This afternoon, the sixth annual Fortune Most Powerful Women International Summit kicks off here in London. If you’re attending, please come say hi! In the meantime, Fortune‘s Michal Lev-Ram has a preview of what’s in store:
Today, female leaders from the U.K., Europe, and beyond will gather in London to exchange ideas at the Fortune Most Powerful Women International Summit. The two-day confab brings together top thinkers and doers from diverse industries and geographies to discuss the critical issues they face and to learn from each other.
Speaking of critical issues, there have been quite a few in recent months: From geopolitical upheaval to the rise of cyber intrusions, there’s a lot to talk about. Indeed, the conversations will cover changing perceptions of how to maximize shareholder value, growth of European tech hubs (from Estonia to Berlin) and how Brexit could impact the rest of the continent. But the Summit is also geared toward inspiration. In fact, our 2017 theme is “Finding Your New Power.” To that end, we’ll see interviews and conversations with some of the preeminent women in government, philanthropy, education, and the arts.
Among those who will be joining us on stage are Carolyn Fairbairn, director-general, Confederation of British Industry; Nicola Mendelsohn, vice president of Facebook’s EMEA region; Inga Beale, CEO of Lloyd’s of London; Charlene Lucille de Carvalho-Heineken, executive director of Heineken Holding NV and the sole heir to the Heineken beer fortune; Ylva Johansson, Swedish Minister for Labor and Refugee Integration; Tamara Mellon, the Jimmy Choo co-founder who now heads TMellon Enterprises LLC; and Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the former Danish Prime Minister who is now CEO of Save the Children International. Oh, yeah, and Naomi Campbell, the supermodel, actress, and businesswoman, and Annie Lennox, singer-songwriter, activist, and philanthropist will also be there.
So in addition to problem-solving and inspiration, you can count on some glitz and entertainment too.
EUROPE/MIDDLE EAST/AFRICA
| . |
| Silver lining |
| Last week's U.K. snap general election cast the nation into an even deeper state of uncertainty, but there was one clear outcome: More women than ever won seats in Parliament. |
| Fortune |
| . |
| Playing hardball |
| Banco Santander chair Ana Botin, whose family has run the Spanish bank for more than a century, twice considered buying Banco Popular before scooping up the local rival for a nominal €1 last week. Here's the story of how Botin, No. 1 on Fortune's MPW International last year, struck what one hedge fund manager described as “the best deal in Santander’s history." |
| Financial Times |
THE AMERICAS
| Leading by example |
| Congresswoman Cheri Bustos from Illinois is the only member of Democratic Party leadership from the Midwest. As Democrats consider how to win back the House in the 2018 midterm elections, Bustos has taken to tutoring her colleagues on how to talk to rural voters the party has lost to Republicans. |
| Wall Street Journal |
| . |
| Feeding the soul |
| Essayist Roxane Gay's latest book Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body chronicles her lifelong struggle with her weight. But it's not a weight-loss how-to. “Mine is not a success story,” she says. Rather, the book is a portrait of resilience. |
| Washington Post |
| . |
| Corner office crunch |
| Only 16 Fortune 500 companies publicly share detailed demographic information about their employees. Nevertheless, Fortune data editor Stacy Jones crunched the numbers to discover that seven in ten executives at those companies are white men. |
| Fortune |
ASIA-PACIFIC
| Crown crisis |
| Japan’s Parliament on Friday allowed Emperor Akihito, 83, to abdicate the throne and approved a study on women’s role in the royal family. Under Japanese law, only men can rule as emperor and women lose their royal status when they get married. Debate over changing those restrictions has ebbed and flowed in recent years as Japan has faced a chronic shortage of male heirs. |
| Wall Street Journal |
| . |
| Co-ed competition |
| The next summer Olympics, set for 2020 in Tokyo, will feature 15 new events, including six with men and women competing on mixed teams. The International Olympic Committee added mixed-gender relays in swimming, track and triathlon, plus mixed team events in archery and judo. There will also be a mixed doubles competition in table tennis. |
| New York Times |
IN BRIEF
| Why ‘radical body love’ is thriving on Instagram |
| New York Times |
| Senator Kirsten Gillibrand will use the F-word if she feels like it |
| The Cut |
| The schoolgirl thrash metal band smashing stereotypes in Indonesia |
| Guardian |
| ‘Wonder Woman’ triumphs at the box office for second week |
| Fortune |
| Why it’s so hard for women to figure out what to wear to work in 2017 |
| Quartz |
PARTING WORDS
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| —'Harry Potter' author J.K. Rowling in a Twitter thread ignited by a man calling Theresa May a whore. |
