Leading In Times Of Great Change – Deborah Lee James, 23rd Secretary of the U.S. Air Force
Release Date: 05/27/2025
Career Advice For Difficult Times From 5 Women Leaders
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“Your job isn’t to know the answer. Your job is to ask all the right questions of where the business is going and…Don’t be afraid…(Align) with people who could see the possibility of (your) experience…Take that stretch job and just remember you’re in the room to ask different questions, and that’s perfectly fine. So, take the stretch and then lean into your experience that allows you to have a different lens and a different perspective.” , Chief Sustainability Officer at Workiva on Electric Ladies Podcast When the economy feels tough or you feel like things are...
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How Climate Modeling Affects Everything – Maria Caffrey, Principal Scientist, UK’s National Physical Laboratory
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“(Climate modelling)…it's being used in things like insurance companies. It's being used by companies for their ESG assessments. So, when you get your insurance premium at the end of the year, there is some kind of climate model that has said something about the risk of your house to flood. It has said something about your risk to fire. And so that might be driving up your insurance premium…And so it's being involved in your lives in many different ways. The food you consume, those grocery bills, there's prices behind it that are being driven by people using climate models saying...
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Car Rentals Reinvented & Sustainable – with Page Motes, Chief Compliance & Sustainability Officer, Hertz
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“Regardless of what's happening with kind of the ESG backlash conversation here, especially in the US, our other jurisdictions are coming hard and fast on regulatory…It doesn't matter what's happening in the broader ESG backlash …The other piece is, our corporate customers that have their own set of goals and expectations have absolutely not led up on us on wanting to see us continue to progress and move forward and drive change and help them drive change, because that is their expectation of us as a large scale supplier.” Page Motes on Electric Ladies Podcast If you're thinking...
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Women’s Trillions Drive New Economic Values – Silvia Bastante de Unverhau, LGT Private Bankers International
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“An estimated is expected to change hands (globally) under the so-called ‘great wealth transfer’, with women set to inherit nearly 70% of that amount. Combined with rising educational attainment, stronger diversity and inclusion efforts, and ongoing progress in closing the gender pay gap, this moment signals a transformative rise in global female affluence… What does it mean to be wealthy in this world? What are the type of behaviors? How do we put into practice the values that we have?” Silvia Bastante de Unverhau on Electric Ladies Podcast You might not have heard about...
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America’s Largest Bottler On Plastic – Ann Canela, Head of Niagara Cares, the Philanthropic Arm of Niagara Water
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“We were the first to lightweight our bottles. So, if you think about a typical bottle of soda, it's about 27 grams of plastic. Our bottles, this year, I think they're coming in at 6.6 grams. So it's incredibly lightweight. I always say, you know, it's a Niagara bottle if it crinkles…We've created label-less bottles so they're easier to recycle. …And, we're now running lines that are in entirely recycled content. So we are very committed to creating bottles that that do not harm the planet, and also that allow for the most circular of products while we also think about what the bottle of...
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Leveraging AI For Sustainability – with Mandi McReynolds, Chief Sustainability Officer at Workiva
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“What we're seeing is, as the new carbon economy moves forward – and this is critical to businesses to operate in the future, in the next five, 10 years – it’s colliding with the digital transformation and financial transformation. And so, I think one of the essential things our customers are asking is. ‘how do we bring together the Chief Sustainability Officer, the CIO and the CFO and the new market, digital and carbon economy as we go forward?’ Because you need all three lenses to make a holistic decision for both the growth and resiliency of your company.” Mandi McReynolds on...
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Carbon Accounting 101 – with Alyssa Zucker, Senior Industry Principal in Carbon at Workiva
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“Essentially what carbon accounting is doing is it's using a mathematical equation to come up with a standardized unit of measure that we call a carbon dioxide equivalent of how you can, um, measure and track all of the different greenhouse gases that your business emits through various activities. There's actually seven distinct greenhouse gases that are included…So what carbon accounting is doing is it's using it's using math to take those different greenhouse gases and normalize them into a standard unit of measure, which is carbon dioxide equivalent… (to measure) its warming ability...
