In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Anita Ramachandran, Executive Director of MicroMentor at Mercy Corps. MicroMentor, the world's leading online community for free business mentoring, reaching nearly 200 countries worldwide is an online community of entrepreneurs and small businesses with virtual mentoring. Anita is an entrepreneur, problem-solver, and changemaker, passionate about mentoring and personal growth. In our conversation we cover her personal and professional journey of growth, leadership and belonging. By diving into some of the nooks and crannies of her beautiful, meandering life she highlights how she has grown, values she holds close and what it means to her to be her whole-hearted whole self. Show notes Books she is reading: 1) Finding your own North Star by Martha Beck, 2) Talk like TED by Carmine Gallo Favourite quotes: " Vision without action is merely a dream. Action without vision just passes the time. Vision with action can change the world.- Joel Barker", AND "“Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself- Rumi"

Delighted to launch the 1st episode of Season 3 of the Nour Podcast, welcome back! Our theme this season is identity and belonging. Kicking the season off, is a deep and beautiful conversation with Dr. Khetsiwe Dlamini, a local, regional, and global gender specialist. She is the Executive Director and Founder at Triple C Advisory, an African-originated and women-owned global gender lens and impact advisory services firm. Her background in development finance runs deep with previous roles as Chief of Staff at UN Women, Principal Operations Officer at the IFC and World Bank for more than 15 years. Work-Related highlights Triple C Advisory JEDI Investing Principles in Action guides Favourite quote: "Everything is possible. Impossible just takes a little longer" by Wendy Ackerman Books she is reading I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness by Austin Channing Brown Professional Troublemaker by Luvvie Ajayi Jones

In this last episode of Season 2 of the Nour podcast, under the theme of Courage, I have an incredible conversation with the inspirational, generous and extraordinary, Carey Bohjanen. She is Founder and CEO of The Rallying Cry. Carey operates at the interface between finance, business and society to build more inclusive, equitable and sustainable economies. She drives transformational change, leveraging collective wisdom and untapped potential of people and capital. Carey connects leaders to purpose and passion to develop catalytic, forward-looking responses to our planet’s greatest challenges. In this beautiful conversation, Carey shares her journey and the times in life her inner voice has guided her, and how she has come to understand that one version of courage is the deepest connection to purpose and that sweet spot of heart, heart and gut alignment. We also talk about the incredible work that Carey does at the intersection of gender and climate finance, and how her innovative organisation and team at the Rallying Cry are at the forefront of catalysing new leadership and investment approaches to scale private sector climate and gender solutions in Africa. We unpack how to unlock more gender-smart climate finance and the systemic shifts needed for sustained change. As Carey says " Complex problems require complex solutions, and while its messy, murky and muddy, we have to overcome the fear to build bridges, connect the dots, and act with dignity and respect for everyone". This is also collective courage, and against the backdrop of our biggest societal challenges and climate change, " there is no time for no courage right now ". Show Notes Quote from Marianne Williamson " Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us" Another quote " May your choices reflect your hopes not your fears" by Nelson Mandela Book she is reading: Everyday Ubuntu: Living better together, the African way by Mungi Nagomance More on the organisation that Carey runs at the gender and climate finance nexus in Africa: The Rallying Cry

In this episode, I have the pleasure of speaking with Simba Marekera, Head of Investment Management at Brightlight Group and a long-standing advocate and active community member in the gender finance field. This beautiful conversation dives into place, belonging, and how courage can also mean using your privilege, and speaking up for those who can't be in the room. We speak about the reframes needed in economics, finance and the power of ancestral wisdom, as well as the role of more proximate knowledge in investment decision making. We also discuss privilege and the role of men in gender-smart investing. Simba Marekera is the Head of Investment Management at Brightlight Group, an impact investing fund manager dedicated to investing with the goal of transforming lives. He specialises in innovative financing and blended finance across a variety of Private Markets asset classes including infrastructure, real estate and credit/private debt both in developed and developing markets. Simba is active an philanthropist and social entrepreneur focused on empowerment of beneficiaries. He co-founded New Africa Foundation (www.newafrica.foundation) a charitable organisation that empower African communities through targeted philanthropy and investments in education, healthcare and entrepreneurship. He is also a co-Founder of EdFin (www.edfin.com.au), a fintech company that is a pioneer in providing affordable and responsible international education financing in Australia and Ignition Impact (www.ignitionimpact.com), an Angel Network that invests in high growth and high social impact African SMEs. Show Notes What Simba is reading: Wayfinding Leadership: Groundbreaking Wisdom for Developing Leaders by Dr Chellie Spiller, Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr, John Panoho Words he holds close are from the Book of Michael in the Bible " Seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly to your God" Example of a community-driven infrastructure debt strategy that Simba has led. Te Puna Hapori is grounded in indigenous principles, co-creating with the community and embeds a gender and broader inclusion lens into the financing strategy

This is the first episode of Season 2, where we build off Season 1's theme of Leadership, and dive further into the topic of Courage. What follows are very interesting discussions on how we even define courage, whether certain actions are about courage or stubbornness, and what it takes to fill up the tank to show up courageously. In this delightful first episode, the incredible Lisa Witter and I have a lush and deep dialogue on how she perceives what courage is and isn't, and how she has created her path in life and work. Lisa Witter is a serial political and policy entrepreneur. She’s the co-founder of ⁠Apolitical⁠, a global peer-to-peer learning platform for public servants and the CEO of the ⁠Apolitical Foundation⁠. She’s a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. She is a former public servant with deep experience in gender and behavioral science and has founded numerous political leadership incubators over the last 25 years. We dive into examples in the political sphere that Lisa is immersed in, and speak about intersections with the broader gender equality space. I appreciate Lisa's candour in the examples she shares as well as the different life moments that have shaped her. Show notes What she is reading: i) The Need for Roots: Prelude to a Declaration of Duties towards Mankind and ii) Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life Songs on her playlist: i) Like sugar by Chaka Khan and ii) Joy and pain Her social handles: Twitter (@lisamwitter), LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/lwitter/ Her podcast 'Apolitical Hope'

