Speech from Global INSEAD Day, 11 Sept 2018 in Hong Kong
Hi everyone, thank you for giving me your time by joining tonight’s Global INSEAD Day Dinner talks. And thank you to Ben for giving me the opportunity to speak.
Tonight’s theme is “business as a force for good.” However, I don’t work in what you might traditionally think of as “business”.
By day, I work in sustainable finance -- not on the investment side, but on the advocacy and education side. This is me with a few colleagues at our launch party this past June.
Outside of my day job, I started a non-profit initiative called WISE that champions sports for women and girls in Hong Kong. I say initiative, because we’re applying for our tax-exempt status.
This is me with my team, after we organised a panel discussion that was sponsored by adidas last November.
I also captain and coach Ultimate Frisbee (the sport).
This is me with my women’s team. We’re called Black Kites, named after the bird that you often see in HK. Can you find where I am?
And since TEDxTinHauWomen was launched in HK in 2017, I’ve been on the organizing committee.
Here I am with the organizing committee after the event last year. Again, can you spot me?
Maybe by now, you can tell that I care about a few things: 1) Women and girls and gender-related issues; 2) Sports; and 3) Community engagement. Since my day job in sustainable finance is about advocating and educating why and how we can invest for a better future, I also stay involved in sustainability topics such as climate change and environmental protection.
Often, I wake, eat, play, and sleep words and language such as “impact”, “environmental”, “social,” “doing good and doing well”, “community”, “health”, “well-being” and more. It’s pretty cool and I love it.
Tonight, thinking about the theme “Business as a force for good” I have three stories for you.
I work at a non-profit initiative called the Sustainable Finance Initiative (SFi).
We are funded by RS Group, a family office that has transitioned its investment to be 100% sustainable and mission-aligned. It‘s a journey that they’ve embarked on since 2008, after the financial crisis, when Annie Chen, the principal, asked, “What is the purpose of wealth?”
The question triggered reflection, especially as she began to realize her investment portfolio at times conflicted with her values. She’d been involved in philanthropy, but she learned that philanthropy alone is not sufficient to solve the world’s most pressing problems. That eventually led her down a path to learn and rethink how she can use her investments for good. 2008 was a catalyst for Annie to rethink what she prioritized and what her values were, and from that point on, she chose to deploy her capital in a sustainable way, and invest for a better future.
The choice was not easy though because at the time, there were very few people – and certainly not within the banks -- in Hong Kong who could help her. Having gone through the journey, experienced many of the challenges, and realized that sustainable investing can make both financial, and environmental and social sense, the family office felt that if they could share what they have learned, it might make the journey easier for others, and encourage other Hong Kong-based investors to pursue sustainable finance. After they launched an Impact Report in 2016, the idea to create SFi was incepted.
SFi is a platform that promotes sustainable finance in Hong Kong.
Our mission is to unlock and mobilize private capital for impact, and ultimately to help move the needle in accelerating HK's transition to being a sustainable finance hub. Our theory of change is that by focusing on private capital, we can trigger a larger and broader market for sustainable finance in HK.
More concretely, what we do at SFi is we run programs and activities that 1) educate what is sustainable finance, why sustainable finance matters and how to get active; 2) demonstrate that one can “do well and do good” via sustainable finance; and 3) connect investors to come together to learn, to share ideas, to discuss, to collaborate and more importantly, to participate in sustainable finance.
Bloomberg came out with an article recently that the number of ultra-wealthy in Hong Kong increased by 31% last year, to about 10,000. A report released by SFC a few months ago showed that private banking and private wealth management assets account for 32% of the total assets under management in Hong Kong, equating to US$1 trillion. And yet, 1 in 5 people – 20% of our population – in HK live below the poverty line.
Private capital can and does matter if it can be deployed and invested for impact.
Annie is in the business of investing for environmental and social good. That choice to do so has a knock-on effect, as we are now seeing more family offices in Hong Kong, coming to RS Group, showing interest and asking how they can get active in sustainable finance.
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I mentioned earlier that I’m on the organizing committee of TEDxTinHauWomen.
It’s the only annual TEDx event dedicated to women in Hong Kong. We have our main event again on 30 November, so if you’re interested, you can buy tickets from 17 Sept onwards.
Liza was one our of speakers last year.
She’s from the Philippines, a domestic helper, and also a mountain climber, a dragonboater, a motivational speaker, and star of a documentary called The Helper. She’s climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Kota Kinabalu and summited Everest Base Camp.
Like many domestic helpers in Hong Kong, when Liza first arrived here, on her day off, she would hang out on the streets in Central. However, when people took photos or would stare at them, she would also feel embarrassed, and degraded.
So she decided she would find something more worthwhile to do; instead of going to the streets to meet her friends, she went to the public library. After stumbling upon a book on great hikes in Hong Kong, she went, alone at first, then joining other hiking groups, which eventually led her to become a hike leader. She felt empowered through hiking.
One day, a woman in one of her groups, asked, “a Filipina domestic helper can lead hikes? How?” As insulted as Liza was, she looked this woman in the eyes and replied that, the day being her day off, she could do whatever she wanted, including lead hikes.
Liza believes that neither her situation nor her job define hers.
Mountain climbing has empowered Liza to take the driver’s seat in her own life. It’s helped her discover her personal impact – as a domestic helper. She inspires her fellow domestic helpers to hike, participate in dragonboat racing, volunteer in community events, and even to join trail clean ups.
