Speakers:

• David Smolansky, Special Envoy to the OAS Secretary General for Venezuela’s Migration and Refugee Crisis
• Eric Farnsworth, Vice President, Council of the Americas (moderator)

In a Council of the Americas event with David Smolansky, the special envoy to the OAS secretary general discussed how COVID-19 presents many challenges to the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela and the region. Facing desperation and despair in their adopted countries, many Venezuelan refugees have decided to return home. But their journeys have been complicated by closed border crossings in Venezuela. With borders likely to stay closed for the rest of 2020, refugees face extortion by border control agents, illegal groups, human traffickers, and illegal detainment in their effort to return home or leave the country. "According to Colombian migration authorities, an estimated 500 Venezuelans arrived in Colombia through illegal pathways in the last two weeks," said Smolansky. Venezuelan refugees continue to face dire conditions and dangers not only at land crossings, but at sea, with many attempting to use small boats to reach island nations in the Caribbean, a perilous journey to escape poverty and persecution.

Speakers:

• Tosh Butt, SVP, Latin America, AstraZeneca
• Isabel Bueno, Partner, Mattos Filho
• Connie de Lange, VP Communications and Corporate Marketing for the Global Cardiovascular Division, Medtronic
• Laura Quevedo, HR Director Latin America & Caribbean, Diageo
• Juliana Sguerra, Managing Director and Partner, Bogotá, Boston Consulting Group (moderator)

On the second day of the 9th Annual Women’s Hemispheric Network Conference, panelists discussed the importance of programs and initiatives that their companies have adopted to advance women in the workplace. Isabel Bueno said everything was modified when the relationship with the partners at Mattos Filho changed. “We decided that it was time for us to tackle differences,” she said. “The first one we decided to tackle was gender. Having men support the group that we created provided the change.”

Connie de Lange said Medtronic had seen challenges in finding diverse talent and created programs to address that. They launched Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) initiative, and three years after, there were 72 global groups in place to acquire diverse technical talent and foster a strong culture of inclusion. “Women are overrepresented in healthcare professions; they are underrepresented in engineering,” she said. “A lot of this is due to systemic barriers that women and minority groups face.”

Laura Quevedo noted that 10 years ago, Diageo’s entire board was male. Now, 55 percent of the board is female, thanks to efforts to diversify leadership as well as candidate pools, increased flexibility, and groundbreaking policies, such as their 26 weeks of paid maternity and paternity leave.

Tosh Butt explained that AstraZeneca acknowledges there is a “competitive advantage” to female leadership, adding, “I think we need to think about how gender can intersect with factors such as race, ethnicity, [and] socioeconomic background so that all women are able to progress in their career with us.”

The panelists agreed that initiatives to help women should be part of company culture, not just fads. “It’s not that diversity’s the latest fashion statement—it’s how does this become the interwoven fabric of who your company is?” de Lange asked.

Learn more about the AS/COA Women's Hemispheric Network.

Speakers:

• Fernando Iraola, Global co-Head of Corporates GTS Sales & GTS Head Latam, Bank of America
• Sebastian Fernandez Silva, Chief People Officer, MercadoLibre
• Linda Aiello, EVP of International Employee Success, Salesforce
• Alex Camino, Chief Marketing Officer, Softtek
• Michael Stott, Latin America Editor, Financial Times (moderator)
• Susan Segal, President and CEO, Americas Society/Council of the Americas (host)

How are companies in Latin America responding to the current need for a digital workspace? Executives from four companies shared insights on this Council of Americas Symposium panel. “What I’m really impressed about when I look at Latin America is the speed of adoption, and I see this as being much fast than other regions,” said Salesforce’s Linda Aiello about the digital transformation brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Alex Camino described Softtek’s approach of taking the opportunity to create new digital products for the businesses they serve.

Working remotely has also forced companies to engage their employees and clients in new ways. Sebastian Fernandez Silva shared examples of how MercadoLibre is prioritizing employees’ mental and physical well-being, while Fernando Iraola pointed out how Bank of America’s client engagement has tripled in recent months.

Learn more about the COA Symposium series.

Speakers:

• Welcoming Remarks by Susan Segal, President and CEO, Americas Society/Council of the Americas
• Keynote Interview with Lori Lee, CEO – AT&T Latin America & Global Marketing Officer, AT&T Inc., and Michael Stott, Latin America Editor, Financial Times (interviewer)

AS/COA's Susan Segal delivered opening remarks at the 9th Annual Women’s Hemispheric Network Conference. The commitment to gender parity is crucial for her and the organization, she said. Financial Times editor Michael Stott then began the keynote interview with AT&T executive Lori Lee.

Lee gave career advice and provided professional suggestions to advance women’s roles in the workplace. “I have a soft spot for helping women,” she said. She noted how organizations can utilize three key concepts to promote the professional advancement of women: awareness to evaluate your corporation’s current programs, development of skillsets, and advocacy of women by the firm's leadership.

Throughout her career, she was usually the only woman in the room. “I always faced it as I was one of many businesspeople,” she said. “I was just a businessperson putting my best skills forward to try and solve these problems.”

When asked about how to manage a dual-career family, Lee said, “You need to be completely genuine and authentic to who you are and what is right for your family.” She added that she has always benefited from taking the biggest risk. “Maybe it seemed like a step back, but every time I followed it…the risk paid off. In every experience, my family unit grew closer.”

Learn more about the AS/COA Women's Hemispheric Network.

In its fourth round of Gastrodiplomacy events, Young Professionals of the Americas (YPA) spent the evening cooking with Argentine chefs Martín Auzmendi and Martín Molteni, who created a traditional meal and spoke about what food means to Argentines. Auzmendi, who is the co-creator of La Fuerza, a vermouth winery sourced at the foot of the Andes, also taught us to make a classic vermouth (75 percent wine, and the other 25 is alcohol and herbs), and soda drink, perfect for pairing with meat at a traditional Argentine asado. "The vermouth has to be an expression of a place," said Auzmendi.

The food and wine experts started off the cooking class by talking about how versatile Argentina is in its territory, which translates into many climates and possibilities for food, but an authentic porteño experience means food, ambience, and hospitality. They started cooking with the minuta meal, meaning made in minutes, which was the scrambled gramajo (a mix of eggs, a potato, peas, and butter). Next, they showed how to make a chimichurri sauce for the steak, and on the side, roasted butternut squash with salted butter. As they cooked, the experts dove into the history of their ingredients, including the vermouth, wine, and steak. After all, hospitality is synonymous to diplomacy, said Molteni.

Learn more about Young Professionals of the Americas.