In this episode of the Nour Podcast, I talk to a female leader in the gender-smart and broader impact community whom I deeply admire and look up to: Kanini Mutooni , who is Managing Director at Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation. I love so many things about this episode- from the deep human sharing, to the leadership insights and how Kanini and her team are deploying impactful capital on the African continent. We also meander into identity and belonging (#spoiler alert-future season!), and how knowing one's full self allows us to show up in our full "Nour" aka light and radiance. As a member of the Foundation’s senior leadership team, she plays a lead role in sourcing new investments, deploying capital and helps execute the Foundation’s strategy and goals, while contributing to its thought leadership and external outreach for the African continent from the DRK office in Nairobi. She was was previously MD for Toniic, the global action network for impact investors, is an active Board member for a number of organisations, and has worked at the Board level in leadership positions at investment banks in London and the US, such as Bank of America-Merrill Lynch and Dresdner Kleinwort Benson. Favourite quote "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams" by Eleanor Roosevelt. What Happened To You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Bruce Perry & Oprah Winfrey and ii) The Devil You Know: Encounters in Forensic Psychiatry by Gwen Adshead and Eileen Horne Listening to For my Hand by Burna Boy featuring Ed Sheeran

In this episode I speak with Chintal Barot, Founder & Director of CoSustain Consulting, which focuses on climate and gender-smart investing in emerging markets. Chintal has a 15-year consulting career, the past ten spent collaborating with global companies, multilateral institutions and civil society on sustainable economic growth. Her breadth of experience in the financial, agriculture, retail, energy, natural resources and ship recycling sectors across multiple countries reflect her varied insights, experience, and networks. Sharing her time between the UK and India she leads diverse teams to design and successfully deliver complex, global partnerships and programmes in Asia and Africa. Her recent projects have been in Nigeria, Bangladesh, Sierra Leone, and India. We dive into Chintal’s professional and personal journey of finding meaning at work and in life, what it means to be an emotionally intelligent leader and how to nurture our creativity as radiant, whole-hearted humans. Show notes Favourite quotation "Next time you are faced with this decision, ask yourself a simple question, which solution lights me up." Song you are listening to: Long Time Traveller by The Wailin' Jellies. What are you reading these days: 1) Book of Form and Emptiness by Ruth Ozeki and 2) Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

This is the second episode in the Nour podcast's inaugural series on the theme of leadership.  In this episode I have a great conversation with Banks Benitez, who is a dear friend and was most recently the CEO of Uncharted, where he spent the last 10 years supporting early-stage entrepreneurs through Uncharted/Unreasonable Institute, and led Uncharted to merge with a larger national organisation, Common Future, in 2022. Since Uncharted, has been advising multiple climate tech startups, writing for Quartz at Work, and coaching companies transition to the 4-Day Workweek. He is now Head of Venture Development at Ezra Climate, which builds climate fintech companies + platforms that accelerate adoption of climate solutions. We hear more about Bank's leadership journey, how he frames leadership in terms of ownership and accountability, all of which are deeply tied to a trust-based culture of inclusion and belonging. This episode has lots of practical insights and tips on creating thriving workplace cultures that enable each of us to show up more fully as our whole selves.  Show notes Uncharted/Common Future: https://www.uncharted.org/ Ezra Climate: https://www.ezraclimate.com/ Quotation of choice: "“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can hear her breathing.”― Arundhati Roy Books currently reading: When We Cease to Understand the World by Benjamin Labatut  and Wild Souls by Emma Marris  Get Bank's incredible newsletter here (I love my monthly dose of what's on his mind and get a glimpse into what is he reading, unlearning and absorbing. Find it here: https://banksbenitez.ghost.io/

In this first episode of Nour, I am joined by the one and only Laurie Spengler. I have come to know Laurie through my work at GenderSmart where she has been on our Advisory Council, and a prominent and eminent thought leader in the field of gender finance. She is an impact investment banker, board member and active contributor to the impact investing industry. Laurie is CEO of Courageous Capital Advisors, LLC, an impact investing advisory firm dedicated to generating outsized positive impact by providing targeted strategy, transaction and governance services. Among her current board engagements, she serves as a non-executive director of the British International Investment (the UK DFI), Lendable, the UK Impact Investing Institute and Bridges Insights. Laurie serves as Global Ambassador to the Global Steering Group on Impact Investing and is Senior Fellow and Advisory Council member at Casei3 at the Fuqua Business School. In this episode, we meander through Laurie's leadership journey, leaders that have inspired her and all that she has come to understand and embrace about what is needed to show up as your whole self  and to have a sustained impact. We also zone in on leadership in our field of gender finance and what is needed to unlock more gender-smart capital at scale.  Show Notes Favourite quotation: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”- Margaret Mead Upbeat song:  "Stand by Me" by Ben E King. Book she is reading: "Hope Over Fate: Fazle Hasan Abed and the Science of Ending Global Poverty" by Scott Macmillan https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781538164938/Hope-Over-Fate-Fazle-Hasan-Abed-and-the-Science-of-Ending-Global-Poverty Other links: Courageous Capital- https://www.courageouscapitaladvisors.com/