In this episode, Yael is sharing with Alessa Berg about creating new economic models to support climate change. In this conversation, we speak about the current diversity frictions. Alessa shares why it is essential to act collectively to address global challenges and how blockchain holds an a necessary key to unlocking the door for a world well balanced.

Alessa is the founder and CEO of Top Tier Impact (TTI), the global ecosystem of impact and sustainability leaders. The TTI Group’s mission is to accelerate the mainstream adoption of impact and sustainability as the way of making investments and running companies. It has an active private network of 500+ impact investors, entrepreneurs and corporate leaders across more than 40 countries, an investment division, a climate risk & ESG consulting business and a policy unit. 

Alessa is a board member to several impact funds and companies. She was born in Switzerland and is fluent in 6 languages. Alessa created her first business at 11 years old. She has been investing in the blockchain and biotech sectors through a positive impact lense since graduating from Oxford University in 2012. Early in her career, Alessa worked in M&A at Goldman Sachs, private equity at Blackstone and venture capital at Mosaic Ventures. She’s also the youngest member on the advisory board of her Oxford degree.

“To keep thriving on this planet, we need to evolve our civilization to the next stage. This requires us to build systems where our single interests as an individual are aligned with everybody’s interest, including nature and all other individuals.”

Please learn more about Top Tier Impact.

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The Road to Sustainability™ is a global network to build a more efficient, safe, and inclusive world.

For this special episode, I’m excited to share the mic with two exceptional ladies. 

We talk about women's leadership, diversity, inclusion, and how important it is to bring value as a woman. If there’s one thing we’ve learned this year, it is about the urgent need to focus on women, who have overwhelmingly borne the economic and social costs of the crisis.

Rita Kakati-Shah. Rita is an award-winning gender, diversity, inclusion, and career strategist, speaker, author, and advisor. She is the Founder and CEO of Uma, empowering confidence, success, and resilience in women and minorities.

Dr. Sara Murdock. Sara a global People & Culture leader specializing in future-proof, agile strategy based on DEI&B (diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging). I’m a thought partner to leaders across industries and love building agile cultures based on DEI&B because that’s the most enduring--and most lucrative--pathway to create world-class programs, projects, and products. 

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The Road to Sustainability™ is a global network to build a more efficient, safe, and inclusive world.

Dr. Lobna Karoui is one of those personalities you need to know. In this episode, Yael shares with Lobna about the opportunities brought by the crisis, the importance of a diversity-based education, what it is realistic to introduce early on artificial intelligence and reciprocity. She believes in a bright Trust Technologies Future and our ability to build it together.

“Trust data—to me since I work in data on a daily basis for decades. I would say trust data, yes, but trust data to change reality. Use data to guide your actions for positive impact. 
So today, 23% of executive roles held by women seems not a reality that conjointly women and men can accept. When you are the only woman in an executive committee or a board is not sufficient to raise your voice and, in some cases, even to change the decision.”

Thank you, Lobna; you are impressive!

Dr. Lobna Karoui is an Artificial Intelligence Trust Builder and results-oriented with more than two decades experience building AI products for more than 50 million users and customers. She is one of the 1000 AI experts in the world who signed “Autonomous Weapons: an Open Letter” with Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk. She is a Google recognized Expert about “Disruption, Empathy and Trust”. As a Digital transformer, She has been working with thousands of Business game changers and executives in Banking, telecommunication, Hosting, Luxury, retail, Automotive and health. According to her successful track record of driving cost effective and scalable AI strategies, she was invited as a contributor at Forbes & MIT and as a speaker at Harvard University, Stanford, World Economic Forum, Amazon, Bloomberg.

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The Road to Sustainability™ is a global network to build a more efficient, safe, and inclusive world.

In this episode, Yael is sharing with Nell Watson about the rapid changes we are currently going through, the investments to build a more resilient and sustainable future, and our capacity as humans to address the challenges in these tough times.

Nell is an engineer who lectures in machine intelligence research. She has contributed to IEEE SA ethics initiatives, including serving as vice chair of P7001 standard on transparency, and contributing to many ECPAIS certification working groups. Nell holds fellowships with the British Computing Society, Royal Statistical Society, The Atlantic Council, as well as holding Senior Membership within IEEE.

A quote from Nell to live by "Technology is a tool. Like a blade, it has multiple potential uses. It could be wielded as an ugly shiv or an elegant scalpel – to wound or to heal. How we apply that blade makes a critical difference. If technology is applied without coercion or manipulation, in ways that genuinely nourish the human spirit, without merely suppressing its needs, the chances are good that it will serve humanity as a force for good. 

Those of us who are familiar with these powerful innovations bear a responsibility: we must help to shepherd the use of our finest tools towards the highest of purposes."

A fascinating conversation, thank you Nell!

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The Road to Sustainability™ is a global network to build a more efficient, safe, and inclusive world.

"Change requires belief in possibility and innovation and involves uncertainty. The ultimate art of leadership is encouraging people to let go of their fear of the unknown and move to innovation".

