Femme Lead

Send us a textCFO Career Story | Leadership Advice | Top Management | Women in Leadership | Finance Career | Lufthansa | Lead with Impact | In this episode, we converse with Simone Menne, former CFO of Lufthansa AG and Boehringer Ingelheim. Simone Menne is a member of the supervisory board and non-executive director in various companies including BMW AG, Deutsche Post DHL, Johnson Controls International and runs an art gallery in Kiel. We discuss with Simone her impressive career, what are her pieces of advice for people looking into top management positions and what does she believe about the new workforce generation. Career Path: From 1999 to 2004 Simone Menne was responsible for commercial administration and human resources, initially for the Southwestern Europe region until 2001, and later for Europe as a whole. From 2004 to 2010 Menne was in charge of finance and accounting at Lufthansa Technik. In 2010, Menne switched to the former LH subsidiary British Midland as CFO and accompanied their sale to the International Airlines Group. In 2012, Simone Menne was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Deutsche Lufthansa, becoming the first female CFO of a DAX group (most important German stock index ). Key points:📍The importance of quota for women in leadership: The world is diverse in business, customers are diverse. It would help if you had a diverse team to do the right things for a sustainable future for companies and take on different perspectives. 📍Role Models: Having a career-mom and strong female role models inspires women and will increase their self-esteem. You will continue to build your self-esteem as you grow older, and that will also boost confidence and trust in others. Representation is key. 📍Career Advice: We touch upon starting up knowing that being ‘bold’ is a decision and becomes a requirement as you progress in your career. Follow Simone Menne on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simone-menne/ Check out Simone Menne's website: https://www.simonemenne.de/ Check out Simone's podcast - Die Boss [in German]: https://www.stern.de/wirtschaft/die-boss/Episode Timeline:02:30 Simone's Podcast Die Boss and promoting female role models. What is the mission behind Die Boss?04:55 Why is it important to embrace diversity?10:05 Who were your mentors? Who influenced your career12:50 What do you tell women who do not have the confidence to “go for it”?18:01 Looking back, would you have done anything differently?21:25 Career path: what do you see as the key accomplishments in your life? 26:05 What is your advice to graduates?29:50 Characteristics of younger generations in the workforce.34:30 Prior to becoming CFO, what were the lessons that helped you reach this milestone in your career?38:00 Challenges in navigating your career path: How do you advise listeners to navigate difficult situations?41:05 How do you think the corona-crisis affected the way the traveling industry?44:12 How do you see the world has changed in the airline industry?50:00 What do you wish you knew at the beginning of your career?  

Send us a textImpact Investing | Venture Fund | Innovation | Healthcare Solutions | Women in Science | Business with Impact | World Impact |  In this episode, we discuss impact investing: how to change the world through healthcare by creating impact businesses. My guest is Dr. Nina Rawal, the founder of Emerging Health Ventures, in Stockholm, Sweden.  We cover how can we all individually contribute to changing the world for the better, and what are the steps to follow if you are interested in investing in healthcare, as the emerging topic to ensure safety for our society. She headed the life science investment team at Industrifonden, a 500 million EUR venture capital fund. Previous experience also includes the role of Vice President, Strategy and Ventures at Gambro AB, and management consulting at Boston Consulting Group in Stockholm and New York. She serves on the boards of a non-profit hospital and health care organization. She holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Neurobiology, and a Masters in Biomedicine, both from the Karolinska Institute, including research work done at Columbia University in New York.Recognition for her work includes the selection as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and a '40 under 40 - European Young Leader' by Friends of Europe/Europanova.Follow Dr. Nina Rawal via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nina-rawal-3803a41/Emerging Health Ventures: http://emheve.com/Recommendations:“Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World”, Book by Anand Giridharadas, 2018“The man in the arena”, Speech by Theodore Roosevelt, 1910Episode Timeline:02:45 What is impact investing?09:38 What can we do to stay up-to-date with what is happening around the world?14:37 How do you become an impact investor? 15:45 How do you enter the impact investing space? 19:40 How do you measure impact?21:30 How can we know what to look for in emerging markets?25:00 How do you tackle affordability around the world?29:00 What is your stance on creating impact with ROI?33:00 The path to business from life science professional.37:00 What are some pieces of advice for those who are interested in your career path?40:00 What are some of the challenges of working in the venture space?44:30 What do you wish you knew at the beginning of your career? 

