With a portfolio boasting a colossal $10 trillion in assets under management as of 2021, BlackRock under Fink’s leadership is no longer just an investment firm—it’s an institution that wields the sort of influence usually reserved for central banks and national governments.

THE GENESIS OF A FINANCIER

Born in 1952 to a shoe-store owner and an English professor, Fink grew up in a middle-class family in Van Nuys, California. After completing his undergraduate studies in political science at UCLA, he ventured to Wall Street, joining investment bank First Boston in 1976.

At First Boston, Fink was a star in the bond department but tasted bitter failure when he miscalculated interest rates, leading to substantial losses for the firm. This setback was formative; it not only imparted him with critical lessons but also set the stage for the risk management approaches he would later instil at BlackRock.

THE RISE OF BLACKROCK

Fink founded BlackRock in 1988, along with seven other Wall Street professionals, initially as a risk management and fixed-income institutional asset manager. The firm grew steadily but exploded onto the global financial stage after the 2008 financial crisis.

Fink’s understanding of risk had helped BlackRock navigate the subprime mortgage crisis more adeptly than most

Fink’s understanding of risk had helped BlackRock navigate the subprime mortgage crisis more adeptly than most. The firm’s assets swelled as it was called upon to clean up the financial mess left in the wake of the collapse of Lehman Brothers and others. By the end of 2009, Black- Rock had acquired Barclays Global Investors, making it the largest asset manager in the world.

A STEWARD OF CAPITAL WITH A MORAL COMPASS

In a world of quarterly earnings reports and immediate gratification, Fink has become an unlikely advocate for long-term planning. His annual letters to CEOs, akin to pastoral letters in the business community, increasingly reflect a broader societal role. In these missives, Fink has exhorted companies to think beyond just profit and consider their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) impact. He has warned that BlackRock would not hesitate to disengage from companies failing to demonstrate a commitment to longterm, sustainable value creation.

This is not mere virtue-signalling. BlackRock has followed through with palpable actions, such as siding with “Engine No. 1” in a proxy battle to replace directors of ExxonMobil who were perceived as not doing enough to combat climate change.

STYLE AND SUBSTANCE

Fink is often described as analytical but pragmatic, with a management style that blends attention to detail with an overarching vision. He is renowned for his ‘no shortcuts’ work ethic and a longterm orientation that prioritises strategic planning over tactical manoeuvring.

Larry has warned that BlackRock would not hesitate to disengage from companies failing to demonstrate a commitment to long-term, sustainable value creation

His success can be attributed to a culture of openness and measured risk-taking, something he has fostered at BlackRock since its inception.

AN UNSETTLED LEGACY?

However, Fink’s exertion of moral and financial influence hasn’t been universally welcomed. Critics argue that BlackRock’s ESG goals are more about public relations than genuine impact, particularly given the firm’s significant investments in fossil fuels.

More pointedly, Black- Rock’s deepening engagement with Chinese markets, including those companies blacklisted for human rights abuses, has led to accusations of hypocrisy.

Moreover, BlackRock’s enormous scale and influence in capital markets have raised questions about market concentration and systemic risk, factors that regulators are beginning to scrutinise more closely. Larry Fink is a man of many facets: a prodigious financier, a corporate moralist, and a global influencer. He has successfully turned BlackRock from a Wall Street outsider into a pre-eminent institution, impacting how both the financial industry and its regulators conceive of risk and responsibility. Yet as he continues to navigate the complex interplay between profit and purpose, his ultimate legacy remains an open question.

Nonetheless, what is clear is that Fink has irreversibly altered the landscape of global finance, in ways both tangible and philosophical.

The post The Architect of Modern Asset Management appeared first on CorD Magazine.

We will delve into the life and accomplishments of Sam Altman, exploring his journey from a childhood in Missouri and university at Stanford to becoming a prominent figure in the tech world.

Get ready to uncover the story behind this trailblazing innovator and learn how his unwavering dedication and foresight continue to shape the future of technology.

Sam Altman was born in 1985 in Chicago. His journey began in St. Louis, Missouri, where he spent his formative years cultivating a curiosity for technology. Fun fact, he got his first personal computer at the age of 8. In retrospect, Sam Altman’s early life and education may have been instrumental in shaping his path towards becoming a tech industry titan. Altman attended John Burroughs School, a prestigious private prep school in the St. Louis Metro area, UK. Upon graduation, Altman enrolled at Stanford University, pursuing a major in computer science.

However, he didn’t complete his Stanford education; instead, he dropped out in 2005 to found Loopt, a location-based social networking company, with the seed funding he got from being a part of the initial batch of Y Combinator.

Altman served as the CEO of Loopt until Green Dot Corporation acquired the company for £43.4 million in 2012. Co-founding Loopt while still at Stanford was just the beginning of a remarkable journey leading him to prominence in technology and entrepreneurship. After Loopt’s acquisition by Green Dot Corporation, Altman continued to immerse himself in the startup ecosystem.

In 2012, Sam Altman partnered with his brother, Jack Altman, to establish Hydrazine Capital, an early- stage venture capital firm. This firm focused on investing in various sectors, including life sciences, education, speciality foods, marketplaces, big data, healthcare, consumer networks, enterprise software, and internet-connected hardware.

Bold ventures and an unwavering commitment to innovation marked Sam Altman’s early career in the tech industry

Altman joined the renowned startup accelerator Y Combinator in 2011 as a part-time partner. Later, in 2014, Altman was appointed president of Y Combinator, succeeding the co-founder, Paul Graham. Under Altman’s leadership, the accelerator continued to thrive, fostering the growth of numerous startups and solidifying its reputation as a powerhouse in the tech industry.

By 2016, Altman had become the president of the newly expanded YC Group, encompassing YC and its subsidiaries, including growth-stage equity fund YC Continuity and YC Research, a non-profit research lab partially funded by a £10 million donation from Altman, and the accelerator’s new online class. He stepped down as President of YC Group in 2019. Sam Altman relinquished his position as YC Group President in 2019 and was announced by YC as a chairman at YC. By early 2020, Altman was no longer associated with YC.

After transitioning from his role at Y Combinator, Sam Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015 with a group of renowned tech entrepreneurs and researchers, including Elon Musk, Greg Brockman, Pamela Vagata, Ilya Sutskever, Trevor Blackwell, Vicki Cheung, Andrej Karpathy, Durk Kingma, John Schulman, and Wojciech Zaremba.

OpenAI is a prominent research and deployment organisation in artificial intelligence (AI). Its core mission revolves around ensuring that the development of artificial general intelligence (AGI) benefits all of humanity. OpenAI’s mission statement highlights its commitment to creating highly autonomous systems “to ensure that artificial general intelligence – highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work – benefits all of humanity.”

Altman held board positions at energy firms Helion, UPower, and Oklo. WorldCoin is a project co-founded by Sam Altman in 2020 to create a global cryptocurrency that can be fairly distributed to everyone. The company’s mission is to create a global ID, a global currency, and an app that enables payment, purchases, and transfers using its own token. 

Altman believes entrepreneurship and innovation are critical economic growth and societal progress drivers

Beyond his work with Y Combinator, Altman has also been an active angel investor, backing a variety of successful startups such as Instacart, Reddit, Pinterest, Clever, Asana, Optimizely, Airbnb, Stripe, Teespring, Zenefits, FarmLogs, True- North, Rescale, Alt, Helion Energy, BRINC, TrialSpark, Roboflow, Wave Mobile Money, Humane, Coco, Kami, LeadGenius, Soylent, and Wevorce.

In 2014, Altman became the CEO of Reddit for eight days after the previous CEO resigned. Altman has also invested as a partner in companies such as Beacon AI, Apollo Projects, Cadoo, Boom Supersonic, Titan, Rescale, Reddit, Lob, Change.org, Fibo, and Quora. Some of his prominent exits include Virool, URX, Swiftype, Quill, PlanGrid, Oyster, Optimizely, Nervana, Kimono Labs, and Exec. His keen eye for promising ventures and unwavering support for innovative ideas have contributed to the growth and success of countless companies.

In 2008, Businessweek magazine recognised Altman as one of the “Top Young Tech Entrepreneurs.” Forbes magazine also named him a leading investor under 30 in 2015. Paul Graham, Y Combinator co-founder, ranked him among the five most captivating startup founders between 1979 and 2009. Altman also received an honorary Doctor of Engineering degree from the University of Waterloo in 2017 in recognition of his work supporting companies in its Velocity entrepreneurship programme. As the former president of Y Combinator and the founder of the YC Group, Altman has been a strong advocate for nurturing and supporting startups. He encourages aspiring entrepreneurs to take risks, learn from failures, and persist in pursuing success. Altman envisions technology as a powerful tool to transform society for the better. He believes that advancements in AI and other emerging technologies have the potential to revolutionise industries, improve quality of life, and drive economic growth.

The post From Dropout to Tech Titan: The Remarkable Journey of Sam Altman appeared first on CorD Magazine.

Fifty-one-year-old Torger Christian Wolff, aka Toto Wolff, is an Austrian billionaire motorsport executive and former racing driver who has come a long way from his humble beginnings in the sport, when he competed in the Austrian and German Formula Ford championships from 1992 to 1994, the pinnacle of which was his 1994 category win in the Nürburgring 24 Hours touring car and GT endurance race.

Born in Vienna in 1972 to a Polish mother and a Romanian father, Wolff grew up in the city, where he attended the French Lycée of Vienna, a prestigious French school in Vienna’s Alsergrund district. After the death of his father when he was just 15, the young Toto perhaps turned all his attention to driving and motorsports.

Following his early successes on the racetrack, Wolff founded his first investment company – Marchfifteen – which unsurprisingly focused on an area of great interest to motorsport: early-stage technology investments. One of the company’s key investment avenues has been in company HWA, which has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 2007 and is responsible for developing and racing Mercedes-Benz racing cars for the German Touring Car Championship and Mercedes-Benz Formula 3 engines.

