The founder using 'pocket forests' to transform cities and protect biodiversity
Release Date: 04/19/2024
Microsoft’s Brad Smith: Tech blindspots and the key lesson that changed how he leads
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As Microsoft’s vice chair and president, Brad Smith leads a team of professionals across business, legal and corporate affairs, tackling issues that stand at the crossroads of technology and society. In this wide-ranging discussion recorded at the Annual Meeting in Davos, he shares how these issues have shaped his thoughts on innovation and how they have informed his book and podcast Tools & Weapons. The 30-year Microsoft veteran also shares the career lessons that have changed him, how he leverages AI in his everyday work, why he thinks leaders must learn to be better storytellers and...
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We're living longer - how approaches to work, careers and finances will change: APG's Annette Mosman
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Living longer than ever will mean we’ll need to prepare for our later years in ways we've never done before. While financial education and making savings last is always paramount, the World Economic Forum's recent Longevity Economy Principles report drives home the need to make sure we also prepare to live those extended years with purpose, changing the way we approach everything from careers to community. Annette Mosman, the CEO of APG (one of the world’s largest pension investors) shares how she approaches the long-term as well as the trends she sees on the horizon -- and how they could...
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Speak last, lean on your team, and one CEO's other top lessons learned: Norsk Hydro
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Norsk Hydro was founded nearly 120 years ago to tackle global famine. Today, it has evolved to take on a bigger challenge: climate change. The company focuses on low- and no-carbon aluminium, a material that will be key in electric vehicles, construction and comprises 2% of emissions. CEO Hilde Merete Aasheim shares the unique technologies and partnerships that are helping to drive a green energy transition. She also takes us through her unique path to the top job, one that has spanned a range of roles, from plant manager to auditor to HR leader. She shares how seemingly unrelated roles can...
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The founder using 'pocket forests' to transform cities and protect biodiversity
Meet The Leader
SUGI is a unique global organization that brings pocket forests -- ultra-dense, biodiverse forests leveraging the proven Japanese Miyawaki Method -- to cities all over the world. The group has built 200 pocket forests in 42 cities so far, with each providing a key form of "urban acupuncture" that can protect biodiversity, restore ecosystems, and even better reconnect people to nature. Founder and CEO Elise Van Middelem shares more about SUGi and how it got started - and the unique ways these projects are reviving places from England to Cameroon. This interview was recorded at the Urban...
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Workers have changed - How leaders must adapt: Randstad's Sander Van't Noordende
Meet The Leader
What workers want - and what keeps them motivated - has changed drastically in recent years. And with big technological and demographic shifts driving labor shortages, knowing how to both retrain and retain your workforce will be more important than ever. Randstad CEO Sander Van't Noordende will share insights from the talent firm's annual Workmonitor survey, giving a one-of-a-kind snapshot on how workers are thinking about everything from ambition, to purpose, to flexibility and pay. He'll also share what new habits leaders will need to adopt (including the value of microfeedback) and how...
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This pivot helped a mom-turned-founder scale modern student transit - and transform lives for moms and kids
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As a busy mom working in tech, Ritu Narayan understood the chaos school logistics can bring to kids and parents. Her personal experience inspired her to found Zum, a startup providing an end-to-end solution for districts with optimized bus routes, one including bus fleets to match different-sized schools, and an approach that makes school transit transparent and efficient for the first time in a century. The startup was launched originally as an on-demand service and she shares the key questions that helped her pivot the company for scale -- questions that can help any founder make a big shift...
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What adventure taught this eco-entrepreneur about leadership and tackling risk
Meet The Leader
Kat Bruce is an eco-entrepreneur who founded NatureMetrics, one of the world's leading nature technology companies measuring the very tiny traces of DNA that organisms leave in the air, water and soil. She’s also a former jungle explorer who has undertaken expeditions in the Amazon, working in research stations, riding down tributaries on balsa rafts she’s made herself. She shares how such experiences have helped her to be a better leader: to be reflective to find new solutions, to understand different people’s unique roles in a team, and to make tough choices quickly. She also shares...
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What workers really want - and how it can bridge the gender gap: Reshma Saujani
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Forget snacks and gym memberships: Today's worker wants to know you value their family. When Reshma Saujani founded Moms First -- a movement to drive paid leave for families --she already had a successful non-profit under her belt in Girls Who Code. But she quickly learned that advocating for moms and parents uncovers a host of structural barriers that hold back both women and families. In a special conversation recorded at the 2024 Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland, she shared how leaders will need to focus on their teams' families to stay competitive and to bridge a host of...
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12 leaders share what to prioritize in 2024
Meet The Leader
Where do you see yourself and your team a year from now? How can you maximize tech - and mitigate its risks? How can you stay focused despite increasing geopolitical tensions? What impacts will small decisions now have in 5 to 10 years? In this special compilation episode of Meet The Leader recorded at the Annual Meeting in Davos, heads of top companies, civil society organizations and non-profits shared what leaders should prioritize this year. They share questions to ask yourself, how to set your objectives, ways to better serve your team, the risks to keep on your radar and ways to build...
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What's next for the global economy? IMF’s Kristalina Georgieva on AI, preparedness - and the unexpected
Meet The Leader
What’s next for the year ahead? Is a much-promised “soft landing” for certain economies possible? And what new impacts can we expect from inflation? Meet The Leader caught up with International Monetary Fund managing director Kristalina Georgieva at the Annual Meeting in Davos to get her take on what's ahead, including how upcoming elections and other global challenges could make some moves especially tricky in 2024. She discusses the findings of a new IMF report exploring how AI will impact jobs in different economies around the world in the decades to come -- and how leaders can get...
info_outlineSUGI is a unique global organization that brings pocket forests -- ultra-dense, biodiverse forests leveraging the proven Japanese Miyawaki Method -- to cities all over the world. The group has built 200 pocket forests in 42 cities so far, with each providing a key form of "urban acupuncture" that can protect biodiversity, restore ecosystems, and even better reconnect people to nature. Founder and CEO Elise Van Middelem shares more about SUGi and how it got started - and the unique ways these projects are reviving places from England to Cameroon.
This interview was recorded at the Urban Transformation Summit in Detroit, Michigan in October 2023.
Photo by Joya Berrow