Send us a textDiversity & Inclusion | Leadership | 100Women @Davos | Women who impact | Representation | Women in Board Positions | Africa Women CEOs Network | Today’s episode is about diversity & inclusion in leadership. My guest is the amazing Dr. Anino Emuwa, a powerhouse, founder, international public speaker, and advocate for gender-balanced business leadership. She was named one of the top 125 Diversity and Including experts to follow on LinkedIn & she has spoken at prestigious conferences and institutions including Forbes, University of Cambridge, London School of Economics, France’s National Assembly, and TechPark Davos to name a few.An executive strategist, she works with high-achieving women CEOs and founders and she is a coach and mentor for several global organizations. She is the founder of several communities of women including 100 Women@Davos and the Africa Women CEOs Network.As the Managing Director of the strategy and financial advisory firm, Avandis Consulting in France contributes to UN SDG5 Target 5.5 on ensuring the equal participation of women in leadership. In our interview, we discuss the setup for diversity & inclusion in companies and how can we promote diversity in leadership. Representation is key for innovation, and the latest research papers show us that we still have a long way to go to represent diversity. Dr. Anino Emuwa sits down with us to go through the challenges of bringing more women to leadership, how to tackle diversity & inclusion in organizations, and what steps we can all take to get closer to the goal of having more inclusive leadership teams?Follow Dr. Anino Emuwa on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dr-anino-emuwa/ Follow Dr. Anino Emuwa on Clubhouse @anino Learn more about Avandis Consulting: https://avandisconsulting.com/ Episode Timeline: 02:30 What does diversity and inclusion mean? 04:25 How do you see the field of D&I evolving?08:40 What do you think about pushing for quotas when there could be more competent people? 12:00 Who should be responsible for moving the needle in the direction of change? 15:00 How can we bring together parties who think D&I is a buzzword and it will die out? What is your stance on this?17:12 What is your role at 100 Women@Davos? 19:56 How does your day-to-day look like? 23:23 How do you measure the success of your endeavors? How can we measure D&I impact?25:50 How should you tackle your promotion in management in real life?29:50 How does one enter the D&I space? If you are passionate about the subject, how can you get started in impacting the world by following such a mission?31:50 What are some lessons you learned along the way about career development?34:50 What are the challenges of building your own consulting practice? 36:30 What pieces of advice do you follow in your entrepreneurial journey? 38:30 What are some pieces of advice that want to follow your career path?41:00 How is the story of joining the D&I space? 42:40 What do you wish you knew at the beginning of your career? 

Send us a textNeuroscience | Entrepreneurship | Neuroimaging | Exploration | Innovation | Neuroscience of entrepreneurship | Creativity | Ideas Management | Brain Power | In this episode, our guest is Emily Clements who is completing a Ph.D. in Neuroimaging,  a collaboration between the Entrepreneurship Institute and Neuroimaging Department at King’s College London, aiming to uncover if there is something different in the brain of those who think entrepreneurial.  The questions she will address with her research are (1) How do entrepreneurs' cognition (thinking) differ from non-entrepreneurs? (2) Do these differences in cognition correlate with the individual’s experience and differences in brain structure/function? (3) Can interventions develop this cognition? Aiming to uncover these findings, Emily shares valuable input on what makes an entrepreneur, what happens in the brain when we decide to take risks, and whether we see the path of entrepreneurship as specific to a certain type of person, with similar traits? Findings from Emily’s research point out that entrepreneurship is more about mitigating risks rather than taking risks. Key takeaway:"Develop self-awareness of who you are, how you think. Know your limits on what you can do. You have many strengths, but it is also important to recognize your limits. Often, people do not spend time thinking about who they are, considering their strengths & weaknesses. From a neuroscience perspective, for everyone, you can be a lot more successful in your career if you start to recognize who you are and how you think. It doesn’t mean you cannot develop other skills, but this is a more personalized approach to what is needed: what is success to you? "You can follow Emily Clements on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emily-clements-852285125/Check out Emily's community on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/frontalthoughts/Episode Timeline:01:24 What is neuroscience? 02:30 The research of neuroscience of entrepreneurship.03:30 What are some clear findings from the research on entrepreneurship & neuroscience?06:50 Entrepreneurial mind & teamwork: opinion.09:40 Decision making & entrepreneurship: opinion.10:50 Is there a difference between men & women when it comes to taking risks?15:00 How should we tackle the focus on gender differences in sharing data? 18:25 What would you advise people who are afraid to start their businesses?21:55 What are the stages of decision-making? 24:58 Does it take 21 days to break a habit?26:20 How important is rest for the wellbeing of our brain?28:50 Entrepreneurship & well-being: findings. 33:40 What is the main finding of the research on the neuroscience of entrepreneurship?37:00 How did you decide to start a career in neuroimaging? 40:18 What is the best piece of advice received in your professional journey?41:30 What is the most rewarding activity of being a neuroscientist?43:00 What is your stance on bringing more women into STEM fields?

