Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Reese Witherspoon’s media company Hello Sunshine sees a steep drop in projected earnings, Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi is this year’s Nobel Peace Prize recipient, and Fortune‘s Most Powerful Women Summit gets underway. Have a wonderful Monday!
– Rising to the occasion. Good morning from Laguna Niguel, Calif., where Fortune‘s Most Powerful Women Summit kicks off today. As always—and especially with so much happening in the world—it’s a privilege to gather with some of the most thoughtful people in business to navigate today’s challenges together. Our theme for this year is “rising to the occasion”—and the group of influential business leaders gathered here this week are certainly doing just that.
We will be getting things underway today with conversations about why storytelling matters, women’s impact on philanthropy and women as wealth creators, and post-pandemic board leadership. Over dinner tonight, we’ll hear from CVS Health CEO Karen Lynch (No. 1 on Fortune‘s Most Powerful Women list) and new California Sen. Laphonza Butler, who was appointed to late Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s seat just last week.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, we’ll hear from leaders across industries, from Netflix chief content officer Bela Bajaria and former IBM chief Ginni Rometty to Williams Sonoma CEO Laura Alber and new Walmart International chief executive Kath McLay. We’ll dive into some of 2023’s trending topics, from the growing business of women’s sports to the massive success of the Barbie movie—and the rise of women leaders in news, featuring ABC News president Kim Godwin and New York Times CEO Meredith Kopit Levien.
Over the next few days, we’ll be sure to bring you all the highlights in the The Broadsheet. You can also follow along on Fortune.com, on social media, and on our livestream of the event here.
If you’re with us in southern California, please say hi!
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Hello Sunshine sets. Reese Witherspoon’s media company Hello Sunshine projects that it will deliver just 10% of its projected earnings this year while Hollywood strikes and cost-cutting plague the industry. In 2021 a Blackstone-backed firm bought a majority stake in the company, which focuses on female creatives and women-centered stories, that valued it at $900 million. Bloomberg
- Iranian prizewinner. Iranian activist Narges Mohammadi, currently serving a 10-year sentence in Iranian prison, was awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize last week for her fight for human rights and against women's oppression. Mohammadi's award comes as female-led protests and retaliatory violence from police afflict the country. Fortune
- Designing the future. Despite valuation setbacks earlier in the year, design platform Canva is adding subscribers and corporate clients under CEO Melanie Perkins, who was just named to Fortune's MPW list. Now, the high-profile CEO is hoping that AI-powered design tools and a possible IPO can help Canva dethrone competitors and achieve her dream to "build one of the world's most valuable companies" and "do the most good we can do." The Information
- Same look, different brands. Only eight women, including just one woman of color, hold creative director positions in Vogue Business Index's top 30 brands after Sarah Burton was replaced by Seán McGirr as creative director of Alexander McQueen last week. Customers and commentators are taking aim at internal promotions, and other practices, within these predominantly white brands to account for the vast disparity. Vogue Business
- #MeToo reverberates. Actress Julia Ormond sued Creative Artists Agency for allegedly sending her to private meetings with now-convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein knowing he had a habit of sexual abuse and later discouraging her from reporting her own assault. The agency's decision to hire an independent law firm to investigate the validity of Ormond’s claims sheds light on the practice, which has cleared prominent sexual predators who were later exposed. CAA denies Ormond's claims and has promised to fight them in court. Puck
ON MY RADAR
A woman was denied medication for being of ‘childbearing age.’ She just sued the hospital Jezebel
Paris Fashion Week reaches peak girl Washington Post
Havana Rose Liu has never scrolled TikTok The Cut
PARTING WORDS
"It was in a school and I was playing a little boy. His friend came over and said, ‘Lucky you, you’re playing a girl.' After I beat him I thought, 'You won’t be saying that again.'”
—British MP and finance expert Rachel Reeves, who recently released her new book The Women Who Made Modern Economics, on her early memories playing chess
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