Back on the track, Wolff finished 6th overall in the N-GT category in the 2002 FIA GT Championship, before transferring to the Italian GT Championship in 2003 and the FIA GT Championship in 2004, teaming up with fellow driver Karl Wendlinger. Runner-up in the 2006 Austrian Rally Championship and winner of the 2006 Dubai 24 Hour, Wolff took the lap record at the Nürburgring in 2009, driving a Porsche RSR, and has also served as an instructor at the Walter Lechner Racing School.

It is perhaps his enduring and diverse career as a driver that provided Wolff with the prowess, knowledge and experience required to head the super successful Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 Team.

He married former Scottish karting ace and racing driver Susie Stoddart (now Wolff) in 2011, and his wife has also gone on to record great successes off the track, as she is the current MD of the F1 Academy.

I make no difference between the driver and every other employee in the company

And Toto isn’t just an ace behind the wheel and in business, he’s also something of a polyglot – fluent in German, English, French, Italian and Polish – and has some enviable academic achievements to his name. For instance, in May 2021 he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from Cranfield University for his services to Motorsport and in November of the same year was appointed an associate fellow at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School for two years, tasked with transferring from the racetracks to the lecture hall his understanding of high-performance culture, team leadership and personal effectiveness.

His leadership of the Mercedes- AMG Petronas F1 Team was even the subject of a 2022 Harvard Business School case study and Wolff was subsequently also named an executive fellow at Harvard Business School, a role in which he will serve as guest lecturer alongside Professor Anita Elberse, who authored the aforementioned case study.

“It’s really difficult to find a team that has won what is effectively a world championship eight times in a row,” said Elberse.

Toto’s solid work on the track, but more importantly excellent business choices off it, led him to be in a position to launch his career as an F1 executive in 2009 by acquiring a 15% stake in the Williams F1 team. However, he was soon compelled to sell his Williams shares after agreeing to become Mercedes-Benz’s head of motorsport in 2013. He thus became a shareholder and executive director of Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains, taking on the responsibility for developing and managing the Mercedes’ engine programme and spearheading projects on Mercedes power units, and in the process gaining invaluable knowledge of Mercedes- Benz motorsport activities.

It was then, in 2013, that this Austrian former endurance racing driver and tech investor became team principal of the Mercedes-Benz AMG Petronus F1 team, prompting then Mercedes-Benz chairman Dieter Zetsche to say at the time, “As an entrepreneur, investor and motorsport manager, Toto Wolff has proven that this sport runs in his blood; at the same time, he is also well aware of the economic necessities of the business.”

And it is no coincidence that 2013 was also the year British driver Lewis Hamilton turned his back on British team McLaren and signed with Mercedes.

“I will give up a world championship any day of the week in order to keep my integrity. I think that’s how we operate,” he said, before adding that a win-at-all-costs attitude should be consigned to the past.

I’m responsible for hiring and development, and developing the right people. So, I should be empowering

“We need to have a degree of loyalty and integrity. And if you don’t, then your success is going to be shortlived,” insisted Wolff, before admitting that there are seemingly some organisations and sports teams that “have nothing of that” but are nonetheless successful.

Mercedes currently ranks second in the 2023 F1 constructors’ standings, immediately behind the Red Bull team.

When asked about his preferred method for resolving situations that go awry, Toto was direct and concise: “I’m responsible for hiring and development, and developing the right people. So, I should be empowering.” Admitting that most people’s instinctive response is to point the finger of blame at someone else when something goes wrong, he explains that in most cases it’s actually the process that’s failed, not the person… “And I think that is very important to actually remind yourself … we blame the problem; we don’t blame the person.” He also warns that leaders need to be selective and know when to intervene, despite often being control freaks by nature. “My experience is that people that run organisations are in a way control freaks, it’s very difficult for them to let go. So, for me, the notion of a functional control freak is someone who knows everything that’s going on, but doesn’t interfere in everything that’s going on… and who gets that balance right.”

Indeed, Toto admits that striking the right balance isn’t always easy. “I’m an emotional person, I’m very passionate about the sport.”

When it comes to managing his team and getting the best out of them, Toto stresses the importance of not giving drivers special treatment compared to other team members. “I really like to interact with high performance people, superstars. And I have 2,500 of them. I make no difference between the driver and every other employee in the company,” he said. “And if you’re able to channel that in the right way, you have an organisation and a successful team. A superstar team rather than a team of superstars,” he said, before admitting “I stole that sentence, I think from an Instagram post.”

The post From Racing Cockpit To Executive Armchair, The Tale Of Toto Wolff appeared first on CorD Magazine.

When British-Indian podcaster, author and life coach Jay Shetty conducted an Instagram poll back in 2018 asking if his videos had had a positive impact on the lives of viewers, 97 per cent of respondents said that they had.

In the viral world today, this former monk and co-founder of company Same Tea has a clever way of getting his message across in such a way that wisdom goes viral.

Here we take a deeper look into the story of this man who has made inspiration go viral and continues to awaken people with his inspirational videos on a daily basis. Some of his social media videos have helped people get over a bad relationship, while others have helped dealing with conflicts related to work conflicts.

MONK TURNED ENTREPRENEUR

Shetty had a pretty normal UK urban life growing up in Barnet, North London… or at least until he grew up to the world of parents’ expectations. “Parental pressure took over and out came the quintessential ambitious dream of every Indian parent: for their child to be a doctor or an engineer,” Jay Shetty said. But he had his own dreams, and they prompted him to follow the path of philosophy and behavioural studies. It was while studying at business school that Shetty found himself inspired by entrepreneurs and CEOs. “But there was one incident that changed it all – when a monk came to speak at my University. At 22, I decided to be a monk,” said Shetty.

Having always been fascinated by behavioural science and ancient wisdom, Shetty, who spent every other summer in India growing up, decided to strike a balance between old books and new science. He spent his time as a monk studying behavioural science and learning more about the human mind. And in 2016 he finally found that balance. He turned to online videos and found a ray of hope in the dark alleys of the web. “I wanted to build a platform that enables people to have healthy discussions and build meaningful conversations.” And today he has developed his practises to become one of the most renowned names on the web. “People would watch my videos and forward them on to their friends via WhatsApp. That would lead to discussions, to someone else who felt the same way receiving the chance to share their thoughts,” he said.

I wanted to build a platform that enables people to have healthy discussions and build meaningful conversations

Astonishingly, he hit two billion views in 18 months. “The response was incredible and I got thousands of messages. Whether the issue was suicide or divorce, people were able to find a positive way out of difficult situations. And that’s where my joy and passion for doing these videos was born,” he said.

CONTENT CREATION PROCESS

You are bound to come across Shetty’s videos when scrolling through Facebook or Instagram and will almost certainly find yourself unable to scroll on before checking them out. Why? His videos are relatable to everyone as they are inspired by people. His talks are based on scientific study. Having spent a decade studying behavioural science, he was able to connect with people. “It wasn’t just that. When I was speaking to people about their issues, something would just click and I would know that I have to talk about it. My videos often aren’t scripted and are based on real life experiences,” says Jay.

He has today achieved remarkable success, but not many believed in his path initially. He has always received the full support of his parents, but his decision to become a Vedic monk brought questions from many – from his Grandma to his aunts, who believed he was wasting his life. “Not many people thought it would work, but I have managed to carve out my own journey,” insists Jay.

SUCCESS TO LEARN FROM

But even today he can’t explain his success as being the result of a well-devised plan. “I never thought of it as a business plan. That’s the trick – just start with the content and if it works for people, evolve it into a business. For me, the plan was never to be rich or to have this as a full-time job. When I began, the idea was to just start,” he admits. However, he nonetheless has a few words of advice for other entrepreneurs. “The more you go to the depth of the problem you are trying to solve, the higher your company will grow,” he said.

We all have interesting ideas, but Jay believes it is good execution that defines success. “Good ideas are worth a million dollars, but it all depends on the implementation. You need to have the resilience and desire to succeed,” he said.

The more you go to the depth of the problem you are trying to solve, the higher your company will grow

As entrepreneurs embark on their journey, they often draw inspiration from billionaire entrepreneurs, but Jay thinks we should redefine the word billionaire. “Let it not be defined by a man’s material riches, but rather by how they have each impacted a billion lives,” he said.

He calls on budding entrepreneurs to recognise that everyone has failed; every big idea has been rejected by someone. “Years of hard work are required for an idea to succeed. You need to have resilience and grit, to care about the idea’s sincerity. Move with your heart, but monetise with your head,” says Jay, who knows that this is true from personal experience, having been rejected by 10 media companies.

When he’s not inspiring the world with his podcasts, Jay gives talks at major companies – including the like of Google and Microsoft – and interviews top personalities like Russell Brand… His inspiration has seemingly impacted everyone, but he’s not stopping there. He now plans to work on educational courses and stage more live events and digital shows, as well as authoring books that can serve to inspire yet more people.

The post Revealing The Wisdom Of The Jay Shetty Viral Phenomenon appeared first on CorD Magazine.

Born in the Massachusetts town of Ware in 1963, this businesswoman’s career highlights include becoming the first ever female president of American managed healthcare company Aetna in 2015 and the highest-ranking female chief executive on the Fortune 500 list in 2021. Apart from being the current president and CEO of CVS Health, she also serves on the boards of AHIP (a political advocacy and trade association of health insurance companies) and financial services company U.S. Bancorp, while she has previously held executive positions at Magellan Health Services and health insurance company Cigna.

At the root of all this business success, however, hides personal tragedy that turned the young Miss Lynch’s world upside down and instilled in her a burning desire to change the face of American healthcare for the better.

It was while she was attending Ware Junior School in 1975, at the age of 12, that her mother, who had been raising her and her three siblings as a single mother, took her own life. This shocking event had a profound impact on the young Karen, but it wasn’t this tragic loss that compelled her to pursue a career in healthcare – that would come a decade later.

As she explains: “My journey in healthcare began when I lost my mother to suicide at the age of 12. My three siblings and I were raised by my aunt, who was a single mother with a son of her own. My aunt was my mentor, my role model and the strongest person I knew. In my early 20s, we lost her to a combination of emphysema, lung cancer and breast cancer, and that was the inflection point when I decided to dedicate my life and career to the pursuit of better healthcare.

