Fortune MPW International Summit 2025

H.E. Fahd Bin Abdulmohsan Al-Rasheed, Chairman of Saudi Conventions & Exhibitions General Authority (SCEGA) welcomes the Fortune MPW audience in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with introductory remarks from Fortune CEO Anastasia Nyrkovskaya.

H.E. Fahd Bin Abdulmohsan Al-Rasheed welcomes Fortune MPW audience in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

His Excellency Fahd Bin Abdulmohsan Al-Rasheed

Conferences

Transformation in Saudi Arabia created many women who are the first of their kind. And being first is very hard across multiple sectors, public, private, government, any area of the world, and to some extent, I'm also first of my kind. It's an honor to be the first female CEO of Fortune. And, and. Our editor in chief, Allison Chanel, is the first female editor in chief of Fortune. In 95 year history of the company. So Not an easy job at all whatsoever. And over the last 30 years we have been working on 4 most powerful women in the community and building the community and in order to build the community, you need to have different things, different thoughts, different cultures, different backgrounds, people who are coming from different journeys in their careers and life and now Saudi women are part of this community as well and I'm very happy about that. Now, we're in good company here being first. We're hosting our first Fortune's first most powerful Women International summit in the Middle East. And Why are we here is the biggest question. It's unfortunate DNA to be a different tier of the business and business transformation. So that's why. Now we all came from different walks of life and I wanted to share my personal journey for a second as well. I grew up in a small tiny town right outside of Moscow, but the town was very unique. Everybody there was a scientist or an engineer. So as I would go to school, my parents would go and build rockets, and it was normal. We had the most modern electronic particle accelerator, but meanwhile our buses were built around World War II, and when we sit on a bus, you never know if you get to your destination or if the bus breaks. OK, at that point in my life, I would have never thought that I would move far away to New York City and run this iconic brand, Fortune Media. Truly a privilege and a pleasure and a lot of hard work. Now, along those two days, I want you to share your personal stories with each other on stage, at dinner, and during all of the conversations. Now, as we know, this journey does not happen alone. Along the way, you have allies, men and women who help us to get to where we are going. So I wanted to introduce a very special man. OK. He is our host, gracious and incredible host. So I would like to welcome to the stage His Excellency Fahad Al-Rashid, Chairman of SEGA. It's ha ha habsada Malikah. uh labellizwana lemona. Your Highnesses, Excellencies. Our esteemed guests, friends from all over the world. Welcome to Riyadh and welcome to Saudi Arabia. I want to start by thanking our friends at Fortune, especially my dear friend Anastasia, who had the bold vision of bringing this great forum, this great summit to Saudi Arabia. And you are here at the right time. Vision 2030 has made Saudi Arabia one of the most exciting places in the world, and we have already accomplished so much. We have done it through a spirit of partnership. Partnering partnering with you. And leaders from around the world, their countries, their corporates. But it has not been only that. Most importantly, it has been us as a country working together. Men and women side by side, working relentlessly to make this vision into a reality. And you will meet these women over the next 2 days. Incredibly ambitious, bold women who are also capable of getting things done. They come from all walks of life, and they have their own unique stories to tell. Some of these women come from the private sector. They have been recognized around the world for decades. And now they have a table, they have a seat at the head of the table at home. In the country of Saudi Arabia. And you have women who are leading government, who are managing large scale transformations in every sector, in every field, and they are doing it with empathy and care. And you have women in sports who have broken down the barriers. To this sector and have already achieved championships. You'll meet women from every field and every sector. And I hope, in doing so, you will enjoy the next two days. That you will enjoy the conversation. Most importantly, that you will make friends and you will build partnerships, and I hope, I hope this will not be the last time we do this, and then you'll come back to see us. Now I do want to recognize the elephant in the room. I am not one of the most powerful women in the world, so if you allow me, I will excuse myself and walk myself off stage without you pushing me out. Thank you so much. Enjoy the few days. Thank you.

Former UK Prime Minister Theresa May offers a candid take on fractured trade  ties, the unraveling of multilateralism, and the race toward a greener economy.  Drawing on her time in office and current advocacy focused on fighting modern  slavery, she’ll share insights on navigating globalization, seizing energy transition opportunities and the need for bold, creative leadership in a volatile world. 

Closing Conversation: The New Global Playbook

Cultivating a world-class workforce is key to advancing national competitiveness in today’s global landscape. How is Saudi Arabia expanding access and opportunity for women and young people? What bold strategies are being deployed to transform its education system into an engine of innovation and opportunity – and attract more visitors and business leaders to the Kingdom? We’ll hear from two of the most accomplished women in Saudi government about the tools, policies, and long-term vision required to unlock talent and balance rapid growth with cultural preservation and global perceptions. 

Vision in Action

Take a moment to point out the centerpiece medallion here which on stage it was designed and made by the design department at Eat University in Jeddah. So I want to recognize that's something I've found beautiful and transfixed the whole time I've been up here. So thank you for that. Our next conversation is one that's very close to my heart about how do you build a world class workforce to advance national competitiveness. I know that's been a priority here. In the kingdom it's something we think about all the time, of course, in the US and the rest of the world and how is Saudi Arabia meeting this moment expanding opportunities for women, but also for young people? It's something that came up earlier today with us to discuss this is Her Highness Princess Haifa bint Mohammed Al Saud, Vice Minister of Tourism for Saudi Arabia. I know her as somebody who's played an instrumental role in opening up this country to tourism. And also Her Excellency Professor Elna Elisa, the Vice Minister of Education for Saudi Arabia. So I'd like to invite my two distinguished guests to join me here on stage. Your Highness, Your Excellency, can I point out back in the green room, it was very clear to me you both know each other very well. Is that fair to say? How did you meet? I'll let you tell the story. If I tell it, I'll tell parts I'm not supposed to say, so I'm always on script. We met on the plane to Davos in 2020 just before you met on the plane you didn't meet in Riyadh, never met before on the plane and we didn't stop talking the whole trip through. OK, well that's, that's, that's a good. I love that. OK, let me start. Your highest, let's set the landscape right now as to where are we in terms of the progress that the kingdom has made. I know we're talking about workforce, but obviously more broadly as well in terms of opening up the kingdom and is the talent keeping up, but give us a sense of the landscape as you see it. I mean, absolutely, and thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me, and it's it's such an honor to be, to be here with all of you today. I can't tell you how exciting it is having Fortunes International Women's Summit in Riyadh, a concept that maybe 7 years ago people would have been like, What's that really a women's summit in Saudi Arabia. But yeah, today very, very proud that we're at the forefront of such things and very honored to be here with Her Excellency Dr. Inna Eissa. We are, we have become very good friends since then. Um, uh. I think if we want, we want to just take a step back and talk about the transformation that has that this kingdom has witnessed and we're still undergoing, I mean we're still today just at a milestone from Vision 2030. We've been through a lot. We can both tell you we've had so many sleepless nights, but it's all worth it when you when you're doing this. For your country when you're doing this for your people, for your children, um for your parents, people think that we're just doing it for the future generations. We're doing it for all generations, and we can see them taking part in it. Where we were before, I'll just give you an anecdote of what it looked like. My kids used to have friends from all over the world, and they used to always be invited to go visit them in their countries. And they'd always ask me the question, Why can't I invite my friends to see my country because I am very proud of who I am. We have so much to show the world, to tell the world. And look, this conversation started 6 years ago. Today when we look at where we are, we've had over our tourist numbers already. We've surpassed our 2030 target of 100 million visits. That includes domestic and international. Inbound last year alone, over 30 million people visited us from outside the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. I mean, I was one of them, so. I love it. My kids invited their friends and so again, the story just from that lens and what we can do today and what we're able to do today at the participation in the workforce we talked about capabilities. We're talking about today women's participation in this sector, in the tourism sector has increased by 72% just since opening up our doors in 2019. So it's not just about. New frontiers and new sectors that are being opened, entertainment, sports, culture, none of this was there. I mean, uh, when, when I started I fenced and, and there was nothing for me to do in fencing. I could, I could never participate officially and properly. And today I, when I started working with the fencing Federation, there were no women. Today there are over 200 women in the fencing Federation alone, one of which is my daughter. So it's just to, it's just to tell you it's not just about tourism. Tourism is a platform. It's a platform in which we can open up our doors. We can get to share who we are and what we are with the world, and they get to see it because tourists, tourists are natural agents of good, so they travel to connect. To meet the like-minded, to share experiences. So today where we are versus where we were, we've made long, long strides. True, and you create a lot of brand ambassadors. I know you've done that here. A lot of people who are here for the first time seeing where you are and where you're going is very powerful. Let me move, Your Excellency. Give us your sense of the landscape from where you sit and the priorities. Where are we today in the kingdom with regard to Workforce development talent, etc. Thanks, Dan. Welcome everyone. I'm so happy and delighted to be here and um, on record, usually I have slides. I'm the academic at heart. I have numbers and I have pictures of real women and I, you know, I say I'm not going to participate without slides and they said, Yes, sure, we'll have your slides, but then just 2 minutes with Diane and Haifa, I was convinced just to sit here and tell a story. So thank you all a great storyteller, and I really enjoy being here and the energy I have with the, you know, with a room full of women reminds me of my job that I left two weeks ago where I worked in in women's only university, the largest women's university, Princess Noura Abdel Rahman, and if you really want to know more about Vision 2030, I advise you to go visit Noora because it's a clear manifestation of what we're living today. Uh, let me tell you something about prevision and post vision. So I've had my PhD since 2004. I'm a dinosaur in education, but I'm also a second generation PhD holder woman. Early education in Saudi Arabia for women started in 1951, early 1960s we started uh higher education for women, but there weren't really many milestones for women prior to 2016. Before 2016, we were OK and very happy to be doing half twice as much to achieve half to work half as hard to achieve half as much post 2016. the vision of course explicitly states the willingness to tap into the female potential and enable them to take a lead in the transformation of the country. So what happened since we launched, to be honest, I can't comprehend what we are living today. We surpassed, just like Princess Haifa has mentioned, we surpassed all expectations. So unemployment dropped from 35% to less than 30%. Employment rate increased to above 35%. In the ICT sector where women usually are misrepresented or underrepresented, the jump was from. 7 to 35% new sectors open open for women. Women in sport was nonexistent for before 2016. I had the picture of the first football team. Do you play on the we have a fencer. Well, I won't disclose this on stage, but just because my kids will penalize me for saying it out loud. But um, so yes, Hanan just mentioned about our first female astronaut going into a space mission. It's booming everywhere. The political willpower and the intention that we have to support us moving forward is really keeping the momentum. Before vision, we used to say focus breeds excellence. Post vision we say trust breeds trust in ourselves, in our teams, trust in our superior, trust in our government, trust in our future, and that's how we keep on. I love that. I think that's very powerful. And, and I think that that I mean I'd love to talk about this in this large workforce one of the places in the world where of course very young workforce you mentioned earlier the um perceptions of, of Saudi Arabia, people coming. How do you feel about that right now in terms of the perceptions of the kingdom and you mentioned attracting a lot of visitors? What would you like to change to attract even more? I mean, uh. First of all, the perception issue is real and it's live and it's still ongoing today and, and one of the first perceptions uh that that I've heard a lot, the misconceptions was that women can't. I think this room proves otherwise. I don't need to say much on that. My fellow panelists, the people who were here before me that spoke over the course of the past two days, we're clearly way beyond the concept of women can't, and women did in Saudi Arabia. It's not can they or can't they? They have, so again, women can't is still unfortunately a very real misconception that's happening abroad. Actually on that subject, specifically, many people were saying that, um, but you're trying to attract tourists, and I said yes. They said female tourists and I said yes, and they said, is it safe for a woman to travel on her own. Actually, Saudi Arabia, Medina specifically was ranked for 3 years in the row, the most safest city in the world for female travelers, for solo female travelers. How's New York? No, I'm kidding. That's where I'm from. Never mind, never mind. I could all that index. But but again, it's just to show you I've traveled alone. I've traveled with female friends. I mean, I'm not going to go and sell something that I haven't done myself. It's easy for me to come and say I'm selling this destination because I'm from this destination and it's who I am, but I've tested it all. I've traveled alone. I've traveled with my kids alone. I've traveled with. With female friends and I, I, I never faced any of the issues that I face in many other countries. So again, is it safe? I think it's the global indices that have nothing to do with me indicate that it's one of the most safest destinations. The second thing that people say is, yeah, but what months in the year should we come because, you know, you're all desert. And I'm like, well, we have a 1800 kilometer coastline that says otherwise, and it's on the Red Sea and it's preserved and it's untouched and it's sustainable and it's one of the only places remaining on Earth that has the most vibrant, colorful coral reefs that have been untouched. You're making me want to go to the Red Sea. Very good at your job. I love that. And now first we didn't have hardware to match that that natural offering. Today we have resorts in the Red Sea. Today we have airports in the Red Sea. Today we have so many different types of offerings in the Red Sea. So it's no longer a concept of activating. It's active, it's live, it's there, and I advise everyone to go and visit. And I think the third part was, sorry, on that part of you're just desert, we, I remember in 2019 I met with my European counterparts. And we were talking about the landscape of Saudi Arabia, and I said, you know, one day you're going to come skiing in Saudi Arabia, and they all laughed and here we are hosting the Olympic Winter World Cup in 2027. So again, this is the place you get things done. I sense to get, you know, I want to, I'm going to Your Excellency, talk about the workforce technology. One of the Things I definitely know about Saudi Arabia is that this is a place that very much is becoming a hub of innovation, technology, AI. There have been conversations of that being both a net good, of course, new tools and something that's disruptive, especially to young people in terms of that on-ramp to careers. What are, what are you seeing as the priorities to engage the workforce to give them the tools they need. To be that workforce of the future, especially having come from an educational institution into this role, of course legislation plays a great role, and I think the the previous panel have tackled that. But human capital development is quite relevant. Saudi Arabia has a very unique perspective, unique experience in the number of women in STEM education. The global average is 35%. In Saudi Arabia, we have over 570. 57% of enrollment in STEM are women. We have more graduates from ICT schools, females than males. So we have, we're also reaching not just only parity but also power. A lot of the 24% at the moment, leaders in the digital sector are females. Now these numbers speak for themselves. It tells you how organically this this force is developing. This unique experience in Saudi Arabia has led to the establishment of the first Apple Developer Academy in Saudi Arabia in the Middle East. It attracts 25 nationalities from around the world. We not only cater for our students locally, we have a platform called Studying KSA where we have. A number of academic offerings from short courses to prolonged programs, and we want to really invite students from all over the world and one of the best experiences I had in my career and I attribute this to Doctoral Latifa Freyan. We had a trip to England. We were visiting a number of universities, and she said, Newcastle, we should take our girls to play a game in Newcastle. And that's exactly what we did. Our soccer team from Noura University, they played the game in Newcastle together with the Vice Chancellor of Newcastle. We watched the game and then the Newcastle team came to Saudi Arabia and played the game. So that's, I won't say, OK, good point. You're very I think it's a very international talent pool here as well. I've seen for hospitality as well. Actually, I wanted to comment on that. There's a project that we worked on together. It's we, we basically created the Rial School for Travel and hospitality. It's going to be the largest, it is the largest school for travel and hospitality in the world, and we, we opened a temporary campus in Princess Noura University. And this is one of the projects that we worked very closely on together that was actually endorsed by international organizations and the campus is set to eventually move to Ga, which is going to be the largest entertainment city in the world, in order to talk. About the future types of talent that are going to be needed when you're talking about entertainment, sports, hospitality, travel, the future of aviation, what that looks like, and have real practices on ground. And this was actually one of the projects that we worked on and and. There was a very funny incident that happened. I don't know how much of that I can say, but I'm going to wing it and say a few minutes and 36 seconds. It's about how how politically correct it is to say, but I'm going to go ahead and say it anyway. So the incident that took place was um. We had a very se international figure that was coming to open up the the campus, the temporary campus, and it was myself and Her Excellency that were supposed to be there to greet her, obviously we were supposed to be there before, and what happened is that figure arrived early. I was there. He was there and I called her and I said, listen, and this is where please women supporting women is so important, please, please. I'm stuck in traffic. I called her. I said, Listen, he's almost there. I'm stuck in traffic. We all know what real traffic looks like. I'm stuck in traffic. Help, help me. Can you please go greet this this very senior international figure? She did. She winged it. She invited him for coffee. She took him around the campus, and it was like it was part of the design. So women supporting women. I love that. That's how things get done. I know we only have a minute left. I want to get. Each of you a chance, very few words. What milestone would you like to see us hit in 10 years? I'm going to start with you. You. You know, I want a global engagement with the entities working in Saudi Arabia on the ecosystem of women empowerment. We have, we monitor the progress through the National Observatory for Women. You're all invited to, you know, to collaborate. We assess the future of doing studies and research through Sara Suderi Center for Women's Studies. We celebrate women's success through an annual prize under the patronage of the king himself, Noura University. sorry, Princess Noura Prize for Women's excellence, and we develop talent and we support women and we build, we build networks to support women through the leadership center. So I urge everyone to connect with these entities and really have. I love that. And of course in about 35 seconds, what would you want to convey in terms of the milestone you'd like to see us hit? I just, you're all here. You're in Saudi Arabia. Please visit Saudi Arabia. Please go around. See, see what magazines are not going to tell you, what TV is not going to tell you, what media is not going to tell you. Meet a local. Wait, I'm the media here. No, I'm kidding. I'm going to tell everybody. Meet the locals. We're all here. I'm happy to be somebody's tour guide while you're here. I'm sure I'm volunteering you as Tribune. I'm sure is happy to be somebody's tour guide. Please, since you're here, just take the time, go around, see this beautiful, this beautiful, beautiful city, meet these beautiful people, and create your own impression. All right, I love that. Thank you, Your Highness, Your Excellency. Thank you so much. What a joy to talk to two people who get such joy from each other. You go off, I believe.

Media has undergone a monumental transformation over the past decade, with traditional business models disrupted, consumers migrating to new platforms and formats, and declining trust in mainstream outlets. In this new landscape, how do media companies—both legacy institutions and startups—turn a profit while also building loyal, cross-platform audiences who trust the accuracy of their output? A conversation about the future of journalism and media more broadly.

