Watch our #WomenLead public forum to learn how women are advancing progress globally

KC #15058 - Global Ambassador Program: Women Driving Economic Progress

[START RECORDING]

[Begin Video] FEMALE VOICE 1: Across the world women and girls get less education than men. That's not because women are not as clever as men it's because there's a choice to be made and the choice is to send the men to school and not the women.

FEMALE VOICE 2: Investing in women is not just the right thing to do, it's a smart investment. These young women will have tremendous impact in the future of their communities.

FEMALE VOICE 3: A woman who has financial independence or economic independence has a voice. She has options, she has choices, and most women are very, very passionate about helping others.

FEMALE VOICE 1: Research after research shows that if you invest one development dollar in a woman 90 cents of that she will spend on her family, on her community, anything other than herself.

FEMALE VOICE 4: Every country wants to grow its economy, wants to create jobs, wants to ensure shared prosperity for its people, and women entrepreneurs are extraordinary engines that contribute to economic growth.

FEMALE VOICE 5: Well, women are our best investment and I think they think different, they're also looking at business differently, they're starting different kinds of business, and they're just incredible entrepreneurs. I see the tenacity, I see their businesses, and I see the potential for growth.

[End Video]

[Applause]

MS. CHRISTINE KATZIFF: Well hello everyone. Welcome. I'm Christine Katziff, I'm the Chief Auditor here at Bank of America. On behalf of Bank of America and our partners at Vital Voices we are very pleased to host our very first Global Ambassadors Program here in the United States this week. So, thank you to everyone for joining us. If you're not familiar with Global Ambassadors it's a unique initiative to advance empowerment of women through mentoring, and as the video showed our company has a long and deep commitment to ensuring that we are supporting and advancing women as far as economic development is concerned. I look in the room and we have clients, we have partners, we have employees, and I have to tell you, you know, from the reception to hear the energy is just so powerful and it encourages me to what we will be able to do together to continue to support and enable women so that they can be successful leaders, we can have leaders in the economy, in our communities, and in our businesses.

So, one key partner that we do have here today is Lenwood Long, who is the Executive Director of Carolina Small Business Loan Fund. And I do want to recognize Lenwood. He's a participant in the Tory Burch Foundation Capital Program, which helps to fund affordable loans to women through community lending and through community lenders. So, Lenwood please stand up and let's all thank him. [Applause] I look forward to continuing to make sure that we're investing in women right here in North Carolina. So, thank you.

Before we get started, I want also to recognize the ambassadors and mentees that are here this week. So, if you could also stand so we can all recognize you and show our support for you. [Applause]

Okay, we have an absolute fantastic program. I think you will find we have discussions that will be inspiring, they will be moving, they will be thought provoking, and we have dynamic women here who can really show how they have contributed to driving social and economic impact and improvement for women. So, we have a renowned educator here, we have innovative entrepreneurs, and we have women who have built bridges between businesses, government, and nonprofits. And so, let's just get right started. We will start with Christy Turlington Burns, who is the Founder and CEO of Every Mother Counts, and Andrea Smith, our very, Bank of America's very own Chief Administrative Officer. We'll hear from Christy as far as the important work that she is doing to advance maternal health, and the role that women play in investing in economic and social issues to continue to make sure we're driving the right level of progress. So, with that we're going to show one more quick video and we will turn it over to Christy and Andrea. Thank you.

[Start Video]

MS. CHRISTY TURLINGTON BURNS: Here in Haiti many women have to walk an average of five miles just to receive any kind of maternal healthcare. During my last trip here we were bouncing along the road and I thought hey why don't we run this? Why don't we run or walk this? Let's see what this really feels like. At Every Mother Counts we run as a way of educating the public about how distance is a barrier for women to access quality maternity care.

MALE VOICE 1: Hey. MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: Hey Mario, how are you?

MALE VOICE 1: I'm doing good. MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: Any babies? MALE VOICE 1: Yeah, we've been - -.

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: 60% of women here give birth at home without a skilled provider by their side, and 1 in 83 women die in childbirth. That's a staggering number. Every time I hear these statistics I realize how lucky I was when I gave birth to my daughter. After giving birth I started to hemorrhage. Without the skilled care of my midwife and nurses I could have died. I had no idea that women still die in childbirth. Once I knew, I had to do something about it. Just imagine, you're about to give birth and you have no ride to the hospital so you have to walk 5, 10, even 20 miles to reach care. Then when you finally arrive you find there's no electricity, no doctor, no midwife, no nurse. More than 300,000 women die in childbirth every year. That's one woman every two minutes, and almost all of them, 98%, are preventable. For these mothers, we can be a light in the darkness.

MALE VOICE 2: Previously when a woman comes to deliver in the - - what we were using was this light, but today we have this light. MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: We partner with grassroots organizations that are providing their communities with critical support and care. We've been able to provide a ride to clinics to tens of thousands of moms.

MALE VOICE 3: [Foreign language].

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: And we're ensuring a mother has someone by her side when she needs it most.

FEMALE VOICE 6: [Foreign language].

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: We've trained hundreds of new midwives in Guatemala, Haiti, Syria, and Bangladesh, but access to quality maternal healthcare is not only a problem in the developing world, many American women are struggling to find the support they need throughout their pregnancies. Two women die every day giving birth in the United States. So, we're giving grants to community-based programs in the U.S. that are providing prenatal care, childbirth education, and doula services for low-income women.

FEMALE VOICE 7: Women are coming to us because they can't find anywhere else to go. They are stuck in this kind of limbo where they don't know who can provide this care for them. We don't turn anyone away.

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: With your help we can do so much more. Together our community has run millions of miles to raise awareness and funds to support this critical care. Sharing your stories and those of our grantees is helping to educate and engage the public. We're investing in providers of life-saving care that are making childbirth safer. We're building a movement that's impacting millions of lives one mother at a time. When I come back to Haiti and I see the impact we have made here I think that anything is possible. So, join us. Together we can make pregnancy and childbirth safer for every mother, everywhere.

[End Video]

[Applause]

MS. ANDREA SMITH: Wow. That was awesome. So, thank you so much for being here today Christy. It's quite a treat, and I mean this video, amazing.

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: Thank you.

MS. SMITH: So, let's just start with that. I mean you mentioned a little bit about one of your pregnancies, but tell us how you got started in this and kind of the journey.

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: Sure. So, I have a 13 1/2-year-old daughter, and that was the baby that you saw in the video. When I delivered her, actually after I delivered her I experienced a post-partem hemorrhage. I had a perfectly healthy pregnancy, and there was absolutely no indication during my pregnancy that I would have a complication like that. But luckily, I was in a birthing center in a hospital in New York City, and a team of providers that worked seamlessly together to make sure that my complication was managed and I was fine, and my daughter was fine. However, in the weeks after this experience I learned that globally in 2003 that global estimates for a pregnancy and childbirth-related complications and deaths were beyond half a million. And that just really struck me, like why do I not know this? I can't believe I went into this experience not knowing this. And I felt like I had to learn more about why this was happening, and I learned that most of these deaths are preventable, which beg the question well why if we know how to save these lives are we allowing these lives to be lost? Which continues to be a goal in uncovering, you know, in many, many countries, including this one, why are we allowing women to die when we know how to make sure that they don't?

MS. SMITH: Well, so that seems a little daunting that you had an issue, you have a new baby, and then what? You decide I'm going to fix this when you start finding the facts?

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: Yeah.

MS. SMITH: I mean how does that go? I was overwhelmed with a baby. You know?

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: Well, no, you're right. I had the first child, learned this information. At first, I thought, you know, even though I had the complication the experience of giving birth was still so empowering that I really wanted, that was what I thought I would go out there and do, like you know, birth is amazing, you need options, you need to have, you know, great people by your side and women should know the facts, and go into this experience prepared with plans.

Then I had a second child about two years later, and I would say after I delivered him that's when I started to really think about what could I do and how could I do it. I was able to visit, while pregnant with my son I visited Central America, which is where my mother is from, with CARE, the non-governmental organization. And in all of the visits that we did during the time that I was down there with them we came across One Water Program, it was a clean water project, and a lot of women were coming to get access to clean water, and getting like a little bit of antenatal care or a little postnatal care while they were there. And because I was pregnant and because so many of the women were pregnant or had small children on their backs that's where I had the ah-ha moment of had I had my daughter in this community, far away from a hospital or, you know, paved roads, or clean water and sanitation, or you know, there were so many factors that I could see how it could have played out very differently had I been there or anywhere else for that matter.

So, I came home and I reached back out to CARE and I said how, you know, what can I do? How can I help? They were like oh, that's exactly what we were, what we were hoping. But it was hard for me to just engage in maternal health. They do a number of different programs and I was like very specific, I want to do something in El Salvador, and I wanted to do it now. And that's really not that easy to do, and so I came back home, had my son, no complications, and started to plan my course. And that really started with going back to school. I worked on a Master's of Public Health at Columbia University, and starting my first documentary film, which was called "No Woman, No Cry", and came out in 2010. And that, that experience was almost like a thesis. I mean I went to four countries and spent several weeks in those countries, just really looking at what are the barriers, what are the challenges, and what are the solutions, and really focusing on the what is possible side of that equation.