“Ironically, I was motivated most by a sense of frustration and helplessness. I didn’t know what to ask the doctors, what to do when she was in physical pain or how to effectively navigate a confusing and complicated system of care. I wanted to prevent others from feeling the same, and the determination I felt to improve a broken system still drives me today. This early experience taught me that, through the most painful times in our lives, we often discover our strength and purpose.”

I’m using my experience and knowledge to shift the healthcare system from “sick care” to holistic care… Health is more than just the physical, and our health is greatly impacted by our mental health, as well as other factors like behaviour and environment

After her mother’s untimely passing, Karen continued to attend Ware Junior/Senior High School, graduating in 1980, and subsequently enrolled in Boston College’s Carroll School of Management, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in accounting and gained Certified Public Accountant (CPA) certification. Remaining in Boston after graduating, she took the first steps in her financial career at the Boston office of Ernst & Young, specialising in insurance. She would go on to spend nearly a decade working in insurance, before boldly opting to wipe the slate clean and head back to graduate school to enrol in MBA studies, citing a desire to broaden her financial background and gain more exposure to the business aspects of running a company.

“Like life itself, careers rarely run their course in a linear or logical way. While I was working as an auditor early in my career, I learned a great deal about finding my voice in the business world, but I longed to bring my sense of empathy, purpose and desire to improve the lives of others to my professional life. By drawing inspiration from my aunt, I found the courage to pivot my career. It was a risk to pursue a different path, but one worth taking to follow my passion.

“Even then, healthcare was incredibly personal to me. After the loss of both my mother and aunt, I realised that healthcare needed to change, to become more accessible and inclusive of mental health. These experiences drove my passion to transform care to treat the whole person, not just the patient, throughout their entire health journey. Health is more than just the physical, and our health is greatly impacted by our mental health, as well as other factors like behaviour and environment, but in order to treat health effectively and comprehensively, we need to ensure people can access the care they need, when they need it.”

Business Accolades

Karen S. Lynch was included in 2021’s inaugural Forbes 50 Over 50 list of female entrepreneurs, leaders, scientists and creators aged over 50. She was awarded the 2021 Committee for Economic Development Distinguished Leadership Award and also ranked number one on Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in Business list. A former honorary co-chair of the Komen Connecticut Race for the Cure benefiting breast cancer research, she was listed among Fortune’s 50 Most Powerful Women in Business in 2022 and included on TIME Magazine’s 2023 TIME 100 annual list of the world’s top hundred most influential people Business

She had amassed both ample experience and the relevant qualifications required to rise through the ranks of the business world and achieve the impact that she so passionately desired, but little did she know that it would be her physical stature and personal style that would prove more of a hurdle than her business prowess and financial acumen.

“I knew climbing the ranks in my career wasn’t going to be easy, but I wasn’t expecting one of the obstacles I would face to be entirely unrelated to my work ethic or ability to deliver results. Early in my career, when I was being considered for my first senior position, I was told I didn’t fit the executive profile despite meeting all the qualifications. The hiring manager told me I was too short, too blonde, my voice wasn’t deep enough, and I wore too much pink. In other words, my femininity was a problem. But I didn’t give up. I was going to honour my aunt’s example of strength and perseverance. I told the interviewer I had no intention of changing and, ultimately, I landed the job. Being authentic and staying true to who you are is important, not just in your career, but in everything that you do. And, for the record, I still love to wear pink!”

Karen was appointed president of Cigna Dental in 2004, before being promoted the very next year to a new position combining the leadership of Cigna Group Insurance and Cigna Dental. She would remain with Cigna for another four years, before becoming president of Magellan Health Services in 2009 – a position she held for three years. She took on the role of executive vice president and head of Specialty Products at Aetna in 2012, and just three months later led the integration of Coventry Health Care, which was then the largest ever healthcare acquisition. She retained the position of Lynch company president, which she’d taken on in 2015, through the $70 billion acquisition of Aetna by CVS Health in 2018.

Having by then held a number of top positions in the sector, Lynch found herself in a strong position to champion the changes to the healthcare system that had first motivated her to enter the sector all those years ago. And still she drew inspiration from her late aunt.

“Among the many lessons learned from my aunt is the importance of giving back. I’m using my experience and knowledge to shift the healthcare system from “sick care” to holistic care through better care coordination at the local and community level. Ultimately, we need to understand that healthcare is human care. This means understanding people and their specific health needs where they live and work. That is why I’m pushing our company to be a closer, more trusted partner in individuals’ overall wellbeing, so that we can help them achieve their goals and live the life they desire.

“Being a trusted partner in one’s health means understanding all aspects of health, including the impact of mental health on physical health. Knowing that mental health increases the risk of other medical conditions, it is important we treat mental health issues in tandem with physical illness. I continually advocate for greater awareness and education of mental health, so that those suffering have access to the services they need and the promise of a healthier future.”

Karen shares her passion to advance the treatment of mental health with her husband Kevin M. Lynch, who is the founder, president and CEO of the Quell Foundation, a non-profit that strives to remove the stigma around mental health and reduce the number of suicides, overdoses and incarcerations of those with mental illness.

Being authentic and staying true to who you are is important, not just in your career, but in everything that you do. And, for the record, I still love to wear pink!

Karen took the helm as president and CEO of CVS Health in early 2021, at the height of the pandemic, thereby becoming the highest-ranking female CEO on the Fortune 500 list. And she has never been in a better or more authoritative position to guide the historic changes taking place in the healthcare industry and the transformation of the healthcare experience for everyone. And she is convinced that she can see it happening in front of her eyes: “we are working to build a healthier world. It’s a noble and audacious goal; people can really rally behind it and we’re seeing that every day.”

As a self-professed change agent, Karen is also successfully juggling her leadership role with that of a veritable industry rabble-rouser. “I like to create change and execute on that change,” she says, “but in my view an effective leader is willing to listen to other people’s ideas before charging down the path of change.”

She is also keen to see more women rising through the ranks of executives, simply because that has today become a tried and tested element in doing business successfully.

“I am passionate about increasing the number of women in leadership roles, not only because high performing women deserve equal access to opportunity, but because the inclusion of women in these roles is proven to be better for business. If my own experience is an example, my interactions with healthcare have given me many insights into why and how we must improve the sector. Finally, I would encourage all women to be true to themselves; to refuse to settle, to follow their passion, and to bring their authentic selves to every role they have.”

The post Combining Passionate Leadership And The Championing Of Change appeared first on CorD Magazine.

When Brewer accepted what was essentially a demotion by switching to Walmart from her position as group president at Kimberly-Clark, some questioned the move. However, she believes that she needed to start there in order to learn about retail. “I was in a learning mode, but I took a step back to get ahead. That’s when my career began to really explode,” she says.

After a series of top jobs at Sam’s Club and Starbucks, Brewer took the bold and courageous choice to accept a top spot at a healthcare company, namely Walgreens Boots Alliance, in the middle of a pandemic, which she admits was “a pretty gutsy move”. However, she says that she’s been fortunate to accumulate so many different learning experiences over her career and that she’s pretty adamant about making sure that she’s clear about her role, her intent and how she brings together her toolbox.

“I think the one thread that I can pull through all of my roles and opportunities is my personal leadership, and that’s the way I show up first and foremost. Because most of the business problems that I face in these leadership roles require character, guts, problem solving, and when I bring that basic toolkit to bear in these different roles, that has proven effective for me every time.”

She also admits that she’s very fastidious in her work, becoming a real student of the business whenever she takes on a new role. “I remember when I joined Walmart after being with Kimberly- Clark for such a long time, and being in consumer products, and going into retail. My job was based in Atlanta, Georgia, but I decided to move myself to Bentonville, Arkansas, and go on a learning journey for 90 days. And I stayed in a little hotel and came into the home office there and really studied them during what I call the honeymoon period, and it was the best thing I could’ve ever done. I met people. I learned more about retail. And I really put myself in a learning position and not in a position initially of leadership, and I chose to learn and be an advocate and open-minded about the opportunities ahead of me,” explains Brewer.

As if being a Fortune 500 CEO didn’t place her in a sufficiently elite group, she’s also both female and black, which makes her a true rarity. But how does she balance the pressure, scrutiny and expectations that come from being practically the only person of her kind in such a position?

I met people. I learned more about retail. And I really put myself in a learning position and not in a position initially of leadership, and I chose to learn and be an advocate and open-minded about the opportunities ahead of me

“Sometimes it’s a lonely position,” she admits, “because you don’t see yourself in different environments that you’re in, and then I look at myself personally and say, what can I do to change this, because it could be difficult at certain times? I think that the environment is opening up more to people recognising and appreciating the differences. Many times, I’m called upon and asked to give my opinion on diversity issues, and I will be honest with you: I am as frank as I possibly can be, because I do think I hold a unique position. When I get in these settings, I take advantage of the opportunity to learn and educate those around me, because I can feel it when they’re unfamiliar with me or my culture. I don’t hide my culture. I talk about it very openly. I feel like that is almost my second reason for being. Everybody has their purpose in how they get into a situation or an environment, but I take advantage of it and do everything I can to teach and expose people to my culture and who I am. I learned early in my career, I’d say maybe five to seven years out of college, that I really wanted to bring my whole self to work so I don’t cover up my culture at all, and I think that that’s helpful for me, because they know how to count on me and what the expectations are in terms of interacting with me.”

Throughout her career, she’s often found herself as the only woman, and even the only person of colour, in a room full of executives. But in this fast-changing world, she looks forward to the day when she’s no longer ‘the only’ in these rooms and environments, and she personally does a lot to try to make that happen. “The way I deal with this is really I’m no different than other individuals in the room, and I try to share that as well. My accomplishments come from hard work, from exposure. One of the things I find myself doing, fortunately or unfortunately, is having to run a few people through my resume, because I think they look at my titles and wonder if I really do the work and how I got here. But I have some absolute real lived experiences.”

She explains in more depth: “When I was at Starbucks, I worked the drive-thru window. When I was at Walmart, I had three trucks at night so I could learn distribution logistics and warehousing at those companies. So, I’ve done the worst and the best of the jobs. Sometimes I have to remind people of that. And it gives me credibility that I’ve not been a token. I’ve not been granted these jobs. I’ve absolutely had to work very hard to get where I am.

