The Charity CEO Podcast

By: Dhivya O'Connor
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  • Summary

  • Featuring candid, meaningful discussions that get beneath the surface of issues, this podcast aims to inspire, inform and deliver practical insights on the challenges affecting charity and nonprofit leaders today. For the benefit of leaders across the sector and for people who care about the important work of charities. Tackling a different theme each episode, Dhivya O’Connor, a charity CEO herself, invites top CEOs to share their unique insights, expert knowledge, and lessons learned running successful charities. The Charity CEO Podcast is produced and hosted by Dhivya O’Connor. For more details visit www.thecharityceo.com
    © 2020 TheCharityCEO.Com
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Economics Management
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Episodes
  • Ep 50. Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO Women's World Banking: There's nothing micro about a billion women!

    Ep 50. Mary Ellen Iskenderian, President and CEO Women's World Banking: There's nothing micro about a billion women!
    Jul 1 2024
    "Empowerment is the ability to make choices... and... having economic tools, economic resources is a way of providing the means for those choices."

    The world has come a long way since 1974 when women in America could not have their own bank account or checking account without their husband’s signature. The 1st United Nations World Conference on Women in 1975 and the subsequent creation of Women’s World Banking in 1979, have played a massive part in enabling women today to achieve financial independence and be economically empowered.
    Mary Ellen Iskenderian has been at the helm of Women’s World Banking for 18 years. She joins us today to talk about how far we have come with respect to women’s financial inclusion, her organisation’s work in this area, particularly in low-income settings, and how far we have yet still to go.
    We talk about her book, ‘There’s Nothing Micro About a Billion Women’ - a reference to the nearly one billion women who until a couple of years ago, were outside of formal financial systems - and how women’s financial inclusion is not just good for women and their families, but also, good for business, good for the resilience of the global economy, and essential to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Recorded May 2024.
    Guest Biography
    Mary Ellen Iskenderian is President and CEO of Women’s World Banking, the global nonprofit devoted to giving low-income women in the developing world access to the financial tools and resources they require to achieve security and prosperity. She joined Women’s World Banking in 2006 and leads the Women’s World Banking global team, based in New York, and also serves as a member of the Investment Committee of its two impact investment funds.

    Mary Ellen is a passionate advocate for women’s economic empowerment through greater access to finance. She is a leading voice for the world’s one billion women not actively engaged with the financial sector, urging the banking industry to view this community as a powerful new market of small business owners, heads of households, and consumers of financial products and services.

    Prior to Women’s World Banking, Mary Ellen worked for 17 years at the International Finance Corporation, the private sector arm of the World Bank. She had previously worked for the investment bank Lehman Brothers. Mary Ellen is a permanent member of the Council on Foreign Relations, as well as a member of the Women’s Forum of New York. She serves as a Director on the Board of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

    A 2017 Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Fellow, Mary Ellen holds an MBA from the Yale School of Management and a Bachelor of Science in International Economics from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service. She was recently recognized in the Forbes 50 over 50: Investment list, which highlights female investors and financial leaders. Her first book, There’s Nothing Micro About a Billion Women: Making Finance Work for Women, was published by MIT Press in April 2022.

    Links
    https://www.womensworldbanking.org
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    48 mins
  • Ep 49. Dianne Calvi, President & CEO Village Enterprise: Full bellies and big dreams!

    Ep 49. Dianne Calvi, President & CEO Village Enterprise: Full bellies and big dreams!
    May 6 2024
    With an audacious goal to lift 20m people in Africa out of extreme poverty by 2030, Dianne Calvi, President and CEO of Village Enterprise, joins us to share how they plan to make this happen.
    Centred around their core value of ‘Ubuntu’, a South African term, which means ‘humanity’ or ‘I am because we are’, Village Enterprise seeks to transform lives through entrepreneurship, innovation and collective action.
    By partnering with other nonprofits, governments, agencies, and private sector companies, Village Enterprise equips first-time entrepreneurs in Africa with the resources and skills to start climate-smart businesses and savings groups.
    We talk about their Poverty Graduation Model and building up their evidence base, using Randomised Control Trials, which has helped catalyse funding for their exciting new programme: working with USAID, the French and the Rwandan governments to end extreme poverty in Rwanda for good. Dianne also shares her personal family story, revealing what really drives her to do this work, which, as one of their entrepreneurs says, is all about enabling full bellies and big dreams. Recorded March 2024.
    Note: The title of this episode is a direct quote from an entrepreneur that Village Enterprise supports in Africa, describing the impact of their work.
    Guest Biography
    Dianne Calvi has been working to end extreme poverty in rural Africa as Village Enterprise’s President and CEO since 2010. Since joining Village Enterprise, Dianne has increased the breadth and depth of the organization’s impact by focusing on strategic partnerships, innovation and technology, rigorous monitoring and evaluation, and building a highly qualified African team.

    To date, Village Enterprise has trained over 274k people, started over 80k businesses, and lifted over 1.65 million people out of extreme poverty. With Dianne at the helm, Village Enterprise has completed an independent randomized control trial (RCT) and launched the first Development Impact Bond in poverty alleviation.

    Prior to joining Village Enterprise, Dianne served as the President of Bring Me A Book Foundation, a literacy nonprofit that she scaled through partnerships in both domestic and international locations. Previously, she worked in the private sector for Microsoft, Xerox, and Montedison in Milan, Italy.

    She has served on several nonprofit boards and was recently appointed to the InterAction board of directors. Dianne received a BA from Stanford University and an MBA from Bocconi University (Milan, IT) on a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholarship.

    Links
    https://villageenterprise.org
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    58 mins
  • Ep 48. Cherie Blair CBE KC, Founder, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women: Enabling economic gender justice

    Ep 48. Cherie Blair CBE KC, Founder, Cherie Blair Foundation for Women: Enabling economic gender justice
    Mar 4 2024
    “There is a problem! Business has a problem, the world has a problem, because we are just not utilising the talents, the ambitions, the drive of half the world’s population (the female half)... Economic gender justice is essential both for women’s freedom and equality, but also for the development of the world.”
    We are honoured to have on the podcast, Cherie Blair CBE KC!
    As the Founder of the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, Cherie has been a relentless advocate for women's rights, particularly in low and middle-income countries. Our discussion delves into her vision for the Foundation, her journey as a leading barrister and King's Counsel in the male-dominated legal profession, and the gendered challenges women still confront today.
    Cherie is of course, the wife of the former UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and is an inspiration to women across the world. Recorded January 2024.
    Guest Biography
    Cherie Blair CBE, KC is a leading King’s Counsel with over 35 years’ experience. Cherie is a strong advocate for women’s rights and in 2008 she founded the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women. The Foundation promotes the financial independence of women in low and middle income countries so that they can be financially independent, have a stronger voice in their societies, and, contribute to their communities. Since its inception, the Foundation has had a significant and measurable impact on the lives of more than 250,000 women entrepreneurs in 105 countries especially in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

    Cherie is actively involved in the Foundation, travelling internationally to visit projects and donors and to advocate for women entrepreneurs globally.
    Cherie studied law at the London School of Economics (LSE) and is also the Founder and Chair of the pioneering law firm Omnia Strategy where she focuses on cross-border dispute resolution, commercial arbitration, mediation and human rights.

    Cherie was awarded a CBE in the 2013 New Year’s Honours List for services to women’s issues and to charities in both the UK and overseas. She is the wife of former UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair. They have 4 children and 8 grandchildren.
    Links
    Www.cherieblairfoundation.org
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    56 mins

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