Speaker 1: Hi. This is Malan Verfeer and this is Kim Azarelli.
Speaker 1: We are co authors of the book Fast Forward, How
Speaker 1: Women Can Achieve Power and Purpose. And you're listening to
Speaker 1: Seneca Women Conversations on Power and Purpose, brought to you
Speaker 1: by the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Andrea Young is the president and CEO of for Me
Speaker 1: in America, a micro lending organization dedicated to helping women
Speaker 1: in poverty build businesses. Prior to Agree, Andreas served as
Speaker 1: the first woman's CEO of Avon Products. She was also
Speaker 1: the first woman to be appointed to the board of
Speaker 1: directors of Apple, and sits on the boards of Uni,
Speaker 1: Lever and Wayfair. I first met Andrew when she was
Speaker 1: the CEO of Avon and I worked as a young
Speaker 1: lawyer there. I spoke with Andrea at Seneca Women's Forum
Speaker 1: at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and we talked about
Speaker 1: the power of women's networks, the opportunity we have right
Speaker 1: now to alleviate poverty, and the good news about women's
Speaker 1: rise to leadership. Enjoy our conversation and stick around after
Speaker 1: the discussion for our top takeaways. In the past few years,
Speaker 1: Andrew Young decided to shift gears and really do something
Speaker 1: that I think is changing the world, which has become
Speaker 1: the CEO of GRIM America. So Andrew, welcome, Thank you.
Speaker 1: Great to be here. Hi, everybody want to be here.
Speaker 1: So let me bring us back to our Avon days.
Speaker 1: And you should just know that the first time I
Speaker 1: ever saw Andrea, I called the other people in my
Speaker 1: office and I was like, I've just seen Andrew Young.
Speaker 1: She just walked by my door in the office. So
Speaker 1: this is like a major setting. So for me to
Speaker 1: be on the stage with her as a real privilege. So, Andrea,
Speaker 1: as a CEO of AVON, you really lad one of
Speaker 1: the largest women's networks in the world. And I don't
Speaker 1: know if everyone in this dience understands the model, but
Speaker 1: maybe you could talk a little bit about the model.
Speaker 1: We still love of Avon absolutely, hear Kim. You know
Speaker 1: it's a It's been an incredible opportunity for me in
Speaker 1: my life to be involved with two organizations to social networks,
Speaker 1: if you would, Avon and German and they actually are
Speaker 1: extremely similar in in some dimensions. But just going back
Speaker 1: to Avon, Avon was started in six um. This was
Speaker 1: thirty four years before women could vote and it was
Speaker 1: started by a very prescient a man who was an
Speaker 1: encyclopedia salesman, and he would go door to door with encyclopedias,
Speaker 1: and one year someone gave him some vials of perfume
Speaker 1: and said, why don't you just see if the women
Speaker 1: want a gift with purchase of perfume when they buy
Speaker 1: the encyclopedias. And he found out two things when he
Speaker 1: went knocking door to door. Um, they said, number one,
Speaker 1: we really don't want the books, can we just get
Speaker 1: the perfume? And number two, they said, and could we
Speaker 1: possibly sell it? And that began something way ahead of
Speaker 1: its time. Heretical, if you would. In those days, women
Speaker 1: weren't working out of their own homes. But when people
Speaker 1: think of Avon is skincare and lipstick. Uh, we used
Speaker 1: to think about it as selling the beginnings of economic
Speaker 1: opportunity for women again before they could even vote in
Speaker 1: the United States of America. And that took on, if
Speaker 1: you would, a movement that became millions of Avon ladies
Speaker 1: strong around the world. Um. But the concept of a
Speaker 1: network of women, which can be smaller, it can be large,
Speaker 1: is really one of the most powerful things I've had
Speaker 1: The opportunity to see. I'll never forget one time. It
Speaker 1: was in two thousand eleven that I was with five
Speaker 1: thousand Avon representatives in Istanbul, Turkey, and one of the
Speaker 1: women got up on the stage, one of the Avon
Speaker 1: representatives who told the story to five thousand of her
Speaker 1: peers um again. She was forbidden for religious reasons by
Speaker 1: her husband to work. She actually didn't obey him, and
Speaker 1: when he would go off, she started to sell Avon.