And the film came out and then the next step was well, if people learn about this issue the first question they ask is what can I do? Whether you've had a complication or not most people who have gone through the experience or loved someone who has gone through the experience and had a complication or needed that healthcare immediately they feel what that would be like to not have it. And so, Every Mother Counts was essentially born to try to answer those questions and try to put people to work, and give people a way to participate in becoming a part of the solution.

MS. SMITH: So, you mentioned you went back to school. So, let's just back up a little bit more because I think most people would know you as a model, and on, you know, thousands of covers of magazines, which is still happening today but in a different way for a different cause, but how did that, tell us about that journey, and then how that informed sort of your decisions and your next steps.

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: Yeah, I mean I feel into my first career. I was very young. I think I started modeling when I was about the age of my daughter now, which is shocking in a different way. But because my mother is from Central America and I spent my early years traveling a lot around the world, but particularly to Central America I just was really aware of disparities and coming back and forth from communities abroad and then communities back home because there are also populations with a lot of need here in the U.S. And I think as a young person being able to travel a lot and take that information in I think, you know, it's sort of led me on a path of not knowing exactly what but wanting to be a purpose of use. And so, it took time and I wouldn't have thought my career would take me there, but I certainly got to see a lot of the world through that industry in my work as a model. And then, you know, as soon as I was only a model and I wasn't a student and a model I wanted to go back to school. I knew that like okay this is great and I'm getting a lot of freedom and I have a lot of opportunity but I want to go back to school. So, I think things didn't really slow down for me in my career but I made a conscious effort to go back to undergrad in my mid-20s.

MS. SMITH: You did, you did not do college right away.

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: No.

MS. SMITH: Because you--

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: I went from high school to--

MS. SMITH: --essentially starting modeling when you were 13. You finished high school and then modeled.

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: Yes, I did finish high school thankfully, and then that made it a little bit easier, and then I went to NYU and studied comparative religion and eastern philosophy, which actually also plays a role culturally in the work that we do now. And then later, once I became a mom, I went back to school for public health. So, I did do a little bit of advocacy before going back to school or during the first time I went back. My father had lung cancer I had been a smoker in my early 20s, and so my first public health, I know, and I have a grandfather from North Carolina and tobacco.

MS. SMITH: He got you hooked? Yeah.

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: Well, my dad smoked. The whole family, everybody smoked. So, that was my first foray really in public health where I started to see that by sharing my story and by learning more and by, you know, using my voice that that felt really good, and it was really healing when I lost my dad. I also learned as a public health advocate for cessation and prevention of tobacco that women's bodies were much more vulnerable and susceptible to a lot of disease related to smoking and tobacco than men. And the first surgeon general report on women was in the late '90s, which was also kind of shocking. So, that was a first foray, and I think as I became a mom it just felt like a natural progression I guess.

MS. SMITH: So, talk about the evolution of Every Mother Counts. So, we have the, sort of the background, the history, the concept, and then how did you go about, you know, getting connections to resources on the ground and in standing up things, and bringing along the awareness?

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: Well, I guess, I mean mainly we started after the film came out we were a resource, you know, who is doing what where was the way we sort of saw ourselves. And thought that, I got to meet a lot of different organizations working in maternal health. Also, as a student of public health, you know, the world is fairly small in the maternal/child health space, so I started to get to meet a lot of incredible people who have been working, you know, their entire careers, Melanne being one of those people. And so, you know, having access to women who were leaders in these areas was incredibly inspiring. And then in terms of finding partners, I mean we started as a campaign, and then I learned that that wasn't completely fulfilling. I felt like I wanted to do more and I wanted to really connect people who were being moved by learning this information and wanting to do something that it was really hard for them to do that. So, I felt like ultimately starting an organization that I could have more control being able to put those pieces together and connect those dots was a lot more gratifying, not only for the community we were trying to bring along but also for the NGOs on the ground. And what I've found over time is that smaller, grassroots, community-led groups are the most exciting to work with because they truly do partner with you. I mean we have as an organization funded some larger initiatives and, you know, it's hard to get the phone picked up, and it's hard, you know, there's a lot of turnover in the people who run the program, and you just want to, you want to have that human touch. And so, it's something that I really strive for with Every Mother Counts to continue to have that human touch. It's the most human of all issues that I can think of, and for people who have an experience or suffer a loss or lose a loved one, or the healthcare providers that are trying to, you know, provide services every day I think it's really important that all of those people feel, you know, respected and have a voice, and that we can be there for them.

MS. SMITH: So, in the video you talked about walking the walk that the mothers were walking in some of these places 5 miles, 10 miles, 20 miles. Were you a runner before or did that--like because now it's really about going to places and experiencing that and you run when you're there. So, talk about how that evolved.

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: Yeah, I wasn't really a runner before.

MS. SMITH: Christy somehow got the idea that I was a runner, but--

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: She is a runner.

MS. SMITH: I can run, but I would not, you know, say that I am a runner.

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: Further ahead than I was. I ran my first marathon in 2011 and we were given ten spots for a very new charitable organization as part of the New York City marathon, and I thought well I know some runners, and I can't not run it as the head of this organization. So, I signed up, and immediately when I started training I saw the connection between what we're trying to do, where there is need, and where there is really an intense barrier, which is distance, and how we can connect the dots there. So, I ran the first one and then I thought oh yeah, I have two kids, I think I can do that two times. And then it just started to grow, and it's turned out that there are a lot of runners out there, or people who are just, I think people who are taking care of themselves and are active, healthy people, are more likely to care about the health and wellbeing of others, than your average person. So, we've found that it's been a very connected, a very community building type of event, and people go couch to marathon, or they walk, cycle, you know, anything that you do already there's a way that you can contribute that effort towards other people.

MS. SMITH: Right. So, what are, I mean are there similarities between, you know, you've gone to Africa, Guatemala, Haiti, the U.S. I mean similarities/differences in the issues?

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: Well, the causes of death are the same, postpartum hemorrhage is the leading cause but, and you have sepsis and different infections that might arise. You have hypertensive disorders, which you might see here in a different way than in other countries. We have a rising sort of chronic disease problem here in the United States, and so obesity, diabetes, those are our conditions that certainly impact the health and wellbeing of mom and her birth, and the child's birth as well. I think you would think that in our country where we spend more on healthcare than any other industrialized country per capita that we would have not the same lack of care that access wouldn't be the problem and yet--

MS. SMITH: It is.

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: It's a huge problem, and it's going to get worse. We have done a series of films called "Giving Birth in America" where we look through state-by-state at maternal healthcare. And one of the first films that we did was in Montana and there, you know, we had a family, a Caucasian family, highly educated, lots of kids, but that lived far away, just lived in a, at a large state in a rural part of the state, and so when an emergency happened they were far away. I mean the woman survived, but it was, it was almost as if you could be in sub-Saharan Africa and have the same problem. If you have a postpartum hemorrhage you can bleed to death in under two hours if you don't get to care. So, you can see some of the same challenges as you do anywhere. I think what's most important is really having many levels of trained health providers, so community health workers, doulas, midwives, nurses, and doctors when necessary. Sometimes in the United States we have a tendency to over-medicalize birth, and so you might rush to a doctor who you don't necessarily need to see.

MS. SMITH: Right.

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: You know? And it's a lot more cost-efficient to work with midlevel providers and midwives when it's a straightforward physiological birth.

MS. SMITH: So, do you all do a lot of training of midwives, caregivers, in other countries?

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: Yes, I mean we support the training of, and we're not implementers ourselves but--

MS. SMITH: Okay.

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: --but we have incredible partners who in Haiti I know we're training our fourth class of skilled birth attendance there in the Central Plateau. In Guatemala, there's an incredible program called Corazon Del Agua, and we support them. Their first graduating class of a three-year first midwifery accredited program. The second class is underway now. I mean each of those providers will deliver 200 babies a year potentially. The ripple effect of investing in a woman is just, you know, I see it daily.

MS. SMITH: That's fantastic.

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: Extraordinary.

MS. SMITH: So, on that, so since we're at the Global Ambassador Program and we've got, we're mentoring women, how do you see your work fitting into sort of economic empowerment?

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: Well, they go hand-in-hand. I mean no matter where I've traveled in the world you know that when a woman not only has opportunity is able to go to school for longer there is a correlation between, you know, her sexual debut, first child, marriage, all of those things, which impact her freedom. I find that, and you see it, and I think it was in the first film that came up that when a woman has economic independence she's more likely to put those funds towards her family. She'll be more likely to take care, and seek care earlier than she would otherwise, and so you just see the thoughtfulness that goes into that. And without it it's a lot harder. You know? If you don't have decision-making power, if you don't have, you know, you're literally waiting for someone else to make a decision whether your life is worth saving. So, no one should be in that position, and I think to have more opportunities and more equality obviously a woman is going to be better off and you're going to see the impact in her family and in her community more than you would otherwise.

MS. SMITH: Do you see more millennials getting involved? Do you see them getting involved differently? Do you see them having a different view of all of this since you started this or?