Media's Next Chapter: Building Trust and Navigating Disruption

Good afternoon everyone. How's everybody doing here? Good Awake great. All right, here we go, um, so we have a lot of history on this stage actually somewhat of a cool thing about being a woman in business is there's a lot of firsts you can have whether you set out to have a historic career or not. Here we are. So Rashida was appointed as the first ever black woman to run a major cable news network in the United States. Um, Jomanna is the first woman CEO of a media organization here, and I got to be the first woman editor in chief of Fortune in 95 years, so incredible. So all of us have never really seen this media industry in the days of the martini lunches and the really thick magazines that sounded so glamorous. It's been nothing but change for the decades that we've been in it, and now is no different and perhaps we're facing the biggest change yet. So I'm curious though, as you look at the media org that you've run and are running from a global perspective, what do you see as the biggest challenges that we're up against and maybe Jamon, I'll start with you. Um, thank you, Alison. It's such a pleasure to be with you all here today sharing the stage with two remarkable women who are pioneers, um, um, in the media industry, very much paving the way for all of us and the younger generations to come. But I would say. You know, the way that we decided to look at it is that we're embracing challenges opportunity. Of course everyone's talking about the next big disruption, what's happening with AI and how it impact journalism in the media and monetization of our platforms, but ultimately I think fear will result in us losing um our positioning, our credibility, um, and the trust that people have very much put in us. um, we're very excited. About this next chapter, however, excitement means being prepared. Excitement only means that it could work if you have the right strategy in place. Ultimately, I also believe that we live in such a great, um, a time where everyone is digitally connected, so it makes that sort of content creation process easier. Um, we also are empowered by AI and technology that allows you to understand your audiences. Their preferences, what they want to read what they want to see, when they want to see it, but ultimately again it goes back to ensuring that you have the right strategy in place and the right upskilling and reskilling ongoing throughout the year to ensure that your journalists, your media practitioners are also capable to dealing with that challenge. And Rashita, what do you think? Is it, is it the First Amendment being challenged in the United States or is it this business crazy model that we're all trying to sort through? Yes. No, I think it's exactly, um, it's all of those things and, and, and, and I think similar to what uh Javana said in a world where there's a lot of challenge, there's a lot of fear, there's a lot of change, there's a lot of uncertainty, uh, we don't have a playbook for how to navigate this kind of change, but we do know how the business has evolved we do know how the industry has evolved if you, if you take this. Moment in time and you're in the middle of the of the the storm and you see all the change happening around you it can be disorienting but I think as you look at the industry overall and look at the evolution over decades and decades and decades you'll see we've been resilient. I mean I I know um for many of you you cannot imagine a world imagine a time where we didn't have streaming. I'm old enough to remember that. Or a world where we didn't have the internet or a world where everyone didn't even have cable and we've been able to survive and evolve in those moments and I have no doubt that in this moment of time while it feels disruptive, the people who figure it out, which many of them are women because in the US at least most news organizations, television, digital whatever are run by women including Alison, um, the women are gonna figure it out and we'll be better for it. Who better right? we solve things. So what do viewers and readers want? It seems like it's getting ever more complicated. The viewing habits are changed. I know here in Reno we have a population that is significantly young, um, like 2/3 of the population we were talking about stage are under the age of 30, um, and I know in the US. The younger audiences are consuming media completely differently than the older generations, and that's something we think about at Fortune all the time. It's how do we cater to the legacy audience that we have and also bring up the next gen who want completely different things. So how are you seeing those viewership changes generationally and, and what are you doing to make it happen? I think we live in a in a world that has been dominated by the scroll um and that's what we're very quickly having to adapt to um attention spans have also become shorter, uh but ultimately that doesn't mean that the content that you create or the journalism that you produce has to be any less important and it doesn't mean that it loses. And it's editorial integrity. um, however, we do have to adapt to changing audience, uh, or, or consumer trends and behaviors and where they want to get that content. We believe that, you know, with the printing press, um, that was a major big disruption and then with social another disruption of course prior to that internet, no, I don't. But I do remember the days of the internet and that dial um and that changed everything for us um and then of course with social media and media companies or organizations saying how are we now going to compete with that platform, how are we going to compete with the likes of X and Snapchat and Instagram and now TikTok but what what we've realized is that if you embrace it and if you make it part of your core strategy, you no longer have to compete for with it. You are embracing it and becoming a part of it, um, I think ultimately. In the Middle East specifically, you have a population, the majority of it is under the age of 30. Therefore, a very young demographic that lives on the internet. They're digital natives. They want content that they can consume via their screens. They no longer want to watch something on demand or want to watch something that is pre-scheduled for them. You need to cater to them on the platforms that they use in the formats that they are now familiar to. I think we lived in a world 5 years ago where you. Content strategy was a one size fits all, um, where you did not repur you simply repurpose content that you were creating for TV or for social across the board that no longer works um you very much need to create native content for these specific platforms that your audiences want to engage with and you have the immediate analytics to tell you whether that's working or not and I think um as an example of that is the power shift and so we've seen the power shift from the content creators from the distributors. To the consumers and so your example, um, about young people consuming content on a lot of different platforms is now driving all of the strategies that news organizations across the world you know we heard leaders from TikTok up on this stage we heard leaders from Microsoft on this stage talking about how they're adapting their distribution tactics, uh, to address that and I think as content creators, as news organizations, as media organizations we have to make that adjustment or we or we're not gonna survive. And what about the crisis of trust that we're facing as an industry, um, you know, it seems like nobody, everybody has the alternative facts. Everybody's getting their information from they don't even know where they're seeing it on their fees, but they don't know the original source of it, if it's been vetted, if it's been checked, and. You would think that's an opportunity for us as journalists and media orgs and yet mainstream mainstream media is really being challenged about how we produce what we produce and how we know what we know so I'm wondering how you all think about this crisis of trust, what that opportunity is for journalists like us and also um what how we can be better at fixing that. You know, I think well it's both a crisis it's an opportunity and so I think because you're seeing a bunch of different um dynamics converge at once it's why it's been such a challenge. There is just the, the fact that there's so many different news or new sources out there that are not vetted. Some people don't even know you have to vet the source. Some people think, well, uh, it made it to TikTok but it must be real like there or there must be a kernel of truth to it. So there's the, the, the increase of. Of content coming in that's not necessarily sourced there is the concerted effort by some entities to convince the public not to trust us like there that is a business model for some entities in in some places and then there's also just the hard work that we have to do as content creators like news organizations have to continue to ensure that they're the content that they're putting out meets all of that criteria. I think we're seeing it at such a um a pace right now because all of those things are happening at once. My thought there and and this is how I, um, guided my newsrooms was we have to just do the work and it's every single day it's every single story it's every headline, it's every script it's every platform every single time and I think sometimes allowing the distraction of the narrative and the messaging get in the can get in the way of the work that you're doing but when you're consistently delivering again this is a moment in time when you look at the totality of the of the business and the and the the public service. that we've all committed to doing it's not gonna change that work it's not gonna change the need it's not gonna change the mission. You just have to be consistent. I do believe that this is one thing that you cannot compromise. This is one thing that you cannot say let's just simply leverage AI or let's, you know, it's on X, so let's report it. I think newsroom 101 is two sources. Do you have two sources, then yes, confirm it. You can go ahead with that with that piece of news, um, but I also, I also do sense that. A lot of social media users or generally your consumer and your population are now reverting to traditional sources of media to confirm that news, especially with this the widespread of misinformation and especially during um breaking news or or live events um everyone's going back to those mainstream traditional platforms. Uh, but ultimately I think you know what these new technologies and these new tools and social media, what it allows us to do is to become more efficient and quicker, but it doesn't mean that it compromises our editorial integrity and I do feel it's an opportunity for media organizations to reemphasize their important role on informing the wider public on the issues at hand. Yeah, I think so much of it is about continuing to educate about how great journalism happens and that it's not just made up or we're not making up sources. Um, one thing we've started including in our articles is like if we do we have a whole anonymous sourcing policy and we also need to say why we're allowing someone to be anonymous. Also, by the way, that fortune knows the identity of the person because that's not even clear sometimes. It's like if you say an anonymous source, a reader might think it's anonymous to fortune. We're like, no, no, no, we really know who we're talking about. We know and we do a lot of work to verify, which is, by the way, ever hard in the world of deep fakes and and videos can be manufactured and everything, so it's a wild time, um. What do you think about the business model of the future for journalism, and do you think that journalism alone can be a business model or does it need to be propped up by something else? Like if you look at Bloomberg, they are a terminal business that funds great journalism. Um, the New York Times, most people spend time looking about cooking and, and, uh, games, which are great things, but they're not the core, you know, news journalism. So do you need something to subsidize it or can it be, do we think the consumer will come back to paying? I don't think you can separate the business and the journalism part of of the organization, you know, you mentioned New York Times and and while they have a lot of different verticals, you also have the athletic which is profitable and it's a content business. So I think it's less about having something to prop up the journalism and more about finding ways to diversify the monetization of the content whether it's through subscription, whether it's it's through a. Advertising whether it's through a diversity of distribution I think the business model of tomorrow is not gonna be as dependent on any one thing you're gonna have the flexibility to bring new streams of revenue in using your content as your core. The core and in your value proposition is the IP of your brand and your business, and I think again that those who do it well know how to diversify that know how to monetize that. And know how to, I would also say be nimble and keep up with the changing times and follow the consumers where they are, where they're consuming content today and and we've talked about this today, um, it's all changing so quickly maybe a different place um where they're consuming tomorrow and I think those news organizations that can be nimble and finding ways not only to move to the new platforms but to monetize on those new platforms are the ones that will survive. I think what we're doing, especially at SRMG is that and then we're not reinventing the wheel here, but we're creating new sources of revenue, but ultimately the foundation is that content creation process that you have and that's why your audiences or your clients or advertisers are going to continue coming to you, but you do need to evolve and you do need to be nimble and agile enough to allow for a diversification of monetization across your platforms. We cannot again have. That one size fits all model and simply rely on archaic ways or traditional business models, um, we have, you know, at SRMG we've now created an events company that is very much an extension of our brands and why we've done it is that we simply did not want to to enter enter the events business which is highly lucrative and has high profit margins, but we wanted to leverage the strength of our brand equity. Um we have 30+ titles under the umbrella of the group. A lot of these types. Or have um loyal audiences and loyal readers but then why don't we create events such as um this event that we're sitting here right now so that you can turn that monologue into a dialogue, hence creating more opportunities for engagement, hence creating more opportunities for advertisement and subscriptions or simply a diversification of those uh revenue. We've also created FRMG Labs which is our in-house creative arm, allowing us to better cater to our advertisers and our clients. And provide them with that premium storytelling very much uh leveraging are the data that we gather via the number of people that are visiting our platforms and our websites. Therefore, now you're able to curate and tailor more that will result in higher monetization and higher profit margins and I think Rashida will agree with me, you know, it depends on the platform and it depends on the topic and it depends on um the business that you're running. There are ultimately more um. With lifestyle, it's a much higher profit margin than it is for example with news and that's why platforms such as the New York Times would have to go into a new product and that's exactly what we're all adopting. Those who fail to adopt are the ones who are not gonna be able to monetize. So I want to open it up for a question from the audience if there are any, if there are, raise your hand, otherwise I have a pile of more. Any questions? OK, um, good, and I get a hug all the time, um, so when you're looking ahead, what are the biggest trends that you're gonna be leaning into? I think along the way there have been a lot of distractions. Actually one of the things that's benefited Fortune the most is I think, um, we were so slow to digitalize, um, there was not even a website for Fortune until 2014 that we missed the whole run up on the attention economy where. Everything was about clicks and and kind of pulling people in um and not about the quality and so that is fundamentally helped us moving forward to get away from the the the mass scale approach of attention um so missing that trend was great um what are the trends here that you think are just buzz and what are the things that you think you're gonna lean into in the next few years of your media careers? I think we're very much leaning into AI. Um, I truly do believe that it's not just the future, it's currently the present. Um, I must say that when I joined the group of over 4 years ago now, um. SRMG has always been a pioneer and SRMG has always been a market disruptor. Uh, we've always had the first websites, the first, um, female only magazine, the first we've had so many firsts, yet when I joined, I did feel that we were way behind when it came to digital transformation and we've embarked on a, um, very detailed comprehensive digital transformation strategy at the time I think. didn't really understand what that transformation entailed. It's not simply about boosting uh viewership on your website. It's not simply about being more interconnected. It's about creating formats that are done in a digital first to cater to your digital audience, and that's what laid the foundations and the groundwork of the groundwork for where we are today of embracing and adopting AI. However, I do. I mean, I sit in meetings now and we're discussing the next big tool in AI and how we're gonna use this versus that, but that is relevant to us today. It could not be relevant not just a year from now, a week from now, um, but, uh, again embracing technology and digital transformation is something that we're most excited about and I think it's a trend that we need to lead and not be as scared of. I'm watching um I would say the race to next who will be the first major news organization to do something revolutionary with AI? Who will be the first to figure out a new monetization model? Who will be what, what entities will be next to converge their efforts and become a bigger, stronger version of themselves? I think, you know, we're in this, this disruptive period and and we'd like to throw that word around. Disruptive, right, but we're in a period where the business itself will look nothing like this in a few years. It will look nothing like this in a year even. And so one of the things I'm watching and it's been really interesting and I think really helpful to watch it from 30,000 ft is what we're we're all on the precipice of change what happens next? Who goes first and who drives it? Well, thank you ladies so much for your insights. Um, I'm looking forward to figuring out the future of media with you, um, and who better to do it with. So thank you very much.

Public leadership today demands vision, trust, and the ability to navigate change and complexity on a global scale. Around the world, women in public service are at the forefront of this shift, reshaping what leadership looks like and redefining how policy and diplomacy can drive prosperity. This panel convenes distinguished public leaders to explore the transformative role of women in politics and diplomacy, and how their leadership is building bridges across sectors, restoring public confidence, and crafting inclusive policies that meet the needs of our time.

Leadership: Women in Public Service

Microsoft’s chief privacy officer—and a former commissioner for the U.S.  government agency responsible for protecting online privacy—discusses AI  regulation, how digital safety and tech uniquely impact the lives of women and  children, and the role her company is playing in the global adoption of responsible AI. 

Training AI to Play By The Rules

Hello everybody. OK, so Julie, what are the whole uh range of other things that you do? Lots and lots of things. So privacy, responsible AI, digital safety data governance, it's sort of the whole suite of sounds super, super easy. It's really easy, yeah, yeah, great. OK, so, um, let's let's get into it, uh, lots of very hefty topics, um, I know you recently you're, you're always attending policy, privacy, um. Conferences, but there was one in Venice you were at recently in DC um what what's top of mind at these events right now? So what's fascinating in terms of what's going on right now is there seems to be a consensus that is developing among global regulators, not just in Europe, not just in the United States, but in Asia and elsewhere, which is regulation is deeply important and it's the same. Time regulators need to make sure that there will be innovation. So there's a lot of discussion right now about how do we ensure that we are enabling innovation while protecting fundamental rights and also how do we make sure that startups and small and medium enterprises can navigate the regulatory space? We've heard a lot earlier in Conference about how difficult it can be for those kinds of entities. So regulators are looking at simplification. They're looking at harmonizing across all of these different domains, and they're really looking to drive and enable innovation, and that's actually quite refreshing seeing that now. You've been on both sides, right? Also, you've spent some time on the government side, yes, which do you like better? No, I'm just joking. I um yes, yes, yeah, sure, that's a good answer. um OK, let's uh talk about safety. You spend a lot of time thinking again from from both perspectives from your previous, um, you know, previous career as well, um, as your current one about safety when it comes to AI and and technology more broadly, uh, when it comes to kids, yeah. Do you, what do you think about most? What's most critical, and I'm curious to hear also from the point of view of the corporate side of of your role today. What is companies, uh, you know, role versus the government. Sure, so governments around the world are really focused on kids right now in a way that we haven't actually seen in quite some time. Um, so and the focus is really around social media and the impact on kids, and you're seeing globally outside of the United States the adoption of laws that companies really do need to pay attention to and are paying attention to. And the reason why I say outside of the United States is there's this little thing, the First Amendment, that sort of has. Tied up some of the laws that are that the governments are trying to adopt that said, from a company perspective, what we need to make sure is that we provide parents, moms, dads with the tools so that they can help their kids navigate this space and also can protect their kids from whatever content they're able to control. It's a challenging space because at the same time you want to enable kids to learn about a digital technology. You want them to engage because this is their future digital technology. So there's a balance that needs to be struck, and I think that a lot of jurisdictions are doing that and a lot of governments, so a lot of governments are doing. that and companies are really trying to enable that kind of balance. So if you go back a ways I know you brought up social media and some of the risks and concerns there but um we saw regulators um trying to to catch up when it came to social media, when it came to mobile to those technological transformations. Do you feel like with the advent of AI, um, there's a little bit more of a preemptive thought being given to some of the potential issues? There was absolutely and I'd say, you know, particularly around the EU AI Act and some other very immersive comprehensive laws dealing with AI, the governments were saying, look, we missed the boat on social media, so we need to get out in front. We need to regulate. And I think there's now a recognition that there's a need to take an examination, really take a step back. This is by governments that are saying let's make sure that these laws can be implemented by companies across the spectrum. We want to enable startups. We want to enable innovation, and so I think that that is what is starting this initiative that you're seeing around what I talked about before. Simplification, harmonization, so it isn't so complicated going from privacy to responsible AI to digital safety. Let's bring them together in a way that will work a little bit better for the small and medium enterprises, but it did begin, I think you're right, when governments thought, gee, I think we missed the boat on social media. Do, do you feel like the um this kind of these opposing forces, um, because on the one hand. Obviously there's this AI arms race, um, you can't slow down progress. I know there was in in the US this sort of movement to like take a six month pause on AI progress which is not gonna happen um but you know on the one hand you have that right? you've got. At this this push to keep advancing and um and and there is this race going on on the other hand so many potential issues that are being thought through um how do you thread that needle like these are opposing forces. What are the different approaches to making sure that on the company level by the way that you can move forward, that you're not falling behind and at the same time you're being thoughtful? Yeah, I think that that's really important, especially for companies. I think it's really important that you know even before you. Start looking at regulations and whether and how you're going to comply to really create principles that that you as a company stand for. So at Microsoft, and I don't, we're not the only ones, but we were very early. You're a big one. We're a big one. We're big. Anybody heard of Microsoft in here? We are, we are big and because we're big and because we provide so much infrastructure to the governments and companies around the world, we really take these responsibilities pretty seriously and so what we had to do early early on before any AI laws were adopted, we created internal standards and that's where you as a company can say. Are we living up to our north star? What is our north star when it comes to making sure that we're trusted and we're trustworthy in terms of the AI that we're providing? And so we had a standard. We developed teams that would test against that standard. The standard included things like ensuring privacy, ensuring security. Security ensuring safety and fairness and making sure that the AI was inclusive, especially when it comes to accessibility issues. So those are pretty big requirements and we had teams that would make sure that we were abiding by that. We tested it was a very robust internal system. And we also published our standards so people could see it, so transparency was a big part of this too, and I think that that's the kind of responsibility that a company like Microsoft owes to our customers, which are also some very big companies and small and medium enterprises and startups, and what we also owe to our public sector customers as well. By the way, are you, are you surprised by the pace of Adoption. I mean, OpenAI's chat GPT, which Microsoft has a stake in, amassed 100 million users, subscribers within two months of its launch, fastest growing app ever. Did that surprise you? You've seen these other, you know, you've been a part of these other technological transformations. I have been. So when I was a commissioner of the US Federal Trade Commission, which, which was my last government role. Um, we used to see a lot of tech technological advances, and we felt like we were always behind. Now the pace of innovation is just accelerated. What used to take years to get out now takes months, and you know, regulators are trying to keep up. They're doing, you know, not a bad job in my view. And what we're seeing in companies. It is just to go to a point you made earlier, a real desire to be ahead, to be leaders, and also to make sure that it is safe and trusted, and that is a big job right now. But it is, but yes, things are moving incredibly quickly. Um, I wanna ask you also about the role of AI in productivity and in the impact, uh, to the workforce, um, and we talked a little bit about that yesterday as well and some of the opportunities, um, there's also uh a potential downside, right? There's a lot of concerns about what it does to jobs, um, you know, I think, I think we talk about it. A lot of like the superpower for employees which it absolutely can be. Can you talk a little bit about just how you look at the impact on the job force, the workforce, you know, both internally and externally, and how does that factor into how you think about the growth? Yeah, I think it's, it's really important to Understand that like here at this conference we have amazing people, amazing women who have been able to do incredible things with AI that I you know, listening to all of these panels I've just been blown away, um, that's a technical term for like really it's been awesome, um, and. At the same time I think it's important to think about the suite of of what's going to be happening particularly to women in the workforce as we go forward and that doesn't necessarily involve this cohort of women but sort of all women so what we are gonna. See is there jobs that are going to be augmented by AI they're going to be improved, you know, medical jobs of people who are in medicine, people who are in research, people who are doing pharmaceuticals, even the financial community. AI generative AI is just going to help them zoom ahead. There are those kinds of jobs we can think of as AI augmenting those roles, and then there are going to be jobs that are going to be disrupted. And you know that's going to be creative. We are, we know about that from what's what's happening in Hollywood. um we are also going to see that in administrative roles. We will see that in some sort of analytic roles, but not all of them. And as it turns out, so, uh, LinkedIn published some data and it got it out on International Women's Day. It turns out that women are going to be more impacted because they are, they take more and aspire to more of the jobs that will be disrupted than augmented and so what that means is it's really important for governments. And for companies to focus on how we can help women now get ready for that so that they just don't lose their jobs and then like they've got no place to go. So what does that mean? It means that we heard a lot about skilling uh over the last couple of days we absolutely need to focus on women in particular who are gonna need skilling and the jobs that that will be disrupted to help them get to that next level. There's also other things that companies can do, I think, to help with this in addition to skilling, and I should just note really quickly, Microsoft has already trained and skilled for AI about 100,000 people in Saudi and millions in just here, just here in Saudi Arabia, millions around the world, and by the end of this year we will hit about 160,000 in Saudi Arabia. Yeah, yeah, it's a big, but it's our responsibility, right? This is something that we can really help with and we partner with the government, we partner with our customers. It's really important to do skilling, but the other thing that companies can do super quick is you can, they can focus on their culture inside their companies to really drive AI training and all of that, and they can change the way they look at new new candidates for jobs. Think about the skills that people have, not their past experience. If you focus on skills, what you'll do is you'll increase by 13% the number of women that are considered for jobs globally. Well, um, Julie, I feel like we only scratched the surface, but as we said, really hefty topics, hopefully you'll be back, and it will be me interviewing you and not a bot or a humanoid, you know, robot so it will definitely be you, but thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you.

TikTok’s general manager of operations for the Middle East, Turkey Africa, Pakistan and South Asia breaks down the biggest trends in the creator economy and explains why a surge in regional content is key to the future success of the platform.

MPW Moment: Going Viral

OK, we are going to continue in the creative vein with a discussion about the creator economy, and we're going to look at the surge in the popularity of regional content here in the Middle East on TikTok, and we're going to be doing that with Kinder Ibrahim, who is the general manager of operations for the Middle East, for Turkey, Africa, Pakistan, and South Asia at TikTok. Get you think OK. Tinder, thank you so much for being here. Um, I wanna kick off, just referring back to what I said in the introduction, TikTok is really experiencing amazing growth in this region. What are the biggest trends you're seeing within that? Uh, first of all, thank you for having me here today. It's a pleasure to be back in Riyadh. Uh, I think the main reason of the surge in popularity for TikTok in the region is that there are millions of creators in Saudi and the entire region that are coming to TikTok to create content. They are turning their passion into creativity and that, you know, that allows them to connect to their, to, to, to audiences here, um, and you know, allowing people to basically come come to the. Platform and connect uh with the and and interact interact with the content of these creators uh that resonates with their passion and uh that's there's not that's from my creative side and I'll talk a little bit more about this the business side but there's no surprise because actually a large number of these creators are uh making a significant portion of their income via TikTok so we're we're committed through the tools that we provide through the economic opportunities. That that we provide to really unlock the creative economy and uh help help these creators in um in the creative journey for businesses we talk just about small medium sized businesses uh in Saudi there's more than 150,000 businesses that are basically uh leveraging the power of the platform, leveraging the opportunities of the platform, uh provides to connect with their audience. uh, and they've seen amazing success. I can like, uh, be it like, be it businesses like a lot of tourism film festival where creativity means opportunity or smaller, smaller businesses I'd mentioned the chefs who'd seen more than 150% increase, uh, on sales and a business like Aromatic that uh that witnessed more than 5% in, uh, return on ads spent and, and what is it those people those people, those small businesses who are here. In great success. What connects their content? Is it very specific? Does it have a human in it? How, what really makes it sing and resonate with audiences? It's really, it really depends. I think it's, uh, uh, it's a creativity, uh, meeting opportunity, right? So it's basically connecting to the audience in a more creative way, in a more relevant way, in a in a more we say we say we say that businesses make ads they they make TikToks, they don't make ads so it's a. It's a way to connect to the audience in a way that resonates more and feels more authentic uh and that's one of the reasons that uh they have a great success and obviously we, we're committed to providing them with the tools that enables them to grow and connect. So if there's a leader in this room who thinks, uh, I'm not on TikTok yet. My company isn't on TikTok yet. I know I should be. What's your advice on where to start and how to convey that message? I think, I mean, just the, the advice is just start. Just start, uh, I think the, the beauty of TikTok is, is the authenticity again, uh, it, you don't have to have millions of followers to be successful. The beauty of the of the TikTok is that has the content plat the content graph versus the social graph, which means a video that resonates with passions of people can go viral because of the way the algorithm works. It basically break uh and so it does not have to be, you don't have to like. Work work your way to buying millions and millions of followers to start seeing return on your investments. That's, uh, that's that also applies to the creators as well, not only businesses, yeah, um, globally, let's look 123 years down the line, what kind of content do you think we might be seeing on TikTok that maybe hasn't quite taken off yet? Where is it going? I mean, so, so the beauty of TikTok if we talk about what makes it unique is that even those global trends. When they transcend uh like different markets they took it they take its own exactly it's because of what creators um what creators, uh, do with it and make it their own. So, uh, give us an example of one like that we haven't got much time, but give us an example of one is that one that springs to mind? I mean, I say that, uh, I, I say that, uh, one of the one of the main main things and one of the key things that we're focusing on right now and we've been. Uh, for example, the STEM feed that we launched in the US but we brought it to Saudi Arabia in the Arabic language, uh, because this is a way for creators to kind of take what they're seeing on creators, teachers, experts, they can seeing what they're seeing what on the global scene and translating it and making it their own to be able to resonate with students, with people who are interested in learning about a certain subject, uh, in their local flavor so. These these are the trends that we're gonna continue to see and how it could be financed it could be more on the education front, it could be more in sort of the edutainment, but how do you, how do you take a global trend and make it their own, make your own so that enables you to connect with your local audience at the same time exposes you to collaboration and basically connecting with communities globally. Kendra, it was very short. It was very sweet. Thank you very much for being here. Thank you for having me. Thank you. OK, staying in tech, our next speaker, Julie Brill is the corporate vice president of global technology and regulatory policy at Microsoft, where her remit is data protection and a whole range of other things, including how new technologies uniquely impact the lives. Of women and children, and as the conversation around how companies and governments regulate AI heats up, Julie is a key figure in shaping the future of tech government from the inside. Please welcome her to the stage with my 14 colleague Mihal Leevram.

