Closing the Financial Divide: Microfinance for Women-Owned Businesses
We are thrilled to present this month’s episode of Leadership Reimagined, featuring Andrea Jung, President and Chief Executive Officer of Grameen America. A trailblazing former CEO of Avon, Andrea has spent her career championing economic empowerment for women across the globe. Now leading the largest and fastest-growing microfinance organization in the U.S., she is helping tens of thousands of low-income women entrepreneurs access capital, build credit, and transform their lives. Andrea shares her passion with Janice, “Giving a level playing field and an equal opportunity to women in business, whether it is at the C-suite table, on a board, or just access to capital, if you’re a beginning entrepreneur – it’s not just life changing, it’s nation changing.” Since joining Grameen America in 2014, Andrea has overseen extraordinary growth, expanding the organization from $78 million in loans to over $5.3 billion, supporting more than 220,000 women across 38 locations with a remarkable 99.6% repayment rate. From Avon to Grameen, Andrea’s mission has remained the same: to make opportunity possible for women everywhere.
Don’t miss this powerful conversation on equity, economic mobility, and the ripple effect of lifting women up.
Andrea Jung is President and Chief Executive Officer of Grameen America, the fastest-growing microfinance organization in the United States. The former Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Avon Products, Inc., and longtime champion of women’s issues, Andrea, was appointed by Grameen’s Founder and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus to the position at Grameen America in April 2014. Andrea is the longest-serving female chief executive in the Fortune 500. She served as CEO of Avon from 1999 through April 2012, and as Chairman from 2001 through December 2012. She has been lauded globally for her pursuit of public-private partnerships to end violence against women and to stem the breast cancer epidemic. In 2010, she was honored with the Clinton Global Citizen Award for her visionary leadership in solving pressing global challenges. Throughout her corporate tenure, Andrea ranked consistently among the top leaders on lists including Fortune’s “Most Powerful Women in Business,” Forbes’ “Most Powerful Women in the World,” and the Financial Times’ “Top Women in World Business.” She is a member of the Board of Directors of Apple Inc., Unilever, Rockefeller Capital Management, and Wayfair Inc. She previously served on the boards of General Electric and Daimler AG.
Please enjoy this episode of Leadership Reimagined featuring Andrea Jung, President and Chief Executive Officer of Grameen America!