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: We see all ages who are interested, and it might be, obviously it's not just people who are thinking about motherhood or pregnant themselves, this is again it's an issue that really touches a lot of people. It might be because of their own parent, it might be because, you know, like my 13-year-old, right? It's not lost in me that, you know, at this age of her life it's kind of the perfect time to be learning about these issues, well before she is thinking about whether she wants to or doesn't want to become a mom one day. But now as she's understanding her body and is learning about the things that she wants to do and what she wants to be in life, like this like a ripe time. It's a challenging time in almost every country to be able to educate our young people about these things, but it's so important. My team at work they're ages, you know, 22 to I'm 48, so to 48. I mean it's a pretty broad age range, and I think the way that we work as a team has really helped. Like we don't really see age in numbers. It's like we are together sharing this mission and we each can kind of reach our own networks in our own way, in the way that they want to be spoken to or taught. So, we're really trying to think about those and keep an open mind about how people want to, how receptive people are, and how they want to take information, and how they want to be activated.

MS. SMITH: Talk a little bit about, we were talking about this earlier and we've talked about it before, but trips where you bring your daughter or mothers bring a child, or, and really the, the inspiration of that, and how people leave that, and what they talk about.

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: So many audiences that I speak to are thinking about the, if they're moms they're like how do I get my kid to understand how the world works and to understand some of these issues that we're grappling with? And I think like I said earlier just to be exposed to the world in as many communities and different types of people and cultures the better, as early as possible. So, we were doing some trips to visit grantee partners in the field and it makes a huge impact for anyone who has not traveled, but anyone to go and have that firsthand experience to meet people and to learn, you know, really at the frontlines what's going on, but to have your child with you is also extraordinary. So, last year we led our first mother-child trip, and I'll say mother-child because it was supposed to be mother-daughter but there was one brave 12-year-old boy who came with his mother. And this year we have another group going down to Guatemala again, mostly 16 and 17-year-old girls, but there will be another brave 14-year-old young man whose mother is an obstetrician who has come with us on a few different trips. So, he's probably going to be a little bit more informed than the average 14-year-old.

MS. SMITH: Yeah.

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: But I would love to do it even more. So far, as a small organization it's harder to do than I would like, but it's something that I'd like to be able to grow. I think it's really important.

MS. SMITH: Well so, you've got a lot of business leaders in here, how can companies and businesses help nonprofits like yours continue to grow? What can, you know, what can they do?

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: Gosh, so many ways. We are pretty small. We're a 12-person organization. I think we struggle with anything that any small business would struggle with, just growing and trying to do what we do well, not waste resources, make sure that our people are taken care of and people feel, you know, like motivated and looked after to do their job to the best of their ability. We look for, you know, volunteers in different ways. Our organization was essentially all volunteers before they came on full time. And so, I don't know if we can continue to take on volunteers and make them part of the staff, but it's a really important thing to be able to have an open door for people who have time or who have skills to offer, and you know, we've had pro bono legal advice, we've had graphic designers and artists and different people come in and say I can do this, I can't do that but I can do this. And so, we want to have that relationship where nothing is, nothing is overlooked, nothing is less important than writing a check, although that's always welcome. It's Mother's Day and that's a big opportunity for us to campaign around maternal health. We have, you know, partners, like product partnerships where we have lots of really lovely things that are all kind of, you know, a play on classic Mother's Day gifts, but we have great partnerships with mother-owned, female-led businesses where they're creating products that then, you know, people can buy and they can celebrate their mother, but they can also help save a life of someone else at the same time. So, those kinds of things are also great ways to participate.

MS. SMITH: That's fantastic. So, last question; to talk, talk to us about what you've learned through your work, building an organization, and what you would pass along to our entrepreneurs that are in here, our mentors from other countries as you've met many of them. We've got representation really from around the world. So, what advice would you leave them with?

MS. TURLINGTON BURNS: If I can be so bold in front of a room full of entrepreneurs and business people, but I would say, because I'm probably grappling with this a little bit now, so much of this organization really just happened. You know, like I had an experience, I was motivated to learn more, I made a film. Like all of these that were things that I didn't really stop and think like big picture, long term, what is the impact I want to make? And so, I'm trying to create that time as we're growing and as we want to continue the work what we're doing to create that time for ourselves as a team, but also as just an individual who is leading the organization to like, you know, to what end? You know? I'm always asking because when I started it I really didn't want to replicate other efforts, I didn't want, you know, there's a lot of organizations, and a lot of even organizations working on this issue. How could we be of value, and how could we be a different voice, and how could we engage more people? So, I would just say to ask yourselves those questions too as much as you can, not to like just let life go. Obviously hard work too, but really to, you know, check in and see like is this the vision that I had? Is this the right vision for now? You know, be flexible, be open minded, and follow your heart.

MS. SMITH: Awesome. Well, thank you so much. This has been I think quite a treat for everyone, and we really appreciate you coming in. I know you've got a packed schedule and you're leaving shortly. So, thank you again and let's give Christy a round of applause. [Applause] And now, now I have the pleasure, as Christine mentioned earlier, we have an action-packed panel. So, now we have Melanne Verveer coming up who I'm sure everyone knows, but most recently a book, an ambassador, so many things. And Margaret Spellings, the President of our UNC systems. So, Melanne is going to interview I think Margaret, or maybe Margaret will interview Melanne, and it will be really fantastic. So, ladies, come on up.

[Applause]

MS. MELANNE VERVEER: Well, good afternoon everybody. It's a real personal pleasure for me to be here today. I can't tell you how inspired I was listening to Christy, and if she has proven anything it's that one person can make a difference. So, I think that's the lesson to take out of that. And thank you to Bank of America for all that you do in making not just this possible but so much more.

It's a real pleasure for me to be with Margaret Spellings. She left us in Washington, so I've been kind of orphaned there without her.

MS. MARGARET SPELLINGS: I might come back.

MS. VERVEER: But she has, she has really brought extraordinary leadership, certainly to be in the United States Cabinet as the Secretary of Education, to now be here in North Carolina running the university system in terms of what this state represents in the full flowering of the university system, which is well-known. But also, the work you've done with President George Bush both in terms of policy work, political work, etcetera. So, by any definition Margaret is a leader, and that's what we're going to discuss, leadership. And I think today more than ever women are in a pivotal position. Just look at all of you, the kinds of positions we probably wouldn't have been in ten years ago. The difference we can make, the data that shows that we're growing economies, it's critical, driving social progress. Why is it so crucial in your, in your eyes that we push this forward as best as we can?

And also, you know, one of the things she's a Republican, I'm a Democrat, you wouldn't think we'd always get along, and maybe sometimes we don't on certain issues, but there's something about women's leadership where we cross divisions. We can create solutions. Could we talk about some of that?

MS. SPELLINGS: Absolutely, because I just want to give a little shout out for our--

MS. VERVEER: Oh please.

MS. SPELLINGS: --moderator here. Melanne could, the tables could be turned on this easily. Melanne and I have worked together for many, many years on these issues with President Clinton, President Bush, President Obama, Michelle Obama, Laura Bush, and on and on and on. And I think that's, as I listened to Christy and thought about the qualities that we try to engender as women leaders, patience, working with others, listening, being goal oriented, understanding it's for the long haul, being touched by something personal as Christy was often related to children and women and vulnerable populations. I mean all of those things really are at our core belief as women.

MS. VERVEER: Yep. MS. SPELLINGS: And certainly as public policy leaders. So, I think the reason it's so important is because we're going nowhere fast if we leave this much human potential and talent on the table. We know the facts over and over and over when you educate a woman you educate a family, when you spend a dollar on a woman 97 cents of it goes to her children and family and community, and on and on and on. So, it's a great business case and a great moral imperative I would say to do this work.

MS. VERVEER: So, I heard something provocative up in the reception, and that is that since you've come to North Carolina you've been going around the state and saying where are the women leaders. What is that about?

MS. SPELLINGS: Well, in Charlotte you can't say that too much because we have people like Andrea Smith who are leading the Chamber of Commerce, and of course a woman that is the mayor and the superintendent here is a woman, and one of my board of governors' members I think is here, Anna Nelson, and on and on and on, Ophelia Garmon-Brown who has been so instrumental in the economic mobility work here. But that notwithstanding, there are gaps and, you know, when you, and when you're in a place like Washington there is such a public service mentality and so many opportunities for women, we'll get into some of that, but I am puzzled by that, particularly when most, I mean women are going to college and getting out of college at rates that far exceed, and we need to work on our men obviously, but that exceed women. So, what happens between the time that we're getting out of college, attaining at high levels, and being in those leadership roles? We get lost. Right? Which is why programs like this are so important.

MS. VERVEER: Absolutely, and you did mention education and the fact that women are certainly in higher education exceeding all kinds of boundaries in graduate programs, and yet we don't see always, as you just said, the benefits of some of that in terms of breaking through and to some of the credible really challenging leadership jobs. What is the role of education in forging leadership? And how do you, so you've spent so much time overseeing the United States' education policies, now here in this state at the university level, what more should we be doing in terms of our education system to grow leadership, and particularly to grow women's leadership since we have such large numbers of women coming into the education sphere.