The creative economy is not just important for cultural vibrancy and quality of life; it also contributes substantially to global job creation and GDP. From balancing heritage with innovation to tackling concerns about intellectual property and fair compensation for artists, we’ll discuss the future of the global creative economy and how governments, business leaders, and individuals can help unlock cultural and artistic advancement. 

Sparking Cultural Creativity

Welcome back everybody. I hope you enjoyed your lunch. Over the past few days we have listened to amazing musical performances, and some of us have visited the ruins at Daria or the Lion Culture Artistic hub. These experiences have given us a small taste of Saudi's rich heritage and culture, which is the topic of our next. Discussion. Her Royal Highness Princess Noura bin Faisal Al Saud is on a mission to support, grow, and publicize Saudi's creative industries with a dual goal of enhancing the lives of locals and diversifying the economy as part of Vision 2030. She founded the first ever Saudi Fashion Week in 2018, helped establish the fashion commission at Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Culture. And runs her own boutique culture and communications agency, Culture House. It's a lot of culture. She's a very busy woman. Please welcome Princess Noura to the stage. Entrepreneur, welcome to Most Powerful Women International. It's such an honor to have you here. Um, as we heard from Mihal, you are a woman with a very impressive and varied resume. Talk to me a bit about growing up, how you knew you wanted to become involved in the creative industries and fashion specifically. So, first of all, it's really good to be here and it's lovely to see all these women here. I was so impressed with the morning talks and uh honestly it's just an honor to be here with everyone. Um, on that front, Ellie, I think we had this conversation before. I mean, I never thought I would be in the creative world. Basically I'm not a creative. I look at myself more as a business person. When I look at things, I see how can I create impact through that. And what really drew me basically to uh culture in specific also fashion was because I lived in, in, in many other countries where I felt culture was a Way for us to speak to each other and to really culturally exchange between our cultures and have a dialogue. So I lived in Japan, uh, I studied there. I was also exposed to the culture there and that was one of the most interesting experiences of my life. In what way? It was really interesting in the sense that I, when I moved there, I did not speak the language. And then I had to learn it the hard way and to be able to really, really like dwell myself into that culture. I went to school there and learned the language and it was not a difficult, uh, sorry, it was a difficult language coming from, uh, I, I mean, I grew up speaking. French, so I'm French educated, so it's a completely different language. It's a completely different alphabet, you know, so it was important in order for um for me to be able to basically really experience the culture but also connect with people there. And that's how I see culture. I see culture as a creative, but also it's a bridge, and what I was so interested about is how to create businesses from that, how to grow creative worlds, how to make sure that it can be monetized, basically. So, uh, and let's stick on that point of monetization for a second. So right now the fashion. in Saudi Arabia contributes 2.5%, correct me if I'm wrong, to the country's GDP as part of Vision 2030, I'm sure many of you in this room already know the goal is to increase that figure to 3%. How is the government doing that? How is the country doing that? So obviously the efforts that the Ministry of Culture is doing is amazing in terms of not just looking at it on supporting the growth from a business perspective but also. Policy. When you have an infrastructure that supports the creatives and you put policies in place that really enables their growth and creates and supports their business structure that will help it grow. Give me an example of a great policy. So for example, if you look at the, uh, I mean the, the business world here in Saudi you have before Vision 2030, uh, designers weren't able to even register their own CR like there was nothing called the fashion business. Nothing. You had to create something to, to be able to work in that. So today, no, you actually as a designer, you can have your own CR commercial registration, you can also, uh, basically be registered as a fashion designer, so that as a job was not there before. Now it's there amongst other jobs within the fashion uh ecosystem. So what's good about uh what the efforts of the Ministry of Culture is that they looked at it from the full. Value chain and that's what I, when I was part of that when I built the infrastructure we looked at the strategy from the full value chain. We wanted to make sure that jobs were created across everything and then work on that from a policy perspective but also enable jobs and create opportunities for people. You have amazing talent graduating from universities here in Saudi. They didn't have a place to work. They didn't have anywhere to go. But they loved fashion. They loved the studying the creative, you know, uh, basically, uh, specialities, but they didn't have a chance to implement what they learned or to at least be creative, but then with the vision 2030, that was all looked at across all sectors and now you do, you have people working in all cultural sectors with. A profession that really represents what they want to do, which is incredible. How there's so much activity going on inside the country. How are you thinking about amplifying what's happening in fashion, say, globally, so that the world now knows to take Saudi Arabia seriously as a hub when it comes to the global fashion industry? So, um, I'll thank you for that question. I just met someone before coming into With the uh basically to basically to be here on stage um and um she, she reminded me of of the program that we did back when I was at the fashion commission and it was the first kind of initiative of its kind in Saudi. It was called the Saudi 100 brands which lives until today. So I remember when we first did it, um, the amount of creatives that applied, so in my database we had 500 designers. The applications we received were more than 1300, so that tells you the appetite that's out there and the potential of the creative industry, specifically when it comes to fashion. So it's something like this program that has started in 2021 and has lived on till today, enabling and supporting and, you know, supporting the growth of fashion businesses. Is what I mean, even participating in different countries now they're participating in Milan. They're participating in Paris. They're participating. They're they're even selling in different department stores around the world, and this is, you know, you started it with with the infrastructure and you build it right and then you let these kinds of programs like really move forward in the sense that supporting even more talent, making sure they're being mentored, exposing them, making them understand how business. Structures should be done specifically when it comes to the creative world. You can be a creative, but you also need support in knowing what does it mean to create a business around your creativity. Absolutely. So this is, this is the whole point of these kind of initiatives and programs. And what are the obstacles to this because as I said, so much incredible activity, but when you are essentially rolling out an industry on a completely new scale. Over the course of 4 years, it can't all go to plan. What are you finding both within the country and also externally and how it's being received or maybe some blockages? Yeah, no, of course, and I think until today it's not perfect. I, you know, we do receive comments saying, OK, no, there's, you know, you think you know things at the beginning and then you set this infrastructure and this, you know, you know, think, OK, this policy needs to be done, this needs to be done. We need to support their growth here, but then when you put that Into implementation mode, then you start to realize, OK, no, there's something missing here we need to fix it, but you'll only know if you do it. If you don't do it, you won't know. So this is the whole point of really, I think even at this point the ministry is relooking at the strategies for all the for all the commissions because 5 years down the line there are things that need to be looked at. Changed and reevaluated and that's how you continue and you create that sustainability around the creative world is that you continue to have in mind one thing I need to support the creative ecosystem. I need to create an infrastructure that supports them, and this is going to have to change with time and time and time, and we need to be agile and adapt to whatever it is. So if you don't have that agile behavior. I mean it's not gonna work. You mentioned how many jobs are being created. Um, I, I read a statistic which said, and it might have changed since I read it, that 320,000 jobs in the Saudi fashion industry now, um, many of those jobs are done by women, which is incredible. How do you think about ensuring that women at all levels of the industry are paid well, have great opportunities for progression, have good working conditions? Yeah, so I think if we look at Overall strategy of women enablement in the workforce that is just typically from a Ministry of Human Resources point of view and that really cascades across all sectors within Saudi and I feel like from there this is the most important thing is that women really feel like they can do so much because they have the support, but also there are systems in place that really support their growth in the sense that they're paid well. I think in Saudi women and men are paid um equally, uh, there's there's no like uh difference in salaries, uh, even in terms of the creative world, I feel like we see a lot of women that are in the creative world specifically when it comes to fashion, and a lot of people tell me this is not the norm in other countries. Let me tell you that is not the norm exactly. So basically it's really um uh providing, you know, uh an infrastructure that supports women, but also I feel like it's not looked at from the Ministry of Human Capital. As just one area or one sector, it's really looked at and I think we had panelists before talking about sports, so it's really looked at from a fuller and bigger vision and then how that really implicates across everything else. But again, I mean, you have universities here that teach fashion. Uh, and it's basically like really all women, um, students there, like girls, they're not, they're not basically like, uh, uh, that's how it was back in the days, but until now you see a lot of women really working in the creative but also specifically fashion. I have yet to see um a course being taken by men by men. But, but speaking on that note, uh, really there's huge support when it comes to women, and I mean you can speak to any designer and they'll basically tell you like, you know, they've seen the the change even across like the value chain when I talk about the value chain. Not just about the designer herself, it's the pattern maker. It's the prototype, you know, a product development expert. It's everything related to the retail retail is huge in Saudi and if you go to any like store you'll see all these women working. In in the retail sector, uh, and this shows you like, OK, there's opportunity there, they're happy and it's growing, and then now all these retailers are creating programs to support their skill levels in order for them to also grow from that. I want to ask you. A question on behalf of any young people we have in the audience or beyond this room who might be watching later. When we think about the creative industries as a whole, where do you see in Saudi Arabia the biggest opportunities right now? Where should they be targeting for their future jobs? So I think everyone needs to look at things from a very different, let's say lens or perspective, because when, when people think about a specific sector within the creative world, they think of it from the artistic angle. But what I try to tell people, I'm, I'm someone that is working in the creative world, but I'm on the business side, so there are so many opportunities, you know, creative. The creative ecosystem is not just about being creative. It's about understanding and creating that balance between creativity and business and how that can scale. So there's so much opportunity. You have people that can be like directors in fashion houses. You can see, like, I mean, if you just look at other brands around the world, look at their, their, their ecosystem. They have everyone across the full value chain working there, so there's So much opportunity and what I advise and maybe say to people is don't look at it just from that small narrow angle. Make sure you look at it from a bigger picture and that's where creativity comes from. Creativity doesn't just come from being artistic or creating something. It can also come from creating a new strategy or creating a different model or creating a genius financial plan that would, you know, support the business to grow. So there's so many ways to look at it and That's what I love to do. And just to end and sort of to go back to the beginning, you mentioned what a global outlook you have. You've spent time abroad for young people wanting to be, say, the director of a fashion house, young Saudi people, do you still advise them to go abroad and get experience, or should they stay in the country? Is there a very clear route to that here now in the country? What would your advice be on that? No, I think exposure and being in different places is very important. Uh, I, I really think you will learn different things and you will experience different things, and that's very important so that what you learn you can bring back to where you actually want to live, which is here if that's the place you want to live. But for me personally, I wouldn't have learned what I learned if I think I was just here. So be a global citizen be a creative global citizen. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here. Thank you, thank you, everyone.

A surge of public and private investment, combined with rapidly evolving sponsorship opportunities and the star power of female athletes has led to a rise in both popularity and viewership across women’s sports. Despite these advances, gender inequality persists when it comes to funding, media coverage, and the equal treatment of female athletes. A conversation on the challenges and thrills of breaking records, shattering taboos, and driving the world of women’s sports forward.

Playing To Win: Women, Sports, and Breaking Barriers

Saudi Arabia’s push to get more women and girls engaged in sports is working, with over 70,000 girls participating in school football league, in only it’s second year, and the opening of 500 women's sports centers. As part of Vision 2030, the country’s national sports strategy is clearing the way for women’s participation and developing a pipeline for female athletes, as part of the broader campaign to improve quality of life in the Kingdom. What’s next for Saudi's promising female athletes on their journey from amateur to elite, and for the women’s sports in the Kingdom and beyond?

MPW Spotlight: Reaching New Heights

Please go to fortune.com. Now switching gears, let's talk about sports. Saudi women and girls are participating in sports in record numbers from joining youth leagues to coaching the next generation of promising athletes and competing in national and international competitions. This is all part of the government's national sports strategy. Joining us to discuss this historic initiative is Adwa al-Arifi, the Assistant Minister for sport affairs in the Ministry of Sport for Saudi Arabia. So she's going to be interviewed by Lama Al Hamai, a reporter for Arab News. Please welcome them to the stage. OK, welcome to our session Reaching New Heights. My name is Lehed Hemoy. I'm a reporter with Arab News and the founder and host of the Discussions podcast. We're in store for a treat in this session because we're going to be reaching new heights and discussing about the new heights through Vision 2030. Um, as a Saudi woman that's been living and working in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, I've seen firsthand the advancements that have taken place in women in sports, um, from athletes, football players to schools and new programs coming about each and every day. And we're in store for a treat because I have the assistant of Minister for sports at the Ministry of Sports Abel Abife with me on stage to talk about the advancements. Um, I, I wanna ask you initially when Vision 2030 came about in 2016, um, we, we talked about the diversification of economy, but immediately I thought of sports. I thought of culture. I thought of tourism, um, sports wasn't the initial initial topic that came about. It was kind of the second topic. So I want to ask you, why is sports such an important pillar of Vision 2030 and looking at it now in 2025, what is the biggest advancements we've seen in the past couple of years? Can you hear me? Yes, thank you. It's a pleasure to be with you all here today and to whoever is here for the first time in Saudi Arabia, I would like to welcome you and our beloved country, and I hope you're enjoying your time here in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Going to your question, um, why is sports important for Saudi? Because it's important for our people, for our nation. It makes us happier, healthier every day. Speaking of Vig 2030, Vision 2030 was launched back in 2016 by His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince Prince Mohammad bin Salman. This vision, vision 2030, has quality of life at the heart and core of that vision. As part of quality of life, we have sports, entertainment, tourism, and culture. So if we look at sports, we started working on our national sports strategy, and we say when we say national sports strategy, it's not about the strategy of the Ministry of sports, but it's the whole nation's strategy. So we focus on three main pillars in this strategy. The first pillar is mass participation. And we're proud to say that today more than 50% of Saudis are physically active, which that percentage before Vigen 2030, it was only 13%, so that number jumped from 13% to 58%. And we target how can we have more people into physical activity to get people more healthier, happier, and more active on their daily lives. The second main pillar is amateur to elite. So how can we identify talent from a young age? Boys and girls, how can we identify that talent? His Royal Highness, the Minister of Sport, Prince Abdel Aziz Binky, launched Mad Academy 4 years ago. Mad Academy is um across the whole kingdom of Saudi Arabia focusing on identifying uh talent from a young age in collaboration with Ministry of Education. The third pillar, which is elite. How can we as Saudis perform better in elite performance in international competitions? And we're proud to say that we've in the previous years female sports was new to Saudi, but we're proud that we had for the first time a female athlete qualifies to the Olympics, Dua Bota, who qualified in taekwondo and competed. To the last, she was very close to get a medal in Paris Olympics. So, um, so this is, this is our strategy. Those are our main pillars, and this is our focus, and whatever we do is for our people and our nation. And we've seen the success we've um, but there had to have been challenges along the way. I don't want to only touch upon the positive because it's a difficult journey through a transformation there might be resistance and there might be difficulties. So I wanna ask you, what were the hurdles involved in getting women in sports in Saudi Arabia? Um, to be honest, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, as part of Vision 2030, have removed all hurdles, and let me speak about my own journey. Sports is my passion since I was a young girl, and limited opportunities were back then, but that did not stop us. We played sports. I played soccer, football back then, had the first female team in Rio and a community league as well. Um, back then I've never imagined that the kingdom of Saudi Arabia will have a national team, a women's national team, or a league, an official league within within the kingdom. But today we went from not having national teams or leagues to today having 4 women national football teams. The first team. Under 20, under 17, and under 15, we have our Premier League, which has more than 10 clubs, female clubs playing in the Premier League, and it's the only league in the region that is broadcasted internationally and has global sponsorships as well. We have the first division, the 2nd division. We've launched the Schools league 3 years ago and for the first season we had more than 70,000 girls playing football in schools. So I think whatever we're doing is working. So other than that there are a lot of reforms that happened as part of Vi2030. So back in 2017, PE was introduced for girls' schools. 2018 girls and females were allowed to enter the stadiums. Um, 2018 women were allowed to drive in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and by law, all sporting federation needs to have a female seat in that federation to ensure the progress and and the transformation in women's sport in that sport. So these are all reforms that happened and personally we're living our dreams today and challenges were all removed. Exactly. They really were standing before me as an assistant minister, but for those of you that don't know, I think. Saudis, majority of Saudis know that Awa was one of the early trailblazers in football, by the way, in 2006, she was a legend in the very, very early on before Vision 2030 changes, she was the one leading the football sector and quite literally uplifting women around her way before Vision 2030 came to fruition. So please give her a round of applause. Honestly, we're setting for our legends. You're very humble. I know it's a team effort and the panel afterwards, my colleague Alia Rashid, who is leading women football in the Saudi Football Federation, she'll speak more about it, so I don't want to ruin. No, of course. I want to ask you, how do you change the cultural norms around sports participation in Saudi Arabia? Um, so whatever we're doing, we do, so our national sports strategy is catered for all. Uh, it's not only for men, it's not only for women, it's for, for everyone. And what we do is to open opportunity for all so we ensure that we have access for everyone, and that's the reason why we've went from 30 sporting federations before Virgin 2030 to today having more than 97 sporting federations to ensure that we have an opportunity for every single person living in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia to try any kind of sport that they would wish for. So whatever we do, it's a personal choice. If you would like to enter the sports sector or be physically to be more physically active or to join any kind of sport, then the opportunity is there. So our role is not to change the cultural norms. We're our culture. We respect um uh um anyone's decision, but the opportunity is there to welcome everyone to be part of the transformation and to be part of the sports sector. I want to ask this question for anyone visiting the kingdom of Saudi Arabia for the first time or doesn't really know about sports in Saudi. When we think of Saudi Arabia, obviously we think of football. If you're thinking internationally, you can't help but think of football and some of the football legends we have here. But what are some of the other sports drawing attention in Saudi Arabia? So we're a football nation, so everyone watches football, plays football, so definitely football is is is one of the most popular sports in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. However, because sports is transforming within the kingdom. Um, so we find demand in all sports. So from paddle to e-sport to martial arts, Dunya Botale, for example, who is our first female that qualified to the Olympics, qualified in taekwondo. So demand is is moving. Very quick across all sports, so we see every day new athletes coming into the sports sector, and we have a whole new generation that is entering the sports sector across different, different sports. So there is no one popular sport. It's the demand is across all. And obviously we've seen Formula One, we've seen Formula E, we've seen the WTA being hosted right here in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Um, why is the Ministry of Sports driving for this transformation and investing so heavily in these international sports in Saudi Arabia? Um, so as I mentioned, whatever we do is for our people, for our nation, and let me give you an example of the WTA finals that we've hosted last year. The hosting of those events is to inspire our people. We're a young nation. 60% of the population are below the age of 30. Um, so when you see young girls attending the WTA and looking at, looking at those professional athletes, they get inspired to be that athlete one day, and we've worked on different programs across tennis, and during that WTA final we had more than 30,000 girls playing tennis because they are inspired from that that event. So that's an example. Another example is E1. Which is electric boat racing. We've hosted that and we're very proud of Medan, who you'll see in the next panel who won as a first, not only a first female but 1st 1st Arab that wins that race, and she's a Saudi female. So because of hosting the E1, we've realized that we have a talented athlete that became a champion. We're approaching the last few minutes of our session. I have one final question for you. What would success look like for you in your journey, in your career as assistant minister? How would you define success? So I think we we're living in a golden era today. So what we're witnessing today is success. When I was a young girl, I've never dreamt to work in sports, let alone looking at all the girls that are today involved in sport. Um, on behalf of all the girls that are passionate in sports, um, we are living our dreams, and this is the success we we we talk about. It is, I think we're seeing it firsthand. I have so many friends that are competitive athletes. This wouldn't have been possible to say in Saudi Arabia back in the day. And I think if it's OK to say this, we were talking backstage, we said that Saudi Arabia isn't working on catching up right now. We've already exceeded it. I think we're leading at the front line when it comes to women in sports. Yeah, definitely it's one of the fastest countries in the world that is growing in in in sports and Um, we might have been late, but we've already exceeded a lot of countries in terms of the progress that are happening, and we're one of the few countries in the world that applied equal pay for our athletes, which is the showcases that. So this showcases the progress that we're going through um and that it's it's real and um and we have equality across all sports and equality and progress in such a short amount of time when we think of Vision 2030, it wasn't that long ago that it was announced. Look at it now, the advancements are. Remarkable, and I've never seen anything like it anywhere around the world and for we're visiting Saudi Arabia, you might read about it on the news you might talk to friends, but being here in person firsthand speaking to Saudi women across this forum and listening to these panels, I hope that we can convey the true message of what's happening here in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia. That's all the time that we have. A thank you so much for your time. Please give a round of applause. Thank you so much

Macroeconomic activity and geopolitical tensions have made for an uncertain global venture capital climate in recent months. Three top VC leaders share what comes next—from the key sectors and geographical hotspots to watch, to what notable recent deals tell us about the future of the startup ecosystem and the economy.

The Next Unicorn: Analyzing Global VC Trends

The global video game market is estimated to grow by $111.7 billion over the next four years, and the sector has particularly exploded in Saudi Arabia, where gaming and esports are predicted to contribute more than $13 billion to the country’s GDP by 2030. However, while almost half of all gamers worldwide are women, 95% of professional gamers are men. A conversation about the role of developers in closing this stark gender gap and ensuring that the future of gaming is as inclusive as it is profitable.  

