NEWS

Announcing 2019 Annual Summit Keynote Speaker

The Financial Alliance for Women is pleased to announce that Thomas Buberl, Chief Executive Officer of AXA, will be the keynote speaker at our 2019 Annual Summit.

Mr. Buberl’s keynote address will take place during the launch event of the 2019 Summit, the Financial Alliance for Women CEO Forum. The CEO Forum will convene leaders from a wide range of financial sector corporations to share business solutions for women’s economic empowerment. Leaders will share how they are championing women’s inclusion using advanced business case examples, candidly discuss challenges and opportunities, and share what needs to be done to support inclusive enabling environments. The deliberations will provide input into recommendations to the G7 under France’s presidency, demonstrating the role the private sector is playing in supporting inclusive growth.

The CEO Forum will comprise two sessions:

Building Resilience Through Inclusion

Women are key to economic progress. They make between 75 and 85 percent of household purchasing decisions and own one-third of the world’s businesses. Yet women globally face a variety of barriers to accessing and using financial services, which puts them at an economic disadvantage. Women also face life moments such as motherhood, divorce/widowhood and retirement that can make them particularly economically vulnerable. This panel will show how the private sector can help build resilience throughout women’s lifecycles with access to the right combination of financial and non-financial services, and in providing that, how companies are building their own resilience. Ann Cairns, Executive Vice Chairman of Mastercard; Denis Duverne, Chairman of the Board of Directors of AXA; and Herbert Wigwe, CEO of Access Bank – the largest bank in Africa – will participate in the discussion.

Building Female-Friendly Entrepreneurial Ecosystems

Up to US$326Billion could be added to the UK economy alone if women started and scaled new businesses at the same rate as men, according to “The Alison Rose Review of Female Entrepreneurship,” which compared the UK’s performance with that of the US, Canada and the Netherlands. By systematically analyzing the entrepreneurial journey from intention through start-up, sustain and scale-up for both male- and female-owned businesses, the report identifies key actions that need to be taken by the UK government, financial services providers and civil society to close the gender gap in entrepreneurship. This panel, featuring report author Alison Rose, Deputy CEO of NatWest Holdings and CEO, Commercial & Private Banking, compares and contrasts the UK case to other countries and regions to work toward a global blueprint for building female-friendly entrepreneurial ecosystems. Paul Jenkins, Senior Partner and Head of Digital for McKinsey in Western Europe, and Nena Stoiljkovic, Vice President, Asia, at IFC, will join her on the panel.

AXA is hosting the 2019 Annual Summit at its headquarters in Paris. To learn more about the Summit, including the agenda and confirmed speakers, click here.