MS. SPELLINGS: Well, I think programs like this are a great place to start that are outside the government, outside formal networks, and I think obviously we need to take care of each other, to mentor each other, but not only to mentor each other, to sponsor each other, and that, you know, that distinction between, you know, being someone who is an advocate as a sponsor for that next generation of women. I think obviously higher levels of education, but we need to make sure that our women are paying attention to what the data tells us about where opportunity is. In this state, you know, STEM, whether it's the financial industry or the pharmaceutical industry, the biotech industry, those industries that are driving this state forward we want to make sure that our women and girls get part of that action and so that we're pursuing the disciplines that lead into those pathways.

MS. VERVEER: Do you have any kind of view that you formed on your own as to why women are not doing anywhere near as well in the STEM field as you all know, and I'm sure even our visitors from overseas we're not doing anywhere nearly as well in areas like mathematics and science and technology. And even with so many women going into higher education we're not going into fields like engineering and math. What is it about us?

MS. SPELLINGS: Well, and there's been some research on this of course, and you know, I used to say in speeches, you know, women don't feel uncomfortable saying huh, I can't balance my checkbook. You never go around saying huh I can't read, and it's almost okay to, you know, be, you know, phobic about numbers, or check out of those things. And I think we let our girls check out at early ages and have it be okay, but you're not, you're not good at math, or you're not good at science, and that that's kind of socially acceptable, and I think we have to confront those myths because it ends up being, you know, if you're not skilled and facile in math and at the seventh and eighth grade in algebra you're unlikely to be a PhD physicist. And so, we let our young girls check out of math and science at early ages and then we're off the path to those high potential fields going forward. And so, I think we all need to challenge ourselves, and when we say that to ourselves and our daughters check it.

MS. VERVEER: One of the other things I've been in this learning experience about the region, the area, the state, and I understand the disparities between economic mobility, economic and equality, not peculiar here by any stretch but obviously significantly disparities, and maybe you can explain why. But we deal with that across the country, we deal with it all over the world. And we're here really focusing on entrepreneurship, and Bank of America has been a leader in enabling women to grow their entrepreneurial skills because we know what that can do to grow economies and provide the kind of wind at the back of economies.

What more can we, can we be doing to close these gaps, whether they're local gaps or whether they're national gaps? But clearly, we're up against it, and it seems that women's entrepreneurship, women's leadership, but in the economics sphere can be one of those real tools.

MS. SPELLINGS: Absolutely. Well, to set the table, and probably a lot of people in this room know this, but you know, this city, and Raleigh not, is the worst in the United States of America for economic mobility. Raleigh is a tiny bit better, but not much. And so, the gaps are wide here in North Carolina. Here's the good news about that is because likewise Wake County and Mecklenburg County are some of the highest educated counties in the nation with, you know, 50% higher education attainment with a statewide average in the low 40s. And so, the gaps are very, very wide, and I think, you know, people used to ask me this all the time, if I could wave a magic wand I would start with higher expectations of our children, all of our children, rural children, black children, brown children, poor children. You know? If half the school lunches served today in school cafeterias were tainted and people got sick we would be outraged, it would lead the news today here in this community or nationally. Half of the kids, poor kids getting out of high school nobody seems to, that doesn't matter that much because that's our expectation that it's okay that those children are left behind, to use an old-fashioned parlance that you might have heard before.

But anyway, so I think the first thing is we have to say that is our expectation. It's our expectation that, you know, nearly everybody, 70% of the jobs in this state damn near are going to require post-secondary education, not necessarily a baccalaureate degree, but at least two years of education with a credential after high school, an associate's degree, some kind of stackable credential, a skill. Certainly the jobs at this organization are, certainly the jobs that you all are creating as entrepreneurs and leaders require skill and knowledge.

So, we start with expectation. We start with rallying our community resources in smarter ways. I have obviously many observations about what we're doing right and doing wrong in North Carolina, but that's another panel Melanne.

MS. VERVEER: Feel free to share, especially what we're doing right.

MS. SPELLINGS: What we're doing right is focusing on reading. Here in North Carolina there's been a major emphasis around early literacy. If people can't read and cipher at high levels very early then you're on a track for failure. So, you know, we're out of denial about that. A key part of that, certainly for the university, is making sure that our teachers are prepared to be effective in teaching reading, but teaching reading in disadvantaged communities, rural communities, urban communities, poor communities, etcetera, and I think we, and one of the things that I'm challenging myself to do since we run 14 teacher preparation programs, is understand how well we're doing that. You know, when the, when we have the reading results that we have in this state, which are not terribly encouraging, it tells me those well-intended, high-energy young people that are teaching in our schools don't have the best tools available or we'd have better results. So, that's, we have accountability for that in the university.

MS. VERVEER: So, leadership on the education level. You've spent a great deal of your career in public service. I often think that, as I have--

MS. SPELLINGS: Yes.

MS. VERVEER: It's been part of our journeys. But I often think that women may not think about this being a place for them, not just running for office, elective office, which is probably the hardest challenge of all if one looks at any of the data out there today, but certainly service at the national level, at the local level, school boards, town collectives that come together to solve problems. This has obviously been a huge reward in your life. You've demonstrated exceptional leadership skills. Help us understand why this is a real opportunity for women and the rewards of this.

MS. SPELLINGS: Yeah, I think often, you know, we dwell on kind of the half empty women are not on tenure track, women are not on corporate boards and all those sorts of things, and we need to pay attention to it. But I do think there are enormous assets to be in public service, and women, and a woman in public service. One, we all are motivated by, as Christy Turlington Burns was, you know, doing something for someone else. I mean, you know, we all know friends who are like man I've been a lawyer all my life and I just, is that all there is? Well, if you're in working to close the achievement gap or improve maternal health you've got that mission, that fire in your belly to leave something behind that's bigger than yourself number one, and number two, and you and I have both enjoyed these experiences, when you're in public life and public service you'll be stunned at the kind of reach you can have as a woman, managing large amounts of money, managing large numbers of people, just an incredible opportunity for careers in public service and public life.

Now, the down of it is because often those jobs don't pay as well as those in the private sector. So, I think women have been drawn into those roles, but the good of it is get yourself in there, manage, lead, learn, and translate those skills either upward in the, in the public sphere or externally in the private sector. And when I used to work on appointments for President Bush and when he was governor in Texas we used to try to sell people like Andrea that we were going to go from success to significance. And so-- MS. SMITH: And you did.

MS. SPELLINGS: And you did, and you are. So, anyway, it's just a terrific place and obviously, you can tell your own story about opportunities you've had.

MS. VERVEER: But I do think as we talk about leadership this is one of those spaces, and one where you can have tremendous impact at the local level, even when you're doing many other things. One of the things Kim and I noticed when we were writing Fast Forward was that women today tend to look at whatever they do, whether it's starting a business, they want a real purpose for that business, whether it's trying to address some kind of a local challenge, that there's this sense of purpose. I really want to make a difference. Are we peculiar that way?

MS. SPELLINGS: You know, this is, I would certainly not want to say something un-PC about men, but my observation is that I think we are. I think that's why you see, you know, women show up to say put me in coach or I'm going to lead an effort on maternal health. I'm going to run for the school board, I'm going to be the president of a university, or the mayor of Charlotte, or whatever it is. And I do think we're motivated by that. Often at some sacrifice.

MS. VERVEER: You know, one of the other things that Margaret did was she worked with former president Bush at his presidential center for a couple of years at least.

MS. SPELLINGS: Three.

MS. VERVEER: And I think one of the things you started there were the presidential scholars.

MS. SPELLINGS: Yeah.

MS. VERVEER: Now, that's a form of service. You might not think of a presidential center having presidential scholars, but why were you motivated to do that? Why did he support that? And why was it important?

MS. SPELLINGS: Well, it was a super fun partnership that was a partnership between President Clinton, President Bush, President H.W. Bush, his center, and the LBJ Library in Austin. So, in that Arkansas/Texas region we have four presidential, presidential libraries. And the idea was to help develop mid-career, civically-engaged leaders, using those four presidencies as case studies in leadership around decision making, around vision and planning, around building coalitions and whatnot, and you all ought to get on the website because it looks like there's some presidential leadership scholar candidates in here. President Bush and President Clinton stewarded this. We were able to raise funds to underwrite this because we need to develop leaders in this space so they can have the skills necessary, particularly in that mid-30s to, you know, mid-50s where you're out of graduate school if you've gone, but there, and you've got plenty of runway. So, how do you become, how do you lead at that level? Who better to do that than two presidents?

MS. VERVEER: So, education at every level for leadership.

MS. SPELLINGS: Life-long learning.

MS. VERVEER: As is always the case. We have such little time left, but there are so many exceptional women in this room who have been ambassadors, mentors for other exceptional women, many from other parts of the world who are the mentees in various areas. We touched very briefly on mentorship. You also mentioned sponsorship. But I've always noticed that when one comes into these arrangements of the mentee and the mentor each benefit-- MS. SPELLINGS: Absolutely.

MS. VERVEER: And it's not just the mentee, and I'm sure that's the experience in this room, it's also the mentor. Can you tease that out a little bit?

MS. SPELLINGS: Absolutely, and it's the old, you know, you get more than you give kind of thing.

MS. VERVEER: Yes.