Ensuring That Women Win At Gaming

OK, we're going to completely change tack now and talk about eSports and gaming, which are massively popular here in the Middle East, as I'm sure many of you know, particularly here in Saudi Arabia, where they are predicted to contribute $13 billion to the country's GDP by 2030. Also in Saudi, women make up 48% of Total gamers, which is pretty incredible when we think about it being a traditionally male sport, and this contributes to an increasing global trend of women taking part in eSports. With us to discuss this phenomenon is Rain Abas, the founder and chief executive officer of Wixel Studios, which is Lebanon's first gaming startup. And she's also from Spykotech. She also works at Speakertech, a company that teaches kids how to create games, and I'm sure she's going to tell us more about that. She will be joined on stage by the chief operating officer of Scope Le, Eunice Lee, and my colleague Fortune's Emma Hinchcliff. 344. 5. So let's see, um, but, you were one of the first female game designers in the Middle East. What was the industry like when you started for women and where is it today? When I started, it was uh Non-existing for any species, men, women. Anyone It is non-existing. No one knew that we even can do video games, and what that's why everyone thought you're crazy to open a video game company from Lebanon, especially, you know, in Lebanon we don't have even infrastructure for video games. So, uh, yeah, so I think I'm proud also that I created the first step to have video games, the production in the region. What made you confident that it would work when there was nothing? No, I was not. I was panicking, but I was bored because I was working, you know, with US companies doing games for them and for me I can really tell a lot of stories. I can change a lot in my company and my country, I mean, and all over the region. So I think one game it gave me this power. I did a political game, street fight game between politicians online. Because I was, I remember I was stuck on the road, you know, people were fighting each others, young people, so I thought I can't change anything if I do a video game, maybe I will take these young people from the streets and put them online and they can, you know, fight with these politicians to turn around if you want to turn to change the reality, and it was so successful that everyone's playing from all over the world, millions of players, and I said, you know, I need to quit my job. go to Lebanon, create my own company and to do games that can change my reality and others' reality, and I was crazy, but you know, I think this successful game gave me this power to start. Sometimes you need. Um, well, Eunice, tell us about the market for gaming in the Middle East and in Saudi Arabia specifically. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting to do that poll because I'm betting there's actually way more folks in here that I would count as a gamer. Um, I think you know what's interesting in all of mobile gaming is probably 50% of, you know, people say I'm a gamer, um, or I play games, you know, but here in Nina, the, the, the percentage of folks that identify as a gamer is 89% of the population. Like that's kind of insane. Um, but you know, often in the west or whatnot you get these ratios that are different, um, and so a lot of people who play, for example, a lot of our games that are super popular like Scrabble Go or Yai with buddies, folks play that but they don't. Think of themselves as a gamer when they're playing that mobile game um if you've ever touched something like Candy Crush or some of those titles I just said Monopoly Go, one of ours, um, you're a gamer, but I think there's an opportunity to really change how who identifies as a gamer and to feel proud to say that you're a gamer. There's sometimes a bit of a. Uh, uh, an old school notion of what's identified as a gamer, um, and it's like a high school teenager in, in the basement of their parents' house playing a, you know, video game all night long, um, and I don't think that's the case anymore and what I love about the MA region and what I really love about Saudi Arabia is how proud both women and men are to be like I'm a gamer and I love, um, you know, playing games whether that's on my mobile phone or on PC or on console. Um, so it's sort of a very exciting place to be. Definitely, um, Ren, tell us about what you've seen in terms of a rise in female gamers. How, how have women as gamers changed, especially in the Middle East, and how has that changed gaming? Are there new games being built for them? Is it changing the way the industry works? No, we have, we have more female gamers, but still for me, the games are developed or produced for females are, you know, I think they think it's not worth it. And uh for me as a decision maker, publisher, designer, developer, my mission was to create games that uh you know. AAA maybe games or really adventure games, real games, and to really attract these females to play these games because if you see the data, yes, we have more females, but the games they're playing, you know, are not the games that are competing on the market or really can change. So as a decision maker, I made sure that the games I produced from my studio will generate more gamers such as racing games, adventure games, action games. And for me this will change. So again, if the females are decision makers, developers, game designers, producers, will change the industry and the games are produced for everyone again and we will have more females and really games that are again, you know, changing or, you know, competing on consoles PC online. And it's again I'm really proud that from our region we have more gamers and we have more developers, but I think we have to do more work to have, you know, to have more numbers or to raise these numbers. You know, why does that matter? Like, is gaming an economic opportunity for women that we are missing out on? Yes, of course. Um, you know, a single game can, uh, the theme of a single game can be, you know, from different industries and from different skills and major. You have like game designers, developers, artists, storytellers, narratives, you have marketing development, business development, sound, it's a big production even for a small game. And yes, it will create more job opportunities that really can, you know, make a difference in the economy of any country, you know, the games are the biggest industry in the world, and yeah, to have more females in this industry will affect the economy. It will affect, it's a triple, it's a ripple effect. And it will change also, uh, may I say the toxic uh gameplay also it's really important. There's a lot of big companies, they are struggling because they reach a place where their games are toxic and this starts from the, you know, non-ethical design. So now they want to go to the ethical gameplay and ethical design. So also when you have more female involved in the narrative and the game design, it will also make a nontoxic, uh, you know, ethical design. What are some of the problems then, uh, non-ethical design, um, you know, it will lead to, uh, non-ethical gameplay or non-ethical play means that you have bullying, you know, people, you know, they. They bully each others also when you also punish the players, they punish the players. So if they don't play for a time, for a specific time, they lose their reward, they lose their achievement, and this will trigger the players and it will affect, you know, especially online game multiplayer games, and when they play like open word they play each other. So this is really important to go back. To ethical, uh, game design or ethical design because it will lead to successful business. So Eunice, what is Scopely doing and what should other companies be doing to reach more female gamers? Yeah, I mean, I think we're blessed in mobile gaming in particular where actually 50% or more of our gamers are women, um, often, so there's a huge opportunity there again. They may not all identify as gamers, um, but I think touching upon what you were saying um we at Scope we we take it pretty seriously, and I think you know it's super important first and foremost to make sure that you have inclusivity as sort of a principle in terms of how you're gonna make gains and the culture in which you have employees um so that everybody can kind of bring their different voices. The table, uh, we at Scope we have created an inclusive design committee and it's exactly what you were describing, um, but it's to ensure that for example our characters truly are representative of who they're supposed to be. So it's not somebody writing in the voice of somebody else that they have not walked in the shoes of or necessarily understand or almost comes across as a caricature of a culture. Um, and we have a senior director, Tule McNally who we hired from Electronic Arts who leads up all of our inclusive game design, um, and one cool example of that is in one of our games, Marvel Strikeforce, which takes all the characters of the Marvel universe um into its game. The team actually created a new Marvel character that did not, does not exist in the Marvel universe from the. Comic book side um that was the first Navajo Native American um character Spider Weaver um and Marvel blessed that character and we were able to put it in the game so there's interesting ways where we can also inflect back into pop culture and vice versa, um, and so I think that's just one tiny example but these things are happening every day, uh, increasingly in gaming probably not fast enough, so the more we can do this and the more that. Um, whether it's gaming or other industries where there's product creation and creativity, the more you have inclusive voices and you come at this principled, you know, inclusive design approach, you know, the better the outcome's gonna be and the better audience reach you're gonna have ultimately. Definitely, um, well, I'll come to everyone for questions in a moment, so if you have any, start thinking um. Ren, when you, we talked about the, you know, economic opportunity for women on the career side, but what about on the professional gaming side? What are women missing out on? I mean, the overwhelming share of professional gamers are men. A lot. Uh, I, I said today I don't want to nag on the stage. I want to, you know, to find solutions. Um, there's a lot of missing, but for me, we. You know, when I started, uh, again, I did not think that I'm a girl or a woman working in this industry, although I remember I was the only female on the team when I started. I did not think about this for me, um, any species again, if you work hard, uh, you're motivated, you want to do it, uh, you know, uh, do well, you know, to, to want to learn everything, you have to be open to learn. Uh, you can reach, you know, uh, high levels in any industry, and, uh, but, you know, education and how we are raising, uh, uh, girls, you know, they start so, you know, with a lot of dreams and they reach an age, they think they are limited, and I think, um, you know, uh, like platforms like today, uh, public speaking, uh, you know, conferences. Lectures, recruitment will help women, you know, step forward and believe that they can be executive, they can create, they can they can win millions of dollars as professional gamers, of course, of course. So you have gamers and producers. These two are important because they can't be non-connected. So these teams are playing games and these games are made by, you know, other people. So again, uh, these two should be connected, should be linked, should be pushed in different ways, should be, you know, uh, talked about in a different way to, uh, you know, to make a difference and to encourage these women to to do whatever they want. You know, I'm again from Lebanon and this is a really a difficult country. I did all these, uh, you know, games, uh, successful games. I did not think about again, I want to do. Something to say that I'm a woman doing games, but also I'm a mother for 3 kids that are game producers, of course, and I'm their hero, uh, because, you know, I worked with the biggest names. I was on stage with their, you know, idols from Roblox, Fortnite, you know, all these big names. Um, so I did it with, I had a difficult also, you know, um, you know, roadmap if you want a journey. Um, but for me, if I want to do something, I will do it. So, and again, in any industry, in any field, we, we should not stop nagging, but we, we, they should know that we should not be in lists. We should not be in only women's conferences. We can compete again with any species. And we can reach, you know, there's no limits. So just believe it and you know, don't listen to anyone, you know. So again, as a mother, entrepreneur, I had a lot of, you know, judgment around me. She's pregnant, she's sick, so everything will stop. So I had to do double effort. I have to tell everyone it's OK. I'm a CEO founder, but nothing will stop. So this extra effort, I know we should not do it, but again, you know, disconnect, do whatever you want. You will have more females and leaders and and especially with the games and can I add really quickly to that I would just, yeah, I just wanna make sure we have time for if anyone has any. OK, we have one right here. Um, yeah, I think the microphone should be to you in a second. I can hear you. Now I'll say less loud. So hi, this is Prashay. I'm the founder and CEO for Crispi Data. We do all things AI. Um, but in gaming, and excuse my, um, awareness on the gaming industry in general, but I have a very basic question if that's OK with you guys, um, like when I was an engineer 30 years ago, I did AI 30 years ago, people always thought like I'm this person sitting somewhere in the basement to earlier comment and you know, building stuff in my garage with AI and stuff like that. Now I think people are more popular like AI is important, but in gaming, how can Um, the perception like the gaming is you with your computer or you with your phone doing the game. How do you see or have you seen gaming to be a unifying factor to bond the community, any species again together? Like what is the forward thinking around making gaming industry as a unifying society and a community? Yeah, that's great. And I mean scope. In particular we're very focused on community building and making experiences um and sometimes people you want that time to be alone right and you wanna have that solo experience and escape the world um but we have found that when uh folks connect their gaming experience with whatever their social graph is and their social networks and communities there's 3 times the engagement um in that game. So I think gaming inherently is um something even if you're playing solo you end up going out in the world and talking and finding people who share that joy who share that passion who you wanna be in community with and talk about and dissect the game um but we really want games that actually bring people together and have mechanics in it that bring community and social um communication. Um, and so you know, we, we really wanna inspire play every day, um, and with others, so that's really important to us at Scoly and I think to a lot of the gaming companies out there. Ren, what community have you seen in among women in the Middle East, among game designers, how have you built that? Yes, it was difficult at the beginning to, you know, to join these people together, but I think games are the best medium to do anything, any change, any link, and to bring people together. Like she said, it's an escape word, um, and if you play on the fellowship and the engagement between players, it's more powerful, and I think games can really change a lot as education games, you know, uh, informative games, casual games. It's a big responsibility to bring messages, to bring these people together like I said, with ethical design. It is a big and strong medium to change again and to empower, you know, women, girls, youth. We did a lot of games. To help, uh, teenagers to survive, you know, their age, difficult age like my kids, you know, it's a disaster, you know, now 3 teenagers, you know, oh my God. So I'm, I'm I have a mother gamer and, uh, you know, a game designer because we use manipulation, good manipulation for players. You need, I need you to be in the game, you know, to stay in the game. So this is a power for me to to deal with my teenagers, but yeah, it is a powerful medium. That's why it's a big responsibility to bring people together and to empower them to change their, you know, their mindset, to promote the health, um, you know, health mindset again. Uh, that's why you have 22 words now in video games. You have video games that again non-ethical, you know, they play on triggering the players and you have really good games that based on great mechanics, fun, there's a lot of, you know, messages inside like environment, educational, or, so yeah, you can change a lot, but you need the right people with, you know, the ethical mind to do that and the right games. Well, thank you both so much. Thank you.

The founder of a digital healthcare company focused on women’s health talks about the barriers to providing patients with comprehensive care. From the gender gap in healthcare investment to a dearth of research on conditions that impact women, we’ll discuss the most urgent issues in the women’s healthcare space and how they can be solved.

Prioritizing Women's Health

OK, we're going to continue on the subject of women's health with a founder who in 2015 launched a network of women's health clinics with the goal of offering her clients, her patients affordable, comprehensive care, and she joins us now to talk about recent milestones in women's health and the challenges. that remain from the gender gap in investment and the enduring lack of research when it comes to health issues that impact women. Please welcome Dr. Somi Javaid, a board certified obstetrician gynecologist and founder of the US-based HMD Healthcare Clinics. Oh, we're going over this way. So what's Heather. Hi, hi, come sit down. How are you? er, because I believe we're going to have some slides. um, but hello, let's start first of all with the origins of her MD for anyone in the room who isn't familiar. So I mentioned that it was founded in 2015, in response to gaps that you had seen in the healthcare system both as a practitioner, but also because of your personal family experience. Tell me more. You're already going to make me cry? No, well, we, we can cry. There's cry. Um, I literally got a call that was my calling in life. It was my father. He said, tell me you need to come home. My mother, who was only 45 at the time. Had been complaining of left arm pain, shortness of breath. And chest pain. We were in Cleveland, Ohio at the time, the home of cardiovascular care, and um what her doctors had told her was caffeine. Her children ended up being 4, yeah, apparently ended up being 4 vessel diseased. Had the heart attack come. My mother would have died. Uh, I was pre-med at Northwestern at the time. 21 years old, uh, and made a promise to her and to myself that this was never gonna happen again and that I was gonna change the world. Uh, little did I know. What I had promised, uh, to do fast forward medical school residency, got my first job. In the US healthcare system, I was seeing 50 patients a day. That long ago promise of changing the world and advocacy was gone. And so when the timing was right, uh, Bought a clinic, opened my doors to a provider patient centric clinic specializing in survivorship, menopause, gynecology in Cincinnati, Ohio, um, and soon we attracted women from 35 states and 3 countries. And you say opened the clinic as if it was the easiest thing you ever did. I know that you had to raise a lot of money to do that, and women's healthcare is a notoriously difficult sector to attract investment in. What was that process like for you? Well, uh, they told me as a dinosaur because I was over 40, we won't say how many years above 40, uh, a woman from the Midwest of color that I had a 0.37% um. Chance of raising funds and the truth is less than 2% of BC dollars go to a female founders and so can we, uh, throw up some slides and I'll share some statistics of what I was standing up against? We're gonna see you should be able to see the slides on these screens to the left and right of the stage. Let's click through to the next one, please. OK, I can see it down there, but I was hoping, can, can you all see it up there? They will say got screens in front of them. OK, so basically in the United States, why should we care around the world, there's a billion of us in menopause right now. Menopause lasts a day, but then It's the 12 month menopause last a day, yes, but then it's the day after 12 months of no menses, but then the rest of your life is post-menopausal, and we're graduating in the United States 93% of our medical residents with the inability to take care of you in this stage, and it's way beyond gynecologic care. We now know that Alzheimer's affects women 2 to 1. And we are now identifying the changes in the brain due to estrogen receptors in that decline. So menopause affects us from head to toe. Undiagnosed, untreated menopause led to just in the United States $1.8 billion losses in work. Women are in the prime of their lives. I'm going to be 50 in a few weeks. I don't want to be sidelined by menopause. They are leaving work. Because of undiagnosed, untreated uh symptoms like brain fog, uh, word finding, cognitive decline, um, because we're living outliving our ovaries, um, the other barriers to care, I teach a lot of providers, they're given 5 to 7 minutes with their patients. How are you gonna talk about these topics that have had stigma, taboo, and shame, even in the United States, perform a physical exam, make sure you type it all up, put it in the electronic health records. I mentioned the funding. Globe, I told you in the United States less than 2% of VC dollars go to female founded companies. Globally, only 5% of research dollars went to research and development, and we need more than pharma. We need more than surgery. I'm a surgeon. We need more direct to consumer devices that collect data that really puts healthcare in the hands of women. Um, and in the United States, women were not mandated to be in clinical research trials until 1993, which speaks to this huge lack of research around conditions that impact women or how they respond to conditions that impact men and women. So. We can switch that off, but you're right, we were treating women in the United States like little men, so that's why my mother almost died. Cardiovascular disease remains the number one killer of women in the United States. And did you know that women are more likely to die of a heart attack than a man? And the uh gender of the providing physician affects your outcome. Meaning, if your cardiologist is a man, you are more likely to die. Is that not crazy? Because we're not believed. Like my mother was not believed crazy and scary and unacceptable and unacceptable. So what are some of the solutions to this? Obviously you with her MD tried to and have succeeded in rolling out a possible solution to this in terms of women having comprehensive healthcare, having longer appointment times as well, which is a very key. Element if we're thinking globally, you know, the women in these rooms, what tools, what information can we give them today to leave feeling a bit more empowered about their health? Yeah, so, um, let's fix the educational gap, right? I mentioned that 93% of medical residents are graduating with no education in where you and I are going to spend 40% of our lives if we're lucky enough. So we created something called Harredi University where we internally train all of our providers so that there were no delays in diagnosis, neither. The suffering and we were able to treat our patients. We are going to be licensing that so we are going to start training providers all over the country, not just TMD providers, and then also um educating our uh patients. Uh, we have a lot of female leadership even though we outnumber men in the workforce, about 75% of uh the healthcare workforce is female, but only 25% of us hold, um, healthcare leadership positions and we're also. Physician led and there you know we were talking about healthcare innovation and what is one of the number one barriers, even if it's the best idea is adoption. If the providers don't adopt the new technology, the new surgery, the new pharmacotherapy, it's and someone said 17 year gap, some of it's regulatory, but a lot of it's adoption. If a provider cannot figure out how to operationalize it, it's never going to be implemented. So we've gotten around that. And then when people told me, well, we're not going to cover. That that's experimental. We took matters into our own hands, collected data across 115,000 patient encounters, and presented it at major medical conferences so that it was peer reviewed and people could understand how we were doing things differently, truly making the patient the CEO of her care, along with the providers and creating this curated plan that was different than the status quo. Now earlier this year, you announced that RMD was moving completely virtual. You were closing. Clinics, um, tell us a bit about why you had to do that because I think it speaks to a bigger story about where we are in the women's health care journey right now. Absolutely. So it's all about reading, you know, I never imagined I would say this is a doctor, but reading the market, understanding what's going on and kind of meeting the patient where they're at. And as we were seeing reimbursements decline and medical costs go up, the cost of maintaining clinics, even though I know women need to be seen, um, physically, um, just was not sustainable. Plus our wait lists, as I mentioned, our original clinic Cincinnati, Ohio is not known for medical tourism, and women were coming from 35 states and 3 countries. And so we wanted to meet women where they were and expand our access. And to do that, we wanted to be less capital intensive, use the capital we had to expand nationwide, hopefully globally one day. Yes, playing devil's advocate, some people might say, how can I get the same standard of cow when I'm behind a computer screen, right? And so we So doubling down on virtual care is not new at HMD. We've been doing it actually since before COVID because so many people were traveling to us, but I don't know if you guys just saw this. The FDA last week approved Thial, the first ever at-home Pap test. There is now a new FDA cleared device I just saw it this week that performs 9 physical exams. There's genetic testing. There's genomic testing. There's cancer testing. You can assess cardiovascular disease. So there's a lot of things that we can do rendering fem tech. AI um and seeing the patient over Zoom and then the other thing that we plan on doing is partnerships with hospital systems and physical clinics in the areas where we're going to provide care and honestly they want to concentrate on what their providers are trained on whether it's the obstetric care, whether it's the primary care, and they really want to allow us to take care of the menopause solutions and then also partnering with employers so that we can take care of their um employees. Are there any questions in the audience for Dr. Javaid? If not, that's the debate. I'm going to come to you because you can get a microphone here to Bets today, please, in the front of the room because earlier this morning she cornered me outside to tell me some very interesting news about funding that is going, funding slash a prize that is targeting ovarian health. Tell us more and why it's important. So, um, I sit on the Brain Trust for X Prize, and last year in the visioneering, this is for people who don't know, X Prize initiated 20+ years ago, the Ansari X Prize, the first private space flight. So that's where we are today 20 years later. Last year for the first time ever, ovarian He was the prize of the year. So that's what actually has been launched a few days ago, and it's fantastic because it's not, it goes beyond maternal and menopause. It goes to this. An organ that hasn't been really fully studied for half the population will get impacted by it, and ovarian biology is the center of this and it's called the X X Prize, which is fantastic. That is amazing news and goes right along with this interest in longevity because people are like, why should we care about ovarian health? Well, for the first time we've ever, as we are living longer, we're outliving. our ovaries, and we mentioned in the last panel that we are living longer, but you know that women live longer than men, but we live those years in much poorer health. And so if we can integrate hormonal health and understand our ovaries much better, it's a key to longevity and not just living longer, but living those years healthier. I won't leave the women in this room with some tangible things they can do. To take control of their health, to maybe start thinking about longevity if they haven't already. I mentioned in the previous panel in the UK and the US, longevity started as a very white male conversation. It's now happily spreading, and we've got more women taking control of the narrative. Three tips from you, Dr. Javaid, for the women in this room as to how to take control of their health. Uh, #1, find a provider who specializes if you are in the perimenopause and menopause phase of your life. Find someone who specializes in that. 2, track your symptoms head to toe. I was talking last night at Dizzer. Frozen frozen shoulder is a sign of perimenopause and menopause, brain fog, word findings, sleep disturbances. Your provider can't meet you unless you're halfway and. Unless you are tracking your own symptoms, I always tell patients no one knows your body better than you do. And then number 3, do not be afraid of femtech innovation. A lot of it is very accessible, whether it's a swab test you could do at home. There's a great company called Tally Health. It tells you your genomic age, and then I have one last one, lifestyle. Um, make sure you lift weights. It's amazing. Amazing what you can do to protect muscle mass and bone density. The mortality from a hip fracture is 20%. Walking with a weighted vest 11 minutes a day can change that outcome for you. So very, very important to take care of your bones, and I know that you give out great advice and expertise on Instagram as well, so I would suggest that people find you that if they want to hear more. Thank you so much, Dr. Deva, for coming to speak to us. We really appreciate it. Thank you.