“And so, I find myself doing that. It doesn’t bother me. I’m hopeful, I’m an optimist, and I hope that is not what the next person has to do, but for now I find myself having to really go on a deep dive in terms of my experience and do a lot of storytelling about why I believe in what I believe. I’m on the Business Roundtable and we’re getting into some really courageous conversations around the new infrastructure bill. I happen to have a lot of experience in the space of what it takes to move goods across the United States, and I’ve been fortunate enough to maybe share a little bit of that, and maybe people didn’t realise that I had a background in that as well, because you can’t be in retail and not understand supply chain and logistics.”

Speaking more broadly about workplace diversity, she explains that the corporate world is striving to advance diversity, equity and inclusion, through so-called DEI strategies, but that few people really understand the core of the issue as it stands in America. “When the George Floyd incident happened, I actually thought I knew it all and I had been doing a good job in DE&I. And I quickly realised that, even myself, who’s been a huge proponent of it, myself, who is a double minority, myself, a mother of a young black male, I thought I understood this, but I realised that I didn’t. I realised that I hadn’t been asking all the right questions; I hadn’t been focusing on the parts of our environment and our social environment that are very much broken. I think we have been focusing on the D of DE&I, and not on equity and inclusion. And I say that because what really happened with the George Floyd incident is that I don’t think people understood the race issues that are happening in our country.

I’ve done the worst and the best of the jobs. Sometimes I have to remind people of that. And it gives me credibility that I’ve not been a token. I’ve not been granted these jobs. I’ve absolutely had to work very hard to get where I am

Those that are left out and those who don’t see a way out of their current situation. But we do see putting numbers in place and hiring numbers. But have we asked the questions: how can someone survive on minimum wage; and where is our country on great education and access to healthcare? It also made me think back. I took it personally, when all of that was happening. As you can imagine, I didn’t know George Floyd, and not many of us did, but I tried to put myself in the shoes of him and his family. And I think about the work that I was doing at Walmart. I was just so adamant about clearing the way and thinking about, “How can I close in on food deserts.” Right? If people have proper food and access to the best price, the best cost in food. So, I did everything I could do to put Walmart stores in the right zip codes. That was my focus… So, if you put the food right near them, and there’s still not proper nutrition and proper healthcare in those places, what’s causing them to not be able to thrive and rise above the minimum wage job, and go to the next level, and the next level?

… I was listening and I wasn’t acting. And I wasn’t drilling down enough. And I think that’s the next level of leadership: that we’re going to have to get pretty gritty about listening and acting and making people feel included in the environments that we create, as leaders.”

Her first takeaway, thus, is that business leaders should leave their phones in their pockets. And even when there is diverse representation, corporate cultures can produce a kind of group-think and group-speak. This is why Rosalind, who goes by the nickname Roz, has been thinking less about diversity of ethnicity and culture and more about the kind of diversity of viewpoints that trace varied experiences and backgrounds.

“One of the things that I think about when I’m thinking about diversity is diversity of thought. Because we can also realise that there are individuals who may not be of diverse culture, race, or gender themselves, but where is their mindset? How do they think about different cultures and different environments? One of the things that I began to do in my career is to put agile teams together. And what I mean by that is, a lot of times, you have your finance team working in their silo. You’ll have the tech team working in their silo. But what I really think works is when we create these agile teams and put them against the biggest problems to solve. That’s one of the things I’m doing right now at Walgreens Boots Alliance: make sure that this organisation understands the biggest problems that we’re going to solve? It’s not a question of whether we have enough technology, but whether the technology we have is fulfilling the need for efficiencies in the organisation. Is it creating the right tools for our team members at stores and for our customers?”

As Roz concludes, “you can have the best strategy in the world, but if your team operates in a silo-driven environment, you’re not going to get the results that you expect. For instance, right now we’re trying to create a tech-enabled healthcare company. I have the same message for the entire group. And the biggest problem to solve is, how do we become the best performing stock in the Dow? And so, when you put that team together, you are forcing finance and technology and operations and manufacturing all to be in the same room, in the same discussion, against the biggest problem to solve. And it’s not finance solving a finance problem. What that actually does: it gets the diversity of thought to happen. And then you have different people sitting around the table. And in some cases, one of the outcomes that I’ve seen is that, in certain functions, we have heavier opportunity for diversity than we do in others. I would love to see more diversity in technology. It’s coming, but right now I have a lot of diversity in finance. So, I get the opportunity to put a diverse financial team with a growing diverse tech team in the room. Diversity of thought is happening around the problem to solve, and then the cultures are coming together. And, hopefully, we’ll move all of those opportunities up. But it’s about creating these agile teams and putting them against the unique problems to solve. And forcing them to relate to each other and think about how to solve the issue at hand.”

The post Seeking Diversity Of Thought appeared first on CorD Magazine.

Kenny Dichter is today best known as the founder, CEO and chairman of the board of revolutionary membership-based private aviation company Wheels Up – a firm that has eliminated fixed costs and provided unparalleled flexibility since its 2013 launch – but it was way back in 1990, as a then new graduate of the University of Wisconsin [majoring in sociology], that Dichter co-founded his first company: Alphabet City Sports Records.

Focused on creating and selling songs that commonly reverberate around stadiums, arenas and other sports venues, the company was ultimately bought in 1998 by SFX Entertainment (now LiveStyle, Inc.) for 4.3 million dollars in cash and stock.

Dichter’s next original move came in 2001, when he founded Marquis Jets, representing the first fractional card jet programme, which served to revitalise and democratise the private aviation industry. With Dichter at the helm, the company grew quickly and by 2007 had achieved an annual turnover of more than $700 million from 3,500 customers. With over $4 billion in revenue generated, Dichter sold Marquis Jets in November 2010 to NetJets, a subsidiary of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, and was named NetJets vice chairman at the time. This new role enabled him to build lasting relationships with CEOs, entrepreneurs, celebrities, athletes and tastemakers worldwide, which would prove vital for his future ventures.

As a natural entrepreneur who has always been known as a trend spotter and trendsetter, with an innate knack for branding, marketing, public relations and advertising, Dichter is a self-proclaimed “man of the people”, whose successes prove that he can apply his skills to a variety of industries.

Kenny is always on the lookout for earlystage businesses that show the potential for hyper growth. He has invested and played an active role in Juice Press, a Manhattan-based, multi-location, grab-and-go organic, raw food and juice company; SportYapper, a global communications platform for talking sports; CYC, the first indoor cycling studio aimed at college students and young professionals at universities across America; and Cirrus, a fitness company that customises premium exercise equipment.

You need to be gritty to be a successful entrepreneur. You have to be willing to just keep moving forward, willing to take advice and, most importantly, you need to be a flexible thinker

In 2010, together with fellow entrepreneur Ken Austin, Dichter co-founded Tequila Avion, an ultra-premium brand of this famous Mexican spirit that needed just two and a half years of excellent branding and distribution to position itself as an emerging leader in its category. The venture quickly proved so successful that famous Paris-based Pernod Ricard, the world’s second largest company specialising in premium wines and spirits, even purchased a minority stake in Tequila Avion in 2011, taking on worldwide distribution rights.

Dichter also founded (in 2004) MGX Lab, an independent, full-service, digital media, brand strategy and business development company that serves as a think tank for companies like Disney, Bayer, Patch, cambio.com and Muhammad Ali Enterprises, while he is also Founder and Chairman of Tour GCX Partners, Inc., a golf membership programme that provides client entertainment solutions for corporations and individuals, via access to private country clubs.

Thanks to the expertise he acquired during his work with Marquis Jets, NetJets and Wheels Up, Dichter is regularly sought by media outlets for his perspectives on the aviation industry, consumer brands and the luxury goods and services sector.

All these successes might lead one to conclude that Kenny has always lived the high life, but the truth is that his journey has been one of constant hard work and tenacity, coupled with his natural inclination for entrepreneurship. He grew up on Long Island in the 1970s and ‘80s and has worked for almost as long as he can remember. His first job came while he was still in the sixth grade, delivering newspapers by bike every weekday afternoon and Sunday morning. He subsequently worked in restaurants as a busboy and even launched his own T-shirt business while studying at the University of Wisconsin, expanding to three retail locations by the time he graduated in 1990.

“You need to be gritty to be a successful entrepreneur,” says Kenny. “You have to be willing to just keep moving forward, willing to take advice and, most importantly, you need to be a flexible thinker.”

His greatest business success to date is undoubtedly Wheels Up, which represents the only company in the aviation industry to offer a total private aviation solution that includes world-class safety, service, and flex ibility through on-demand flights, membership programmes, corporate solutions, aircraft management, whole aircraft sales and commercial travel benefits, thanks to its strategic partnership with leading U.S. player Delta Air Lines. Wheels Up offers its customers and members access to over 1,500 safety-vetted and verified aircraft. Via the Wheels Up App, anyone can search, book and fly. Wheels Up Connect, Core and Business memberships provide enhancements like flight sharing, empty-leg Hot Flights, Shuttle Flights, Shared Flights, signature Wheels Down events and exclusive member benefits from preeminent lifestyle brands. The company’s ongoing Wheels Up Cares programme aligns with philanthropic organisations and initiatives that are relevant to the company and its customers, members, stakeholders, families and friends. The Wheels Up Cares fleet comprises five custom painted Beechcraft King Air 350i aircraft – with each plane serving as a flying symbol for a specific cause.

I believe every organisation needs to identify their own philanthropic values and make sure it’s an organic part of the work they do every day

Speaking about this unique programme, Kenny explains: “Wheels Up has always had a culture that cares and wants to give back. It’s in our DNA and we created the official Wheels Up Cares programme with that same vision and mantra – we want to use our platform to Ovardo good in the world and make an impact. We identify causes to rally around and lend our support in creative ways that make sense for our brand to serve the communities we fly in and out of every day.