MS. SPELLINGS: I think if there's, if there's an age difference it's often the younger, the mentee helps keep the mentor real and relevant and current, which is a huge gift for those troglodytes in the audience. And I think it helps challenge your assumptions often. It allows you, as Christy mentioned, to continue to challenge yourself about the why, that you're not just so engrained in your initial vision that you forget to step back. We used to say in one of the programs I was involved in are you working in your business or on your business? And I think it lets the mentor work on your business and not in your business.

MS. VERVEER: And what about networks? Because I think the other thing that women tend to lack in many ways, and we see this in the economics sphere among entrepreneurs, but I think we also see it more broadly, which is the need to be able to come together to meet other people in our sphere, others who can help take an element of what we're doing and enable us to forge ahead. So, more of a concentration on networks as well, that development, which again I think is what the program represents.

MS. SPELLINGS: And we're, and we're a great example right here. Here's one exemplar.

MS. VERVEER: Well, I had the card put up, wrap up, so we will wrap up but please thank this wonderful leader. [Applause] And now we're going to have a great panel on entrepreneurship. So, stay tuned.

MS. SMITH: More than 200 million women worldwide are running businesses. These are amazing women, and yet there are obstacles that keep these amazing women from reaching their full potential, and that includes lack of access to capital. But the women on this panel are doing something about it, and we're going to talk to them about what they're doing and how they're overcoming those obstacles, and we're going to learn something about it as we go. I want to introduce Josefina Urzaiz, who is the co-founder of Hammock Boutique, and Fundación Cielo in Mexico. Next to her is Nigest Haile, who is the Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Accelerated Women's Economic Empowerment in Ethiopia. And next to her is Jill Calabrese Bain, and Jill is with Bank of America. She is the Managing Director and Head of Sales for Bank of America's Merchant Services. So, I'm going to begin with Nigest. So, you are the founder of Enat Bank, which focuses on women. Why was it necessary to start a bank for women in Ethiopia?

MS. NIGEST HAILE: Thank you. In thinking of establishing a commercial bank is not an easy task, which all of you know, particularly the staff of the Bank of America and the rest of the others. We were really focusing on issues of the women operating in the small and medium enterprises, which we usually call the missing middle, which the formal banks are never interested to address their interests because of the issue of collateral, the stringent application processes, the lack of a track record - - their bankers, and all those. And yet, on the other side the microfinance institutions are too small for those groups of women, so where do they fit? So, we said, 11 of us, visionary women who had been fully engaged in all of our full-time engagements, we said let's have a solution. Why do we wait for the government? Why do we wait for people to come and help us? So, let's try to do it. That time was a very good opportunity for private banks to emerge, so we came out to be the 15th, the 16th private bank in Ethiopia, so we were able to do it. It was not an easy process. We had a full-time job, busy traveling, doing our own tasks, but again no weekend, no sleep, our marriages suffered, our children suffered, but anyway, we left a legacy. So, we were able to establish the bank, actually the process started in 2008, we were registered at the National Bank in 2011, but we started operation in 2013. You can see the process.

We named it Enat, Enat meaning mother. That had been a great brand to us because it was our selling point. Nobody, I mean every one of us was mothers, so that had been a great brand to sell our shares. So, our bank is 100% private, 66% of our shareholders are women, 43% of our depositors are women, very unusual for women to deposit in a bank. So far, we are able to open 28 branches. Seven of us sitting in the board, in the male's domain in the bank are women out of the 11.

The first bank we had been to reach break-even when we're eight months, the 15th private banks reach to break even in years. And we're the only bank in the country that we were able to give dividend the first year, where the rest of the other banks were able to give dividend after three years. So, we had so many objectives focusing in our unique bank. We were able to develop unique products and services, create different saving schemes. We also do provide women financial services so that we - - in both the finance and the capacity managing the finance.

MS. SMITH: Wow. [Applause] Amazing. Thank you Nigest. Josefina, your company produces hammocks that are woven by women, and you're using this business to change these women's lives. It's not just employing them, you're changing their lives. Tell us how you're doing that.

MS. JOSEFINA URZAIZ: Thank you. First of all, well thank you, I'm very grateful to be here, an honor to be part of this as a mentee in this week. Our organizations that lead have the goal to alleviate poverty, and the way we do this is by empowering women in rural communities in Mexico where I'm from. We employ 900 women who hand weave the hammocks from home, so I don't break that family structure. And to give you perspective, each hammock takes about two weeks to weave because they do it in their spare time, and the impact that we have reaches 3,200 people on an everyday basis.

And after setting up this organization and being a profitable business which makes us sustainable we realized that we were still not changing some habits in these families. Yes, they had a steady income but if the kid said I want to drop out of school when I'm 12 the mother said okay, fine, you don't want to go to school? Don't go to school. Or they were having Coca-Cola for breakfast, not that I have anything against Coca-Cola, but if they're suffering from diabetes maybe it's better that they have oranges, that they have orange trees in the backyard.

And so, we decided that we needed something else to really complement what we were doing from generating this stream of income to then educate them in how to improve their living conditions, but especially my hope is that I can change, and I think we are changing, the lives of the next generation that is their children. So, with the foundation we're working, bringing students from universities in the U.S. and Europe to work with those families on literacy, on preventive health. We run a mentorship program as well. That's my way of paying back what I'm receiving here this week where we motivate these teenagers to study an undergrad degree, to understand the importance of education, to lift them out of poverty and generate opportunities not only for themselves but for their communities.

MS. SMITH: And it's a fair trade company.

MS. URZAIZ: That's right. We wanted to be better, and decided that a way to prove that we're doing above and beyond what is in our hands we decided to become fair trade certified, and not only that B Corp, for those of you who know what B Corp is, which means we do above and beyond. We're not only committed with our suppliers, that is the weavers, but also with the environment and with the community as a whole giving back.

MS. SMITH: Good, thank you. And Jill, let's talk a little bit about Bank of America and a survey that you just did about small business owners in the U.S. What did it tell you about the attitudes of women and men business owners, and their access to capital?

MS. JILL CALABRESE BAIN: Sure, well first I want to say I'm humbled to share the stage with these two women, and all of their tremendous accomplishments. So, ladies, thank you. You know, the state of the state is actually good. There is about ten million small businesses owned by women in the United States. It's actually the fastest growing segment of the small business population, and it represents about a third of all small business owners nationally. We have the privilege of banking about 1.2 of those, 1.2 million of those women today, so it's about 40% of what it is that we do at the bank. And when we looked at the survey the news is actually pretty good. I mean women are fairly confident in the economy today and where they believe the economy will go in the next 12 months. However, there's still some hesitation around revenue growth and long-term economic growth. And so, when we look at that it's about 44% of the women feel really confident, which is good but that's down from about 54% last year. So, we always look at access to capital. Access to capital is something that plagues both men and women. But they tend to look at sources of capital differently, and we see that women, at least in the survey that we just recently completed, only about 7% actually think that they will pursue financing in 2017, which is a little lower than their male counterparts. And sometimes what we see it's the confidence factor. They feel like they need all of the information before they even ask the question, which we know that that's not the case and we want to be able to support those women.

MS. SMITH: That's typical of the way women look at life. Right?

MS. CALABRESE BAIN: It's the 80%.

MS. SMITH: Yes.

MS. CALABRESE BAIN: I mean we've got to be 80% sure before we actually put our toe in the water, so we've got to get a little bit better about that. MS. SMITH: Did you survey tell you what women are likely to use their loans for?

MS. CALABRESE BAIN: Mostly to market their businesses. So, they'll reinvest. It's hiring and marketing.

MS. SMITH: So, marketing and not starting new businesses.

MS. CALABRESE BAIN: Not starting a new business. It's actually it's up and running and how are we going to use the capital. MS. SMITH: Okay, so Nigest, talk to me about the size of the loans that women are looking for in Ethiopia, in U.S. dollars. Can you do that, that calculation for us? What's the size of the loans that they're looking for from Enat Bank, and what kinds of businesses are women looking to start in Ethiopia?

MS. HAILE: We finance startups, again small and medium enterprises, also expand businesses. So, most of them are involved in agriculture, manufacturing, export/import, and support communications, etcetera. Coming to the size of the loans, we have two loans, which we do like any other conventional, conventional bank. We give loans because the bank is for both women and men because we don't exclude me, even though the bank is for women. Quite a good number of women are banking honestly with us because they love our objectives and what we're doing. So, in this respect the government of Ethiopia has set its own policy on collateral requirements, which is 100% plus. But for us, we have eased the collateral for women for this conventional part of the loan from 51 to 70. So, in this process out of, you know, we're a young bank, it's only three years, so out of the 942 borrowers 309, 33% are women, which we are very glad because we have waived that from 100% plus to 51 to 70. So, the loan size on average is 1.8 million U.S. dollars. Again, we have another loan, which we call the risk fund, the grantee fund, which voluntarily we have set aside a certain amount of money for those small and medium enterprises, mainly growth-oriented businesses, who need money but they don't have the collateral. So, this is the side of the loan which we provide, and so far we were able to give 610 businesses, women's businesses in this part of the loan. We have thousands of women on the line on that because of the problem of collateral. But lucky we were, a few months back we were able to sign grant fund from U.S. - - ten million U.S. dollars from the grantee fund. You know, when you improve working everybody comes to support you. So, now we are now ready to expand our loan on the risk fund side again, also working more on the conventional part.

