Changes made, changes to come: for the fellows of the Cartier Women’s Initiative
The winners of the 2023 Cartier Women’s Initiative (CWI) were announced at the awards ceremony in Paris on May 10th.
Exclusively for “365”, four of these women changemakers reveal how, with training and support from CWI, they are harnessing the power of business to make a positive difference in the world and seeing their own lives transformed in the process.
Photo: NADIA TEN WOLDE. Amal Clooney and the winners of the 2023 edition.
A Ceremony of Emotion and Empowerment
The prizes for this edition of the Cartier Women’s Initiative were announced on May 10th in Paris, marking the first time the awards have been presented in the Maison’s founding city.
This special event opened with a speech from keynote speaker Amal Clooney, where she shared her personal and professional experiences of fighting for women’s rights around the globe through the Clooney Foundation for Justice. “Whether you believe in human rights or just prosperity, it is a good idea to try to unshackle half of the population of the world…
My goal is equal justice for all, and my philosophy is that justice must be waged, because justice is not inevitable, it doesn’t just happen on its own. We have to fight for it. For me, waging justice means trying to change the system, one case at a time.”
The evening continued with contributions from the awardees themselves, as well as Mélanie Laurent, Nadine Labaki and Yara Shahidi, all animated by the inimitable Sandi Toksvig. A moving performance from choreographer Sadeck Berrabah delighted the audience before the awards were revealed at the close of ceremony.
Wendy Owens
Founder of Hexas Biomass
United States of America
Hexas’ low-cost, sustainable, plant-based materials replace wood and fossil fuel-based raw materials in multiple applications.
How will your business change our world for the better?
My business will recover, replace, and reclaim what the Earth has lost. Our goal is to restore the 83 million hectares of abandoned crop land to useable land again and in doing so revitalize rural communities.
What has changed for you thanks to the Cartier Women’s Initiative?
Recognition is, in and of itself, an act that lifts the recipient up, even if it is just a simple ‘thank you.’ Recognition by a globally recognized Maison with a program focused on women working day and night to improve the world has lifted me up and changed my perception of who I can be and what I can contribute to the world.
Dupe Killa-Kafidipe
Founder & CEO of Platinum Fisheries
Nigeria
Platinum Fisheries is a seafood company built on the ethos of ethical and sustainable production practices to combat food insecurity.
How will your business change our world for the better?
By farming seafood at scale, Platinum Fisheries directly addresses the global food insecurity that is spreading at alarming rates. By operating ethically and sustainably, we are showing that responsible industrial scaling is possible and does not have to devastate our planet.
What has changed for you thanks to the Cartier Women’s Initiative?
The Cartier Women’s Initiative continues to have diverse impact on me as I engage with different aspects of the program. At the beginning, the program helped me clarify and communicate my purpose, impact, challenges and future projections. The program and community provided a space to lose the geographical, gender and even mental boundaries I had around possibilities for a woman like me in a male-dominated field and with generations-worth of catch-up time in the space of enterprise, finance and leadership.
Iva Gumnishka
Founder and CEO of Humans in the Loop
Bulgaria
Humans in the Loop is a hybrid social enterprise that employs conflict-affected and displaced individuals to provide human insight to artificial intelligence systems.
How will your business change our world for the better?
Our goal is to create opportunities for anyone to work and to secure their livelihoods, even if they live in the most difficult and conflict-stricken areas of the world. We provide online remote work to conflict-affected and displaced communities, and we help them build up their skills and gain professional experience. To date, we have provided work to 1,000 people and we have distributed 1,000,000 EUR in salaries.
What has changed for you thanks to the Cartier Women’s Initiative?
Thanks to the Cartier Women’s Initiative, we have gained an enormous amount of exposure both locally in Bulgaria and internationally. It has been an amazing experience being part of the fellowship, and on a personal level, it has been transformative to be surrounded by so many inspiring and driven women entrepreneurs who are successfully managing fast-growing companies while at the same time ensuring a good work-life balance. It is very encouraging to have such good role models!
Poulami Chaudhuri
Founder of Helex
India
Helex focuses on making gene editing more efficient, safer and reliable for any disease with a genetic basis.
What has changed for you thanks to the Cartier Women’s Initiative?
Our ultimate goal at Helex is a big ask: building technologies to enable the effective translation of genetic medicines that impact over 400 million people with very high unmet need. To build them in a manner that is truly accessible and affordable to people, and health systems, is an even greater challenge. Thanks to the incredible support from the Cartier Women’s Initiative and its network of changemakers, I feel more empowered as an entrepreneur, more supported as a scientist and more hopeful as a mother.
How will your project change our world for the better?
At Helex, our goal is to develop therapies that are safe, efficient and reliable for life-threatening diseases with high unmet need. Our gene editing technology is a promise of hope for the 400 million people suffering from genetic disorders and 8 million kids born with a genetic death sentence, regardless of their socio-economic background.