Speaker 1: They there wasn't very very bad earthquake in the village
Speaker 1: where she lived. They lost their home, they lost all
Speaker 1: their belongings, but she kept at it. She became the
Speaker 1: number one AVON representative in the country. Through her income,
Speaker 1: they were able to rebuild their lives in their home.
Speaker 1: And she proudly stood on stage with five thousand other
Speaker 1: women and said, I am the only woman in my
Speaker 1: town whose husband comes home to cook dinner for me.
Speaker 1: And there were five thousand women on their feet. And
Speaker 1: it was the power not just of a network, but
Speaker 1: a movement, and that that really was and is the
Speaker 1: power of women's networks and opportunities for women to be
Speaker 1: not only self sufficient, but to have the confidence and
Speaker 1: really breakthrough amazing. I mean, Avon is really something special.
Speaker 1: And then what's amazing to me really is I remember
Speaker 1: also when we first learned about Muhammad Units in the
Speaker 1: Nobel Piece Price. I remember you saying, you realize that
Speaker 1: Avon is the oldest micro lender in the world, right,
Speaker 1: And that was sort of a really interesting concept to
Speaker 1: think that Avon and Gramine had this incredible parallel life
Speaker 1: and mission. And yet here we are now, I don't
Speaker 1: know how many years later, and now you're the CEO
Speaker 1: of Grimey in America. Tell us about that transition and
Speaker 1: how you're finding running another incredible network of women. Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, Um, I have the opportunity to be
Speaker 1: inspired by Mom and Eunice, and you're gonna have that
Speaker 1: amazing privilege this afternoon. But it was back right after
Speaker 1: he and the Green Bank won the Nobel Peace Prize.
Speaker 1: Uh And at that time I was working at Avon.
Speaker 1: But I remember thinking that while we weren't in micro finance,
Speaker 1: and he certainly has been the visionary for and the
Speaker 1: father of micro finance in not just Bangladesh but around
Speaker 1: the entire world, but in a sense we were lending, um,
Speaker 1: you know, our first orders. We they were on credit
Speaker 1: to women, they didn't have to put any collateral down,
Speaker 1: and that's how we started all of our low income
Speaker 1: AVON representatives. So there was a similarity, if you would,
Speaker 1: in the model. So then in two thousand and thirteen
Speaker 1: I had the chance to sit with Professor Unis, and
Speaker 1: first of all, who can say no to him? But
Speaker 1: second of all, I was really really deeply passionate not
Speaker 1: only about women's economic empowerment but the issues that are
Speaker 1: facing us in the United States. Um, and there were
Speaker 1: just some daunting facts that still are actually dizzying and
Speaker 1: take my breath away. One is that you know, there
Speaker 1: are forty three million people living in poverty in the
Speaker 1: United States, and women are disproportionately disadvantaged. Uh as you heard,
Speaker 1: one out of three women is living in poverty and
Speaker 1: really needing opportunity for access to capital. But that remains
Speaker 1: elusive here in the United States. If it was difficult
Speaker 1: to get a loan before two thousand and eight and
Speaker 1: the huge global crisis financial crisis, if you were a
Speaker 1: woman in a minority trying to get alone, it was
Speaker 1: difficult enough, and after two thousand and eight became almost impossible.
Speaker 1: So to have a program that actually started in two
Speaker 1: thousand eight, when all logic would say, why would you
Speaker 1: start a lending program with no collateral in the United
Speaker 1: States America in two thousand eight, UH and from a test,
Speaker 1: if you would a pilot in Jackson Heights, just one
Speaker 1: subway stop away, you know, just a waters away from
Speaker 1: the you know, Wall Street turmoil, began an opportunity to
Speaker 1: believe that when this target needed lending the most, we
Speaker 1: would be there. And that's always been the Groomen philosophy.
Speaker 1: And so from five hundred members, I guess that first
Speaker 1: year in Queens and I think we had given out
Speaker 1: about a million dollars of loan capital in that first year. UH.