[Applause]

MS. SMITH: What type of work are women expanding and doing in Ethiopia?

MS. HAILE: Mainly the male domain, like manufacturing, now import substitution. Most of them do import furniture and all of those, now we have quite a good number of women who take, doing the import substitution on manufacturing in construction. Those male domain areas, and also the usual traditional areas where women are involved.

MS. SMITH: Are you looking at ways to expand their access to capital?

MS. HAILE: Yes. I think our bank is expanding, we're just only three years young. During the time we get more, we expand our capital, we expand our outreach, and again expand also the loan size.

MS. SMITH: Okay, good thank you. Jill, one way that women owners differ from men is their access to capital or really lack thereof, that really goes across the board. What's being done to get more money into the hands of women business owners?

MS. CALABRESE BAIN: So, I can talk about a few of the ways that Bank of America has made some progress on this front because I think that there's always more that we can do around education. So, you know, we have a partnership with the national association of women business owners in 60 cities across the U.S. where we partner Bank of America/Merrill Lynch women chapter leaders in these local cities to really bring thought leadership, to bring education, sometimes to bring financing. But it is our way of understanding what is it that makes women business owners tick? So that how can we be more supportive? So, you saw a couple of things earlier on the screen. We've got a partnership with the Tory Burch Foundation Capital Program, which we started in 2014. We've been able to finance over 1,100 women, small business owners, and commit 25 million dollars' worth of capital, and we hope to see that program grow. We also work with our community development, financial institutions. It's always a mouthful, but for those who are not familiar they really provide technical assistance and affordable loans across the U.S., and Bank of America is the largest investor of CBFIs. So, we're really thrilled with our participation with 240 lenders across the United States. So, thank you for all of the support and the partnership. And lastly, I was thinking about one more program, through Andrea's support in supplier diversity and development, again this is another program where we can work directly with women and diverse owned businesses, and in 2016 actually invested over 2.6 billion in procurement spending.

MS. SMITH: So, you're finding success with all of these.

MS. CALABRESE BAIN: We're finding success. I think that there's absolutely always more to do.

MS. SMITH: Yeah, okay. Josefina, let's talk about some of the ways that you're creating change. You were able to change the way at least one of your sellers does business, and this is one of my favorite stories. I have heard this. Talk to me a little bit about the experience that one of your folks had with Lowe's.

MS. URZAIZ: Absolutely, not too far from here I had a meeting with Lowe's, and as you know it's a very large company with hundreds of stores throughout the U.S., and my brother and I finished up the meeting, the buyer loves it, and he's like I want 5,000 a month. Well, I have a problem. If you do the math it takes two weeks to make one, I cannot make 5,000 for you a month. But thanks to the supplier diversity team we convinced them to look to us with a different lens, which is why don't we do this, I can be online, I can do drop ship to all of your customers, and instead of having them in stock at your stores, which requires the 5,000 a month, why am I not just in display at your highest-selling stores of hammocks. And so, we convinced them and they carry us. But I think that the most important takeaway from this is actually how the United States is a leader. This was a policy set up with the U.S. government, supplier diversity, you have to buy 15% from women and minority-owned businesses, and this really is leading change, and helping women like myself with a small business to thrive and generate jobs back home where I'm from, and I think that's so important that the United States remain being this leader because us from other countries are followers, and policies like this really make an impact around the world.

MS. SMITH: And really think creatively.

MS. URZAIZ: Yes, yes.

MS. SMITH: Has online commerce changed the way that you do your business?

MS. URZAIZ: For sure. I think trying to set up the business that I have before e-commerce was a thing I don't even know how I would have, you know, reached as many places that I reach. We ship to every continent in the world, to places as remote as Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, that you wouldn't think we could reach, but everything, it's online. They reach me online and we were excited to say that my hammocks are used everywhere in the world.

MS. SMITH: Has online commerce made any kind of inroads in Ethiopia?

MS. HAILE: We don't have actually that structure in place, so yeah.

MS. SMITH: No. MS. HAILE: We'll get there. We'll get there.

MS. SMITH: But maybe soon. Okay. So, let's talk a little bit about what it will take to help women really and truly be successful in business. So Jill, what do you think? What would it really take?

MS. CALABRESE BAIN: Well, you know, it's interesting, and listening to Christy and listening to Josefina really struck a chord with me because often times what we see is that necessity is the mother of all invention, and women business owners generally speaking do not open their own businesses for the lure of financial success. That's low down on the totem pole for them, it's really about empowerment. And so, empowerment means different things to different people, whether it's a business owner is Southern Florida and she's opening indoor pools. And so, if you're from Southern Florida you know that indoor pools is not something that exists, but it's the leading, it's the leading cause of death for children. So, she developed indoor pools. And financing for her was not easy out of the gate. Right? I also talked to a business owner, a not for profit business owner this week who started her own domestic violence association, and she didn't do it for her, she did it for her granddaughter. And so, when you think about why do women create businesses, it's not always about themselves. It is about other people. But I think that there is, it is about community and community is not only local, it's national, it's global. You see what this women are doing. And I think we can do anything. So, it's about putting our voice out there, our resources, our network, our support, and really sponsoring versus mentoring, but really taking a stand and pulling people together, and saying you know what? No is not the answer for us.

MS. SMITH: Nigest, how about you? What will it take for women to be successful in Ethiopia? MS. HAILE: Finance being the major constraint, I don't think it's the only one. Of course, we have to design strategies that women have access to finance. But again, women in - - being community caretakes, so many obligations in place with playing multiple roles, I believe the business environment has to be women frankly starting from the policy. So, everything has to be there for them to start women to expand their business for those particular, the young ones also want to start new businesses. So, equally important as finance I believe there are so many constraints that hamper women to expand in business or start a business, the cultural barriers when it comes to my country and in our continent and elsewhere. The access to markets, the information available, disposable out there, facilities close to them because of the particular role they are playing. So, I believe we have lots of things to do. And at the moment I am here now being part of the Global Ambassador's Program I sincerely would like to thank the Bank of America. I don't think many do like this, partnering with institutions like - - .

[Applause]

Thank you. In the globe, we have so many corporates like those. I wish they would do it small, a little part of that, to empower women in different corners where they are. So, that's how we can really make a difference. MS. SMITH: And Josefina, how about you?

MS. URZAIZ: I'll say four words, more women in power. I think we need just more women, whether it's holding public office, whether it's in business, whether it's, you know, the person I'm trying to make a decision at Lowe's to whether to buy my hammocks or not. Just those decisions where it's just decision-making positions we need more women because women relate better to other women. No offense to the men here. But it's easier to make that connection, to know that they have our agenda at first when they make those decisions for policy, for so many things. Just more women in power I think is what will get us to the next level. So many policies have been put in place, but now we need women making those decisions and driving those decisions.

MS. SMITH: Good. [Applause]. And from each of you a final thought, what are you optimistic about in your world, in your world of finance, in your world in Ethiopia, in your world in Mexico? Jill, what are you optimistic about? MS.

CALABRESE BAIN: I'm optimistic about the pace of change, and the interest in what it is that we are doing and what women mean to not only the local economy but the global economy because it does start with women, they do give back to their communities. We see it time and time again.

MS. SMITH: Good, Nigest?

MS. HAILE: For me, I believe for me, for each of our countries we have to contribute and we have to give back, and nobody will come to us to our businesses. So, for us we're so happy establishing such an amazing bank. We have left a legacy. So, the next generation we'll aspire more, doing better for the continent, for the generation to come. So, it's good to serve as role models.

MS. SMITH: Very good. Josefina?

MS. URZAIZ: I feel extremely confident about setups like this one that leave me so filled with so much energy to then go back to where I'm from and give back to other people who then give back to other people, and create this ripple effect that I think will take us where we want to be, which is to be a more equal society around the world.

MS. SMITH: Great. Josefina Urzaiz, we have Nigest Haile, who is the founder and executive director of the Center for Accelerated Women's Economic Empowerment, and also Jill Calabrese Bain from Bank of America. Thank you all very much. [Applause] Next up, why partnering is good for women and good for the world, but first please take a moment and watch this next video.

[Video starts]

FEMALE VOICE 8: Since I become part of the Global Ambassador's Program I dare to dream bigger, and I know that I have this amazing network of women that are ready to help. It's not only during the mentorship we've developed a relationship that has lasted and will last. Because of the diversity of the people that participate and the different backgrounds of the mentors, of the mentees, and that exchange between women it brings down all of the barriers that we see in society. You see mentors and mentees all working towards developing those businesses and developing those people, and there's no competition whatsoever, and that is just amazing. That's an amazing barrier to break.

[Video ends]

[Applause]

MS. ALYSE NELSON: Well hello everyone, I'm Elise Nelson. I'm President and CEO of Vital Voices. Let me just first say how exciting it is to be here at the mothership of Bank of America. I heard it actually called that. Vital Voices, as you know, launched in partnership with Bank of America this really innovative partnership five years ago. So, it's quite special to be back here and to see so many people in this room who were really part of making it happen and looking at Zoe and Susan and of course Pam Seagle, and so many others who just made this a reality.

