As we turn 7, we are tremendously proud of the growth and change we have achieved. It has been a rewarding and exhilarating few years, and we are charged up for the future. Thank you for your support as our partners and collaborators! On this key milestone, we wanted to reach out to all of you to help us celebrate by launching our first newsletter update.This update unveils our new website, introduces you to our Board and Team, shares new publications and introduces some new partners.You are receiving this from us because we see you as a key partner, friend or supporter- and you will hear from us every few months. Future updates will include new reports or publications, notes on our work in the field, thought pieces or blogs, partner spotlights and voices from our team, and will be our way of staying connected.
Fresh new look and feel!
Come check out our new website - where we share more about us, what we do, examples of our work, and resources: including reports, infographics and blogs in English and in Spanish.
Meet our Board
Our board and our core team are our biggest assets, and what we are most proud of.
Our Board: Joining Giulia, Katia and Rebecca are 3 new Directors committed to driving our organization's strategy forward. Richard, Ngwing and Alexa joined the VfW board over the summer. Our core team: Our advisors work to support our partners around the world to design and carry out high-impact, innovative, practical and custom fit activities on gender inclusion for businesses and investors. Meet our Board and Team and read more about them here.
Giulia Corinaldi, Board of Directors, Chair
Giulia Corinaldi is passionate about womens empowerment, entrepreneurship and technology and has built global, high profile, cross-sector partnerships in these spaces. Giulia played a pivotal role in helping the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women grow from a small startup into a global brand, serving as Mentoring Programme Director and interim Chief Executive Officer. In all of her positions she has worked to develop strategy and overall growth plans as well as forge strong partnerships among diverse stakeholders in women's economic empowerment. Giulia also served as Women's Working Group Chair for the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs.
Rebecca Fries, Managing Director & Co-Founder
As Managing Director and Co-Founder of Value for Women, Rebecca leads the organisation in creating opportunities for women's economic inclusion, leadership, and small and medium enterprise entrepreneurship around the globe. Under her leadership, the Value for Women team works globally in a collaborative, multidisciplinary manner to take practical, hands-on approaches to solving business challenges. With 20 years of experience in gender, entrepreneurship, and development, she specializes in designing innovative gender and social inclusion strategies and partnerships across sectors such as sustainable energy, agriculture, and finance. In her work with banks, investors, financial institutions, development organisations, corporate foundations, and government agencies, Rebecca has authored sector-changing research and designed tools that focus on the intersection of gender, entrepreneurship, and economic development.
Katia Dumont, Board of Directors, Secretary
Katia has more than eight years of international experience working in the economic development sector. She specialises in small business sector growth and social entrepreneurship. In her previous position as Manager of the Mexico and Central America Chapter of the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs, she worked to strengthen the ecosystem that supports small businesses in the region. This included setting up the local office and applying co-creation and collaborative strategies to lead several research projects and joint initiatives based on the needs of diverse stakeholders. Katia also has experience in organisational development and in designing and facilitating workshops. She holds a Masters in Social Anthropology from the University of Oxford and an MBA in Cultural Enterprises from the Complutense University of Madrid. Katia has also worked with at-risk youth and artisanal fisherman, and is co-founder of a business supporting children's education.
Richard Gomes, Board of Directors, Lead on Business Development
Richard Gomes is responsible for Shell Foundations Market Development programme to accelerate the growth of social impact markets. He is also a member of SFs Investment Committee and Senior Management Team. Richard joined SF in 2009 and has supported over 50 social enterprises to build consumer demand, raise investment and advocate for policy support. He has authored several reports examining the lessons learned from SFs work, including Enterprise Solutions to 2030 and Accelerating Access to Energy, and leads SFs learning and research activities. His more recent work includes the co-creation of new market institutions to support sector growth. Prior to this, Richard worked for the Shell Group across a range of financial and commercial roles in the UK, Europe and Asia. He holds a BSc in Economics from the University of Warwick and a post-graduate diploma from the London School of Journalism.
Ngwing Kimani, Board of Directors, Lead on Finance
Ngwing Kimani joined Value for Womens Board of Directors in 2019 as Lead on Finance. She is the Managing Director of Laeteon Wealth Management Services, which offers financial advisory services and business support services to individuals and SMEs; and has served as Vice Chair of the BLab East Africa Board since 2017.Ngwing is passionate about supporting businesses to succeed in order to create real value and improve livelihoods, and in gender and social inclusion. She has over 8 years of experience working with businesses in various sectors including development consulting, retail, agriculture, technology, insurance, and education. Ngwing brings strong and diverse academic qualifications to her role, including a Masters in Public Administration with a concentration in International Development from the University of York, United Kingdom.
Alexa Segal, Board of Directors, Legal Lead
Alexa Segal joined VFWs board of directors in 2019. Alexa is a qualified senior solicitor advocate, with over 10 years of corporate litigation experience with UK based law firms, and working internationally. This includes 6 years at Taylor Wessing LLP and 4 years at Macfarlanes LLP, where she advised on a broad range of matters including complex commercial and financial litigation, corporate and shareholder disputes, regulatory investigations and financial crime . She brings strong legal expertise along with a passion for gender issues and business to her role on the Board of Directors as Lead of Legal Issues. Alexa currently resides in New York.
What's new?
Over the past few months, our team has been busy working on new field-building publications highlighting the learnings and impact from our recent work, as well as developing exciting new partnerships.
Publications hot off the press:
Impact investing With A Gender Lens In Latin America
In partnership with the Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs , in June we published the Impact investing With A Gender Lens In Latin America. The report summarizes information gathered from 48 Impact Investors and other stakeholders throughout the ANDE network, as well as 254 businesses that comprise their portfolios. This report highlights that, while Impact Investors in Latin America see gender equality as good for financial and social returns, they are still in the early stages of embedding this focus in their investment process and activities. See more here and share your feedback with us! The report will be presented in Mexico City on October 30, 2019. Email us if you are interested in attending!
Communications & Gender Checklist: Things to Consider
This short guide aimed at impact investors and useful to all SME players outlines tips for how to apply a gender and inclusion lens in communications materials. It aims to serve as a starting point for thinking critically about how gender inclusion can be embedded into communications and coupled with gender-lens investing actions across operations of investment firms. This guide is intentionally brief and designed to spur further research and inquiry.
New partnerships:
We are kicking off new projects with AHL Venture Partners and Investing in Women. All of our current and past partners can be found here.
AHL Venture Partners invests in innovative, scalable businesses that contribute to solving pressing social and environmental challenges across Africa, in the energy access, food and agricultural and financial inclusion sectors. AHL Venture Partners believes in the power of responsible profit to drive African development forward.
Investing in Women partners with Impact Investors and ecosystem builders to expand market opportunities for women, with a view to incentivising and catalysing access to capital for small and medium enterprises - led by and responsive to the needs of women.
Work with us!
Write to us with ways we can work together, to suggest initiatives, topics or events! Questions, comments or feedback welcomed:valueforwomen@v4w.org
Upcoming events
Pop up Meeting: Inversi con Enfoque de Gero
When: October 30, 2019
Where: Biblioteca Benjamin Franklin de la Embajada de Estados Unidos, Liverpool 31, Colonia Juez
Ciudad de Mico, Mexico
The Aspen Network of Development Entrepreneurs,Value for Women and SVX Mexico are pleased to invite you to the Investing with a Gender Lens event, where we will present the most relevant data on the state of investment with a gender lens in Latin America as well as success stories in the region and learnings for future work.
To register, please click here.
Value for Women is a global advisory services firm with a mission to promote women’s participation and leadership in business, finance and investment around the globe, with a focus on emerging markets.