“Since our founding, we have painted the livery of five Beechcraft King Air 350i planes, which became permanent members of our fleet as flying symbols of awareness for each of the causes that we represent. The presence of the Wheels Up Cares fleet serves as a constant reminder of our pledge and creates a tremendous sense of pride for everyone in our company. Our social media channels also change from our brand blue to match the colour of each Wheels Up Cares aircraft throughout the year, during the months when they are recognised, and a few of the planes have even featured in television commercials. They also provide special experiences for our members and customers, who are surprised and delighted when they discover that they will be flying in one of the Wheels Up Cares planes. “Our most recent launch was the Orange Plane, which we painted with our partners at Textron and unveiled in September 2020, in honour of Feeding America’s Hunger Action Month and in conjunction with our Meals Up initiative, to help support the growing levels of food insecurity during the pandemic. As part of that effort, we also illuminated pylons at airports across the country, such as LAX and LGA, to raise further awareness of the mission of Feeding America.

“The Wheels Up Cares fleet includes the Camouflage Plane for the Tragedy Assistance Programme for Survivors (TAPS), the Red Plane for the American Heart Association and Simon’s Heart, the Teal Plane for Ovarian Cancer Awareness, and the Pink Plane for Breast Cancer Awareness and the Dubin Breast Center of the Tisch Cancer Institute at Mount Sinai Hospital.”

Kenny says that the company will continue developing its philanthropic initiatives. “In the future, we will continue to add to the fleet as we identify and align with philanthropic organisations and initiatives that affect and matter to our Wheels Up members, customers, families and friends.”

Entrepreneurs who strive to establish and develop new businesses need to both attract and retain top talent, and Kenny is of the opinion that doing so requires being a good corporate citizen, engaged in the communities they serve.

“Our team is made up of some of the most inspired corporate citizens I’ve ever met. We push each other every day to find new ways to use our platform and relationships to promote causes that will impact change, and that is a very important part of our culture. I believe every organisation needs to identify their own philanthropic values and make sure it’s an organic part of the work they do every day.”

The post Coupling Hard Work & Innovation appeared first on CorD Magazine.

Born in 1968, Goodzari arrived in the U.S. from his native Tehran at the tender age of nine, having managed to flee with his family prior to the Iranian Revolution. He wasn’t exactly welcomed with open arms by his peers in Florida’s Orlando… He says he was bullied on a daily basis, told to get back to his own country by other kids in school and the neighbourhood, and all due to the infamous Iran hostage crisis… That period of his life haunted him for years, and even led to him being expelled from school over his abysmal grades.

“I had horrible grades and I was kicked out of school. My grades were so bad – I had a 1.9 GPA – that I couldn’t even get into a four-year college. So, I started out in a community college. These things make you stronger. It makes you a better person. Frankly, to this day, I don’t take for granted being in the U.S. With all the opportunities, it’s a blessing to be here,” he said speaking to Forbes.

After earning a Bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Central Florida and a Master’s in business administration from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, he embarked on a career in business.

Prior to his arrival at Intuit, where he has been employed for 14 years, Goodarzi worked for automation specialist company Invensys Ltd., a global provider of software, industrial automation, transportation and energy controls technology headquartered in the UK, where he served as global president of the products group. He has also held a number of senior leadership roles in the automation control division at Honeywell, as well as serving as the CEO and co-founder of technology start-up Lazer Cables Inc.

During his time at Intuit, Goodarzi has successfully led each of the company’s largest businesses, most recently serving – until becoming CEO – as executive vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Small Business and Self-Employed Group, prior to which he served as executive vice president and general manager of Intuit’s Consumer Tax Group; chief information officer; general manager of Intuit’s ProTax organisation; and general manager of Intuit’s Financial Services Division.

With Goodzari at the helm, Intuit has achieved record results since 2019, while he is also spearheading the transformation of the company through additions to the range of products. However, he is also quick to praise company co-founder Scott Cook for establishing Intuit’s ‘DNA’ when he created the company nearly 40 years ago.

My grades were so bad that I couldn’t even get into a four-year college

Back then, explains Sasan, “it was a company focused on two things: our employees and customers, and that’s carried on for almost 40 years. With our team, we can improve upon it and make it better. But first and foremost, it’s in the DNA of the company. There are three big things that, over the years, have evolved to guide what we do every day. One is our mission, which is to power prosperity around the world. Whether it’s the products and services that we create, or what we need to do to help the communities around us, to make them better than when we found them, we need to do our part to power prosperity around the world. Second, our values are key to our success. These values have evolved several times over our nearly 40-year history, most recently about 18 months ago. They are something we live by, and the actual proof of our values is that when we’ve opened offices in places like Paris or Sydney, where we didn’t even have a product to market, we succeeded. We became known there as one of the best places to work, because our culture carries with us, wherever we go. Lastly, the way we set expectations is essential. We have this thing called “true north goals”. We have goals for employees, customers, communities and shareholders. It’s how we run the company, and how we talk about our performance within the company and externally. And those three things guide who we are today, which is a company committed to doing what’s right.”

As a company driven by a purpose and a vision, which demands high employee engagement, Sasan is clear about the way his team motivates itself and ensures the company’s values and culture remain aligned despite so many employees being located in different locations?

“We are intentional about that in every setting. We always focus on the three things that I mentioned earlier. We always talk about our mission, and examples of how we’re bringing our mission to life. As one example, we have what we call “state of the company” four times a year, where we get all our 15,000 employees together to talk about how the company is doing. At every single state of the company, I go through our values. It’s a refresher for those who have been with us, but it’s also essential for those that are new to the company, to share how important they are.

“We talk about the problems they will solve for our customers and the vision for each of our five big bets. But, beyond that, we talk about our big bets that we declared across the company. We announced these bets about three years ago. I talk about the progress that we’ve made and where we are constructively dissatisfied.

It may sound straightforward, but it’s the one we are committed to doing because, as you can imagine, our most significant power – and the most enormous challenge – is to leverage and align 15,000 folks. It’s something we work at very hard.”

Sasan, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife and two children, has been busy expanding the company since he became CEO three years ago, with Intuit having acquired MailChimp and Credit Karma, among others. As he explains, “three plus years ago, we were a company focused on tax and accounting, a platform company, but focused on solving those two fundamental problems. And we wanted to be a company that helped firms make ends meet, helped you save money, helped you get out of debt, and succeed as a small business. That shift led to our five big bets. For us, speed of impact is everything. We live in a world where impact matters, but the speed at which you work matters a lot.

With Goodzari at the helm, Intuit has achieved record results since 2019, while also spearheading the transformation of the company

Beyond accelerating our internal organic innovation, we felt like there were two areas where we needed to move much faster. One, how do we help small businesses grow their business? And the other is how do we move beyond tax to serve consumers more broadly? Because typically, what we’ve done is to help you run your business.

“The other important element was establishing relationships and truly understanding that our missions were aligned and getting excited about what we can do together that we can’t do apart.”

Goodzari says that he never envisaged himself as succeeding in one specific moment, but rather that his success in life and work have come as the accumulation of things that happened over time, when he kept himself busy.

“I’ve always believed in keeping my head down – focused on hard work, resilience and creating an environment where our teams could win. I think of one time when I gained more confidence in myself. I used to work in sales for Honeywell. One of the executives at Honeywell flew down to spend an entire day with me. At the end of that day, he said, “I think you’re a gem, and I think you have a bright future.” That stuck in the back of my mind. It was one of those moments when I remembered that famous quote, “Anything is possible, and don’t let anyone ever tell you what you can’t do”.

The post Committed To Powering Prosperity Worldwide appeared first on CorD Magazine.

50-year-old mother of two, Manju Malhotra graduated from the University of Warwick with an economics degree long before she became the first official chief executive of British luxury retailer Harvey Nichols in five years (since a 2017 leadership team reshuffle saw then-CEO Stacey Cartwright move into the role of deputy chairman) and has successfully guided this national treasure of UK retail through the pandemic that was declared just days after she took the helm.

Malhotra, a quietly confident and extremely competent lady, first joined Harvey Nichols back in 1998 as an internal audit officer, only to progress through the ranks of the company in positions including group head of finance and CFO. She effectively led the business from 2018, as co-COO alongside Daniela Rinaldi, only to be left to go it alone when Rinaldi resigned in December 2019 and Malhorta was formally appointed CEO in January 2020, just days before the pandemic hit and ultimately forced the department store to close its doors for months.

She officially reports to Dickson Poon, chairman and owner of Harvey Nichols, and works closely with Pearson Poon, Dickson’s son and the company’s executive director.

Speaking at the time of her appointment, Dickson Poon explained the choice: “over the past 22 years, Manju has repeatedly demonstrated her ability in finance, and through her time as chief operating officer, and in particular this year, she has demonstrated her leadership in developing strategies and optimising business performance during one of the most challenging business environments in recent history. With our continued investment, I look forward to building a new long-term success for Harvey Nichols as a global luxury omnichannel platform with Manju.”

Speaking herself on her new role, Malhotra said back in 2020: “I am delighted with my appointment to CEO. Whilst the short-term retail outlook is unpredictable, I am hugely excited about the future plans and opportunities for the fantastic Harvey Nichols brand.”

She couldn’t have imagined her rise to the top of Harvey Nichols the first time she visited the Knightsbridge department store to treat herself to a luxury sweater after completing her economics degree. Indeed, she admits that back then she would never have dreamt of being among the rare women of colour that are running major UK retail brands.

The grounded economist’s first role at this famous temple of high fashion was back in 1998 as audit manager, while she now holds the reigns of a veritable empire that includes eight stores in the UK and Ireland, encompassing – alongside its original central London store – large outlets in Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Leeds and Manchester, as well as a specialist ‘Beauty Bazaar’ at Harvey Nichols Liverpool and five overseas branches, including a store in Dublin’s largest shopping centre, Dundrum Town Centre.

We are very in tune with the customers. We have to be obsessive about what customers are thinking, and so it is great to have that on the board

Over the almost quarter of a century that she’s spent at the company, she says that she’s never felt marginalised as a woman of colour, while she’s focused on gaining experience by putting “both hands up” whenever a new project was being discussed.