In episode 5, Yael sits with Deborah Hagar that founded The Coalition for Quality Affordable Health Care, a collaborative in new systems and models of healthcare with physician leadership, the hospital industry, County and City leadership, labor, business and consumer groups.

A fascinating conversation, thank you Deborah!

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The Road to Sustainability™ is a global network to build a more efficient, safe, and inclusive world.

Women's leadership is contagious.

How to explain that we will need more than 200 years to reach equality as more than fifty years ago, 58 percent of U.S. college students were  men, and today, 56 percent are women?

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Rita Kakati-Shah is an award-winning gender, diversity, inclusion, and  career strategist, speaker, author, and advisor.

The Road to Sustainability™ is a global network to build a more efficient, safe, and inclusive world.

Many elegant approaches exist to analyze and encourage diversity and inclusion in both the public and private sectors.

Despite reasonable concerns, practical and valuable methodologies adoption, only 23% of executive roles are held by women.

I had the great opportunity to have Anindita Sinha as my third guest. Anindita is the head of corporate communications at L&T Metro Rail (Hyderabad) Ltd. She shares her broad experience as both public and private sectors leader and her vision to foster women's empowerment.

Anindita explains why the household is central to professional development is essential, how cultural fundamentals are vital assets to grow and evolve in our complex society and what attitude women need to adopt to support diversity and inclusion.

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Anindita, with a professional experience of three decades, working with Public Sector Undertaking (Airports Authority of India) and Global Conglomerates (GVK Group, GMR Group; currently with L&T Group), excels in integrated communication, reputation management and strategy formulation.

Always a team player then a team leader, focusing on her team's all-round development as a successful professional, she also has a proven track record as an effective crisis communicator and Spokesperson, an impactful writer, she is also an active member of industry bodies like- CII, CII-IWN, FTCCI, PRCI, PRCI, ABCI, SCSC, to name a few.

Winner of several leadership awards at national, regional and local levels, speaker at over 80 various forums, with experience in Business Excellence and CSR, she is also the Presiding Officer of Internal Committee (IC) in her organization, for Prevention of Sexual Harassment (POSH), for women.

Anindita, a movie buff and wanderlust, finds ultimate peace and happiness spending time with her family, cooking, dancing, reading, contributing towards animal rescue & welfare, and other social causes.

For her, ‘Empower’ means ‘I have the Power within’, and believes education, safety, financial security, and virtuousness can instill empowerment in an individual!

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The Road to Sustainability™ is a global network to build a more efficient, safe, and inclusive world.

What we call business ethics, whether it is compliance, sustainability, ESG, or HR, has nothing to do with ethics. Unfortunately, this is a dominating paradigm for decades, that for various reasons, no longer fit our society.

I am glad to share the insightful conversation I had with Alison Taylor. Alison Taylor is Executive Director of Ethical Systems, a research collaboration housed at NYU.


We shared approaches to strengthening ethical decision-making that incorporates both diverse cultures and business-school pragmatism.

There is a global issue: we have a quite pressing need to rethink authority, a radical re-consideration of leadership assessment, professional responsibility, and above all, a call to act and commit to diversity and inclusion. Although we have good ideas of what we need to make the necessary changes, this requires a very comprehensive rethink of what we call business ethics and what we expect from our companies.

There are many promising avenues and prominent business cultures that can be adopted from one culture to another. 

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Alison Taylor is Executive Director of Ethical Systems, a research collaboration housed at NYU. She is also a Senior Advisor at BSR, and an Adjunct Professor at NYU Stern School of Business, where she teaches professional responsibility and leadership. 

Alison has a long track record of consulting for large multinational companies, on strategy, sustainability, political and social risk, culture and behavior, human rights, ethics and compliance, stakeholder engagement, ESG, and anti-corruption. She is a 2019-21 member of the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Transparency and Anti-Corruption. 

Alison previously held leadership roles at BSR and Control Risks, and has worked at PwC, Transparency International, and IHS Global Insight. She has a BA from Balliol College, Oxford University, an MA in International Relations from the University of Chicago, and an MA in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University.

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The Road to Sustainability™ is a global network to build a more efficient, safe, and inclusive world.  

Aparna G. Kumar is serving as the Global Chairperson for Women Entrepreneurship and Empowerment, Global Council for the Promotion of International Trade (GCPIT) & Confederation of Indian Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises.

Aparna is a serial entrepreneur, she's particularly dedicated to diversity, inclusion, and ethics. A motivational speaker, TV host, stage anchor, and trainer, she always believes in dreaming big.

You can connect with Aparna on her Linkedin profile and learn more about how the GCPIT is raising awareness here.

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The Road to Sustainability™ is a global network to build a more efficient, safe, and inclusive world.  

Sustainability is a fundamental part of every organization's culture, investment goals, and actions as a responsible business undergoing changes and being transferred between paradigm shifts.

To learn more about sustainable enterprises, you can join The Road to Sustainability Network.

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