And I'm thrilled to be joined by some of our past mentees and current mentors for discussion really about the power of partnership. You know, I think that there's something really profound going on in our world today, and I think that if you look around the world, and it was echoed in all of these discussions that we just had, that women are really reaching the highest levels of leadership. And I think they're getting there and they're realizing that, you know, they came a lot further than they anticipated. They have a lot more power, they have a lot more reach than they ever thought would be possible for them in their lives. And the first thing they think is how am I going to give back? How am I going to pay this opportunity forward? Engage more people? And they don't just want to write a check, they really want to give of their time and their resources. They want to open up their networks.

And this program, the Global Ambassador's Program was really founded on that core belief. It started as a partnership between Vital Voices, a nonprofit organization, nongovernmental organization, and Bank of America of course, major multinational corporation. And one of the things that I think was so profound is that right from the beginning it was about an equal partnership, that we each have something to bring to the table, even though one entity was a lot smaller than the other. But I think what was so incredible about the launch of that was just this idea that we're going to not only look at how we tap into so many great leaders, women leaders in the bank, but also how do we leverage so many other leaders in other organizations? And I think that takes a lot of insight from a company to understand that, that partnership is not just about you and someone in another sector, it could be about even partnering with some of your competitors to ultimately, you know, make a difference in the long run.

One of my favorite African proverbs says that if you want to go fast go it alone, but if you want to go far go together. And that's certainly what we're going to be talking about on this panel today. I'm thrilled to be joined by first Oulimata Sarr. She is a regional advisor for economic empowerment of women with UN Women. UN Women is the UN agency responsible for women's, responsible for women's empowerment, economic, political, and otherwise. Next to her is Katerina Cronstedt. She is a serial entrepreneur from Russia. She in my opinion, reading her bio, has led many lives, fit so much in, and she is currently the founder of Ben Catering, and we'll hear a little bit more about that in a minute. And finally, you've already met Christine Katziff from Bank of America. She is the Global General Auditor. It's great that you have time to join us, that sounds like a really big job.

So, first I want to start with you Katerina. You were a mentee in the Global Ambassador's Program three years ago in 2014, and then you went back and made some pretty profound changes. How is the program transformational in your career trajectory, in your leadership path?

MS. KATERINA CRONSTEDT: Yeah, so thank you first and foremost for being, for letting me be part of this program, and it's an honor. And in 2014 when I was participating in the program we were in Poland in the Global Ambassador's Program. I had a business that had dinner kits. It was the first dinner kit company in Moscow, and-- MS. NELSON: Maybe just explain to me what a dinner kit company is.

MS. CRONSTEDT: Yeah. MS. NELSON: In case they don't know.

MS. CRONSTEDT: So, a dinner kit or a meal kit company is basically that we delivered groceries with a recipe that you cook at home. So, I wanted to actually improve lives of families, women, to cook quicker, better food for their families, so that's what I was doing. And mentoring opportunities and networks like these, like Global Ambassador's Program, do not exist in Russia. They're just not there. So, having been chosen to participate in this program was a huge confidence booster. It made me, you know, I was part of the team, and secondly, the time that my mentor gave me caring for my business, the insights and some very actionable advice that really worked for my, for my business that was very forceful. I had never thought that that would be possible. So, coming back from Russia I implemented the changes that Biatta [phonetic], my mentor, suggested, and only now that I can look back two and a half years later, I can really appreciate the amount of impact that it made on my business, and actually on my second business which I started six months--

MS. NELSON: So, you sold the business?

MS. CRONSTEDT: So, I, a year after participating in the program sold my first business and simultaneously I started a new one based on the knowledge and the tools that were given to me in the Global Ambassadors Program, which was a more successful company, just in short, which was an online catering company that exists to this day, and that has-- MS. NELSON: Before that program did you have any experience with mentoring?

MS. CRONSTEDT: No, not at all, never.

MS. NELSON: Yeah.

MS. CRONSTEDT: And maybe, you know, one could say that I haven't even thought that that existed, that that was available, and that, what that could mean for me as a person, for our business and for, you know, in the long run our employees, my team, and then later the community, the entrepreneurial community where I could give back. Yeah.

MS. NELSON: So, Oulimata, I know that you are a global ambassador in this program, but you've also participated as a mentor for another program supported by Bank of America, the Cherie Blair Foundation's work with mentoring, particularly online mentoring. Can you talk a little bit about your experiences with both of those programs, first with the Cherie Blair Foundation?

MS. OULIMATA SARR: Thank you. You know, once a year the Cherie Blair Foundation reaches out to people who want to donate their time, and you know, that year I agreed to spend a year with a mentee across the globe, and I was assigned a young lady in Malaysia who was manufacturing pantyliners, washable pantyliners out of bamboo fiber, and her biggest market was California. And yes, from the new-age women who don't want to use disposable pantyliners.

So, it was, it was an amazing experience. We went through her business plan. You know, I have a finance background so most of the work we did was on the finance side, helping her focus a little bit more. She was a social entrepreneur who donated a lot of her time and energy to her community. So, for a year we never physically met. We spent time on Skype and on e-mail. You know, as mentors we just assume that we are giving, but we learn so much from each other, and when Zoe, I can't refuse anything to Zoe, when she reached out and said you know what? Vital Voices is looking for global ambassadors, do you want to donate one week of your time? So, I'm actually on leave. So, I'm not here for UN Women, I'm here for myself. I thought it was important that as women that we share our experience, that we empower others. That's how we move the needle. As you know, women empowerment we've been talking about it for years. You know? Beijing 1995 when Hilary Clinton said women's rights is human rights, and Beijing plus 20 as we call it, and we are still talking about the same issues. And the power of partnership, you know, for us it's critical that as individuals that we give back, that private sector, banks, also participate in this global agenda. The world has set up some objectives that you might want to Google, it's called Sustainable Development Goals that we want to all reach by 2030. There are 17 of those. If you only have to remember two there's number 5 which is gender quality, and number 17 which is partnership. We cannot do it separately. Public sector, private sector, and of course civil society organizations have to partner.

MS. NELSON: When they were launched two years ago I remember so many world leaders saying there's two you've got to remember, and you're exactly right, it's women--

MS. SARR: Number five.

MS. NELSON: --because we all know women are a critical backbone to development, but also partnership. No one sector can bring the trillions of dollars that it's going to take.

MS. SARR: That is needed, yep.

MS. NELSON: To move things forward. So, I want to, I want to come to you Christine and the work of Bank of America because you've been long believers, obviously the partnership with Vital Voices is five years old, but you've been working for many years to, you know, really advance the development agenda, particularly women, but really to focus on partnership. Why does Bank of America believe that? I mean you are a huge corporation with lots of resources and entities around the world. Why is it important to partner with NGOs or governments?

MS. KATZIFF: So, first and foremost, and we've covered this a lot, if you strengthen and support and enable women then what you're doing is strengthening communities and impacting positively the global economy. So, it all comes together, and you know, it's great because some of the efforts just have been great examples, even here the, you know, the last panel who talked about some of our efforts around, you know, Jill talked about the support we provide in via small business loans, our partnership with Tory Burch Foundation, which is providing affordable loans to women-owned businesses, our partnership with Vital Voices of course, and Cherie Blair Foundation, as well as again Jill and Josefina talked about the Supplier Diversity Program, which not only supports women but also supports businesses that are owned by minorities, individuals with disabilities, veterans, and the LGBT community. So, and we also, there's a whole host of things we do, but you know, another great example is we partner with the Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women and it's pieced through business training and mentoring program. And that is a program that helps and supports women entrepreneurs in Rwanda and Afghanistan to support and strengthen their businesses.

So, these are just a few examples of how we partner, why we partner is because no one sector can do this alone. And so, and you see the power of the partnerships as they play through and you talk to those who have been impacted. And so, that's why we think it's important and that's why we are believers of the partnerships.

MS. NELSON: Can we go a little deeper into the UN and partnerships? Obviously, the UN can't achieve its goals without partnership because that's the reason it was set up. Talk a little bit more about practically, where have you seen partnerships really work? With UN women, at the UN? You know, and has partnerships being highlighted as part of the sustainable development goals helped raise awareness that yeah not one sector can do it alone?

MS. SARR: Absolutely. I will talk about my own area of, my portfolio. So, I deal with economic empowerment for Western and Central Africa, and my role is to help our country offices develop the biggest programs that give more money to the women. Right now we're focusing on agriculture because as we look at all of these African countries we realize that agriculture is a driver of growth, and therefore if we want to empower economically the women we have to make sure that they are involved in agriculture, they are just used as labor.

To be able to be transformational in that sector we need to work on four essential areas; one is policy, mostly dealing with issues of access to land, and to do that the public sector plays a big role. The second issue we try to tackle in the area of agriculture is access to finance. And like Nigest said for the longest time the women have been confined to microfinance and small loans. So, when we look at access to finance we want to look at the broad spectrum of financial instruments, whether it's a guarantee funds, credit lines, private equity, leasing of, you know, agriculture equipment. And all of that we have to do with the private sector. When we talk about access to market, same thing. How do we make sure that these women that we're going to help produce more tomatoes, more mangoes, everything else, have access to market? And that access to market can only be achieved through contractual relationship with private sector. So, once UN Women walk away three or four years later from the program that these women are able to continue. And lastly, skills development, exactly what we've been doing this whole week. How do we make sure that these women are productive, they use technology, they have a better use of water? So, as you can see in all of these four pillars in the area of agriculture we cannot do it alone.