It was way back in 1831 that Benjamin Harvey first opened a linen shop in a terraced house on the corner of London’s Knightsbridge and Sloane Street, only to expand his operations four years later by taking over the adjacent unit. The growing popularity of Harvey’s linen shop would result in it continuing to expand to encompass successive properties over the following years. Harvey hired one James Nichols a decade after first establishing his shop. Nichols was promoted to management in 1845 and married Harvey’s niece, Anne Beale, in 1848, only for Harvey to die two years later, leaving the business to his wife Anne. The widow opted to form a partnership with Nichols and thus Harvey Nichols & Co. was born.

The business continued to go from strength to strength and – following the 1975 opening of the Harvey’s restaurant on the store’s fifth floor – is today as well known for its dining as its fashion, with a suite of restaurants that includes the Oxo Tower beside the Thames.

Malhotra’s tale is one of rag trade to riches. Born into fashion retail, she grew up helping out at her parents’ own fashion shop in London’s East End. “It was the entry level of the market, before fast fashion,” she explains.

Her father took on the responsibility of procurement manager, while her mother worked the shop floor. “I always remember the trends and how retail and fashion reflected popular culture,” Malhotra says. “When Frankie Goes to Hollywood were big, ‘Frankie Says Relax’ T-shirts were everywhere. You couldn’t keep them in stock.”

It was while studying at Warwick University that she first experienced consumer culture from the retail aspect, through summer jobs at Russell & Bromley and Marks & Spencer, and became fascinated by its “dynamic” nature.

And she’s seen that dynamism in a big way since taking on the top job, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic that hit almost immediately and caused a seismic shift in shopping practises, with physical shops shutting their doors and customers turning to online shopping and home deliveries. However, she insists that her lack of experience wasn’t an issue: “At the time, it didn’t actually matter: no one in a similar role – or any organisation – had been in that situation before. And I had knowledge of the business. Had I been CEO of a business I’d never worked at before, it might have been more challenging.”

She was also aided by the fact that Hong Kongbased luxury company Dickson Concepts, which owns Harvey Nichols, had previously dealt with pandemics, having operated through the Sars and Mers outbreaks.

“They were more realistic about the timeframe and how long this might last,” she explained. “People in the UK were talking about it lasting a few weeks or months, but they understood that it could be a couple of years.”

This helped the company plan for long-term change and come up with the idea of offering online experiences, from beauty masterclasses to Friday night DJ sets. Taking the decision to close its stores before the government mandated it to do so, it consigned its stock to its warehouses in order to be able to fulfil online orders at the peak of the spring/summer shopping season. Online sales did indeed take off during the lockdowns, but Harvey Nichols still suffered. Sales fell by 45% to £121.3m in the year up to 27th March 2021, while the group cut its capital investments by 52% and focused spending on developing its website. Pre-tax losses nonetheless more than doubled – to £39.6m, up from £16.3m a year prior.

With restrictions now lifted, Malhotra says that shoppers have flocked back to stores and she is now focused on developing more dining and drinking options, as well as online services that include corporate gifting and entertainment.

What has kept me here is that the business is always evolving, and there are always investment opportunities. We have a curated offer. We do the legwork for our customers and people look to us for that authority

“What has kept me here is that the business is always evolving, and there are always investment opportunities,” she says. “We have a curated offer. We do the legwork for our customers and people look to us for that authority.”

She is finding a way to make the company profitable again, and is doing so with the help of a board that’s dominated by women, which continues to be a rarity in UK retail, despite the vast majority of both shopworkers and shoppers being female.

“We are very in tune with the customers,” says Malhotra. “We have to be obsessive about what customers are thinking, and so it is great to have that on the board.”

According to this highly experienced senior executive, who has led her business to deliver growth and enhanced consumer experience across luxury Fashion, Beauty, Food/Drinks and Hospitality, the owners of Harvey Nichols have made it easy for such a diverse group to make it to the top. “We celebrate individuality. And always have done.”

As well as being responsible for Harvey Nichols entire business – encompassing Buying, Marketing, Finance, IT, E-Commerce, Retail stores, HR, Property & International franchises – Manju is also a Non-Executive Director of both Workspace Group plc and London & Partners.

Declared one of London’s most influential leaders by the city’s Evening Standard newspaper, she has been included in the Drapers Fashion Retail 100 and on the Power List of Retail Week. An alumna of Asian Women of Achievement, since 2013 she’s also been an ambassador and mentor to the Camden Spear Trust, a charity that focuses on improving the lives of underprivileged youngsters. And as if all that wasn’t enough, this pioneering businesswoman is also an ambassador of Retail Week’s Be Inspired, which supports the next generation of business leaders.

The post From Audit Manager To CEO appeared first on CorD Magazine.

Founded in 2013 as a neutral video platform that strives to create the independent infrastructure intended to render it immune to cancel culture, with the mission of restoring the internet’s roots of free access and openness, Rumble’s popularity initially grew slowly, but in recent years it has become a high-growth platform. This booming popularity prompted it to go public in September, after shareholders of special purpose acquisition company Cantor Fitzgerald Acquisition Corp. VI voted in favour of the move.

Created as an alternative to the globally popular YouTube, Rumble hosts channels for influencers and video content creators who have found themselves censored or kicked off the Google-owned platform, among others.

With a purported 78 million global monthly viewers, Rumble recently announced the launch of exclusive shows from British actor and activist Russell Brand and renowned American journalist Glenn Greenwald, though Pavlovski’s personal invitation and offer of $100 million in February this year to Joe Rogan, the world’s number one podcaster, failed to bear fruit. Nonetheless, his free-speech-centric platform does also manage advertising sales for former U.S. President Donald Trump’s platform Truth Social, which Trump founded following his shocking and highly controversial banning from social network company Twitter.

As Pavlovski wrote in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, “Rumble is creating the rails to a new infrastructure that will not be bullied by cancel culture… We are a movement that does not stifle, censor, or punish creativity and freedom of expression.”

As he personally Tweeted in December 2021, “Now more than ever, it’s time to lean in and restore the internet to its roots by making it free and open once again. I am personally committed to this.”

According to The Wall Street Journal, the platform has also gained private financing from conservative venture capitalist Peter Thiel, as well as author and U.S. Senate candidate and “Hillbilly Elegy” author J.D. Vance.

Pavlovski, a Canadian entrepreneur who is also a founder and partner of IT consulting firm Cosmic Development and a former marketing director of space exploration company Next Giant Leap, says that he launched the platform in response to the increasing censoring of free speech on the internet. As he explains, “Rumble is based on a deceptively simple concept: the internet should remain free and open. People should be free to produce and view online content without worrying about censorship or algorithmic manipulation. If someone makes a video that people like, they should have the opportunity to monetise it and build a following. Rumble isn’t in the business of picking which videos succeed and which fail; we simply provide a platform for creators and their audiences. This is how all platforms should work.”

People from all walks of life are flocking to Rumble, because it provides them with a place to express their ideas free from arbitrary discrimination or manipulation

Google’s acquisition of YouTube, back in 2006, shifted the playing field for good. The move led to the rapid, successive collapse of YouTube’s main competitors, including Dailymotion and Break.com, which were unable to cope with the combined might of YouTube and Google, as the world’s dominant search engine.

“I knew then that I wanted to go toe-to-toe against YouTube and inject competition into a monopolistic marketplace,” explains Pavlovski. “That’s why, in 2013, I started Rumble and began building the infrastructure we needed to compete with Big-Tech giants. This wasn’t an easy task, because Big-Tech companies have a huge size and reach advantage. We designed Rumble to focus on a group we thought YouTube and other platforms often overlooked: small creators. We wanted to be a place where creators knew that an algorithm wouldn’t determine the success or failure of their videos.”

The Rumble founder and CEO insists that his platform has no hidden agenda. “We exist to ensure creators have a platform to disseminate their message to those who are interested. Since our founding, we have struck back against Big Tech whenever possible.” The company even sued Google for prioritising YouTube videos in its search algorithm.

“Over the last two years, many creators and users have realised that Rumble is a refuge against cancel culture. We have grown rapidly in size, as media superstars including Dan Bongino and Governor Ron DeSantis have taken Rumble by storm,” says Pavlovski. “Whenever YouTube cancels someone like Dr Rand Paul for committing a so-called “thought crime,” we gain momentum and subscribers. We now routinely set video production and consumption records as we continue expanding.”

Rumble has also been building up its resources, with German-American billionaire entrepreneur, venture capitalist, and political activist Peter Thiel and American venture capitalist, lawyer and author J.D. Vance having invested substantially in Rumble. The platform also recently acquired subscription-based online platform Locals, which allows users to interact directly with creators. As Pavlovski explains, “our growth has also been physical, as we recently announced our U.S. headquarters in Florida and plan to expand there in the coming months.”

More recently, Rumble entered into a business combination agreement with CF Acquisition Corp. VI, with the transactions anticipated by the business agreement closing in the second quarter of 2022, subject to customary closing conditions. This move allowed members of the public to join Rumble in pursuing its mission, while September’s public launch provided the opportunity to access the resources and support required for Rumble to continue building a new economy for, as Pavlovski puts it, “creators and viewers that emphatically reject Big-Tech’s policies and further our goal of creating a complete cloud infrastructure that protects Rumble and our creators from any retaliation from outside companies.”

We designed Rumble to focus on a group we thought YouTube and other platforms often overlooked: small creators. We wanted to be a place where creators knew that an algorithm wouldn’t determine the success or failure of their videos

And Rumble isn’t stopping there. The company has been generating momentum over the last nine years and the results are now visible for the world to see.

“People from all walks of life are flocking to Rumble, because it provides them with a place to express their ideas free from arbitrary discrimination or manipulation,” insists Pavlovski.

The latest development is the new Rumble Store. Initially offering a small collection of U.S.-made Rumble t-shirts and hats, in future the store will draw inspiration from creative artists and creators to expand the collection with Rumble-branded essential merchandise and ‘drops’, or limited time offers.

“We are excited to offer our community official Rumble merchandise,” says Pavlovski. “We wanted to design merchandise that our community can wear with pride in support of our collective mission to protect a free and open internet. What you see today is just the beginning of what we envisage as being a collection of creative pieces inspired by professional designers and creators.”

With no end in sight for the censoring and de-platforming of alternative voices on the largest Big Tech platforms, Rumble has a huge mission ahead in its struggle to make the internet free and open once and for all.

