Meredith Whitney, the influential bank-industry analyst, gathered a dozen women leaders from across the developing world for breakfast yesterday. I wrote yesterday’s Postcard about their “View of the World.” The global economic outlook from Whitney’s and these women isn’t real pretty.
We asked our friends at CNNMoney.com to videotape the conversation and interview these women, who are participants in the Fortune/U.S. State Department Global Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership. This year, Whitney — who, by the way, landed a spot onTime‘s 2009 list of the World’s 100 Most Influential People — is a mentor, along with three dozen other American women leaders who attend Fortune‘s annual Most Powerful Women Summit.
Take a look at this video featuring three mentees who are rising stars in their developing nations. Rica Rwigamba, who runs a tourism company in Rwanda, talks about how Starbucks’ struggles globally have have dampened coffee exports from her country. Vera Valievna Tkachenko from Kazakhstan notes that strong human capital — and education to build it — is more critical today than ever. And Anna Ipangelwa of Namibia says that her country is upping its food production as aid to Africa suffers in the global downturn.
It’s conversations like these that remind us how like-minded and interconnected we all are, spanning the globe.