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Hotel Rooms Affect Your Health & The Planet – JoAnna Abrams, Founder/CEO of MindClick
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“We did do a study where we shared the story of the careful thought that went into products that were better for people and the planet … Then we administered the standard guest satisfaction survey, and what we found, Joan, was 150% increase in satisfaction, loyalty numbers… Why?...They equated it to service. They said, a hotel that goes out of its way to choose products that are better for me and the planet is a hotel that I have confidence is going to take better care of me while I'm there.” JoAnna Abrams on Electric Ladies Podcast As conference season begins and then the holidays, a...
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New Venture Capital Models For Women & CleanTech – Cecile Blilious, Veteran Venture Investor, Venture ESG, European Women in VC
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“I like to think about ESG not only as a risk management tool, but also as an opportunity. I think the, the flip side of risk is opportunity. So if we think that a diverse team is what will bring more innovation, more ideas, more, let's say different ways of looking at needs and products, then this is an opportunity….What about if we think about the way that people consume, what is the carbon footprint that we have?.... And how do you reduce it? Or maybe build technology that helps reduce your impact on the planet, or helps you reduce the amount of AI or cloud usage that you use? So I, I...
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Japan Embraces Climate & Sustainability – Yvonne Burton, Expert On Doing Business In Japan, at Osaka Expo 2025
Electric Ladies Podcast - Women Leaders Discuss Careers, Trends, Technologies and Innovation in Energy, Climate, and Corporate Responsibility
“The theme of the expo is ‘designing society for future lives.’ And it is just that from the foundations, from the buildings to the exhibits, each country showcasing what they're doing for our future, in technology, healthcare, sustainable, living energy…The Japan pavilion's exhibit…is about the circular economy and…the theme is between life and life. So the pavilion, and its circular structure, is about life and how everything is connected and flows, again, the circular economy.” Yvonne Burton on Electric Ladies Podcast Japan is one of the countries most vulnerable to the...
info_outline“Change is a constant. This is the world that we live in. And so how do you decide what needs to change and transform? The best leaders have certain traits about them when it comes to leading an organisation through change. Great leaders have an ability to communicate and inspire and they never get tired of doing it. Or if they get tired, they keep doing it anyway because constant communication is essential when you're going through change.”
Deborah Lee James on Electric Ladies podcast (previously Green Connections Radio)
Many companies are scaling back their climate, sustainability and diversity commitments to avoid being the target of this administration’s wrath. This decisive moment for the private sector will test the resolve and foresight of today’s leaders, making this a must-listen for anyone in a leadership role.
In a wide-ranging interview on leadership based on a sector where life-and death decisions are routine, 23rd Secretary of the U.S. Air Force Deborah Lee James talks to host Joan Michelson about what it takes to be a woman rising through the ranks.
This episode is being replayed as a tribute to our service members this Memorial Day.
You’ll hear about:
- Approaches we can all learn from the military, especially with their in-depth experience in dealing with crisis.
- What resilience is and can be for those of us who don’t want setbacks to stop our march onward.
- What “the best leaders” do to inspire and drive great teams to successful results.
- The five step process she applies successfully to every situation and why we all could.
- Great career advice for women who are always advancing.
“So often women in leadership roles have labels put upon them. They’re a bitch, they’re unduly aggressive, they’re not likeable… I try to be extra careful with my communications and in the way I treat people. And in this way I attempt at least to overcome the gender bias that is out there for strong women.”
Deborah Lee James on Electric Ladies podcast (previously Green Connections Radio)
Read Joan’s Forbes article about former Secretary James, and more of her Forbes articles here.
You’ll also like:
- U.S. Representative Chrissy Houlahan on the crucial role of climate bipartisanship when jobs and infrastructure investments are at stake
- Joan Michelson’s Forbes article on Fossil Fuels, War And Climate: Women On The Frontlines Call For A New Security Mindset
- Jennifer Granholm, 16th U.S. Secretary of Energy, on the future of clean energy and climate action
- Sherri Goodman, former Undersecretary of Defense, on the connection between climate change and national security
- Vanessa Chan, formerly from the U.S. Department of Energy, on the investments transforming the energy systems
- Anna Siefken, formerly from the Federal Energy Management Program at the U.S. Department of Energy, on plans to reduce the carbon footprint of federal buildings across the country
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