Hi, I'm Scarlett Seber from Money 2020 I have a great guest with us today.
We have Mary Ellen Iskenderian, who is the CEO of Women's World Banking.
Mary Ellen, welcome to Take us up.
Nice to see you.
Nice to see you.
It's so funny we were talking off-camera.
First of all, you are our, uh, diamond president, which is the most prestigious category at the money awards.
And I was really sitting back and thinking with the. about someone who embodied transformative work and transformative impact.
And literally, I was sitting there and Mary Ellen came into my head.
Um, so you're here, which we're so excited about you joining us.
Now, I guess my question for you is, you know, we haven't, the, the wars have not happened yet.
Entries are just starting, but when you're sitting here and thinking about work that has transformative impact, what are you going to be looking for as the president?
So first of all, thank you for those lovely words, and I, I hope that myself and the jury can live up to them.
Um, I guess I was particularly grateful to the Money 2020 awards for choosing me for this panel, because the way I'm viewing it as it's not just innovation, it's not just change, it's transformative change.
Are we thinking differently about Financial services, who gets to use them?
How do we change behavior at scale?
I think we're looking for some pretty profound movement by virtue of the project, the initiative, and I think that's one of the more interesting things about the, the category as well.
You know, startup fintechs can apply, full-fledged banks can apply.
It's really about looking for transformative change, great ideas that can really change the way we think about financial services.
And that what you say is so true.
If I even think about the winners from last year, you had everything from Pfizer stablecoin products to Project Nemo, which is really about making banking and financial services more accessible for, for those.
Who have, um, disabilities, which is just incredible.
Now, as an ex-CIO innovation can be quite hard to measure.
And trust me, the rooms that I've been in around getting KPIs takes energy.
So, you could talk about the technology, you could talk about the revenue, you could talk about the impact, but as you're thinking about people who are going to be submitting for this category, what advice would you have when they think about what success looks like?
So, so glad that you, you talked about how hard it is to pin down what is impact.
So I would really encourage anybody that's submitting to think.
Think big, but also think data, think backup, think being able to prove impact against whatever metrics that you can show, um, you know, solid support for.
But I think the whole purpose behind this award category is transformative.
Whose life was changed, who was perhaps left out of the financial sector?
You know, I loved you talk about Project Nemo, financial services for this for the disabled, and Traditionally excluded population everywhere in the world.
So bringing financial services to them is a really transformative big idea, and I'd love it if my jury this year could um equal that success.
That makes me so excited and I cannot wait to see where we, where we get to for that.
And when I, when I sit back and think about the work and impact that, that you've had and that Women World's Baking has had been around for over 40 years.
You've been CEO for 20 of those years, which is incredible.
I'd love to.
At your perspective, maybe a bit retrospectively about where have you seen, you've done so much great work on really trying to help this, you know, inequities, especially for, for women.
Where have you seen the biggest progress and where do you think we have opportunities still?
Like, where's the biggest opportunity still?
So I'm very excited that we're no longer talking about like women's finance for women equals microfinance.
Um, you may have seen, I wrote a book a few years ago.
There's nothing micro about a billion women, and I still very much believe that.
I also am delighted that we no longer think inclusion just means having a bank account.
It means a much broader array of services, but it also means, and this is where I think there's great opportunity for growth, just because somebody has access to something doesn't mean they're comfortable using it, that they trust the financial service provider to use it.
So Women's World Banking has really doubled down on Making sure that financial and digital literacy is baked into any product solution that we're behind.
We recognize the trust gap is enormous really for anyone entering, um, financial services, maybe even for the first time, but doubly important for women.
Well, Mary Ellen, we are so honored that you're going to be part of the jury.
We cannot wait to have you there.
Uh, thank you so much.
This was Mary Ellen Iskenderian, CEO of Women's World Banking, and she'll be on the jury for the diamond award.