Send us a textIn this special episode Alexandra Ciobotaru, the host of Femme Lead joins Noa Segre, Senior Strategist at Talent Garden to converse about navigating the career path in tech and lessons from female role models. This event was live-streamed on the 8th of March 2021, on International Women’s Day.Noa Segre is a Corporate Transformation Senior Strategist at Talent Garden, who shared insights from her experience in technology and innovation from startups and over 10 years of experience in one of Israel’s leading Venture Capital funds.Episode Timeline:07:15 Determine your North Star.16:12 Your worth is not attached to a job. 19:03 Set your own pace. It is never too late or too early. 21:50 Don’t compare your chapter 1 with someone else’s chapter 10. 24:30 Choose your battles.27:02 Take responsibility for your life.32:45 Fire Chat: Noa Segre in conversation with Alexandra CiobotaruSee the full session on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/Mcl8ttw2kMAFind out more about Talent Garden here: https://talentgarden.org/en/

Send us a textProduct Management | Psychological Safety | High Performing Teams | Product Executive | Women and Earnings | In this interview, we discuss with Soumeya Benghanem the role of a product manager, learnings from Soumeya’s career, and how to create psychological safety to support high-performing teams. In the second part of the conversation, we also discuss the topic of women and earnings. Some of the questions we consider are: Are you happy with your earnings, are you unsure whether to ask for more money in your discussion with your manager, what do you feel about money & earnings in your life? This is a part of the discussion that sparked some important learnings, such as seeing money as a tool to live the life you want to live. Soumeya Benghanem is a Product Management executive with 20 years of experience building product teams and software. She is currently a Product Management Practice Leader at Pivotal Labs, a Division of VMware. She has been the Chief Product Officer and Head of Product at startups in Financial Services and Healthcare. Some of the organizations that she has worked with include The United States Space Force, Merrill Lynch, The Bank of NY Mellon, and Paypal.Takeaways:What is the range of pay in my role? “I use a range because I think it is more important than the average. Average implies there are many people above and many people below. If you get an offer in the average, you should counteroffer or negotiate for higher.”  “Do not let money concerns or inequity pass because it multiplies. In one role, you are underpaid. You will probably be underpaid in the next role. So make sure to take care proactively in every role you get.”"Some of the most challenging things I had to go through were thinking the situation was a zero-sum game. You are either a winner or a loser. When in reality, there is complexity. The zero-sum game is an unhealthy mindset to have. Yet very typical when you grow up competitive or do not think about the complexity of a situation. Most of the challenges I had in my career were around situations that I treated like either I would win or lose. "Follow Soumeya's updates on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/soumeyab/ Follow Soumeya's updates on Clubhouse: @soumeya Episode Timeline:02:00 What is product management, and how did the field develop in the last years?03:48 How did you decide to move into product management? What are some of the peculiarities of the role? 06:30 How would you define the product space to somebody completely new to it?09:55 Managing high-performing teams: How do you create high-performing teams? 12:40 How do you create psychological safety?17:41 Any advice for teams in the remote-work era? How to implement psychological safety in this new setup? 21:20 DRIP Framework for 1-on-1 meetings. 23:10 What was the biggest surprise of your career?25:46 Learnings from Soumeya’s current executive role at VMware.28:05 Upbringing and learnings from Soumeya’s life.  33:00 Women and Earnings.38:00 Bias towards women if they ask for money. Being greedy versus being confident. 47: 00 Challenging situations and how you navigated the scenario.50:00 What advice do you have for those who want to follow in your path?55:00 Anything you wish you knew at the beginning of your career? 