Speaker 1: To this this year marks the beginning of our our
Speaker 1: tenth year, and in our tenth year, we will have
Speaker 1: given out one one billion dollars of loan capital to
Speaker 1: UH one billion dollars two over one hundred thousand women
Speaker 1: in their families. So you know, over four hundred thousand
Speaker 1: American lives have been impacted in just ten years. And
Speaker 1: the power, obviously is social capital. Gramen is all about networks.
Speaker 1: We give women in groups of five loans. My loan
Speaker 1: is different than your loan. You may want a flower shop,
Speaker 1: and I may run a small restaurant, but we get together.
Speaker 1: Our group is very important. We get together in centers
Speaker 1: every single week where there are twenty five to thirty
Speaker 1: other entrepreneurs. And the peer mentorship and the peer training,
Speaker 1: and UM, the culture of discipline and responsibility that is
Speaker 1: part of the program has been an alchemy and a magic.
Speaker 1: Our repayment rate is over. So we have lent. We
Speaker 1: have done four hundred thousand loans. One billion dollars has
Speaker 1: been paid back and over because of the loyalty, the
Speaker 1: gratitude and the discipline that's been taught city after city.
Speaker 1: So today we're in twelve markets. We've had ordinary supporters
Speaker 1: who are helping us accelerate into Miami, into Houston, obviously
Speaker 1: because we think the best way for communities to get
Speaker 1: back on their feet. Obviously the Extraordinary Relief UH and
Speaker 1: funds going for immediate relief are important, but on a
Speaker 1: sustainable basis, there's no better way to help the community
Speaker 1: than helping, you know, small businesses get back up on
Speaker 1: their feet. So Gramine America will be there. And UM,
Speaker 1: I've seen the power again of now a hundred thousand
Speaker 1: women and it's not just a network, it's a movement.
Speaker 1: It's no different. So, so you're talking about women entrepreneurs
Speaker 1: and the power for them to drive the economy. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna take you back to big corporate for a minute, because, um,
Speaker 1: while we see that women are starting business at five
Speaker 1: times the national average, we see this incredible movement, as
Speaker 1: you say, of women entrepreneurs, we still see that there's
Speaker 1: a glass ceiling, or as I like to refer to it,
Speaker 1: a thick layer of men. That is kind of that
Speaker 1: is kind of um, still a present, still very present.
Speaker 1: So you've you've been those uh in those rooms, and
Speaker 1: you've you've been at the top of corporate America and
Speaker 1: you're one of the first really to break through. So
Speaker 1: so tell us what what's going on in the c
Speaker 1: suite and what lessons do we have women in the
Speaker 1: C suite? How can we get more women in there? Well,
Speaker 1: first of all, you know, you've you've said that I've
Speaker 1: broken through on a lot of firsts, and I just
Speaker 1: have this philosophy that I hope all of you there's
Speaker 1: probably so many people in this room who have been
Speaker 1: the first. You can be the first, but better not
Speaker 1: be the last. Right, there's there's no way that we
Speaker 1: can be the last, and that that takes a lot
Speaker 1: of work. Um, that takes a huge amount of responsibility,
Speaker 1: and it is a privilege obviously to be the first
Speaker 1: woman in a boardroom or at Avon, there had been
Speaker 1: eight CEOs prior to myself, you know, in a very
Speaker 1: very women oriented category and business. But all eight were
Speaker 1: men before myself. And this was not unusual to the
Speaker 1: cosmetics industry. Um, people you say say, well that's cosmetics.
Speaker 1: How about financial services? And even in cosmetics and even
Speaker 1: at Avon it took to the ninth CEO. Uh, I
Speaker 1: think it's a different time. Um. You know, it was
Speaker 1: zero percent when I became the CEO because three people
Speaker 1: out of five hundred rounded down to zero. That was
Speaker 1: the map. Six percent today of Fortune five companies and
Speaker 1: women are are breaking through. But you know, can I
Speaker 1: I'm an optimist. I think when you look at the
Speaker 1: level below the C suite or the CEO jobs, the
Speaker 1: number of women who are in positions that could rise
Speaker 1: easily tomorrow into CEO positions is so vastly different than
Speaker 1: the era I grew up in. When I was you know,
Speaker 1: breaking through, women had maybe the HR job, maybe the
Speaker 1: pr job. There weren't CFOs and heads of the operations
Speaker 1: running the p n l's. That's very very different today.