The health care industry is one of the biggest drivers of economic activity worldwide. Digital transformation, accelerated R&D, and new research into the causes of disease are promising important advancements in the coming years. However, will innovation be able to solve the industry’s numerous, serious challenges – including unequal access to care, sky-high costs, workforce shortages, and cybersecurity threats? We'll examine how the integration of technology and other scientific advancement into our health care systems will impact global health equity, as well as individual patient outcomes.

Health Care Innovation For All

Fintech has revolutionized banking, payments, and investment, democratizing financial services for many in the process. But this increase in access to digital-first solutions comes with privacy and operational risks, prompting complex questions about regulation and compliance. From the proliferation of super apps to AI-powered personalized services and enhanced fraud detection, we’ll discuss where fintech goes next. 

The Next Decade in Fintech

Our next conversation is about the future of financial technology or fintech and how it is transforming banking payments, and investment. Importantly, it's also democratizing access to financial services for people around the world. Here to discuss where FinTech goes next, please welcome Emily Chiu, Chief Executive officer for Novo, which is an online banking platform for small businesses. OK, so I should note that, uh, in addition to being the new CEO of Novo, Emily spent how many years at Block? Over 7 years, over 7 years at Block, uh, parent company of Square and Cash App, um, so lots of, uh, lots of knowledge on, uh, on Fintech and. And one of the pioneers, um, so I want to start out by asking you, you know, we've seen this kind of fintech revolution on the consumer side. What's the status when it comes to businesses and especially small businesses, which is Novo's focus? Yeah, it's such a pleasure to be here with you, Mahal. Um, you know, small businesses are still so underserved today in the US alone there's 33 million small businesses. It contributes to half of the country's employment, close to half of the country's GDP. And these stats are really reflected globally, um, despite it being such a huge driver, we really haven't seen the same type of innovation in the B2C fintech space, um, in the B2B world, and uh I live this every day at home. My husband is a small business entrepreneur, and when you speak to small businesses across the world, you constantly hear how underserved, how underlooked they are, and a big reason for this is because they're just simply not the primary focus for large banks. Um, and so I think the same kind of innovation that we brought over the years at Square at Cash App in making people who have been previously unseen and unserved first class citizens, there's a huge opportunity to do that. Novo, um, bringing the best of not just banking but all of the different services that small businesses need to grow and thrive under one roof and making their lives easy so they can focus on building their businesses and thriving. So I know you've you've you've said and you've thought a lot about um this kind of concept of there being a lot of room for innovation, a lot of open space, um, in areas that have historically not really provided access for everyone um share real quick the story of your mom. You know, it's, it's pretty amazing that we're here at the Fortune International Women Most Powerful conference, um, because I look back at the arc of my own history and my grandmother was the last generation of women who had her feet bound, you know, it was, uh, it was elite for women to, uh, actually not be able to walk and be carried, right? That's how much agency women had, um, and I look one more generation forward to my mom. And she arrived in the United States as an immigrant in the 70s and I don't know if a lot of people remember, but up until 1974, a woman couldn't open a bank account in the United States nor access any kind of credit without a male guarantor signing for her and vouching for her. Um, so you have my feisty mother arriving, um, and she's a creative, she's a jewelry maker, she used to travel all over the world, she's a calligrapher and artist, and she had big dreams of being able to provide for herself by creating a business around this, um, and she couldn't get a bank account and she couldn't get a line of credit, um, and so she actually met my father because she put out a call to her friends saying I need to meet a man who could sponsor me for my business. And, and when she first met him, she said, well, you know, I, I need all these things. I need credit, I need access to a bank account, um, and when we do that, my money is still my money, but your money is my money too so. And they and they did fall in love. They did fall in love, yes, not just for access to credit, um, but it just goes to show that over the last 50 years, it's only been 50 years in the US, um, so much has changed and I talked to my mom today and just the fact that I'm on stage here with you as the CEO of a of a banking platform granting access to credit loans. Helping businesses thrive, many of them female owned businesses, is just incredible, you know, just looking at the arc of how far we've come. Well, so give just the kind of like one or two liner on what Novo actually does. Sure, we're one of the most simple banking platforms for small businesses. We have a globally distributed workforce from the US to Colombia to India. And we serve about a quarter of a million small businesses a day, uh, businesses of all types. Um, we make it incredibly easy for you to get a bank account with no fees, um, no minimums, so you could start with literally $100 if that's all you had. Um, we make it very easy for you to get access to credit, debit card, credit card spend, and in addition to that, we tie it to all the needs that you have from bookkeeping um to sending invoices to auto tagging your expenses, uh, just to make your life easy because these are really not why people went into business, uh, to do bookkeeping and expenses and taxes so we. Care of that for people and you touched on this earlier um just kind of the the the presence the over indexing of women on the small business side by the way I think we talk about startups a lot we're talking small businesses that are not, you know, venture backed necessarily right which is really the bread and butter of, of, uh, you know, more so of the more representative of the, the real small business economy, um. It it talk about in what ways you see um what Novo's doing and just more um products out there more tech platforms that cater to small businesses having an impact on not just entrepreneurs but female entrepreneurs and I know you've got some interesting. Stats on on that end, yeah, I mean it's remarkable because fortune is always highlighting women and promoting women in the fortune and the stats are 11% of Fortune companies are currently 500%, um, and so it was an interesting observation in our conversation, uh, that in the US about 43% of small businesses are led by women. Um, it's much higher than 11%, much higher, yeah, and I looked globally and the statistics are very similar here in the kingdom, um, the number is about 45%, so maybe even a little higher than in the US, um, which is just so exciting to me just knowing that women are out there creating, building, um, being really part of the fabric of growth for our economies just given how much of GDP small businesses drive, um, to bring it back to tangible examples, um, during COVID we actually had one female owner that we were. Reporting on the banking side, um, she started a business called Deluna and uh it actually helps women with period pain and so they make very natural products um that are meant to uh support women when they have cramps or when they feel like they can't get up and go to work um and really just their mission is to make it such that no woman is held back by her period from going on and doing what she needs to do in the world. This business almost went bankrupt during COVID because her supply chain was so backed up. I mean they had months of. Inventory queued up they needed access to credit and during that time we were actually able to run based on our proprietary data and algorithms that we built a way to surface who are all the people that we could help and proactively help and so based on that we surfaced her business. We were able to get her $30,000 in a loan that landed literally days after we simplified the application for her. Um, we found another 2000 to $30,000 worth of credit she didn't know about, you know. Just closing the gap between knowledge and access um and her business is thriving today. It was featured in Vogue. It was featured in the New York Magazine and so it's just amazing the impact of what you can do just getting people through the hardships of small businesses, you know, there are many make or break moments and I really think the next generation of fintechs and bankings are the ones that are going to be proactive about thinking through how can we help. Yeah, now that's the huge, huge shift there, um, so let's take a step back, talk about. Kind of fintech trends more broadly beyond Novo um one of the things that we've seen take off in in recent years are these kind of financial fintech super apps, payment super apps I should say, um, that's not, I mean, I know in the United States that's not really been the trend. What are you seeing on a more global level? Are super apps the future is that, I mean, and if Novo has an angle there too, please share. Yeah, I think that the trend towards consolidation and giving consumers more convenience, access and personalization isn't going away. I think the term super app has taken very different forms around the world and so if you look to Asia, um, the, uh, WeChat apps of the world, the Alipay apps of the world, the Grab pay apps of the world, they've all evolved in very interesting ways and become really monolithic apps that enable you to do everything pay your bills, buy groceries, um conduct financial transactions. It really is an all in one app. Um, Grabpay actually had an interesting story because their apps started. By serving small uh small business drivers, almost like Uber drivers, um, who didn't have access to the banking system and needed a way to be paid and so financial services became a very logical outgrowth, um, to the uh uh ride hailing app, um, and became a super app in the US I would say it's been more focused on consumer apps and so businesses like Cash App where I was, um, or Revolut, um, PayPal, these are the businesses that have really thought through building it not so much. In the Asian style as a monolithic everything app, but much more of an ecosystem of fintech applications. And so just as an example for me when I was innovating for Cash App, we served largely underbanked people who had never owned access to in some cases a bank account, but in many cases owned equity owned stocks, you know, had any means of building wealth, and so we really thought of the app as how can we continue to innovate and build to bring more utility, more engagement to our customers. Customers, um, and give them access to what they actually wouldn't get access to at a large bank, um, and so that's that's more of the shape that it's taken in the consumer side in the US um I haven't really seen so much in the business side, SMB side, but I think that's changing um you now see apps that are focused on spend management start to think about bank accounts, um, you now start seeing bank accounts starting to think about should we then help with taxes, should we then help with um all of the integrated ways to be. The control panel for your business um so I think that's gonna, I think that's gonna change um and I'm pretty excited about being part of leading that opportunity so we've had a few conversations about AI um on stage and they'll be more today, um, and I'm, I'm curious to hear like, you know, with the, the popularity of FinTech, uh, obviously there's concerns for risks as well, security fraud all of that which we have in traditional finance too, of course, um. Coupled with AI Gen AI like what is that future? What do the future risks look like? I mean what are you seeing now and, and what are you doing about it to mitigate future risk? Yeah, so the part that I'm really excited about is the level of personalization it can bring. Um, I do think that AI will level the playing field for small businesses, uh, even at my company, um, I don't know if our chief people officers in in the audience that she's been over the last year building apps in Python. Um, building apps to streamline the HR function without the need for an engineer, right? So it's just incredible that one person with a great idea, um, can now just go out and prototype, build, um, you really can see one person businesses becoming, you know, what used to require entire teams and funding so that's very exciting. I'm also really excited about our ability to. Personalize things for people just given the data that they have small businesses today, they often dread logging into their bank account, you know, they might have unpaid bills. There's nothing that helps with scenario planning, you know, if you're a small business and you don't know when you're going to get paid, the variances to that could really impact your cash flows. It could really impact how quickly you can pay your own supply. Hires and employees and currently my husband who runs a small business keeps a 20 page spreadsheet to do that. That sounds fun, not fun. There's just really nothing for him. So there's a lot that AI can bring, but you know we were talking about the risks and I think from a financial services perspective everyone's talking about AI in terms of how I can drive productivity and personalization. Um, and you know, biases obviously in terms of how you underwrite and how that mimics um the existing biases in our current world and data set, um, but one risk that I don't really hear people talk much about that I think is significant is the risk of it actually breaking the trust and identity systems upon which our entire economy relies, right? Um, when you log into a bank, um, you need to make sure that you're not a fraudster, that you're not logging in to facilitate terrorist financing. There are global standards around this and more and more AI is able to very realistically mimic deep fakes such that you real quick. Yeah, that's the story. Yeah, I was in Hong Kong when the news broke and there was a finance executive who was told by his CFO to wire 200 million Hong Kong dollars out. Um, he didn't know if this was legitimate, and he said, let me get on a Zoom call with you. So he got on a Zoom call with the CFO and two members of the finance team, and then convinced that this was real, sent the money. That was all a deep fake. Um, so we're gonna run into a world where our, our ability to really trust and validate what's real, um, the system of trust upon which commerce relies upon which fintech relies, it's gonna be a real challenge and that presents both risks but also opportunities. So if Emily, uh, asks you for money like I don't know. We need to secure a code or something or something, some kind of wink. I, I mean just real quick, like are there obvious solutions to that that you're already looking you know there's some wild solutions where some people are trying to build a trust layer for the internet, um, others are looking into biometrics like retina scans. um, there's a lot of different solutions. There are folks on the um on the compliance side that are pioneering different ways but it's it's not a solved situation yet and so it's something I would be on the lookout for if you're in this situ if even if you're outside of FinTech. Well, we'll leave you with that food for thought. It's a crazy story, Emily, thank you so much appreciate it.

The global pandemic kicked off an era of unpredictability in business, where the only certainty is change. What does it take to lead in complex, uncertain environments where old power playbooks don’t apply? What is the best way to facilitate meaningful conversations and act with purpose? And what are the practices that enable leaders to balance short-term results with long-term organizational development? A roadmap for leadership at the edge of uncertainty and in the face of disruption.

Leading On The Edge

Everybody, so ponder this. How would you define your leadership style? Has it evolved over the course of your career? Does it shift depending on major social movements or geopolitical events? Our next guest believes we need a playbook, a new playbook for leadership, one that requires self-awareness, clarity of values. And the willingness to embrace a future that's going to look very different from our past. Jessica Orkin is the chief executive officer of SY Partners. She has years of experience coaching leaders to ask the right questions, lead the right conversations, and move forward with purpose and moments of uncertainty. Please welcome Jessica to the stage. Good morning. I'm going to invite you on a little trip at the edge of the unknown. Because that's where all of us are leading from right now. We are leading from. We're leading from the place beyond where we've been before. We're leading on the place where the old playbooks, the old systems are cracking underneath us. Many of us are working as hard as we can to transform old systems, old ways of working, old strategies. And many of us, particularly here in this region, We are building new systems as fast as we can. But regardless, everybody here. It's responsible for leading our teams into the unknown, where certainty is rare. And where we have to rebuild the playbook. One of the things that my firm SY Partners has done for 30 years is actually help leaders ask bigger and bolder questions. So stepping out of previous strategies in times of transformation and times that ask more of us. From Fortune 100 companies, recognized, uh, leaders all over the world to really promising startups from cultural institutions to governments that are building their new, uh, their futures for their people daily. What we're finding again and again is that the most transformative leaders are those asking the most courageous questions. And these are questions that are not just about strategy. They're bigger than that. They go deeper than that. They're stra their questions, which by the act of asking, changes the field of what's possible. They open up possibility. They reframe what we're seeing, and they connect people and teams around these questions in order to create new things forward. Questions are often thought of as a soft skill. But they're not. Particularly today, particularly in such a time of transformation, such a time of unknown, they are a survival skill. Let's make this real. So Brian Chesky at Airbnb, he could have asked a question like, how do we monetize a spare room, a second house? But instead he asked the question. What if travel was about belonging? This created an $85 billion business and has revolutionized hospitality around the world. In the days after the Oprah Winfrey show, Oprah could have asked. What's next for me after television? Instead, she asked, how can I help other people find their purpose as an expression of my own. And this launched new platforms, new communications, and a global tour that filled arenas with people that were asking questions about the life they wanted to live. Working with Sephora, they could have asked, how do we sell more makeup globally? But instead the question became, How can we help people around the world to find beauty for themselves? So instead of chasing a universal standard of beauty, people were able to create theirs. When Albert Burla became the CEO of Pfizer, he came in with a growth mandate. He could have asked the question. How do we scale our most profitable products? But instead he challenged the organization. What if we dedicated all of our talent, our energy, our capital, In the creation of breakthroughs that change people's lives. That question transformed Pfizer top to bottom and enabled them to be the kind of organization that could deliver the COVID vaccine in 8 months instead of 8 years. But finding this question is hard. Standing in the uncertainty is hard. We have been trained as leaders. Find the direction, point our people at it, and run as fast as possible. And so this requires self-reflection. It requires knowing your own purpose, the purpose of your organization, what you stand for, what it stands for, what your people stand for. And it requires leading through that unknown, bringing people in the exploration of the question, not just the formation of the answer. And we are all, all of us here, we're on deadline. We're responsible for delivering right now results. The clock doesn't stop for us to do this. So this is not about asking questions to slow down. This is using the power of questions to lead through. Nowhere is this more true than here, than in this region. So with our work with leaders here, we are seeing change happen at an extraordinary pace. We are seeing. The WhatsApp, light up at one a.m. That's just business as usual. Because what is at stake here is a vision for generations. What is being created here matters so deeply. And even in that, even in this breathless pace. We're seeing leaders who have the biggest ambition, ask the biggest questions. The questions in this region are questions of legacy. Questions of stewardship, questions of values, questions of growth. As they take all of that energy, all of that investment, all of that talent, and the pursuit of and the creation of the future that is both honoring of heritage, but infused with new imagination. Working here is some of the most inspiring work that my firm SY partners has had the opportunity to do every day. I'm grateful for it. But we're seeing the power of questions. And the essentialness of questions not just in the setting of vision, the setting of strategy, and the creation of culture. This is even more important in a future that is being co-created with AI. In our work with the Data and Trust Alliance and working with CEOs and chief technology officers all around the world. We're all seeing the same thing. Best practices go stale very quickly in the world of AI. The shelf life is very short. And so yes, standards are really important. Codification is important. Coming together around those is important. But we're seeing the emergence of tools that are built entirely around questions to help leaders make decisions about AI, how and when to use it, how to implement, what adoption looks like, how is it changing their organizations. Using questions not answers, to lead through an operating environment that is changing daily. So, I'm going to leave you, leave you. With my question, the question that I use and that guides me as I lead SY Partners. My question is, what if the performance of organizations My organization, your organization, countries. What if the performance of organizations was a direct relationship, a direct function of the humanity within them? When you step into that question, you design strategy differently, you design companies differently, you think about culture very differently. That's the one I'm in relentless pursuit of, and I'm holding the space with my team and with my clients. So what becomes possible when we design for both performance and humanity. So I'll leave you with this. What is your question? What is the question that's bubbling up inside of you? What's the question that perhaps is already animating how you're leading your teams today? What is a more courageous question that you can invite other people to step into? Come find me after because I want to hear your question. I want to wrestle a little bit with you. Thank you.

Putting the customer first has long been a core principle of business, and today’s digital tools enable companies to craft consumer-centered journeys like never before. At the same time, in our post-pandemic world, customers crave connection and in-person experiences. Leaders from two major multinationals explain how they are bridging the online and offline worlds to better serve their customers, while gathering insights to strengthen and future-proof their brands.