Since TEDxTinHauWomen, Liza’s been invited to give other speeches and talks: examples: the Equal Opportunities Commission and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Upcoming, she will be a guest speaker for a charity ball hosted by St. James Wealth Management.
Liza’s gone beyond inspiring her fellow domestic helpers, to inspiring businesses to approach the diversity and inclusion agenda in different ways.
One person can make an impact on her immediate community, but also influence businesses to think about how to make change for societal good.
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In my case, I couldn’t articulate how I wanted “to do good” until 2013 / 2014 when three things converged for me around the same time.
First, I attempted to start my own education business giving soft skills training to 13 / 14 years olds in Beijing to prep them for boarding school overseas.
This was our logo.
Second, I joined the Lean In movement in China; in fact I was one of the original committee members of Lean In Beijing which has since gone on to become Lean In China.
Third, I became the first woman in six years to be a co-captain of my mixed-gender Ultimate Frisbee team.
Insert Big Brother photo
My two fellow co-captains were men.
These three experiences shaped how I see the world today in terms of what I want to do with my life.
My education business failed, but I learned many lessons about myself along the way. I became interested in understanding what inequality is and how it manifests in society. For example, I’d be working with families who had the means to send their children to school overseas, but also seeing and reading about the children of migrant families who didn’t have a hukou for schooling, and that the situation of left-behind children was really less than ideal. I became interested in topics such as the opportunity and achievement gap, but also unequal distribution of wealth and resources.
At Lean In, I was exposed to many women’s issues; things that I, my peers and friends faced, but also issues that I had never considered before that do affect women. I met many bright and young talented women who simply needed a nudge or a pat on the shoulder to give them more self-belief in their own skills and values. I became interested in women’s empowerment.
As a co-captain, I first-hand witnessed how “leadership” roles are sometimes gendered. I was seen as the “team mom”; the one who organised logistics for tournament travel, who sent out the team communications, while my two male captains were seen to be more strategic and analytical. I also witnessed how men and women approach and learn sports differently, and how men and women use different language around where and how they can contribute to the team. If I was already interested in women’s empowerment through Lean In, being a co-captain made me question gender inequalities and gender stereotypes. And it fuelled my desire to help other women take on more leadership positions.
So in 2015, I left Beijing to pursue my second master’s, this time an Executive Masters in Public Administration because I wanted to work in a capacity to contribute to social change. I almost thought about joining the United Nations!
Instead, in Hong Kong, I found a role to advocate and educate families with means on how to deploy their capital for environmental and social good. And in January 2017 I started Women In Sports Empowered Hong Kong.
We champion sports for women and girls in Hong Kong. Our pillars of work are:
1) Educate why sports matter. For example, we have an opportunity to work with AmCham to host a panel in Feb 2019, looking at how an athletic mind-set can help one get to the top of their career, with a focus on women’s leadership.
2) Empower women and girls through the activities we organize, where we teach new skills and importantly, have fun. Just this past Sunday we ran our flagship Mothers and Daughters Sports Day, this time coaching netball.
We had 29 mothers and daughters on the field, throwing, shooting, bouncing, and catching a ball. You should have seen some of the smiles on their faces – so touching to see that family bond, and friendships being formed on the field.
3) Connect women and girls through sports, for community, meaning and belonging. Nelson Mandela once said, “Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.”
We use sports as the tool for women’s empowerment and to break down gender barriers. And by the end of this year, we’re planning to pilot our WISE Sports Leadership Program, a six-month program to enable high school girls to take on a leadership position in sports. It’s a combination of: sports, learning hard, soft and technical skills, peer-to-peer support, mentoring and exposure to role models in one program. I’m personally super excited about this.
I didn’t really know what I most cared about until I experienced them. Once I became conscious of what I most cared about, I pursued it. If you ask me had I ever planned to do what I do now, the answer is no.
However, like in the case for Annie, the financial crisis did make me re-evaluate and reflect on what I wanted in life. The truth is, for the years I worked in the corporate world, there was always a tug at me that it never felt right, but I couldn’t articulate why. I was at INSEAD when the financial crisis happened; I had just finished my summer associate internship at Barclays Bank and a week later, Lehman collapsed. Instead of going back to banking, I joined Accenture in Beijing and while life was good and I enjoyed some aspects of the work I was doing, I couldn’t shake off this question, “is this what I’m meant to be doing?”
After asking myself that question once too many times, I knew I had to do something. And that changed everything because that is when I tried to start my business, then I joined Lean In and then became a co-captain.
Today, even though I don’t work in an organisation that has commercial activities, and I don’t financially invest in environmental and social good, I do invest my time and my heart. My business is in advocating people to deploy their financial capital for sustainable investing. My business is to create opportunities for individuals and corporates to support my non-profit and the issues I care about, with their financial means, and with their time through volunteerism.
Annie Chen likes to say, “impact is in the eye of the beholder.”
I want to end on this quote, because we all care about something. We all can contribute, no matter who we are. Gender, age, ethnicity, socio-economic status and such are not limitations.
I chose mine through women and sports but there are plenty of issues to care about. Annie cares about climate change. Liza chose to change the perception of domestic helpers.
We all have a business in being a force for good.
Thanks.