What inspired you to align your endowment with your mission?

In 2008, I was working in IFC’s financial markets group when the subprime crisis unfolded. At around that time, Christine Lagarde, the head of the IMF at the time, said something to the effect of, “If Lehman brothers had been Lehman Sisters things would have been different.”

I started interrogating what the difference would have been and learned that companies with gender-diverse leadership were faring better with more stable earnings and stock prices, and emerging from the crisis faster compared to peers without gender-diverse leadership. From there, I developed the Banking on Women platform at the IFC, designed their Global Trade Liquidity Program and co-developed the first-ever gender bond issued on the Uridashi market.

Women of the World Endowment (WoWE) was created in 2018 with a bold vision — build a $5B endowment, over the next 10 years, that centralizes the role of women as economic, environmental, and social changemakers who are creating a high growth future.

How far along is your foundation in this journey?

We are still in our early growth stage but we are proving our thesis of centralizing women at the financial decision making table, and investing in meaningful change. Particularly now, against the backdrop of accelerating challenges – a global economic slowdown, escalating conflicts, risks to personal peace and security, and wake up calls on climate – it is more important than ever that our investments advance women in leadership and gender equality in the workplace and everywhere.

What’s a favorite mission aligned investment of yours?

It’s hard to pick one – If I could, I’d like to talk about two investments:

• Ethos is a FinTech software platform whose aim is to make ESG data easy and accessible for investors, financial advisors, fund & wealth managers, financial institutions, and corporations investing in causes with transformative impact. We started as a client using their data and tools to construct and manage our portfolio; we then became an investor and a board member, allowing us to shape and support the design of tools that influence investment decision making taking place in rooms that do not have many women.
• We are excited about our recent grant investment into buildOn. The organization’s work pulls on all the levers of our theory of change by placing women changemakers and capital markets at the center. buildOn is a global nonprofit, (i) they build schools for early age and adult education; (ii) their adult literacy curriculum includes mapping of community challenges; and (iii) their grant capital provides seed funding into savings and loan schemes that supports entrepreneurial projects developed by the community. Even more compelling is that the entire value chain of interventions is required to be 50% female — from the community project leadership, school staff and students, and adults in the literacy program.

Guilty pleasure:

Running – it clears my head

Kickback film:

Shawshank Redemption

Last series you binge-watched: 

Attack on Titan (with my son)

Favorite caffeine source:

Green tea

Sweet or salty:

 Salty

Happy place:

Any place with my family

A favorite novel:

The Sum of Us

Animal friend(s):

Dogs

Childhood ambition:

Lawyer

Biggest challenge:

Building WoWE

Soundtrack of your life:

Just One Life (Sting and Shaggy)

Music that lifts your spirits:

Right now a lot of gospel spirituals

Most unusual gift given:

Just One Life (Sting and Shaggy)

Most unusual gift received:

career mentorship and sponsorship

Last splurge:

sugarless dark chocolate