Elevating The Customer Experience

Well, we are going to move now to the customer experience, which I think is so important, of course, because we can talk about our businesses all we want. It's the people who want to consume what we make, what we do. So today's customer of course has high expectations. We have two incredible leaders who will be coming out from multinationals. Let me introduce them, one of whom was my dinner companion last night. Peggy Rowe is the executive vice president, chief customer officer at Marriott International. And then Shahzia Sayed is the Unilever's general manager of personal care for the Middle East, Turkey, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, and the head of Arabia. Please welcome them to the stage. They'll be joined by my colleague Emma Hinchlif. Enjoy. Thanks. Hi, good morning, Peggy Shalza. Thank you so much for being here. You're welcome. And Peggy, an extra special thank you to you because we are here at a beautiful Marriott property. Thank you all for hosting us here. Yeah, so thank you for having us. Um, when people stay at this hotel or any hotel in your portfolio, what do you hope they come away feeling and how do you make that happen? Well, I always talk about, you know, how great service is about how we make people feel, right? And so I am very hopeful that you all will walk away with some memory here, um, whether it's some interaction you had with someone in our hotel or a great time or inspiration in this room, um, that will bring you back to the memory of this hotel. And tell us about entering new markets. What is Marriott's approach to this region? Marriott has said that Saudi Arabia is one of its fastest growing markets in the world. So what presence do you have here and how do you expect it to change in the future? I think you heard about the stats around tourism right here in Saudi Arabia, and I think we have close to 90 hotels and a significant pipeline across all price points and one of the. Things we're really doing is investing in the talent here we have a program called Tesinen which is for men and women who are next generation and really trying to upskill that talent. It's a partnership with Cornell and we, um, it's leadership training for 6 months combined with on the job training and every discipline in the hotel, uh, and it's one of the best programs I was hearing about it yesterday and I. you know, I've been in the business at Marriott for 21 years and I thought, I wish I could have done that program. Yeah, it sounds amazing and but as you experience, I hope, um, there's, it's great, there's great service in this hotels. I mean, I've been all over the world and I think what's happening here is really something special. I know they've been amazing. I've already had some of those memorable experiences you talked about.antastic. Well, Shahzia, so you have. Built these global brands in the Unilever portfolio in many different markets. So how do you start to understand your local or your regional customer when bringing a brand into a new market? And can you give us an example of how you've integrated one of your brands into a new market? Sure. So I think uh we are today sitting in a very interesting time. uh transformation barely describes what's going on around us, um, you know, I think while some things remain the same, uh. We are amidst some things which have not changed, which is the consumer is still king, but Everything around that consumer is changing how we reach the consumer, what are they looking for? I mean, there is, they are existing today in a kiosk and, and for a marketer or for a company to reach consumers, you know, gone are the days where you had a neat approach of one product, one way of reaching. Uh, so I think today it is how do you make method of that madness and how do you create um um organization organized ways of reaching. The consumers as they see the world in their world, you know, whether it is through their culture, um, through people they value like the influencers. So I think the whole scenario has completely changed. Unilever has, has, I think, a three-pronged approach. First is about, you know, looking at this transformation. I think culture embedding culture um is critical. So while we have global brands and it's interesting, so if you're sitting in in Saudi today we see. That actually trends travel here like yesterday. So if you go to a pharmacy, the young people have heard about or are demanding the brands which are launched in the US. So while all that is going on, there is there is a local nuance. There is a culture, the young people, whether they exist anywhere, and I think the Saudis, it will resonate with the Saudis. When I asked them what culture, they say, listen, our culture is non-negotiable while we, we, we endorse and we love the global brands, but we want things our way as well. So how do we embed, uh, you know, resonate or be in sync with the culture and not worst thing can be when you go against the culture. And I think the sweet spot is really living that culture, being that culture, and I think, you know, I can give an example of our brand Dove. Dove is a global brand. It's the most loved brand here in Saudi and in the whole of the Arab world, you know, it's the most the brand power is a way of measuring the brands and it enjoys the most, you know, high scores when it comes to that. But yet the, the, the expression is always linked to, uh, local, yeah, so that it resonates with the Saudi woman it uh resonates with an Emirati woman or an Arab woman. When you said that you've been having conversations and people here in Saudi Arabia are demanding global brands, what brands are you hearing? Um, is Dove the main one they're saying or what other brands are they interested in? So yeah, if you could, um, you mentioned that people here in Saudi Arabia. are really, really want global brands and so what brands are you hearing are most in demand. So we are, we have a quite a vast portfolio. So we've got um uh skin cleansing brands. We've got Lux, uh, we have uh Dove, uh, we've got Lifebuoy, so we cover uh a wide spectrum, and then we we are in deodorants and which are in different formats, sprays, um. Sticks and roll-ons with our powerful brands like Ax, Rexona and Dove, and then we are also in oral care with our two brands, Signal and Close Up. So we, and then of course there are other brands like on on hair which is Sunsilk, Tresemme, um Dove, um, and yeah, so I think keeping in mind that this is the heart of where um. Beauty and wellbeing, your personal care is highly regarded, and there are specialized phar pharmacies where high-end brands are sold. So here I think is where we have to be at the speed of lightning to make sure that we don't leave any gap in the demand and the portfolio. Fascinating. Peggy, you're in kind of a different position where you have these, you have your properties and of course local markets and you also have a global consumer who, as we were discussing who kind of has an expectation across Marriott wherever they're traveling, um, so how do you balance that regional versus global, uh, question when it comes to what you're serving your consumer? I was listening to Shazia talking about how, you know, products must be localized and. It's the same in hotels. I think the beauty of the hotel industry is that you want a really local experience both for locals and for travelers, right? So we have this um really challenging um. Piece of where we need to create brands that are consistent globally that deliver on experience like you have here at the Saint Regis, right, the heart of the experiences about having this extraordinary experience in a small hotel that feels like um the car lot the the after home from the past, right, we want that brought to life all over the world whether it's for business or leisure in different markets, um, but that's part of the fun right because consumers are. want both that consistency of what a Saint Regis delivers but also that local flavor when you go around the world. So food and beverage is one of the places where we really localize, design a little bit, but hopefully you still feel that essence of the Saint Regis brand when you walk in here. Great, um, Shalhia, you mentioned kind of this idea of, you know, really getting to know the culture when you are bringing a product to a market or serving that market. Um, to get a little more granular with that, like, how do you do that? Is it about hiring the right people in the market on the ground? What mistakes do you see brands making when it comes to localizing their products? So I think uh uh Saudi's a big market, um, and we are moving, we are focusing a lot on local talent here, um, because we want to put our finger on the pulse of the youth, um, and it can't be, you know, you can go to only that extent till you hear from the horse's mouth. And you get top notch quality of talent with the passion, and then we have some very powerful platforms which excite the youth who they can they can relate to to that platform, whether it is gaming, which is at the heart of, you know, it's a very passionate Saudi is very passionate about gaming. or whether it is football, so we do a lot of work around FIFA, whether it is also it's across the spectrum. So we have we are sponsoring a women's team for Rexona while there's a lot of work on FIFA, football, lacrosse, because we all know how popular, you know, it's next to religion I'd say football. We should work on that together. partnership too, so yeah, so I think when you have the local, local talent who can really tell you, I mean, you know, I was listening to the talent panel earlier and and um you know, the local, it's it's like second nature, you know, a person who's Saudi is a footballer, is a gamer, how do they devise that is going to be totally different to how we read it and we devise a platform. So I think that's that's where we are. Uh, we are putting our fingers on, on all the top, uh, top, um, platforms, um, which are football, gaming, uh, beauty, how is, how is it defined in the, in the Saudi definition, uh, within the cultural nuances, and then, uh. Brands which are well respected, well loved here with the right portfolio, um, you know, unleashed at the right time. That's our strategy in a nutshell. Amazing. Um, well, if anyone has any questions, start thinking. I'll come to you in a moment, um. But Shai, I'd also love to hear a little bit about your own story. So you grew up in Pakistan and you also led that market for Unilever for many years. So tell us a little bit about you and then also what lessons, uh, apply across markets both populations that are very young. So what about your experience there helps you in KSA? So look, um, being from Pakistan, I spent most of my career in Pakistan, and you know the funny question I still get asked is, oh, did you study in Pakistan? I said, yes, I did. So, you know, I feel very proud about that, that I'm a product of Pakistan. Um, but I've actually, um, you know, through Unilever because we have a program where we get a lot of opportunities to work in other countries. I've worked in Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Netherlands, Egypt. I looked after North Africa. I think what I've realized is that as a woman leader, um when I became the the GM in my own country. I think the big aha moment for me was that um you know, there are so many because it's it's a young population, 70% are under the age of 30 or less what they do is the amount of aspiration they have. So, so you know, it hit me that I have to play that role. So as a as a woman leader coming out of Pakistan. Um, I am the source of inspiration with the, you know, for, for, for those millions of people. So I have to wear that double hat of inspiring, of mentoring, and that was, that was something that hit me in that role, and I'm very active there now I across for women and what I, you know, the other question that you had was what is the difference, if any? And what I find in today's world with technology, with the digital age that we are in, actually the aspirations are not different, you know. I can tell you, I'll give you an example that if I look at, if I look at Pakistan in a small town, the young girl is aspiring for Huda Beauty. She cannot afford it, so she will go and buy something that's available closer to that, but she does aspire. So we have to realize that the information flow is a cross. They know the Dove, for example, Across is a popular brand. So I think the myth that it goes trends travel in a neat way is busted. Now it's all it's about, of course, there is that reality of affordability. But I think trends travel across. So we as companies have to prepare for how we want to receive those trends and translate them into growth. Yeah, fascinating. Um, any questions for Peggy or Shazia? Oh great, we have a question right here, um, if we have someone with a microphone. And please introduce yourself just with your name and company. Hi, good morning. My name is Marisa Andrada. I'm currently serving as a board director for Krispy Kreme. I'm also a recovering chief human resources officer from other iconic brands like Starbucks and Red Bull. So my question for you is, I'm a big believer in working in brands where the brand promise is not true externally unless the employees feel it internally. So, for your company, what are you doing to ensure that your employees are feeling that brand promise that you're delivering to your customer? Yeah, great question. Maybe Peggy, do you want to take that one? Yeah, absolutely. I think our whole philosophy for Marriott is that we treat our associates well and that's how we deliver great customer experience. So everything we do starts with we want customers to feel this, but if they don't feel it through the delivery of our associates, then you know it's, it's not successful so we invest a lot of time, money, um. Conferences right to make sure our associates are all over the world feel inspired and and that includes getting them involved in the experiences and things that customers would experience themselves we invest in many um partnerships like uh Beyonce concert or Taylor Swift or FIFA, um, the F1, and we often, you know, send our own associates and by the way, the owners of our hotels too to these experiences so they can experience what our customers do. Fascinating, um, yeah, anything that you do at Unilever to support? Yeah, I think the women, uh, sorry, not the women, but the consumers today are, are very, very, um, discerning, yeah, because of all the stimulus that is around them, they are very shrewd when it comes to picking on um the. The core of the brand, so you can't go wrong, and they're very unforgiving and they move on because there's too much, too many choices, too much stimulus. So I think what is important is that when we go, when we plan our activities, first of all, the focus on the fact that we've got the core right, we've got the functionality right, and on top of that we've got the communication right, you know, so that that the brand in all layers meets. The consumer's expectations. So I think it's a, it's an unforgiving world. It is a fast moving world, and that makes our job much more complex. But of course there is AI which which we have to adopt at the speed of lightning to help us navigate our brands. Yeah, Peggy, your role also includes uh Marriott Bon Boy, one of the best in class loyalty programs out there. So how do you drive not just, you know, purchases but real consumer loyalty? Yeah, I think I started with this, um, at the surface it feels like loyalty is about points, right, and redemptions, but when we talk to customers about their, um, experiences and I asked them, I've talked to many customers all over the world, why do you come back to us year after year. Um, it is because of the way we make them feel, right? And so I think that when you're thinking about building loyalty for your products, um, just trying to think about what is it, how do you create that meaning for somebody? And so for us whether you're. You know, in if part of your experience is digital or physical, we think a lot about that journey end to end and what is the customer feeling? I use emojis to try to say like, you know, when they're in this point in the process, how do they feel and how can we make them feel better about that specific moment of truth? And at the end of the day, you know, we've had people in our program for over 30 years and. It's about how we have made an impression on their lives, which is what drives loyalty. Yeah, amazing. Well, thank you so much, Peggy and Shahzia. Thank you.

Small businesses are a core pillar of the global economy thanks to their ability to create jobs, foster innovation, and stimulate growth. What’s more, data from the World Economic Forum shows that in emerging markets, female entrepreneurship contributes significantly to poverty reduction and economic resilience. Despite this, many small businesses struggle to access the technology and financial services that would help them thrive. We’ll explore strategies for supporting small-business owners worldwide.

Small Business, Big Impact

Daniella Rahme has emerged as a bold voice in Arab entertainment — unapologetically Lebanese, globally recognized, and fully in control of her narrative. In this conversation, she reflects on what it means to be a cultural ambassador, owning her identity in a crowded media landscape, and using her platform to spotlight the stories and voices of the region to the world.

Taking Center Stage

One of the boldest voices in Arab entertainment, Daniela Rami, has become globally recognized while staying true to her Lebanese heritage. She joins Ellie Austin to discuss her recent starring role in Netflix's Lebanese thriller Franklin and how a new generation of Arab women is reinventing the way in which the region is portrayed on screen. Please welcome Daniela and Fortune's Ellie Austin. Daniela, thank you so much for joining us. There's a lot to talk about, but I want to start right at the beginning of your life. So, um, you grew up in Australia as the daughter of Lebanese parents, which is such an interesting combination of cultures. How did that shape your view of pop culture? Um, honestly, first of all, hi, everyone. I'm very happy to be here with you all, very happy to speak in front of you all. Uh, growing up in Australia was, uh, was always very interesting to me because I, I did grow up in a Lebanese home and I was very attached to my Lebanese culture and I always wanted to come back to, to Lebanon, to Beirut to see what it was all about because we did go back and forth a lot. What was important for me was not letting go of my roots and not letting go of who I am and when I decided to come here and, and to work here as an actress, it was very difficult. In what way? In the beginning it was very difficult because I was always seen as too western in front of people. Uh, my, my language, I had a language barrier it wasn't very, very strong, the Arabic language, and I worked on it and I wanted to, to break that and eventually I did and uh I, I learned to embrace my duality and I think that's what made me different here in the industry and. You know, that's what made me who I am. So you won Miss Lebanon, I believe, and then you entered that triggered a whole Lebanon immigrant. Miss Lebanon. I was known as the immigrant always. Wow, that's interesting when I came here, I was always the immigrant, the Australian immigrant. How did that feel? because I would imagine in Australia you also had the complication inverted commas or people saw you as it was very um. Honestly, when I, when I did make the move, oh, we're just moving your mic up so that we can hear you properly. Bear with us. See a little miracle worker, we roll with the technical glitches here. But we do want to hear what you're saying. Thank you. Is that better? Yeah, I think that's better. Where were we? We were talking about in both places, in both Lebanon and Australia, feeling slightly on the outside. Yeah, I was saying that I embraced my duality when I, when I came here and that that's what helped me embrace who I am as Daniella, and that's what made me stand out here. And when you say embrace your duality, what does that mean for women in the room who might also have 1 ft in two cultures? What did that look like for you? I mean, I had the best of both worlds always growing up, and I wanted to introduce that in everything that I would do in the way I would think, in the way I would work. Everything that I that I learned when I was in Australia, I wanted to bring it here to to my work here while I was working here. I mean, I did a bit of acting in Australia as well, so it was very interesting when I came here. The only thing that I found difficult was the language in the beginning. We had in the introduction how you've recently starred in Franklin, which is a series on Netflix, a Lebanese thriller. Netflix, um, it's a very energetic, high rolling series about a woman who reunites with her ex-boyfriend to create the perfect counterfeit $100 bill, Frankly, a very unusual concept. Um, tell me what the roles that you are drawn to at this point in your career have in common. Honestly, Franklin was one of the most interesting projects that I had done most recently, uh, because we, we moved a lot into action and this time it was. Proper action. There was a lot of production value in in Franklin. It was honestly high end. Everyone who's watching now is saying, we feel like we're watching a Hollywood series. We don't feel like we're watching something from the region, which is, I think where we're at right now in the region. I think we're really producing powerful productions at this point, and I think it is the time for this region and it is the golden age. For this region, I mean, for many years we were watching the Mexicans or the Koreans or the uh the Turks, and now we're here producing amazing projects and you know, having that opportunity for for our projects to go globally. I mean, Franklin is now top 5 worldwide on on Netflix, which is great for us and it's, it's dubbed in, I don't know, maybe 15 languages, so this was something amazing for us. That platform really gave us the opportunity to go globally, and I think that was very important for us, um, and as a woman as well, it was very important for me to be able to play an action role. I think more recently there's been more opportunities for for women to play action action roles, mostly it was more the men in the region. Now you see more women doing that. I mean, having played a sequel that went on for 3 years till death, that was a very popular one as well. It was about two female characters, so it wasn't me and a male male character, that gave us a lot of empowerment as a, as a woman, to be honest. And the reason is, you're right, having a golden age when it comes to storytelling, and there's no doubt that there's the talent pool here. There are the women both, and the men, but a lot of women both in front and behind the camera are Hollywood and External investors outside of the region taking enough notice. Of course they are, of course they are with everything that's going on here in the region, I mean, especially here in Saudi Arabia, a lot has has taken place from, from the Red Sea International Film Festival to the Joy Awards, even to the Beirut One Film Fest Festival. I mean there's a lot going on here that has that has interested investors in coming. I mean, I myself met a lot of producers when I, when I came here to a lot of the events and. They were all very interested in in working here. I think it's just the time for us. It is. What's a story or maybe a type of narrative featuring a woman that maybe Arab culture hasn't encountered yet on the screen that you hope it does in the future? Wow, that's a tough question. I'm trying to think of the roles that I've done. I would like to, to dig more deeply into, into our culture as women. I mean, I always say that change is inevitable and it has to happen and in the last years, especially here, we've seen a lot of change take place, so women have gone from one place to another. Uh, they're really standing strong today. Their their voices are heard and I would like to see something. Uh, showing how they lived and how they live today, I think that would be very interesting for us to see, to, to dig into uh a woman's story of what her life was like and what it's like today because I myself, when I come here, I ask that question. Uh, a lot. I, I say to many women, what was it like living here before? I mean, what, how was it and what does it feel like now? So I think that would be very interesting to, to dive into that. Maybe you should help create it out there that hasn't been told. Oh, I know that you're the one to help tell it. When you're in a regional production like Franklin, but you're aware that it's going to be streamed on this massive international platform like Netflix. I'm curious as to, as a storyteller, does that change the way you approach the project in any way? We're very nervous always all the time, definitely but uh we're nervous about, you know, producing something uh global because we are putting our project on a global platform today and we, we believe that we can compete internationally and we believe that our. Our films and our projects can go international. I mean, like, uh, like Money Heist did, like Squid Game did, why can't Franklin go global international and be a huge hit or if not Franklin, many other projects, so we work very carefully together. I mean the team that I work with is what's very important to me, the director, the producer that I work with, the the OP. I think this is the most important part, having a great team with you because. Once you trust the team that you're, you're with, you know you're going somewhere, you know you're going in the right direction. I mean, especially our writer, this was her first project and she was very nervous about it and we were all very interested in her script when, when she came to us with it. So, uh, yeah, I think it's just about, you know, being aligned with the team and having the same goal, having the same vision, that's very important. When you read a script, do you have a sense as to whether or not it's going to, in your words go global? Like what does that, what does that look like when you're flipping through those pages? When you read a script, you know if the story is good or not. It's just a feeling that you get and you know if this is gonna be good, um. But it's not just about the script, about having it go global, like I said, it's about all of us working together, you know, you need to have a great director to be able to portray that script the right way, um, and a great team with you. So yes, we start from the script. This is the most important part, but um. It's like a puzzle. Everything needs to really fit in correctly. What's next for you that you can tell us about? What's next? A lot of interesting scripts that I'm reading at the moment. Uh, I mean, since I started here in the region, most of the, most of the projects I've done have been very dramatic. It's all been drama or or thriller or crime or action. I'd like to dive into something, um, more comedy. I mean, I think laughing is contagious and I'd like to have the audience laugh with me a bit. Uh, I think that would be my, my next project, and I'd like to do cinema, so I have not shot a film yet. I have been shooting a lot of TV series for the last couple of years. Is that a choice or it's just the next you haven't cinema or it's just the next logical step. It's not just a choice, it's also the The wave here or the trend here, I mean every year we have Ramadan, which is 30 episodes. Uh, now we're diving more into the short miniseries. I mean Franklin was only 6 episodes, so this is what I've been doing for the last, I don't know, 8 years, 9 years. This is what I've been doing, um. I think that's just the way the industry was running here when I, when I first started. And now we're seeing a growing number of filmmakers doing really well commercially very well in the region and I think, you know, the number of those who are women is still relatively low, but it's growing, so there's huge. Yeah, I mean as as lead roles, no, we definitely see a lot of women taking lead roles. I mean, a lot of the Ramadan series that we see on air, there's a lot of women just. There standing there, so um they are very present as roles. I would like to see more female directors and producers. Um, I think that's what we're missing. There is a lot out there. I just think the opportunity needs to come their way. Final question, how does that opportunity come that way? What, what does the industry need to be doing? I mean, it's about connecting in places like these at festivals, and I think a lot of industry leaders are doing. Uh, their best at connecting, uh, women together and at pushing, uh, women to, to speak out and, and to really take their stands. I mean, a lot of the festivals that I've gone to in the last year, it's all about, it's all been about empowering women and, you know, giving, giving them the opportunity. So I think that's what's helped us a lot. Amazing. Well, we hope to see you on the big screen very soon. I'm sure we will. Daniela, thank you so much for joining us. Thank you.

"Bahrain is transforming its economy by moving beyond oil and fast- tracking new industries centered on innovation and sustainability. How is the country attracting investment, developing local talent, and tackling infrastructure and regulatory challenges to secure long-term growth? Hear insights on how the country is positioning itself as a regional hub for business and a model for 	economic resilience. "

MPW Spotlight: Bahrain's Path To Economic Transformation

A big thank you to our panel of brilliant founders. We're now going to move on to talk about Bahrain, another country that is transforming its economy beyond oil and focusing on new areas of business that are both innovative and sustainable. And here to tell us how the country is doing this. And particularly how it is positioning itself for long term economic resiliency. Please welcome Her Excellency Nour Bint Al Kuli, the Minister of Sustainable Development for Bahrain, and also the chief executive of the Bahrain Economic Development Board, and she'll be in conversation with my colleague Mihal Levbraham. Thank you so much for joining us. Um, I wanna start by asking you just kind of a, a basic question. Um, so 86% of Bahrain's GDP is now made up of non-oil sectors, which is probably a surprise to some people from, uh, outside of the Gulf region. Um, what have been the, the pillars of this kind of new transformed economy thus far, at least? Of course, if you allow me first, I, I want to, um, say that it's a pleasure to be here. It's a pleasure to, to spend time with powerful women. Um, I'm very grateful to our, our, our friends and family in Saudi for, for the invite and also for a fortune for hosting or choosing uh Saudi specifically in the Middle East to host this international event. Um, grateful also for the opportunity to. light more on on Bahrain, um, so we are Saudi's neighbors. If people are not aware, small island, uh, close to the eastern province. We do have a bloodline between us and Saudi, so we have a causeway that's been there almost celebrating 40 years, uh, next year I believe. Um, so for us our economy and the Saudi economy has been interconnected for for many, many, many years, and, and we see ourselves as an integral part of the GCC economy. Um, but you're absolutely right. When you look at the split, people think, um, a GCC oil rich countries, oil must be the biggest contributor to their economy. But actually, in fact, for us, oil is not even the biggest sector in our economy and hasn't been for the past almost two years now. Um, and that's the result of a journey that stretches over, over decades, um, but if we look at just the past 20 years, um, we've had a transformation in the way we were looking at our economy and what we want to achieve, uh, and that was really, um, solidified after launching Vision 2030 for Bahrain back in 2008, and the vision said that our economy going forward would be driven by the private sector and that we have to remain competitive and in order to remain competitive. Um, and allow the private sector to lead in that transformation. The government has to make sure that our procedures are seamless, or straightforward, are easy to understand, our legislation are supportive of private sector building in Bahrain. We have to make sure that we have the right to human capital in Bahrain to drive that, um, and we have to make sure actually it's specifically said there that we have to make sure that we do that without um impacting the environment and while making sure that we maintain our culture. Um, so today, uh, we have financial services sector being the largest sector of our economy, contributing about 17%, and that's really building on the history of Bahrain being a financial hub, um, in the region. And even within that sector there's been a lot of transformation in recent years. We hear a lot about technology for us the biggest growth areas at the moment are through FinTech. Um, the second largest actually is manufacturing. That's again a decision that was taken more than 40, 50 years ago of um investing in in an aluminum smeltzer, and that led to a downstream, um, manufacturing industry. And now that's being diversified thanks again to, to tech and, and the openness of the country. So yeah, there's a lot of transformation, um, driven by those factors and so one of your key areas of focus is growing outside investment and local investment well, um, to. Private sector obviously um how how do you, what's the strategy there and, and what areas are I mean you just touched on some of the bigger sectors what areas are most attractive from an outside investor's perspective. So as a country we focus on, we make sure that we always articulate our key sectors. So we have 5 key sectors financial services, manufacturing for us logistics is very important. Tourism is a huge, um, a huge sector for us with a huge potential and also ICT or technology and, and, and, uh, digitization. So each of those sectors has a sector strategy with clear KPIs and this is where we want, where we want to reach. And so we, we use that and, and under each what I said earlier is we look at what human capital do we need. So what, what training courses do we need? How many people do we need, what jobs are being created, and then we. A lot of efforts into to make sure that we have the right human capital that to fill in those jobs. We look at legislation all the time. We keep reviewing legislation. We keep looking at how can we further improve what we're doing. So just one example that we did, and I know Saudi's looking into that, and that's very, very exciting. Uh, is, is introducing a data, uh, embassy law, so basically for data centers which for us in this day and age, it's an essential infrastructure, uh, um, um, that you need for, for projects to succeed. So Bahrain a few years ago introduced a data legislation law. So what, what it allows allows countries to host data in Bahrain and treats that data as an embassy. So no court order in Bahrain can access that data and that gets a lot of comfort for for companies. So, uh, legislation for us. Important infrastructure is important. Um, the, the, the population is small, right, about 1.5, 1.5 million. It's also a very young population as it is here in Saudi. In what ways does the small size of the population actually help in, you know, bringing about a fast transformation? We see the size as an advantage for us. We actually say our small size is an advantage for us because we can do things collectively. And there is a whole of government, whole of society approach when we do introduce something. It also means that you can use Bahrain and the way we see it is Bahrain is the testing ground for countries in the region and the wider in a region because you could come and test your idea in a smaller scale and if it goes wrong, so what it's 1.5 million people, it didn't really go wrong. But if it succeeds, go up and and scale it up and use Bahrain as, as your, your really testing grounds. So there's a lot of programs for financial services and for technology to come and, and, and, and take advantage. Also means that we can easily identify where the gaps are and it means that we work very closely with the private sector. We call ourselves the Team Bahrain. We don't really talk as government, private sector, and society. There's a Team Bahrain. Um, a really ethos in the country and we do this collectively for us as economic development board, we have a board that's half made up of government but also the other half is made up of, of family businesses and, and private sector representatives, and that collaboration is really how we, we operate in the. Um, the whole, the, the economies of the whole Gulf region obviously are, are growing. International Monetary Fund projects the growth of the region's economies at an average rate of 3.5% this year, 4.2% next year. That's higher than the projected growth rate of. You know, average advanced economies, um, can you talk a little bit more about how Bahrain differentiates itself from your neighbors? You touched on some of these, you know, unique attributes, but what else would you say about it? Is it a differentiator? Sure, um, what I wanna say is this we were talking about this backstage, but it's really an exciting time for, for the GCC, um, for the main region for us who. Been here who've lived here has always seen the potential in the region. It's really nice for the rest of the world to recognize where this region is is heading, and I know there are huge numbers talking about conservative numbersize of the economy today is about 2 trillion in the GCC, projected to be about 3 trillion in 2030, doubling by 2050. That is a huge. momentum that is happening thanks to stability, thanks to having visions, thanks to having strategies and really everyone coming together and making sure that we have the right infrastructure for it. For us, we see Bahrain as the gateway to the GCC. We see it again as as an economy that's complementary to what's happening in the region. We always look to see what Saudi's doing. For us we could be the service center. We see ourselves as the service center to Saudi. If Saudi's developing a huge market in in, say, um, is developing manufacturing, what Bahrain is looking to do is how can I complement what is happening in Saudi in terms of providing the human capital and also being a place where support functions could also set up to support what. Happening in Saudi similar to UAE where UAE is a is a big financial hub at the moment. Bahrain could be the tech hub, could be the back office, the, the, the center of excellence, uh, the support functions for, for those, as well as attracting, of course, the, the, the beginnings of the big companies. OK, well, I think, uh, you made an incredible pitch for your country. I will say I, uh, I, I, I'll I'll know. An invitation. I'll help you out. I also, I've had incredible saudi food here and I also was lucky enough to eat at a Bahraini restaurant last night, so I'm appreciating all of the cuisine from the region. other people when they come to visit the region, you have to try the food. It's, it's, it's a big plus for the region. So please enjoy your time if you're visiting. Thank you so much, Eric. Thank you. Thank you.