Speaker 1: So I think that the women in the layer, ready
Speaker 1: right underneath in the C suite, ready to become CEOs,
Speaker 1: is vastly different. So that makes me an optimist. UM.
Speaker 1: I think that there is no question that. I mean,
Speaker 1: the data is there, but also the business case has
Speaker 1: to be there. And I'll just use an example. I'm
Speaker 1: on the board of Mercedes Diamilard Mercedes Benz and here
Speaker 1: is obviously a a very very male dominated industry, obviously
Speaker 1: for decades and decades, not just Diamelar but all all
Speaker 1: car companies. Um. And yet when you look at who
Speaker 1: are making the purchasing decisions of passenger cars, of the
Speaker 1: purchasing decisions for passenger cars are made by women. The
Speaker 1: model the color um. And so when you think about that,
Speaker 1: then you know it shouldn't be an uneven representation, but
Speaker 1: it needs to be an even representation of men and
Speaker 1: women in the sweet suite in the boardroom. You know, UM,
Speaker 1: because it makes sense, and that's true of every single
Speaker 1: industry in one as crazy um to think of, but
Speaker 1: who would have thought if you had said to me, well,
Speaker 1: a woman, well head General Motors when I became the
Speaker 1: CEO of a VON, I would have said, that's going
Speaker 1: to take a long time. But look at Mary Borrow.
Speaker 1: If you had said to me, well, two of the
Speaker 1: four you know top counting firms are going to be
Speaker 1: run by women, even when I was a CEO, I
Speaker 1: would have said, that's probably not likely. And here we are.
Speaker 1: So I think we have to take a moment to
Speaker 1: pause on some of the progress. I've certainly seen it
Speaker 1: over my decades. Um, but I guess to the point
Speaker 1: of everything that you all believe in at Seneca fast forward,
Speaker 1: we've got a fast forward, this and shatter, I think
Speaker 1: it's it's that moment. Though I do believe we're in
Speaker 1: an inflection point. I think the next five to ten
Speaker 1: years is going to look a lot different. It is
Speaker 1: incumbent not just on women leaders, but the men and
Speaker 1: women at every level to make sure that, um, there's
Speaker 1: equal pay, that there are an equal number of candidates.
Speaker 1: A man may get the job, in my mind, but
Speaker 1: it should be that in the candidate pool there were
Speaker 1: an equal number of women and men in the best
Speaker 1: person should get the assignment. So I think there's small
Speaker 1: and large things that have to happen, but I am
Speaker 1: an optimist in hope that the next five years look
Speaker 1: vastly different than the last fifteen. Well, obviously, we're so
Speaker 1: lucky to have Andrea here tonight, and for everything that
Speaker 1: you've done. We want to thank you as always because
Speaker 1: what you're doing and what you've done in the past,
Speaker 1: but what you're doing with Grimin, it's really changing lives.
Speaker 1: Stay tuned for our takeaways after this break. I hope
Speaker 1: you enjoyed that conversation with Andrea Young, CEO of Grimin America.
Speaker 1: If you're interested in learning more about Germina America, go
Speaker 1: to gramin America dot org. My top takeaways. First, we
Speaker 1: have the ability to solve the income crisis in this
Speaker 1: country by empowering women. As of today, approximately thirty eight
Speaker 1: million people live in poverty, but Germina America shows us
Speaker 1: that small loans and a network of support can allow
Speaker 1: women entrepreneurs to lift their families and their communities. Second,
Speaker 1: women are a great investment. In a little over ten years,
Speaker 1: grammin America has given out over one point four billion
Speaker 1: dollars in loans to a dred and twenty thousand women entrepreneurs,
Speaker 1: and of those loans have been paid back. Third. When
Speaker 1: it comes to women's leadership, there's a reason to be optimistic.
Speaker 1: While there's still a lot of work to be done
Speaker 1: to get more women into CEO positions, there's an incredible
Speaker 1: number of women in the c suite ready to take
Speaker 1: that top job. You're listening to Seneca Women Conversations on
Speaker 1: Power and Purpose, brought to you by the Seneca Women
Speaker 1: Podcast Network and I Heart Radio with support from founding
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Speaker 1: a great day.