The post Rumblings On Rumble’s Battle Against Cancel Culture appeared first on CorD Magazine.

Seeking to increase your turnover during the year ahead? Then allow yourself to be inspired by the meteoric rise of the American entrepreneur, self-made billionaire and philanthropist that is John Paul DeJoria. Prior to becoming a billionaire, this conscious capitalism maverick tried his hand as an encyclopaedia salesman, and even spent time working as a janitor. His first job, at the tender age of just nine, was selling Christmas cards door-to-door, in order to help his impoverished family cover household expenses.

DeJoria almost didn’t get his first big break. It was back in 1980, when he joined forces with renowned hair stylist Paul Mitchell to create the company John Paul Mitchell Systems, that their main investor pulled the plug at the last minute, abandoning them with just $700 of borrowed money to launch their company.

As an example of pulling oneself up by the bootstraps, DeJoria had been struggling to make ends meet and living in his car at the time. Speaking in one interview for Reuters, he admitted that the company’s iconic blackand- white logo emerged because their budget was so lean that they didn’t have the funds to be able to print in colour.

Skip 40 years into the future to see that today’s John Paul Mitchell Systems is a successful haircare products and styling tools manufacturer that serves 87 countries. DeJoria sold his other flagship endeavour, Patrón Tequila, in 2018, to Bacardi for a whopping 5.1 billion dollars. Not a bad result for a man who used to regularly order a single 99-cent happy hour margarita, combine it with the free side order of chips and salsa and call it dinner.

An email or direct message is a nice way to get the ball rolling, but there’s nothing better than the bond that can be created through chatting directly, personto- person

Given his track record, we can rest assured that DeJoria knows plenty about sales and business success. And that’s why we’re bringing you four of his top tips for overcoming difficult times and keeping your business on track.

1.PRIORITISE DIRECT CONNECTIONS

Speaking in one interview for Inc., DeJoria shockingly admitted that he doesn’t use email… Believe it or not, but he says that he doesn’t even use a computer. Yes, he might be ranked among the 400 richest Americans by Forbes and he might claim that around 10 of his companies require his personal attention at least some of the time, but he is far from a digital warrior. It’s highly likely that he’s even busier than you, so if he can avoid digital distractions during working hours, so can you.

An email or direct message is a nice way to get the ball rolling, but there’s nothing better than the bond that can be created through chatting directly, person-to-person. If you’re striving to make sales and strikes deals that last for years, prioritise personal connections and building up a relationship.

It is said that your network is a representation of your net worth. If you see yourself pursuing a life of entrepreneurship for years to come, be sure to make face time a priority, even if that doesn’t result in immediate sales. Taking the time to establish should tangible links could help set you up for a lucrative future partnership or telling introduction that leads to business success.

2. CREATE PRODUCTS THAT ARE REGULARLY REORDERED

Speaking in a CNBC interview back in 2017, DeJoria noted: “you don’t want to be in the product business; you want to be in the reorder business”. And the data suggests that he’s spot on. According to research conducted by management consultants Bain & Company, a mere five per cent improvement in customer retention can lead to profit increases of 25 to 95 per cent.

If repeat purchases of the same product form part of your business plan, be sure to prioritise the developing of a truly world-class product, and to support your sales channels with top customer service. Customers who love the shopping experience that you provide are keen to refer your business to their friends, which can make them invaluable partners for acquiring new loyal clients.

3.DON’T ALLOW REJECTION TO GET YOU DOWN

When you find yourself facing a series of rejections, it’s easy to let your enthusiasm wane. Whether those rejections boil down to doors slammed in your face or an empty email inbox, it’s important to maintain focus and keep your chin up. Successful entrepreneurs aren’t necessarily the best salesmen or marketing execs, but they are the ones who persevere the most and rebound quickly when they’ve been downed.

Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end

According to research findings, rejection can prove detrimental to both mood and selfesteem – both of which are critical resources that entrepreneurs must do everything they can to protect. Do whatever it takes to keep your confidence up and your game in the zone.

4.IF DOESN’T END HAPPILY, IT ISN’T REALLY THE END

Speaking in an interview for the Tim Ferriss Show back in 2020, DeJoria repeated a famous John Lennon quote that’s filled with hope and inspiration: “Everything will be okay in the end. If it’s not okay, it’s not the end.”

This quote represent a comforting and confident outlook from someone who’s gone through many trials and tribulations, including the unexpected passing of his co-founder Paul Mitchell, who died from pancreatic cancer in 1989 at the age of just 53, leaving DeJoria to continue building the company on his own.

Entrepreneurs can easily fall into the trap of being laser-focused on the minutest details that leads to them losing sight of the bigger picture: building a business that’s personally fulfilling, provides assistance to those in need and changes the world for the better. If you find yourself falling down such a rabbit hole of narrow focus, try to resurface and reconnect to the real world, which just might help you to reset and recalibrate.

Many budding entrepreneurs don’t have extensive experience working in sales or doing business. However, if you take the entrepreneurial path, the chances are high that you’ll encounter plenty of failure and rejection getting started on your journey. Seek out ways to keep the fires of your internal motor burning and you’re sure to make progress building your own empire.

The post From Greetings Cards To Billion-dollar Tequila & Beauty Empires appeared first on CorD Magazine.

Kentucky-born Mills Menser has been immersed in the jewellery industry his whole life, having become active in the family business from an early age, personally overseeing huge sales and becoming the company’s top salesman and sales manager by the tender age of 18. But generating sales and turning a profit wasn’t enough to satisfy the ambitions of this young entrepreneur, who had a vision to completely transform the company, and the industry to which it belongs.

He did so by transforming Buchroeders Jewelers into a hybrid jewellery and financial company with the creation of Diamond Banc, defined as a national jewellery buyer and equity lender, and by pioneering the creation of a new capital market that enables access to short term capital for investors and entrepreneurs to expand their portfolios by borrowing against the equity that exists in items of jewellery that they already own. As a luxury brand that focuses solely on the provision of unrivalled liquidity solutions for owners of fine jewellery, Diamond Banc has today grown to include over half a dozen offices throughout the United States and continues to expand into key markets across the country.

Considering his upbringing, it comes as no surprise that Mills appreciates outstanding diamonds, luxury watches and unique items of valuable jewellers, but his true passion lies on the business side of the industry. Indeed, he has had an intense drive for business success since as far back as he can remember – to such an extent that, for him, entering the traditional family business as a third-generation entrepreneur was more about making the most of an opportunity than his innate love of the industry.

As he himself explains, “My father and I discussed the opportunity for me to join the family business from an early age, providing my results and success at my job earned me that right.” And they certainly did that: he soon earned a place among the ranks of the company’s management and had become Buchroeders top salesman and sales manager by the time he’d turned 18. And he’d done so while attending night school after holding down a fulltime day job at the company.

Seeing his son’s instant success and believing the company’s future was in safe hands, Mills’ father began considering his own future, and his ultimate decision to retire prompted Mills to buy the company when he was just 24.

His decision to change the company’s business model was almost immediate. He says: “it was obvious to me that the traditional retail model was broken… Clients demanded better pricing, category specialisation, transparency, and a non-stuffy, yet still luxurious shopping experience. The company was performing and profitable when I purchased it, but in need of a re-invention to create growth.”

He identified a gap in the market that prompted him to rebrand and relaunch the business as a hybrid jewellery purchasing and financial lending company. This would prove to be a first, with no such branded luxury companies offering a palette of financial liquidity options to clients wishing to leverage the equity of jewellery items in their possession and maximising their potential returns on outright sales.

“Supplying capital is always good business and it became my true passion,” says Menser. As he explains: “I founded Diamond Banc to purchase diamonds and other high-end jewellery from the public substantially below traditional wholesale pricing. Diamond Banc also offers luxury asset-based loans to the public using their jewellery assets as collateral. This concept has truly transformed the business at my retail store by vastly lowering cost of goods, dramatically increasing inventory turn, and improving cash flow. Diamond Banc buys both over the counter and nationwide through www.diamondbanc.com. Since its inception in 2008, we have acquired millions of dollars-worth of jewellery from the public via the website, as well as made loans in over 20 states.”

It was the needs of clients that led to the emergence of the Diamond Banc division in 2008, with Mills noticing that, although some people wanted to sell their jewellery items outright, some potential clients were inquiring about borrowing against their most beloved pieces of jewellery that they simply couldn’t bear to sell.

Customers cast votes with dollars, and few care today if the business they engage with is family owned… The concern is value, experience and efficiency

While there were plenty of companies selling jewellery, there was a distinct lack of well-funded and professional jewellery buyers with the knowledge required to be able to take into consideration every value-adding factor when purchasing diamonds and top items of fine jewellery – with the unenticing option of pawnbrokers often lacking the expertise needed to evaluate the true value of diamonds and thus typically undervaluing them.

“I identified the lending requests as the service that Diamond Banc could be the best in the nation at offering,” says Menser.

In a desire to retain the Buchroeders retail division as a separate entity, Mesner established the first branch of Diamond Banc in 2008, housed in a small office just a stones’ throw away from the family’s traditional retail outlet.

“It was bootstrapped in the beginning, and started with $20,000 in a checking account,” he says. “I invested a nickel to make a dime over and over again. From there, I found support from traditional banks that grew with Diamond Banc. Next, we took on private capital in the form of loans, returning above-market interest but never giving up any ownership.”

Diamond Banc formed a partnership in 2018 with Diamond Cellar Holdings, one of America’s largest privately owned retail jewellers, with the aim of accelerating the nationwide expansion of the brand and its offices.

Admittedly, Menser notes, convincing clients to submit their most valuable assets in order to borrow money and trust that the company will duly wire them the funds is challenging. “We overcome this with hundreds of positive customer online reviews, lots of educational video content and an extremely professional, knowledgeable, and responsive team of great communicators,” explains Mills.

Starting out with locations in Columbia, Kansas City, and Charlotte, Diamond Banc today has seven offices around the States and plans to double that number over the next two years, while it has to date already executed and funded over 3,000 loans.