Vision 2030 serves as the Saudi Arabia’s roadmap for rapid economic diversification – an ambitious plan that requires a highly trained workforce with an entrepreneurial mindset. To meet its goal, the Kingdom is investing resources to ready the next generation of innovative leaders and trailblazers. In this conversation, next-gen Saudi entrepreneurs and visionaries share how they’re meeting the moment and fulfilling their personal potential, while also contributing to the country’s future.

Keys To The Kingdom: Saudi Arabia's Next-Gen Leaders

A conversation with the Chair and CEO at the helm of one of the world’s largest global professional services companies on being resilient amid change and uncertainty, why it pays to never stop learning, and how she’s leading 800,000+ employees into an AI-driven future. 

The Art of Reinvention

Emerging technologies and evolving market conditions make for an unpredictable investment climate, and that's before you add the possibility of a global trade war. How are global investment managers separating the signal from the noise and identifying areas of sustainable growth? What regions and sectors hold untapped potential? And how should investors be thinking about risk versus reward in this environment? Two prominent global wealth managers share their investment strategies for securing returns, in even tumultuous times.

What's Driving Global Investment

furniture like where are we going to sit? Um thank you for joining us and you know I I love your job because in addition you have to be wise about money, but it's so much the psychology of money and where we put it and how we react to money, and we've been talking a lot about the investment climate. I'm curious what you're seeing from a just human behavior point of view because I'm perhaps projecting my own, you know, relationship, but it inspires a lot of fear, doesn't it? What are you seeing out there? Great to see you, by the way. Nice to see you too. Thank you. Uh, it's actually a very interesting question. We briefly chatted about it back there, but first and foremost, our job is to separate noise from signals. So if you're thinking about investments, how do you make sure that all the noise or the headlines, all that clutter doesn't actually distort one's view of what are the best investment recommendations we have to make? What we have noticed is people's interpretation of everything of this administration. Is driven by people's personal political biases. So for example, if somebody is very democratic, democratically inclined in terms of their politics in the US, they tend to think there's nothing that this administration is doing that is acceptable and they actually say we need to liquidate because we don't, uh, think things are gonna go so well. If you happen to be Republican, they say. Um, maybe he doesn't deliver the messages in the best way possible, but the points are all very valid, and that's what one has to focus on. You see the same thing regionally. So if people are, for example, based in Europe. Especially in the major countries in Germany, they find that some of the things the US president says are not appropriate or offensive, and they don't like the issue of being put under pressure to contribute to NATO defense expenses, even if the point the president is raising is legitimate and it's a point that pretty much every US president since John Kennedy in 1963 has raised. So John Kennedy has said that he actually did it in a worse way. He not only said that the rest of the world isn't paying their fair share. John Kennedy said that they are living off the fat of the land. So actually he was more colorful in how he described it, and yet nobody seemed to mind it then. But fast forward in 2024, President Trump says it and everybody has a different reaction, even though the point is actually pretty legitimate. And the most interesting experiences we have is when it's a husband and wife team. And the wife wants to sell all the assets, all the US equity, yes, exactly. So definitely human psychology and biases are very important. So I, I from that I'm deducing that emotions are perhaps running higher than usual. I mean, that's always the case, or is it unusual, the degree to which this is shaping investment strategy it sounds like. What's very unusual this time is if you look at something called the Economic Policy uncertainty index. It is higher. Now than it was during COVID and during the global financial crisis, which actually doesn't make any sense to think there's more uncertainty today than we had during COVID when we didn't know anything early on. We didn't know anything about the fatality ratio. We weren't sure about transmission. We weren't sure about incubation periods, and we certainly didn't have any vaccines or initially antivirals, and yet uncertainty today is so much greater. So we think that the emotional response is greater today. The markets though haven't quite responded as much because if you think of VIX, a volatility measure, it's not anywhere near as high as it was during the global financial crisis. Unpack the signal and the noise and for like, so tell us, where are you seeing the signals that we should pay attention to if we put our emotions aside. What are you looking at? We've had an investment theme of US preeminence for quite some time. So after the global financial crisis, many people may remember there was a theme that US is on the decline and China is on the rise, and we made a very strong statement that we didn't think that was the case. US is preeminent and it's really important we differentiate between the word exceptional. And the word preeminent, it might look, it might seem the same word. It might look like it means the same thing, but it doesn't exceptional has an absolute sense to it. Preeminence is relative, preeminent relative to other markets. So from an investment perspective, from an economic perspective, we say US is preeminent, and those factors. are not going to get affected by any one administration. For example, people may be surprised, but US is the most productive labor force in the world. It's both in terms of output per hour, so per hour of work it's the most productive, and then what you can look at is the number of hours worked. So across the world, Indians. Chinese, Koreans, and Taiwanese have more hours per year, but among developed economies, US is the highest and it's 5th. It's right after those 4. So you combine higher productivity per hour and there's more hours and you end up with the most productive labor force. Any one administration isn't going to affect that. You look at quality of corporate management. A professor called Nicholas Bloom at Stanford does this study very interesting on quality of corporate management. Corporate management in the US is ranked the highest relative to the rest of the world and within the US, the multinationals have a higher ranking. So is that gonna change that much based on who's president based on any one policy? And so the factors that drive US preeminence that prompt us to recommend clients be overweight US equities isn't getting affected. Now if people listen to the noise. They will think it's getting affected. Too much. We're overindexing on tariffs, trade wars, rhetoric. Is that what is it basically that the fundamental underlying conditions have not changed regardless of what happens in the geopolitical or trade landscape? Obviously geopolitics and what any administration does does move things at the margin, but it doesn't significantly change the underlying strength of the US economy. The earnings per share. The growth in the US is phenomenal. It's one of the highest in the world. If you actually look at earnings per share growth from the trough of the global financial crisis, US has outpaced every single country and every single region in the world. That's not going to change. So the underlying factors are correct, but will tariff wars introduce volatility? Yes. Has it introduced uncertainty? Yes. But on the other hand, for example, this administration is going to do more deregulation. At the margin, deregulation is good for corporate America. Deregulation across different sectors is good for America. So when you look at other factors, then you would say that there are actually some. Positive things coming out of this administration that people should think about as well. Let's talk. I want to talk about you. I want to talk about this region. How are you feeling about what's happening here as an investment thesis? I don't want to, I know you're not the person making, you know, all of these decisions, but when you're thinking about whether it's the Middle East, Saudi Arabia, as it shifted. In your from a preeminence point of view of where, where it's ranked relative to other investment opportunities. Well, we generally have a view that when people talk about emerging markets, they're really focusing on China and areas related to that, and our view is that when it comes to investing in emerging markets, especially China, people need to be incredibly careful. If you had $100 million.10 million dollars, whatever number you want to use, we like using $100 because it's easy percentages versus. Anything else and you invested it in the S&P 500, you'd have 1.2 billion as of the end of the year. If you'd invested in China, you'd have about 27%. So when we're thinking about preeminence, we're always thinking about it from an investment perspective, and these markets here are a little bit too small for us to get involved in. So when we think about emerging markets, it's really only the very large countries that have the size of the capital markets and the liquidity. And then generally our clients in this region have their own incredible businesses with amazing IRRs. So what when we talk to them about these investments, it wouldn't make sense for us to encourage them to invest in markets. They already have all their businesses here, so you are golden. Sacks, let me start. I'm going to ask about you, but let me start with what you hire for, whether it's, I don't know if it's changed, but you, I just read something about incredible ratio of applications to people hired. What actually attracts you to hiring somebody? That's an excellent question. And years and years ago, somebody said, don't always hire the most intelligent person, hire somebody who is intelligent enough, but has a great attitude. And that has actually always stayed with me. This was something maybe 2030 years ago. So obviously we need a base level of education, a base level of intelligence. Uh, but you need to have somebody who's incredibly enthusiastic, somebody who's passionate, and more than anything, somebody who's intellectually curious. So when we interview people, um, I look at the resume and I won't start with the standard questions. I'll look at about some of the less common things they've done and then we'll ask them what interested them, why did they get started, have they pursued their passions, and it's hard to actually be sure. That the person has all the qualities you want, so we spend a fair amount of time with candidates. We're known for interviewing people for rounds and rounds and rounds, and they sort of get tired and bored. Yeah, it's a war of attrition and of course in the age of AI we can all come in with beautiful resumes and backgrounds. So any advice on that front? Are you a fan? Can you spot AI? So our view has been, it's very interesting to ask this question. A couple of years ago when GBT 3.0 was just launched. Somebody asked it to summarize an outlook. Every year we produce an outlook for our clients, the economic and financial market outlook. And so this was early on a couple of years ago, and it summarized it and made a reference to what Goldman Sachs is so nothing about the report itself, but something about Goldman Sachs, and then it made a reference, interestingly enough being in the region to the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. And I'm thinking to myself, I know for a fact we did not mention anything about UAE in the document. So I'm thinking what was it referring to? Where did it see this that it summarized that. And I realized it had gone to the footnotes, the regulatory footnotes that our compliance people insist we have, and it was United Arab Emirates, you and the next one was United Kingdom. One of my colleagues is here and she's laughing because she knows there's so much compliance. And so basically AI had picked up on a couple of headlines at each end of the report and missed all the key points. We actually have a summary in the report, key takeaways. Not one reference. I love that. Well, that is a warning signal to us all. So, so let me ask a question about you personally, not so much, your strengths. Is you are curious. How do you keep yourself informed and take the entire research department out of it? What, what do you find valuable in terms of being a good leader and because from an advice point of view? What advice do you have? Well, for one thing, as a leader, I think it's very important to set a good standard and be a good role model. Like you can't expect everybody else to work on our outlook during the holidays if I'm not working during the holidays. So I think that being a good role model on one's work ethic, on one's intellectual curiosity, so that everything anybody tells you. You ask the next question, so you don't just believe somebody who sent you a research report and take it actually examine it, question it, and it's incredible because even publications you think should be definitely checked and must be 100% accurate or actually not 100% accurate. It's must read fortune that we don't have that problem. So I think just making sure that one is very thorough, teaching your colleagues to be thorough, not to take anything for granted, and really being diligent and listening to a lot of people and reading a lot of diverse sources of opinion. I love that. And in the minute we have left, anything else on your radar you would put on ours, especially what's around the corner? What are you keeping an eye on? What we worry about and we highlighted in our outlook this year was what happens to this US-China relationship. It is the most important and we highlight three areas one obviously the trade wars, and we're seeing where that ends up. The second item would be the geopolitical risk. And the sort of long term as we think about that. And then the other would be the general cyber activity. I don't know how many people here know, but China is pretty active on the cyberspace and they've hacked into all the critical infrastructure in the US, which is a pretty aggressive. Move and so definitely one of the things we worry about is how this will evolve over time. So even if President Trump and President Xi come to some agreement on what the tariffs should be, there is a bigger long term issue that actually we worry about. Stay curious and try to take emotion out of it. Thank you very much. I've really enjoyed this conversation. Please join me in thanking.

Food production accounts for almost a third of all greenhouse gas emissions, making the industry a major contributor to climate change. It is also uniquely vulnerable to its effects. Entrepreneurs and investors are disrupting the sector via regenerative farming practices, renewable energy, hydroponics and more to produce sustainable, healthy food that is also affordable. Two food entrepreneurs discuss the future of climate-friendly, healthy food and how to make it accessible to everyone. 

Tomorrow's Food, Unpacked

“Volatility” is the word of the moment when it comes to global financial markets. With over 40 million customers in almost 60 countries and territories, HSBC prides itself on being a global bank. What does that mean against the backdrop of geopolitical tensions and a global trade war? And how is HSBC navigating this complex environment while also keeping an eye on new opportunities for investment and growth? We’ll go behind the scenes of the bank to find out.

Banking on our Future

Hello. Welcome back, everybody. Um, as we heard earlier this afternoon, volatility is the defining word to describe the current global financial market. And global banking is at the center of this maelstrom. How are banks responding to the extended period of uncertainty? Where are the opportunities for investment and growth globally? And how are banks advising their clients? HSBC has a 150 year history and operates in just under 60 countries and territories. Lisa McG McKo took the reins as president and chief operating. Officer at HSBC US this past January, just when things were getting very, very interesting before that she was the co-head of global banking, so she has a fascinating and truly international perspective. Lisa joins us now to share her views on the market and the bank's outlook for future growth in the MIA region and in the rest of the world. She's going to be interviewed by Fortune's Dianne Brady. Please welcome them. You know, uh, Lisa, welcome. Thank you for joining us. And, and as Mahal was saying, you've been in the job 5 months and what a 5 months it's been. It's don't waste a good crisis. I mean, I think my most favorite leadership roles are ones that I've been leading through transformational change and market volatility. Well, let's talk about those leadership roles because it takes you from, I call it the liar's poker days of Solomon Brothers in the 1980s, sort of giddy through you were in London post-Brexit. You were at Wells Fargo post financial crisis. So you have been lived through how many different, have you ever counted the number? A significant financial. How does the current landscape compare to what you've seen in the past? So I think what's interesting and what I find is always important to control the controllables. So I can't control public policy or trade wars or what's going on geopolitically, but I can control how I engage with clients and my team, you know, think, think client centric, be agile, be over communicating. And be as nimble as you can with your products and services as change happens. Well, you're an interesting role in the US right now for a global bank, and especially there's been this US Saudi corridor that we've seen it's been reinforced in the past week. How important is this market to you? It is probably one of the top markets and the most exciting markets to me and to us in the US, and what's great about now we're here one week after President Trump was here, and so the $600 billion and potentially up to $1.2 trillion of trade and transactions in between the two countries, it's. It's amazing. I will say we have been in this region though for 130 years, so we have a 160 year old history as a bank, 150 years in the United States. So we're no stranger to geopolitical challenge, trade tariffs, everything else, but I'd say the US Saudi corridor is terribly exciting for us for a number of reasons. One, And the transition away from, you know, if you think about the vision 2030, the transition away from a pure energy economy, GDP here is growing double digits, right? Non-oil GDP is growing double digits. If you think about the growth sectors, technology, AI specifically, potentially energy transition. Um, health care, leisure and travel, um, all kinds of sectors that are important to companies in the US and we bank 90% of the Fortune 100 companies in the US and we bank them from the innovation stage all the way up to global multinationals. They are investing in Saudi also if you think about um institutional investors and I think last last week. We had something like 12 billion of commitments from our biggest asset managers in the United States into Saudi. Well, let's unpack that a little because, OK, you have not been in this region for 130 years, but you've been in the business for 3 decades, and what, what was the pivot point for institutional investors? I mean, it's easy to say, oh, vision 2030, but What have you seen that has made them more interested in here, and I hope you don't mind if I do a deeper dive here we can skate across the whole planet in a minute, but I'm very curious as to what. So I think our institutional investors, and I love a quote by one of the largest in on the globe, and he said if this was a stock, if the kingdom of Saudi Arabia was an equity. I would be all in, um, and it has all of the elements that investors look for. So it's policy stability, political stability, energy, security, and self-sufficiency. And supply chain, you know, efficient supply chain, a strong and talented and highly skilled labor force, all of the critical elements that you look for in a region to invest. So it's that way for the institutional investor clients. It's also for the corporate clients. That are doing business here as they think about again double digit non-oil GDP growth, it's very difficult to find that in the world and the US Saudi corridor is one. Now I want to separate the kingdom from the region writ large. I wouldn't say stability is the word that comes to mind right now. So how is that impacting things? So I think you know there will always be geopolitical instability. There will always be. Unrest. I hope there's not always going to be war. We all want peace, so I think that's that's a priority. I think the difficult thing is again controlling the controllables. What, what can I control in Saudi we're very clear and 100% aligned between our governments and what we're looking for in our populations to grow and prosper. So I think that's really important. Yes, there is political stability and instability around and in the region. But I think going back my 35 years, I don't remember when there maybe wasn't political instability in some part of the world. So I think it's it, yes, there is that, but we have to work work around it and navigate through it. And we talk a lot about perceptions of Saudi Arabia. You are the US head of. Yes, let's talk about perceptions of the US for a second. What are you seeing in terms of investor interest there? Is it waning? Is it changing? Obviously there's been seismic shifts. Yes, yes, I think, look, it's a $26 trillion economy, so it's a quarter of the world's GDP. And we have a deep and successful capital market. So if you're going to raise debt or equity, this is a great, the United States is a great place to be. It has a growing population. It has a significant investor base. It has for our institutional investors. 85% of them are headquartered in the United States, so I think the attributes are are important and critical. I think you know for the companies that are based there, it's a large stable market to invest from. Um, the other important points, the inflation Reduction Act, the CHIPS Act, these were all important parts of the legislation that has brought investment in. And now with President Trump leading his initiatives and encouraging that investment like he did in Saudi last week and in Qatar in the UAE, and that will long continue, but I think those the direct negotiation on some of these. is extremely encouraging. So I talked to CEOs right after the inauguration. They were optimistic and then there was trepidation. Now maybe there's a bit of optimism again. How are you, Madam CEO, feeling about the market? So I think as a CEO you always have to be optimistic because it's difficult to do anything else. But look, I think that the tariff impact has been significant, and it was. A bit of a jolt from April 2nd on. If you think about where the world's number one trade bank, there were 80 blank sailings, and I'll explain that in the month of April. So a blank sailing is canceled shipments and the peak of COVID in 2020 there were 50. So that is telling you that some of our clients, corporates might have been stockpiling before. April 2nd and then maybe are in a little bit of a wait and see mode now. So respecting and understanding the clients that are that are waiting and seeing and how we can support them through trade pay or other other products and services, I think is really, really critical. So again, how can we be helpful to clients? I am feeling much more optimistic through the pause with China last week since last week. Oh, every day is different. Every day is different. Uh, I am feeling more optimistic to pause with China, you know, you go from 145% tariffs back to where we are, but the tricky, the tricky bit is even if we're looking at 10% baseline tariffs in the United States, most of our importing companies. Have a hard time processing that. How do you determine the country of origin? How do you, how do you orient towards this? The larger companies might have an easier time. Some of the smaller and mid-sized companies might have a more difficult time. So I think we've hosted over 1000 webinars for clients. Yes, how many of them are about tariffs and how many? Well, they're about trade and tariffs, yeah, so as the number one trade bank we have to. Have, um, you know, constantly giving advice and updating our, our thoughts. I think the thing that might worry me and again feels, feels better, recently, I think the thing that might worry me if US GDP growth has a negative implication on a global growth forecast. I think we're looking at 2.3% down from 2.7%. But if you tip into recessionary territory for the US, that's that's a tricky to come. Let me ask you, I'd be remiss not to talk a little bit about the rest of the world because you said this is one of your top markets. What are some of the others that you're really doubling down? So we're excited again. We're in just less than 60. Countries, so than others. Yes, it's like my children, you know, I can't. There aren't too many favorites, but I do think, you know, China and Southeast Asia as well. I think we feel we still feel very optimistic about the growth there. I would say India 6.5% GDP growth, a billion plus population. A digital India made in India, so still feel exceptionally and the UK again I was there I am. I went right after Brexit, you know, this feels a little bit familiar in some ways, but I'm encouraged by Keir Starmer and the Labor government, some of the some of the trade deals that he's working recently with Europe also. US, US UK corridor really important. US Saudi, US UAE, US India, and then Southeast Asia. We were founded in Hong Kong, so that will always be, you know, an important market for us. But again, anytime there's a crisis, there's also an opportunity. So countries where it might be more challenged, we find ways to support our clients. And their growth in other parts of the world. I know we only have 3 minutes left, but I'd be remiss not to talk a little bit about you as a leader having first of all, did you ever play liar's poker? I don't know if you know liar's poker. It's this book that came out in the 80s where it was Michael Lewis throwing money down and like did you do that? I wasn't allowed to play that game as a woman. Yeah, no, so I wasn't allowed to play liar's poker on the trading floor, but or you know, be a traitor. There are certain jobs that women couldn't have back then. But I was allowed to be a salesperson, so I think back then you learned to sink or swim, frankly, and there were people cycling through pretty, pretty often. When you're in the markets business, you have to think quickly on your feet. You have to be agile. You have to communicate in a very robust way. And then you start the clock at 0 almost every day when you're on a trading floor, you start at 0 every day. So um so I learned a lot from that. Um, my, my personal business chemistry is driver. I don't love long meetings or long PowerPoints or things like that, but I'm always trying to think about a minute and seconds. So it's just how can I, how can I advance this topic or decision faster and in a quicker, you know, more agile way while managing the risk appropriately? I think I've learned a lot from other CEOs, some good, some not so good. I have a walk around leadership style. I like to be empathetic. I like to check in on people and see how they're doing. Um, you know, again, constantly communicating, I think those are things that female leaders do very differently, you know, over communicate, think about the person and their career and how you can be supportive of them, have their back in times of stress in particular, being mindful of change and the impact that that can have on colleagues, but also that resilience, that resilience is really important, you know. I have 3 kids. I helped raise them, put them through university. Off to off to jobs, that is, you know, it takes a certain amount of determination and commitment, and you can't wake up one day and say, you know what, I just don't feel like doing this today. So I think it's how can I advance my team or my agenda or my company every single day. Now we have time for but a haiku, but for this audience, especially when people are new to leadership roles, what advice do you have to people when they're they're new. To a role and they are in fact it's new to even see them or a woman in the role. I think it's so being a CEO can be lonely at times, so you have to sort of surround yourself with a board of advisers who can who can be helpful to you. I think it's being extremely strategic about the role you want. I think it's tactical, you know, we go through life doing the things. How do you get promoted? How do you Get to the next, but when you want to be a CEO, the things that are required to do that the board of advisers, the marketing speech, the consultation, the deep discussions that you have to have, strategic discussions to advance to that, that's different, and I think it's important we all know that. Excellent. Well, I consider myself high potential still so good luck. Thank you so much. Thanks so much. Please join me in thanking.

