgan as she is one of the 20 talented women between 25 and 35 years old who have been selected as Rising Talent. I am really excited about this opportunity and am looking forward to meeting Marina. Especially as a ex-JPMorgan employee, it will be interesting for me to meet another senior woman leader from JPMorgan. Watch this space….

Marina Flindell is an Executive Director in the Special Credit Group of JPMorgan. The Special Credit Group is responsible for managing distressed credit exposure for the Investment Bank worldwide. Marina manages a global portfolio of securities that are received in exchange for restructured debt and over the last four years the group has generated $1.2 billion in gains. Marina is also a Vice President and Co-Founder of the Pushkin Academy of Russian Heritage in New York - an independent coeducational institution that helps children learn Russian, maintain their heritage and befriend other Russian-speaking children in their local community. The organisation also links Wall Street volunteers with gifted high school students in an advanced mathematics teaching program.

Countries around the world are struggling with the challenges of poverty. What are the trends that have created this wealth divide and what can we do to make a difference as individuals and corporations? The panel discussion that I attended was quite controversial to say the least. The opinions expressed by the speakers were different from what I believed in and what many others in the audience passionately highlighted. Should government apply distributive policies or should there be a bottom up approach by both private and public sector players?

We all agreed that we need to worry about poverty because of various reasons ranging from the ethical imperative to economic growth and health and safety outcomes. Also, the definition of poverty varies by country. For example, in Romania the poverty threshold is €558 per annum whereas in Luxemburg it is €17,087 per annum. There was lot of debate about what can we do to address the wealth divide. Should the government collect more tax and then divide it out fairly? I am not sure how they would divide it fairly. Should we have a welfare state and does it serve to address the wealth divide? What social, political and economic reform do we need to address the causes and issues of poverty?

Nora Lustig, Shapiro Visiting Professor of International Affairs, Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University, Mexico, said that governments should create more transparency and accountability in how they collect taxes and how it is used. She talked about why tax revenue is below what is expected in some countries – the vicious cycle that leads to people not paying taxes as they distrust their government and low taxes leading to lower resources that in turn increases poverty. She felt that Microfinance does improve the local situation but it is not scalable, private philanthropy can help but to bring about wide spread change government had to step in and apply wealth distributive strategy. In my opinion, we need to have more than government intervention or the private philanthropy. We all need to play a role in whatever way we can, be it in contributing financially or by advocating the means for creating wealth or by creating awareness about education and how that can create opportunities. We need to support entrepreneurs not only financially but through our networks, mentoring and coaching them to create wealth and create jobs.

Government alone can’t win this battle against poverty. We all need to join forces in educating, in mentoring, in coaching, in supporting, in harnessing the power of women.

“You work for a living, but you die for a cause” - Alix de Poix

There was lot of debate about choices that women face and what it means to feel fulfilled in your job. Speakers at the Women’s Forum asked, “What do you really care about? What do you want? What will make you happy?” There is so much to discover, create and experience in this lifetime. I feel very fortunate to have got this opportunity to meet with and learn from so many successful women. These three days at the Women’s Forum in Deauville will be an enriching experience.

Two keywords that come up time and again in conversations are “trust” (the theme of this year’s conference) and “recognition”. People want to learn more and feel fulfiled in their life. Other than making money, finding happiness and balance in life is critical. The question is how do you go about discovering your true potential and what can you do to find fulfilment in life?

One of the key messages that stood out for me is “Being Authentic” – show what you are and do who you are. Talk from the heart. I met some amazing delegates from different countries who shared their stories and opinions. I found that women are more adept are opening up, sharing their thoughts. I am not sure whether this comes naturally to us or whether it is the environment of majority women that supports this building of trust. No matter what, I hope that through the debates, panels and discovery moments we can find our cause in life.