Send us a textHealth & Wellbeing | Wellbeing Strategy | Organizational Wellbeing | Support & Education | How to develop a wellbeing strategy in an organization | Wellbeing Leader | Strategic Role |In this episode, Lisette shares her journey in IKEA, how she helped develop a well-being strategy, and how 2020 was the year that saw increased adoption of this topic in organizations, and what are some key steps to consider when tackling health & wellbeing in this setup.Lisette shares how she developed her own role as a wellbeing specialist, steaming from the desire to shift from focusing on absenteeism to focusing on improved well-being at work, a feeling of social, psychological, financial, and emotional safety.Lisette’s role in IKEA is setting the vision and leading the global health & wellbeing portfolio, focusing on building a strong and sustainable health & wellbeing culture through a strategic combination of innovation and evidence-based approaches to accelerate development and achieve short-term and long-term results, aligned with the company strategy, global stakeholders and the outside world trends. You can follow Lisette de Jonge on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisettedejonge/ Resources from Lisette:Esther Perel Podcast: https://www.estherperel.com/podcast The Knowledge Project: https://fs.blog/knowledge-project/ Feel Better and Live More Podcast: https://drchatterjee.com/blog/category/podcast/ Calm App: https://www.calm.com/ Down Dog App: https://www.downdogapp.com/ Episode Timeline:01:58 What is the role of global health & wellbeing leader? 04:20 How did the idea of having a wellbeing strategy changed in IKEA in the last year?05:55 What were the first tasks as a well-being professional?07:24 How did you tackle the process of getting the findings to support the wellbeing strategy?08:38 What were some of the tangible points of having a wellbeing strategy? 10:25 What should leaders pay attention to when deciding to have a well-being role in their setup?12:30 What were some challenges when setting up the agenda for the strategy?14:25 What is your opinion on some of the lessons we should have learned from 2020?17:50 Togetherness is important: we don’t mind seeing children in the background of your Zoom call19:24 How can we take care of ourselves & what advice do you have for listeners?21:14 What resources on wellbeing can you share? 24:04 What realizations can you share from working with well-being?27:10 How did you build your professional setup around wellbeing?29:00 Any advice for those who want to follow your career path?33:32 What was the biggest surprise of your career?34:26 Is there anything you wish you knew at the beginning of your career?36:20 What are the trends in wellbeing & changes in this regard for the future?

Send us a textAuthentic Parenting | Your authentic self | The impact of your luggage in raising children | Intuition & education | Finding out who you are for yourself and your children | In this episode, we tackle the topic of authentic parenting, how do we find out who we are and what are our values, so we raise children from a place of authenticity and love, not only for ourselves but also for future generations. The main message of this episode is to take responsibility for yourself and widen your lens to see ‘what else is out there for me’? Ashley is a certified parenting coach, international best-selling author, and founder of Raising Humanity. Ashley discovered through her own life process, deep healing, and by way of her own children, just how important it is to take responsibility for ourselves and reclaim the joy, freedom, and aliveness we were all born with. Raising Humanity, a transformational development platform, helps people recreate their foundation of beliefs based on their own values so that they can walk their most authentic path and support future generations in living theirs. Ashley believes that revolutionizing who we are as parents are the path to creating sustainable humanity.  Raising Humanity's online programs are as follows: 1. The Balancing Act, a 4-week experience that is the first step off the treadmill, helping bring awareness and boundaries into your life as a parent  https://raisinghumanity.com/the-balancing-act/  2. The ReConnection Project, our signature 6-month experience that offers parents an opportunity to recreate their foundation of beliefs, and move towards freedom, joy, and purpose https://raisinghumanity.com/thereconnectionproject/Resources from Ashley: The 6C's - An assessment as to just how well supported you are on your path of evolution: https://raisinghumanity.com/the-reconnection-project-6-c/ Website: https://raisinghumanity.com/ Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/raisinghumanityvillageInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/raisinghumanity/?hl=en Episode Timeline:02:35 What is authentic parenting?04:02 How do you introduce the topic of authentic parenting to new audiences who never questioned the idea of parenting?10:40 Where do we start understanding ourselves?18:20 How do we deal with our luggage so it doesn't affect the way we raise children in a way we might not? 24:30 What is the process of authentic parenting during the programs led by Raising Humanity?36:58 How can we tackle the practice of intuition in schools?  44:40 Ashley’s journey from a successful corporate career to building Raising Humanity 54:30 Advice for the listeners on authentic parenting and finding their authentic self You can find Ashley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashley-avinashi-b6443b14/