MS. NELSON: Yeah.

MS. SARR: We bring in money in terms of funding as the United Nations, but we expect private sector to play its role. We expect public sector to play its role. In Africa, right now we have two countries that are leading in terms of affirmative procurement. In Kenya for instance 30% of public spend is earmarked for women, youth, and people with disabilities. South Africa also has preferential treatment for women. So, it's those critical partnerships that will allow us to have that critical mass of women that are economically empowered. And as a UN we, especially when women, we have a good understanding of what we call the gender machinery. We play a role of honest broker and that's how we put it together. It's a, it's a holistic comprehensive approach to be able to have impact.

MS. NELSON: All right. Katerina, I want to, I want to come back to you and some of what you were talking about about the power of mentoring and partnership, and also bring together a strand that Melanne was talking about earlier, the idea of needing networks, and how valuable networks are. And one of the things that we've found at Vital Voices, because ultimately what we are is a network of 15,000 women leaders around the world, across different sectors, as well as mentors and others, and what we've definitely seen is that there's something about women being part of a non-competitive and non-hierarchical network, that it encourages women leaders to take risks that they wouldn't have normally taken. Can you talk about, I mean did you have that experience? I mean I know you're sort of a risk-taker by design, as an entrepreneur you have to be. But I'm curious, I mean what's next for you and what has, what has been unleashed through gaining more support and mentoring?

MS. CRONSTEDT: Yeah, well first of all, when I came back to Russia from participating in the program, you know, this hot potato of knowledge and of inspiration I felt so compelled to share it with my, with my colleagues or--

MS. NELSON: I love that, hot potato.

MS. CRONSTEDT: Well, it was like that. I heard about it.

MS. NELSON: I've heard it described so many ways of wanting to give back, but never a hot potato. I can feel that. MS.

CRONSTEDT: It was like that because you've been given, and when you haven't had that, when it's so concrete and it was so almost physical, and I wanted to share. So, that was a big privilege to do that in that community in Russia and we traveled to other cities in Russia to do the - - Saint Petersburg, to give speeches that could be on digital awareness, it could be strategy planning, the topics that were covered. But since we have relocated to the United States very recently, six months ago, with my family, I have first-hand experienced the challenge of childcare. I have three sons, and I realize that had I given birth to them here I probably wouldn't have been able to build these two companies that I did in Russia because I wouldn't have been able to afford the childcare that I could afford in Russia. So, that is, that just struck me like oh my God, that's, it's unaffordable, it's unreliable, and it's just sometimes not available. So, childcare is something that I've just very recently come across of how big the challenge is. MS. NELSON: So, are you going to solve it for us?

MS. CRONSTEDT: Well, I will take a stab at it.

MS. NELSON: I literally just leaned in.

MS. CRONSTEDT: But it's, it's a field that I'm very, very passionate about, and as we've been talking today, like what does it take for women to be successful or the communities to be prosperous? Well, it takes that you can have a choice. It's all, it's about the choice that you can have, that no mother and no parent/family should be forced to stay at home with their children just because they couldn't afford it. You know? I have three boys in like three years. Like having the money in preschool it would have been so extremely expensive that I maybe and probably wouldn't have been able to take that risk. I wouldn't have the financial means. So, that is a real, it's a very, it's a gap that I'm very interested into looking into very deep, and try to do something about.

MS. NELSON: Well, we'll look forward into following your progress. Christine, I wonder about what Bank of America does internally. I mean we've heard so much about what you're doing externally, and obviously I've seen it firsthand. But does that translate internally? What do you do for women employees and to spark women's leadership? I know you're doing something because over the last five years I've had the great opportunity to work with so many women leaders within Bank of America who've served as our global ambassadors, and I'm like this company is like made of amazing women. I mean just, not just so skilled but wanting to give back. And so, I wonder where does that come from within the company?

MS. KATZIFF: Well thank you, we do appreciate the feedback and agree that there's a lot of talented women in our organization. But we have had women's programs, women's development programs for years, decades now. One of the things that we did realize though is there was so many around the globe, in the United States and around the globe that last year we realized that there would be some significant power in pulling that all together. So, we have made significant progress but if we came up with a common core mission. And so we formed an umbrella organization, the Investing in Women's Council, at the beginning of 2016 and I am very lucky to be the Executive Sponsor and Leader of that. And we came up with four additional kind of core common goals for us. One is attracting, hiring, retaining women. One is in addition to broad women we realized we really needed to focus on ethnic diversity as it relates to female leadership, and pulling up ethnic diversity in women to higher levels in our organization. Also, just development programs in general. We had tons of them, probably almost too many, and how to depict the few that were extraordinarily impactful, and then track women along the way after they went through the programs. And the last thing we called out as a focus, Margaret mentioned, which was the advocacy, and how do you bring men and women into the fold to being very strong advocates every single day, and how do you bring that to work? So, those are just some new things we have been doing in the last year, year and a half to push it forward.

MS. NELSON: That's great. That's great. I want to just in the three or so minutes we have remaining just if each of you could tell me about either your personal experience with mentoring, why did it make an impact, not to get into a long story, but you know, what was the impact? Why is it valuable? Or if you'd rather, how do you find a mentor? What advice do you have for maybe people who are here today who are like I'd like a mentor?

MS. SARR: For me, it's funny because the most, the most impactful mentor I ever had was an American gentleman by the name of David from Texas, had he's been my biggest supporter, and he died in a plane crash in Texas two years ago, but he's been following me and even sometimes when I didn't believe in myself he gave me huge responsibilities as a CFO of a multi-million-dollar business. That was way before I joined the World Bank or the UN. But so, mentoring is extremely important. So, my ask tonight is for the men to really be our champions. We want them to be our he for she and say to other men I stand by my sister, I stand by my wife, I stand by my daughter. That's my first ask. My second ask is for the other women, you know, we tend to shy away sometimes from the activism but you just have to realize that you have a mandate. If every woman voted for a woman we will have plenty of women presidents around the world. So, you really, you really have a mandate to represent and to know that you are really, when you're sitting on that board meeting, when you're about to make, click that button that you're doing that on behalf of millions and billions of women around the world. They say that if every woman made a jump today we will have an earthquake. So, that's how powerful we are.

MS. NELSON: Katerina?

MS. CRONSTEDT: So, I think that sometimes you can, you're too afraid or scared to ask somebody for help, to be your mentor, but we've learned today and in the program during this week is that you can simply ask, and it can be just a question, and you can have a mini mentor just for that simple thing that you're asking about, need. So, maybe there is an opportunity for mini mentoring around us all the time, and I would really promote that, do that, ask the questions, say what you need, and it is around us, and I think I've had many more mentors that I actually think that I've had. They're around us. Yeah.

MS. KATZIFF: So, to exactly that, the many, I would just add there is no one perfect mentor, so surround yourself with many people because you can pick and choose strengths. Everyone has different strengths. And so, think of it as you are the CEO of your business, of your career, and you get to select your board of directors, and that is how you should think about mentorship, where similar to any company who looks for a strong board of directors you pick multiple skills. You would never pick one person with one skill. So, diversify and have mentors that you would tap into and rely on, depending on the situation, and you get diversity of thought.

MS. NELSON: Lots of great, great advice. I think you know often times people underestimate the power of mentoring and think oh that's sort of soft, but actually what I have seen in 20 years of working with Vital Voices is that it's a strategy, it works. My mentor here, she always hates that I acknowledge her, but my mentor here Melanne, I know I wouldn't be in the job that I'm in without her. And I think that mentors are the people who don't just pull you up, but also are the ones that are willing to stand behind you and believe in you, maybe even sometimes as you said, you know, before you believe in yourself.

MS. CRONSTEDT: Yes.

MS. NELSON: So, thank you all, and you're going to stay seated and we're going to invite Andrea Smith to come back up here, and I want to thank Andrea. I think the last time I saw Andrea she was helping us launch the program in Haiti, and she was down there in a working group with the women and thank you for being such a champion of this program for so many years.

MS. SMITH: No, thank you. And thank you to this panel, thank you to all of you. Thank you to all of our panelists and our amazing speakers. I'm inspired. I'm inspired by everyone, and I wrote down a few things. I mean hammocks, the 5,000 Lowe's hammocks, or the bank in Ethiopia, the small loan is 1.8 million. I mean I think we've got some things we can learn here. I mean the dinner kit to the, sold already and now online catering. I mean the stories are amazing. So, Alyse, thank you for the partnership for the last five years, and thank you to all of our mentees and mentors for being here. we're so excited to be able to do the program in the United States, in our corporate headquarters, which is fantastic. And as Margaret reminded me I'm the only thing standing between all of you and the reception. So, my last comment though is please come to the reception because our mentees will have wears from their businesses, and they'll be able to talk to you about all of the things that they're doing. So--

MS. NELSON: Hammocks?

MS. URZAIZ: Hammocks. MS. SMITH: And maybe a hammock will be strung there and you can take a rest too if you'd like. But thank you again for being here. Thank you to everyone.

[Applause]

[END RECORDING]