As we approach the end of International Women’s Month, I am reflecting on “the tipping point.”   In so many ways we are at its cusp, with all sectors recognizing that the empowerment of women and girls is the critical component globally not just for social development but for economic and military security.  Yet, in other ways we are not even close.  Chris Grumm, director of the Women’s Funding Network (WFN), crystallized this at pivotal moment during one of the many events held at or concurrent with the UN session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).  She said “next year, bring a man with you and then we’ll really be at the tipping point.” Bingo!  Her words echoed... more

I’ve just been invited to become an Executive-in-Residence at an extraordinary international executive education business school in Lausanne, Switzerland, IMD.   While visiting there, I met with their president, deans, program directors and faculty and am deeply impressed by the depth and breadth of their offerings.  I especially appreciate their emphasis on “real life, real learning.” In collaboration with their remarkable team, I will focus on responsible leadership and corporate social responsibility.  I welcome your input on specific issues you think I should explore and I will continue to post as this new work unfolds. Among their 100 MBA candidates, are 60 nationalities.  Similarly, the thousands of executives who participate in their specialized programs hail from myriad countries and their international faculty is comparably diverse.  IMD is ranked... more

I can tell you from having been on the front lines of the high-rollers who keep politicians in office that – while not all are looking for a special tax loophole for their industry or an appointment to the Court of St James – they absolutely have unparalleled access to elected office holders.  So, I was struck by David Kirpatrick’s emphasis simply on no proof of corruption in his NYT piece “Does Corporate Money Lead to Political Corruption?  I was at Harvard’s JFK School of Government  a year before I was the NY Finance Chair and the National Vice Chair of the euphemistically named 1988 Democratic Presidential Victory Fund.  That’s when the Times coined a phrase I agree with, “sewer money,”... more

As a board member of the World Policy Institute I heard my SheSource colleague Patricia DeGennaro, an expert on National Security issues, describe recent efforts to improve civilian-military cooperation in Afghanistan.  She outlined a comprehensive update of the “whole of governance” philosophy and practice that integrates defense, diplomacy and development as integral, inter-related components to achieving effective foreign policy objectives.  Her analysis of the impact this has on foreign policy was striking and it reinforced my experience-based perspective on all for- and not-for-profit capacity-building efforts local, national, regional or global.  I have been a staunch advocate of cross-sector collaboration for decades, yet I still was jolted by DeGenarro’s stark statistics.  Multiple indicators show positive progress in those areas with provincial... more

I was enthralled when Georgetown University Law Center Professor Emma Coleman Jordan gave the Fourteenth Annual Derrick Bell Lecture on Race in American Society.  Her talk, “Race and New Economic Connection in Subprime Crisis” was the most coherent analysis of economic justice I’ve ever heard.  Everything she spoke about relates to points I’ve made in my recent posts on Inequity and to issues I’ve explored for decades.  But she wove together myriad strands of insight into the most magnificent whole cloth that made simple to grasp incredibly complex topics.  She is best known for establishing the field of economic justice in legal theory and for her work in financial services and civil rights.  Listening to her at NYU Law School... more

I am keeping in mind exhortations for peace, especially Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s words, “Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal.” As we commemorate the 37th anniversary of Salt II, Iran plans to build ten new uranium enrichment plants.   Many Americans have just celebrated Thanksgiving and Muslims from around the world have just made their Hajj to Mecca for Eid al-Adha.  So, this news has particular dissonance during the season of hope we’re entering that culminates with different faith-based traditions celebrating in their own way light at the darkest time of the year.  With other nations also pursuing similar ambitions, we are moving away from nuclear disarmament. ... more

As a board member often chairing governance sub-committees, I have used Sarbanes-Oxley as the gold standard not just to guide procedures of for-profit but also of not-for-profit organizations.  While the latter were not covered under Sarbanes-Oxley, I have advocated that non-profits who followed its guidelines would be at the cutting edge of best practices in good governance.  The New York Times piece by Floyd Norris “Goodbye to Reforms of 2002” describes how congress already has substantially gutted Sarbanes-Oxley over the years and now plans to further remove most of its teeth. The 2002 Congress passed the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which required public companies not just to have internal controls against fraud – something by law they had to do since 1977–... more

I often say my social activist life can be summed up, “from Selma to Soweto with a feminist perspective.”  So, to be with friends from many decades at The Feminist Press kick-off event for their 40th anniversary year was a sheer joy.  Award recipients included: Arianna Huffington, the trailblazing founder of Huffington Post; Taslina Nasrin, an extraordinarily brave Muslim physician, writer and human rights activist from Bangladesh; and Rhonda Copelon, a groundbreaking human rights attorney who worked at the Center for Constitutional Rights. Huffington spoke of a “tribe of women” who as feminists are pioneering a way “to succeed differently than men.”  Nzarin said, “as an exile I have no home; but I have a home with you.”   Copelon said, “a... more

Graham Bowley’s pieces in The New York Times “Bailout Helps Fuel New Era Wall Street Wealth” and “Bonuses Put Goldman in Public Relations Bind” and The Financial Times editorial “Public Needs More Bang for Its Buck” are among a rash of recent articles describing a disparity that virtually everyone is experiencing.  I find great cause for concern about the trend these pieces expose, as history shows that depriving many people of even the fundamental basics while a select few benefit astronomically never is sustainable. Frank Rich’s earlier op-ed “The Rabbit Ragu Democrats” highlights how the main relationships businesses currently cultivate are with lobbyists who can press their pet concerns with government officials.  His is a cautionary tale of the adverse affects... more