Human rights reform remains one of the most complex and closely watched aspects of Saudi Arabia’s modernization agenda. H.E. Dr. Hala bint Mazyad Al-Tuwaijri is tasked with advancing the effort amid an evolving political landscape and external skepticism. What does meaningful human rights reform look like, and what role can women play in driving it forward?

MPW SPOTLIGHT: HUMAN RIGHTS AT A CROSSROADS

Thank you, everybody, and thank you, Your Excellency Dr. Halla. I'd like to start, if you don't mind, with we were talking earlier and I'm fascinated with your background. You have a PhD in English literature and you were talking about how that shaped a little bit about your mindset. Tell us a little bit about that first before we get into the depth of your role and what you're seeing right now. Well, thank you very much and thank you for having me here today. I'm very happy to be joined by all of these inspiring women. Yes, the journey started with English literature, and for people who know a bit about studying literature, it's not about reading stories actually behind every story there is a culture, history, philosophy, ideas, and throughout my journey I studied different literatures that are written in English language which covered areas from India to the Caribbean to Africa. And my focus has always been on the issue of identity, what shapes people's identity and what actually informs the literature they write, whether it's theater or performance or art in general, and that of course took me to studying the sociopolitical context of these areas and the ideas and the A philosophical background to where all of this is coming from and where it's taking. So without knowing, I was actually preparing myself for looking into a more global platform of issues pertaining to identity rights. Uh, stories and, and all of that. I love that story is to put it in the context of where are we today with human rights and, and thinking about it in the context also of the Saudi identity because I think that that helps, you know, also address. Some of the perceptions around where you are, where you're going, so tell us about the landscape today as you see it from your role. Yes, so the Saudi identity in general is quite unique compared to other shapes of identity, if we may call it, around the world, because especially in the Arab Islamic world because this part of the world has actually never been. Um, colonized. Therefore, people have always been strongly connected to their roots. And that has made the approach to issues that are global issues, but they have always been there present in our endeavor in general. So when we address issues of human rights, for example, we, we always come back to where we come from, where it actually has manifested our culture, art, architecture, and and all of that. So in principle, human rights have never been alien to Saudi identity. It's just using another language probably or using a discourse that is particular to the global context, but in general if you Address all of the rights in the for example universal Declaration of Human Rights, you'll see that each and every one of these rights is actually also a right that is embedded in the Arab Islamic Saudi culture. So going back to the identity and how it influenced, I think the important lesson we've learned is that we come to the global context with um. A very proud sense of who we are and that kind of differentiates between us and you know other approaches or our approach and other approaches uh and it was very difficult sometimes to tone down that pride among Saudis. I see them speaking usually and and and I I know where that's coming from. Uh, but actually it's not just pride, it's, um, it's that identity that is very solid and very obvious in everything they do that's actually kind of taking over everything they say. I'd love to know how change is happening here because one of your jobs and your previous job as well with um with for families is, is to be driving change to be speaking for those who have no voice. How do you do that in an environment where um you know, perhaps people are nervous about speaking up where you're resisting, as you say, this long standing history of change? What's your strategy as the person who is the head of the human rights commission? Uh well, it's actually, it did not start only with the vision in 2030 as many people think, uh, especially with women empowerment, and women have been equally, yeah, and, and equal access to education has been also there for forever and and I think um. What has happened is that yes, there was an evolution in terms of rights, especially women's rights, but that evolution was also in harmony with the culture, for example, education. Uh, schools were segregated, um, and I can tell you that we received a lot of harsh criticism on segregating schools, so people assumed that we were separating boys from girls and therefore offering different types of education, one especially for boys and one especially for girls. But actually those of us who come from this part of the world know that if schools were mixed, many conservative families would not have sent their girls to school in the first place, and many of the Educated women you see today, including myself, would not be sitting here because our families back then would not have accepted the fact that we would be sitting next to boys in high school, for example. We've seen how much has happened with Vision 2030. What? Tell us a little bit about what's around the corner in terms of your priorities right now and what you're. So the vision in the first place is, yes, it looks like it's a vision that focuses on diversifying the economy and all of that, but actually 2/3 of the vision's programs are human centered, and it's a human rights approach to these issues. So we've counted, for example, if you look at the judicial. Uh, initiatives or the legislative reforms and all of that, we've counted 170 amendments, 50% of them are on women's rights, by the way, but that tells you how much the vision is driving a social change. It covers everything in our lives. Those of you who've been here 1015 years ago can see the shift and the change, and it's really affecting our lives. But it's, it's not just women's empowerment, you know, for the sake of, you know, checking the list, but it's actually empowering everybody in the society. Same as for, for example, the rights of children or people with disability or the senior citizens or elderly. All of that is happening at the same time. And it happened kind of fast, but the, the first, I think, important instrumental issue that we worked on was the legislative reforms because without strong laws and legislations you cannot do much, but it doesn't stop there. Well, it's interesting when I talk to leaders who are driving so much change, their big concern is about the capacity of that organization or society to absorb that change. What are you finding? Capacity is an issue, but again, after, after the legislation, there's a lot to do. It doesn't stop there. It's just a good strong start, but then after that you have to put forward initiatives. You have to put, you have to build capacity of people engaged. You have also to guarantee awareness among people. Saudi Arabia is a is a big country geographically speaking, and for you to. Make sure that people from all over the country in all regions, every small village has actually been affected positively by the change is in itself a project. So and, and again, um, most of the of the strong initiatives, for example, that empowered women or that changed the family status law. Are initiatives that affected people's daily lives. Well, and you've made some, you've made some big strides as well with migrant workers, and one of the things I'm curious about is, have you looked at other countries in the region or beyond and drawn lessons from it? For example, you know, when Saudi Arabia hosts the World Cup, we've seen others host the World Cup and get run into questions about human rights. What have you gleaned from the experience of others? Oh, a lot, and I think We are why we are here because of the positive dialogue that we have had with countries from all over the world, and most of the lessons learned are actually acquired from these opportunities. We have dialogues with the European Union. We have bilateral collaboration with countries from the Arab Muslim world, from the GCC countries, from European, American, Australian, all of that. And thanks to also international organizations like the UN and others who have helped us in collecting all of these good practices and bringing them here, and I think also we are sharing our story with the world today because what has happened in Saudi Arabia in the past. 10 years at least is a story worth telling not only in areas pertaining to women empowerment, but, but in general I haven't seen something similar to that in terms of speed and also in terms of um. A resilient, it's incredible the speed, I think you know one thing too, I think that the kingdom is taking it always has had a central role in the region, but how much do you feel responsibility to speak out, you know, I'm from a country where we're seeing deportations. I mean, everybody works on human rights. Do you feel comfortable? Do you feel it's Place to be bringing that voice to what's happening in the rest of the region or the rest of the world with regard to human rights. I think we are already doing that to a great extent, and we, we advocate for these issues, especially for women's rights. We held 2 years ago in the OIC. Uh, a special event on women empowerment of Islam because many of the misconceptions about Saudi Arabia and about the region in general comes from this, the fact that They interpret Islam as a religion that actually puts barriers to women's progress and participation, and from our experience that's not the reality of it. It's the misinterpretation of Islam that's actually leading to that and we see some very saddening stories in some parts of the world, and we don't want that to be the story about women in Islam. So in order to change that discourse, there was a big conference held in Jeddah. Less than 2 years ago and out of that there was also a big announcement and a declaration that we believe will help all countries affected by that misinterpretation to change it. What are the most important levers that you are focused on right now as you drive the next wave of change? You mentioned the judicial system, talked about workers. Where would you be focusing your energy if you You were the person and you could just wave a wand. What's your priority? Well, I think that human rights is becoming part of every policy, and our mission now is to make sure that it is really vividly clear in every policy business, sports, tourism. Uh, journalism, all of that, it's, it's not anymore an aspect related to some conventions in the UN where people ratify and and then talk about it's becoming part of our daily work in every field, and our mission is to make sure that that's really translated into lots of change and lots more to come. Your Excellency, thank you very much for joining us. I appreciate you join me in thanking her. didn't go that way

Global technology policy is increasingly influenced by major tech firms based in a handful of wealthy nations. The Digital Cooperation Organization, which is headquartered in Saudi Arabia, is the world’s first stand-alone organization focused on the global digital economy. Its goal? To ensure technology drives prosperity and opportunity for all. We'll discuss the policy, legislation, and education solutions required to make this a reality, so that no country, business, or sector of society is left behind. 

Digital Transformation Across Borders: What's At Stake?

Hello again everyone and Secretary General, thank you so much for being here with us. It's a real honor. I want to start with the basics for anyone in the room who isn't familiar with the digital cooperation Organization, which we can also call the DCO for brevity. It was founded in 2020 by 5 countries, I believe. Tell me how that founding came about and why the organization was needed. Well, certainly, but first, thank you for having me. Um, it's great to have, uh, the, uh, uh, the, uh, fortune most, uh, powerful woman chapter here in Saudi. Uh, it is the place to be, um, uh, so we're very happy to have you here and thank you for having us. And going back to, uh, DCO, uh, as we see digital economy now it's growing very rapidly, you know, last year alone it was 16% of the overall GDP. Expected in 2030, 70% of the GDP is going to be driven by digital solutions. Therefore, that comes with abundance of opportunities, but to harness these opportunities, countries need to transform. And for them to transform they really need to have a lot of uh uh um investment in either capital and investments either uh policy regulations, human capital development infrastructure as well, uh, very difficult for one country to do it alone. And this is where the DCO has been established, established for in the sense that digital economy is the way forward to diversify their economies, and they cannot do it alone. They have to share best practices. So therefore these five member countries created the Digital Cooperation Organization, the first intergovernmental organization focusing on digital economy and fast forward till today we're very proud that we were. Present 16 member states from Asia, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East, and we're expanding in size 800 million in population that by itself is a huge consumer market for any technology company that wants to expand. The objective or the mission of DCO is to enable every person, every government, every, uh, company the opportunity to prosper in the digital economy, and that's by facilitating. the connecting the supply and the demand between governments and between the private sector and those 1st 5 countries you started with just for contact with Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Georgia, Kuwait, and Pakistan. Tell me a bit about a tangible example maybe of how you're working with one of the member countries at the moment. It's, you know, it's great to talk in broad brush strokes about digital digital inclusivity in the economy, but what does that look like on a practical level right now in one of your countries? Well, we truly believe that um digital economy is a landscape that looks at digital business enablers and also society as well. And when we look at uh the the um the uh engine that flew flows the digital economy is the private sector. And therefore for any country to really prosper, it needs to have the right legislation policies to enable these private sectors to co-create and co-design solutions with the governments, and this is where sometimes there's a communication gap between the governments and the private sector. This is where we come in. We come in and we look at what is the business landscape of every country and we see where are the gaps, where are the areas of improvement when it comes to policies and regulations we also recommend the um the packages and the incentives to attract the right investments. Last month alone we uh we celebrated uh attracting more than $700 million to Pakistan. All digital digital investments and what's Pakistan going to put that money towards in terms of its digital economy? Oh, in, in multiple either in infrastructure when it comes to connectivity, cloud computing, also, uh, last last year alone, Pakistan included or added to its GDP $3.8 billion because of software exports. So definitely that investment will go into human capital. As well as uh computing power when it comes to AI uh and also looking at enabling the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Talk to us very briefly about how a a country enters the organization. We were chatting a bit backstage and it's, it's an application process. What are you looking for? Well, we're looking for like-minded nations that are willing to change that have the mindset of growth when it comes to betting on digital economy, and that is has the openness uh to uh welcome uh best practices from other countries and share the competitive advantage that they have with other countries. And my colleague Mihal mentioned slightly earlier about last week being a big week for the region. We have President Trump here signing multiple deals with the Middle East. Um, what does that mean for you? What do those tech-focused deals mean for the work you're doing at the DCO? Definitely this is an enabling uh opportunity uh considering that, uh, Saudi and also if we look at the region, the the, um, uh, the Gulf, um, is positioned in a very unique, uh, uh, positioning, having, um, uh, uh, very affordable and cheap energy and diversifications of also resources of energy, uh, very powerful in infrastructure when it comes to connectivity. You know, imagine that Saudi alone has 77% 5G connectivity, which is double the world's average, so that's very powerful when it comes to computing power for AI data centers and and others. Uh, third, the geographic location connecting Asia, Europe, and Africa, and last but not least, a very tech savvy youth, uh, uh, population. Um, from the Gulf, 60 million in population, more than 80% are under the age of 30, so very youthful, very tech savvy. So what does that mean is that this region is a great infrastructure for any innovative technologies going forward. And how does the organization work with the biggest governments in the world, the Americas, the European governments? What does that cooperation? Well, we, we work with them as any other countries, we. Um, we enable them with the know-how and the guidance that we have and as well as we, um, we try to connect them with our member states to get, uh, more, uh, collective, um, uh, shared best practices. Therefore, we're very much strengthening our relationship with the European Union, with ASEAN, with uh with African Union, as well as, uh, we have a great partnership with the GCC Council, Arab League and OIC. We believe that. Not only are we uh enabling our member states, but how can we enable other countries through the best practices that we have done throughout our member states. Let's continue the conversation about AI for a second. Um, AI is a world of opportunity, but at the same time it's expensive to run. It's very resource intensive to keep data centers going. How are you thinking about making sure that the widespread adoption of AI in the global north doesn't deepen the divide that we're seeing in terms of the global South, and how do we ensure that they are not only consumers of this emerging technology but also producers of it? Well, that's what keeps us up at night, really it's a, it's a huge concern that we have um we have uh we've been established to bridge that digital divide. Now we're faced with a new divide which is bigger, which is the AI divide. If we have 2.6 billion people today that are even not connected, they're not even on the internet. They don't even have devices, they're they're off the grid. So imagine how are they going to use AI. We looked at last year alone it was $300 billion investment in AI, but how many countries, a handful of countries are investing and a handful of countries are innovating. That means that there's a huge portion of the world that don't even have access to such kind of technology to create their local content. So what are you doing to help? Great question. Well, what we're trying to do is we're trying to decentralize. the capacities and the computing power, meaning that we believe that every country has its competitive advantage. There are countries that have the capabilities to create their computing power and capacities like the likes of Saudi, Kuwait, uh, uh, UAE, Qatar, and, and so on, but there are other countries that have the brain power and have the talents that can create that that local content and create these innovations. And here is where we're working first on infrastructure, creating decentralized capacities within our member states where countries around that capacity can benefit from that computing power. Second is that we're creating frameworks, new frameworks for intellectual property and also how to share the local content between the countries. And third is how to create shared pools of talents. Between the member what does that look like? That's a very interesting point. How does that happen, sharing a pool of talent? Well, um, for instance, uh, and we're just testing it here right now in, in Saudi there is since there is computing power, what we did is a program looking at AI and healthcare, for instance. So we identify a challenge and then we call out for talents from our member states. Now we have 7 scientists, one from Nigeria, one from Pakistan. One from Morocco, one from Jordan, and 3 from Saudi that come together and work on solving the solution. After they solve the solution, then we, we help in monetizing and commercializing that solution to become a company where other states like Qatar and like Kuwait are investing in in these ventures. That's really powerful. Um, we're in a room full of women who care about the future of women and girls. What are the unique challenges that come with engaging women in the digital economies in these countries that are not as well served at the moment? Um, and what can we as leaders, as business people in the room, do to help? Well, that's a, um, that's a topic that is very dear to my heart and uh it scares me when I read reports that by 2030, 350 million women will not have access to internet. That by itself is not just only a social loss but also an economical loss and this is where we really need to invest heavily and not only um upskilling women in uh in digital capabilities but also giving that access on how to use the technology because it's a learning platform as well as an economical. Platform to find jobs. So what we have done in DCO is a program called We Eleva which is to move women traditional businesses into online businesses, and that's powerful because that's direct contribution to GDP and job creation till now we supported 127 women businesses in Rwanda and now we're moving into Nigeria and and we're moving to the Middle East as well. And it came from a story if you may. I know that the time is off, but, but it's a it's a very um warming story from a woman from Apa, and I met her. She's a widow. She has 6 kids, and the thing is, she, she, her education was till high school, and she created these senses, soaps, perfumes from a distinct, uh, rose called the ha of roses. And she sells to only the the city of her life, but she wanted to expand her, her, her, her business more. So she knocked on, on, on my door once and said, Are you the Melia here? And I said, Yes. They told me you can fix my business. I want you to move me online, so we supported and helped her by creating an e-commerce solution, but that's not enough. We have to support in the financial acumen, training and marketing, payment gateways, uh, um, supply chain, delivery, and so on. Now fast forward 2 years, she's selling to 90 locations in the world, and she recruited 60 other women. And she has a revenue of roughly $100 million every year. So that's the power of just moving a women business into an online business. Secretary General, it's such important work. Thank you for telling us about it. We'll all be watching closely to see what you do next, and thank you for joining us today. Thank you for having me. Thank you.

The creator of large collaborative art installations at world-renowned arts festivals will share details on her latest work, “Power Prism,” a special commission for Fortune MPW, designed to showcase how different generational perspectives refract and strengthen leadership. 

Dialogue Through Art

All right, now I would like to introduce Caroline Ghon, an experienced architect who in 2024 designed the Temple of Together, the largest ever installation at Burning Man, the world renowned arts festival held annually in the Nevada desert. Ghon is with us here in Rio. and she's created a special installation for Fortune titled Power Prism. Hopefully you saw it outside, celebrates connection and dialogue across different perspectives and different generations. To hear more about the purpose of this installation and the meaning behind it, please welcome Caroline to the states. Hello, hello. OK, so, um, you are in addition to all of the things I just said and we wanna hear more about experience architecture, but you're also an entrepreneur, so just give us like real quick your career trajectory, your journey. Well how do you connect the dots here? So I started out in my career at McKenzie and Company and then I started my first business when I was in my early twenties in New York. It was called Levo and it was a professional network that. Focused on the development and community between women in the 1st 10 years of their career, and we went from 0 to over 10 million members in a matter of a few years so it's this incredible experience of creating community and finding this symbiotic relationship between mentees and mentors that informs a lot of my work today. OK, so now I can, I can connect the dots. OK, it makes sense in my head. So tell us a bit about the installation, what the meaning is, and how can. Women in this room engaged with it. Well, I'm so excited to introduce Power Prism to all of you and to officially open it with this conversation, so thank you. So as you may have observed when you came in, there's a prismatic structure in the entrance, and it's called Power Prism. So it's a piece I designed specifically for Fortune MPW and it's about the wisdom that's exchanged between generations of women. So the structures represent all of. Generations of women interacting with each other and the prismatic film represents the way in which when you basically reflect your story you refract your wisdom and you don't know how the story you share is going to impact someone's life. You may not even see them 15 years later when they still remember the thing that you said to them. And so our encouragement is to use our time here today to share our stories and influence this next generation of leaders. So I Be outside and I would invite you to participate. You'll be able to draw a card, so draw your fortune at fortune and answer that question directly on the sculpture, and then we're going to take all of that information and with the help of AI create a very dynamic personalized basically map of the wisdom that we have in this room. So we're really looking forward to your participation. So one thing, yeah, yeah, and please, please. Anticipate um one thing I didn't mention when I talked about your Burning Man installation is that the whole thing with Burning Man is that you burn it after um please nobody burned this one that's not the intent it's not part of the plan but, but talk a little bit about, you know, as uh as an artist, as an architect, um, what is that like first of all to create something that is meant to be destroyed and how do you approach work differently when it's not. Yes, I love this question so much. So I had the opportunity last year to work on the temple, and it was 10 months, the process of 10 months of preparation and actually only 19 days in the desert, in high desert to assemble it with over 1000 volunteers and then open it up to over 75,000 people to interact with it and make it their own. And I burned it, so the artist is the one who sets fire to it. So it was an incredible experience of letting go, but what it taught me was two things the Importance of human connection. The messages that were written inside of that piece were so consistent. They were about finding your authentic self and connecting with others in community and the importance of that. And then number 2, in the process of creating something so um intense and beautiful and then actually letting it go, I reflected on the nature of life. Someone came to me and said, How can you spend nearly a year of your life making something that's meaningful to you in community and then knowing that it's it's gonna go back. To the ashes, and I paused and I said, Well, how is that any different than our journey here just on a different time scale. So it's given me the opportunity to reflect on life and what I love about Power Prism is that in a way it's also ephemeral. We're only here for 2 days, but there's also this continuity that we hope to bring into the digital space to experiment with those two things together. Caroline, thank you so much and again I encourage everybody to engage with the installation so we can learn from each other. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for having me. See you out there.

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Fortune MPW International Summit 2025

H.E. Fahd Bin Abdulmohsan Al-Rasheed welcomes Fortune MPW audience in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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H.E. Fahd Bin Abdulmohsan Al-Rasheed, Chairman of Saudi Conventions & Exhibitions General Authority (SCEGA) welcomes the Fortune MPW audience in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with introductory remarks from Fortune CEO Anastasia Nyrkovskaya.

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Dialogue Through Art

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