Send us a textMobility | Impact of technology on the mobility space| Gender & VC | The role of diversity in building companies | The success of an idea and what impacts it| In this new season, we deep dive into new fields of work and we focus on career paths we haven't mentioned before, as well as some topics we were encouraged by the listeners to add. In this episode, we discuss the world of venture capital, how to get started, what is to know about the mobility space with Sohaila Ouffata, my next guest, and a great overview of how does one sees their career development through different phases in life. We touch on diversity and the workplace, building successful companies, female-led businesses, and black female-led organizations and their success, and advice from challenging situations. Sohaila Ouffata is the Managing Director of BMW i Ventures in Europe. In addition to this role, she also serves in the global team as the Director of Platform with a focus on developing and implementing strategic growth initiatives for BMW i Ventures’ portfolio companies. Leveraging the unique strengths of the BMW ecosystem the goal of these efforts is to establish transformative partnerships and help the portfolio companies succeed and scale, Before joining BMW i Ventures Sohaila worked as a Senior Innovation and New Business Manager within the Telecommunications and Media industry as well as a Management Consultant. Sohaila is a mission-driven leader and a strong advocate of sustainable and responsible Venture Capital investing.Episode Timeline:02:16 Introduction of Sohaila Ouffata, Director of Platform at BMW I Ventures  04:20 Sohaila Ouffata: background and upbringing08:00 What is your stance on the VC world? How will the future look like?11:30 What does the role of director of platform entail? How do you promote diversity in this role?14:22 Mobility and the future of the space18:10 Women-led businesses & the VC world 22:40 Navigating different cultural settings: the importance of diversity in the VC world24:40 What are the most important factors to consider when entering the VC world?30:30 What lessons can you share from challenging situations?36:06 What was the biggest surprise of your career?38:00 Is there any advice for those who want to follow your path?41:10 What do you wish you knew at the beginning of your career? You can follow Sohaila on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sohailaouffata/ 

Send us a textIn this episode, we converse with Kearney Principal, Ceyda Atay Haga about her path into management consulting, pieces of advice for young graduates who want to kickstart their career in consulting or experienced hires who want to transition to management consulting. Moreover, we talk about challenges and advice for those who want to learn from Ceyda’s extensive experience across 4 countries: how to tackle an interview, the importance of confidence, and how you can showcase your skills, as well as insights into the consulting lifestyle. For nearly a decade, she worked across Kearney’s Melbourne, Istanbul and Oslo offices and has been a trusted advisor to multiple CXOs for their mission-critical strategic interventions including large-scale transformations, growth agenda, digital & IT, pricing, innovation, and mergers. She takes active roles in Kearney’s local recruitment and diversity & inclusion efforts. She has also been a frequent spokesperson on Technology and Women in Leadership topics.Follow Ceyda on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ceydaatay/ Read Ceyda’s recent articles:  https://finansavisen.no/nyheter/telekom/2020/10/02/7573195/kearney-mener toget-holder-pa-a-ga-fra-telenor-og-telia https://www.kearney.com/covid-19/article/?/a/10-ways-to-use-digital-to strengthen-your-customer-experience-amid-the-covid-19-pandemic https://www.kearney.com/communications-media-technology/article?/a/winning in-sales-through-technologyEpisode Timeline:02:27 What does it mean to be a Principal in a management consulting company?03:30 Can you share more about your upbringing? Who is Ceyda?06:00 The career path in Kearney from Turkey to Australia, to Norway.07:48 Is management consulting an exciting path for graduates to follow? What advice would you share with those who consider consulting as the next step after graduating?10:46 Are there any tips for students to know when applying to a management consulting firm?13:15 What are some lessons you wish you knew when starting your career in consulting?17:15 What do you advise listeners who want to transition to consulting, the experienced hires?19:40 How much does confidence matter when going to an interview? 21:45 Do you think there is a difference between women and men when showcasing confidence?24:10 What were some of the challenges of a career path in consulting?28:05 What is your advice for people who go through challenges in the workplace?34:20 Perspective to consider when you receive feedback or go through challenges.  39:20 What was the biggest surprise of your career?41:55 What is the most rewarding activity of working as a consultant? 45:25 What is your last piece of advice for those who want to follow in your footsteps?