Diamond Banc is also able to provide retailers with unlimited capital to help profitably purchase their own customers diamonds, fine jewellery and signed designer pieces. “We can also help you offer tremendously profitable asset-based loans to your clients and quickly increase your revenue stream by assisting your customers not only when they buy jewellery, but also when they wish to sell or obtain a loan,” explains Menser.

“Diamond Banc also makes asset-based loans secured by loose diamonds, mounted bridal, designer lines, diamond fashion, signed pieces, gold and silver bullion directly to jewellers and wholesalers. We are happy to make loans as small as several thousand dollars secured by one diamond or in excess of one million dollars secured by a substantial inventory.”

Menser’s plans for his flourishing and unique business include the opening of more offices in metropolitan areas, continuing to double down on online growth, adding exclusive designer fashion items like purses and handbags to Diamond Banc’s list of accepted items of collateral and achieving the target of an active loan book exceeding 100 million dollars.

Completely transforming a traditional family business that has operated in a specific way for many years is far from easy, and Menser is of the opinion that transitioning a family business successfully requires that the company remain under family ownership, but that the new family member heading the business possesses at least the same level of passion, ability and drive as their predecessor, if not even greater. As he notes: “customers cast votes with dollars, and few care today if the business they engage with is family owned… The concern is value, experience and efficiency.”

Mills is eternally grateful to his family for their unwavering support for his endeavours, and to his father, in particular, for providing him with the opportunity that resulted in him successfully launching Diamond Banc.

“Many of the lessons I learned from him and the values he taught me about persistence, work ethic, confidence, results, marketing, accepting mistakes and taking responsibility continue to service Diamond Banc and Buchroeders,” insists this pioneer of 21stcentury business.

Main photo: thriveglobal.com

The post From Pricey Trinkets To Valuable Assets appeared first on CorD Magazine.

The Deadpool star, who is the cofounder of film production company and digital marketing agency Maximum Effort, has had a string of viral hits with advertisements he’s coproduced and written since the firm’s inception in 2018.

Reynolds sold the company to ad tech company MNTN last year but still plays a hands-on role as its chief creative officer.

Addressing a host of industry leaders in a jam-packed auditorium at the Cannes Lions festival on the French Riviera, he revealed how his venture into the sector was largely born from circumstance rather than design.

“Maximum Effort happened completely by accident,” Reynolds admitted. “I spent 10 years trying to get the film Deadpool made and it was hell. I kept rolling this rock up the hill every single day and it just didn’t work.”

The star said he was forced to use some innovative and “fairly unorthodox” marketing ploys—including leaking test footage—to finally get the green light from Hollywood execs, but even then, he was still left with an uphill battle.

“The studio never really believed in it,” Reynolds added.

“They gave us absolutely nothing to make the movie, compared to other comic book movies.

Suddenly we were having the time of our lives. We then started branching out to other clients and working on projects we really wanted to work on and brands we really wanted to work on

“We had to make every dollar feel like 10, and as we did this I was learning lessons left, right, and center.

“We replaced spectacle with character, and it worked well and really landed.”

Reynolds revealed that he drove home on the final day of shooting Deadpool in the now-iconic red and black suit, after having poured his heart and soul into the production, and that moment evolved into the next phase of his assent to marketing genius.

“Me and George Dewey, my cofounder at Maximum Effort, then started marketing with the suit and having fun with it without giving away pieces of the film, and it turned out to be really successful,” Reynolds said.

“I then used some of that sweet Deadpool money to buy Aviation Gin and I needed to market that, so we inadvertently became a marketing company.

“Suddenly we were having the time of our lives. We then started branching out to other clients and working on projects we really wanted to work on and brands we really wanted to work on.”

Reynolds, who is the majority owner of Aviation Gin, Mint Mobile, and the world’s oldest professional soccer club, Wrexham, has also produced hit advertisements for Match. com, where he matched Satan with a representation of the year 2020.

He famously capitalized on the fallout of a Peloton ad, which was widely panned, by recruiting the same actress to star in a spot for Aviation Gin.

His latest viral success is a link-up with Nick Cannon for Father’s Day, which sees the rapper/comedian whip up an Aviation cocktail dubbed the Vasectomy.

Source: fortune.com, Main photo: techcrunch.com

The post Accidentall Advertising Industry Powerhouse appeared first on CorD Magazine.

The first time Roya Mahboob used a computer, she was 16 and full of expectations. Growing up in Iran as the daughter of Afghan refugees, access to information was always a fight. But she had heard people talking about a “luxury” that sounded like “a dream”.

There were tales of “this small box that you can find any information [in], any books inside…And you can talk with people and they did not know that you were a girl or where you [were] living,” she says.

She finally saw this box for herself in 2003, when her family returned to Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban government and she dragged a friend to Herat’s first internet café.

“From the first moment that I saw a computer, used the internet, things changed for me. I totally saw a different world than what was around me.”

That first experience online set the course of Mahboob’s life: she pursued a degree in technology, became one of Afghanistan’s first female chief executives at the age of 23, started a non-profit to help other young women and girls build digital literacy, and was named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people.

It also led her to where we are sitting today, in the sunny, white-walled living room of her apartment in a high-rise building in Queens, New York. Her success brought her international acclaim, but also made it impossible to remain in Afghanistan. In 2014, facing escalating threats to her safety and that of her family, she moved to the US. She now lives in LeFrak City, a sprawling complex of tall brick buildings built in the 1960s for working and middle-class New Yorkers.

Opponents spread rumours . . . accusing her of being a spy and of introducing western ideas

The three-bedroom space, which Mahboob shares with two of her six siblings, is sparely furnished: the living room holds a couch, chair, coffee table and a bureau with a TV on top. A balcony looking out over a parking lot contains two lime-green beanbag chairs. Her brother’s bedroom doubles as a makeshift studio for media interviews. Mahboob says they are waiting to buy more furniture and bring over rugs, books and other belongings stored at their parents’ home in Herat until they find an apartment they want to stay in for several years.

Manhattan’s skyline is just visible through the window as Mahboob, now 29, leans forward in her brightly patterned chair and recounts her journey from internet café patron to tech entrepreneur.

Her interest piqued by her initial foray online, where the first programme she used was Yahoo Messenger, Mahboob enrolled in computer courses offered by the UN Development Programme. She went on to study computer science at Herat University — to the initial disappointment of her family, who hoped she would become a doctor or an engineer — and took a job after graduation as the university’s first female IT co-ordinator.

In 2010, she set up the Afghan Citadel Software Company (ACSC), with her sister and a few classmates. Around the same time she was invited to join a tech incubator in Herat created by Paul Brinkley, the former US deputy under secretary of defence, as part of a US government-backed programme to promote business development and investment in Afghanistan. A mentor told her, “when a door opens, it’s just open. Take it. Because there are not always opportunities. And I always say yes to opportunities.”

As ACSC built a business around government contracts for software projects, it focused on hiring women. Mahboob says her experience at university had shown her that many women were better than men at coding, but had a hard time finding jobs. She also saw an opportunity for women to get a foothold in Afghanistan’s emerging tech sector before it became dominated by men. “Technology was new. We wanted [to be part of it] from the beginning. So women would be on a par with men.”

But she found it tough going. “For female tech CEOs anywhere in the world, there are going to be some obstacles and challenges. But in Afghanistan, a place that women are not supposed to even work, outside some businesses like handicrafts or agriculture . . .the challenges were never ending,” she says.

There was a backlash from “conservatives who didn’t want you to work”. She was targeted by the local Taliban for working with the US military. And there were rivals common in any industry: other companies saw her as “a threat to them for their business and contracts”.

Opponents spread rumours, she says, question – ing where her income was coming from, accusing her of being a spy and of introducing western ideas. Contracts were not paid on time, making it difficult for Mahboob to pay her employees.

She decided to use her profits to open doors for other girls and women in Afghanistan, and started the Digital Citizen Fund (DCF), with help from Rulli

Mahboob decided she needed to look outside Afghanistan for funding. After being featured in a Nato documentary, she found her first investor, Italian-American businessman Francesco Rulli.

She also decided to use her profits to open doors for other girls and women in Afghanistan, and started the Digital Citizen Fund (DCF), with help from Rulli. The non-profit has built 13 technology centres where girls can learn about computers, programming, financial lit – eracy and business skills. Some 9,000 students have gone through its training.

“Technology really helped me,” she says. “So why don’t we help other girls?” Today, ACSC still operates in Afghanistan, but Mahboob plays a less hands-on role. In New York, she is focusing on DCF, and on mentoring the dozens of young women who have come out of the programme and started their own businesses.

One girl’s ice-cream venture has become so successful that her father sold his taxi and became her business partner. Another sells handicrafts to local stores, and is working on creating an online shop. “She is only 16 years old and she has 25 people [working for her]. I’m kind of jealous,” Mahboob laughs.

We move into the narrow kitchen, where Mahboob wants me to taste her next business venture. She is buying saffron from an Afghan farmer (also a DCF student) and using it to infuse coffee and tea. Mahboob sets a pair of mugs on the shiny grey counter and fills them from a Thermos. The tea has a bright and warm flavour, and goes nicely with the biscuits she sets on the long dining table.

Between her family and her mentoring, Mah – boob retains a strong connection to Afghanistan. But these days, she says, New York feels like home — even amid a fraught debate over immigration in the US in the age of Donald Trump.

Many immigrants leave in search of safety and freedom, she says. “But I understand some of the frustration of the people outside [Afghanistan] when I read some of the comments on Fox News . . .Unfortunately [immigrants] are always going to be judged [based on] the people that do wrong things.”

She was in the UK during 2017 election and, as she prepared to return to New York, says she wondered, “if I go back, are they going to allow me in?” Yet she has been encouraged by the sight of Americans protesting against Trump’s move to block some migrants and refugees from entering the country.

The sight contradicted the image of an op – pressive US that she had grown up with in Iran. “Today I see the opposite of that. We see the love, the humanity here that we didn’t see in our countries. “You have to give access to information to the people in these societies. Give them access to the information [so] that they can make a decision. And it should happen from an early age. We shouldn’t let our children grow up like that.”

Source: Shannon Bond/ft.com, Main photo: twitter.com/royamahboob

The post Afghan Woman Who Became A Chief Executive At 23 appeared first on CorD Magazine.