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Dan Sheridan’s career journey at Brooks Running has been both a marathon and a sprint. In his years as COO, he led the organization through the pandemic and seismic shifts in the athletic apparel market. Now, as CEO, the race is on as he navigates increased competition, a new and turbulent geopolitical landscape for trade, and the evolving expectations of today’s workforce. Sheridan will share tales from his journey from COO to CEO, and his unique playbook for what is required to propel Brooks to the level of growth that he envisions, while protecting the brand that passionate runners worldwide have come to expect. 

SUCCESSION SPOTLIGHT: HOW TO PROPEL A FAN-FAVORITE BRAND INTO THE FUTURE 

Conferences

So who here is a runner? How about a walker? There we go. You're in our addressable market. Well, we're gonna get, we're gonna get into that in a second. So Dan, thank you for joining us, uh, and giving me your time as both an interviewer and as a customer. You know I have a lot of points of view to share, um, but let's start with, uh, state of your business. Um, you had a very good 2024. There's also a big running boom going on. Can you just summarize really quickly for the audience where you want to take Brooks, which. is primarily known as a brand of running shoes for serious runners, and you've got some ambitions to expand the aperture. So just share that with us. Sure. Well, first off, thanks for having me and happy to be here. So if you don't know Brooks, we're a 110 year old company, the oldest American sporting goods company here in the US, and And we've been on a journey as a company over the probably the last 30 years to focus specifically on the sport of run and even more specifically performance run. So we focus on kind of the upper echelon in our category, higher price points and the like, and what we, what we've seen over that 30 year journey is it's all, all of our Our success is rooted first and foremost in the participation of health and wellness around the world, and you're probably seeing it in your communities. It is absolutely booming right now. I've been in the industry 27 years and never seen a running boom like we're seeing right now. Brooks sits right in the middle of that. We're the number one brand here in the US in performance run. And we are expanding globally and it really comes from an intense strategy that we kind of tag as sharp focus creates mass appeal. And so this pinnacle performance positioning has really opened us up. To anyone that moves, and that's why I say if you run, you walk, or you go to the gym, you're our customer. And so we've had incredible success. We've had about 15% compounded annual growth rate over a 24 year period. Um, rooted in that sharp focus, and we believe that we're kind of just getting started. We're 85% of our revenue comes out of the US, so the next chapter for us is global expansion and running's expanding globally right now. Yeah, and I think the the company overall is, which is part of Berkshire Hathaway, it's just north of $1 billion in sales, and you know some of your competitors are um. Uh, are a multiple of that, so obviously there, there's, there's some room for you, um, some of that involves international, some of that involves, uh, more lifestyle products, you know, New Balance should not have the monopoly on dad shoes, right? So, um, so I'll get back to that in a sec. So my, I guess my first question is, you know, you're primarily, um, until recently running shoes that are sold at running stores. Now you want to sell in more countries. You want to sell more products you want to sell more apparel, uh, and you have some designs on having more of your own well what what's in retail called direct to consumers, so your own website and more of your and some stores as well, that's gonna have implications on operations and you happen to be a former CEO, so you can tell us a little bit about uh how you're going to retool the company operationally for, you know, for so it can cast a much wider net and, and not get lost in it. Yeah, I mean, running is, um, it's unique in in this in this way. It's, it's a very local sport. Think about any sport, you have to either drive to a gym or a court or a or a field to go and do a certain ball or bats. For running, you step out of your house. And so we always think about how local running is around the world. We say that there's probably 10,000 communities around the world where running is, is, you know, um, having its day. And so what we try to do. I really build a multi-channel strategy and what that means is we want to assort our brand, sell our brand wherever the greatest retailers are that are focused on run, and that creates complexity at an operational level because we don't own the systems of these retailers. We don't own the distribution. networks, the transportation networks. So what we've had to do is build an operation that really taps in and has agility into all of these partners around the world, direct to consumers kind of our future in terms of developing that channel that will create complexity as well, but we've already done what I think is the hardest thing, which is servicing. Call it 10,000 retailers around the world through our operations network. So my new COO doesn't love it when I say that. The easy part's coming, but it truly is. And so we're trying to wire this thing where if runnings are sorted in a retail store, we want to be there and we want to service it in a really high service environment. So one of the things that's very difficult, I think people who are not in the consumer and retail space underestimate how difficult it is to Get into footwear or get into apparel, um. You know it's, it's, uh, all name names. I'm a reporter, but like Under Armour stumbled with its running shoes and you would think why, you know, they have all the resources there. You guys make very nice running clothes, um, but you're not a big player yet and so can you maybe just explain quickly to the audience why sometimes, you know, intuitively you think it shouldn't be so difficult for a company and yet it is difficult. Yeah, I mean the um. The biggest secret in building performance running footwear, specifically, I'll get to apparel in a second, is 500 people touch our products from the material vendor to when we put it in a box and ship it. To a, to a retailer. So just let that sit in. We, you know, we used to always talk about handcrafted Italian loafers. Handcrafted performance footwear is real. Um, it takes intention, it takes process, and, and one of the reasons there's so many hands in that. over the years labor was so cheap that you could, you could have that many people doing that. But what has happened over the time is that Southeast Asia has become the hub to build the best running shoes in the world. And so we've been able to tap into that. We have partners in Asia for 25 years now that are just fantastic. making performance running gear. We're on a journey in apparel. Um, you know the difference between footwear and apparel is if you're a runner, the footwear purchase is a considered purchase. You, you go through a fit cycle, you know exactly what you want, and every detail matters. In apparel, it's more of an emotional purchase that that brand on your. on your your sleeve or your pocket is an expression of yourself in some ways and so it's less of a considered purchase. It's also more commoditized. You can go to just about any retailer and get pretty good performance products. So we're on a journey there. We've got incredible products and apparel. It'll be the next chapter for Brooks. So you, um, just like, uh, uh, Scott from Chipotle before, uh, who was on stage before was the COO before becoming the CEO. You did the same, uh, trajectory. I think one of the things, you know, I covered retail for a very long time. I think there was a fad about 10 years ago as retailers and consumer brands really were worried about Amazon and our e-commerce isn't, uh, uh, infrastructure isn't isn't up to snuff. So there was a lot of CEOs who suddenly became CEOs in retail land. Whereas there used to be, you know, the, the merchants, the product people, you know, the people have that intuition. How what I'm getting at is what advice can you give to the prospective future CEOs here who are CEOs, uh, make sure that they have both sides of their brains, you know, the operational left side and the more intuitive that you might need in the consumer facing, um, you know, it's, it's, uh, you need both, right? Yeah, um, I use this, this saying with my team that, uh, head above the clouds, feet in the mud. And what I mean by that is, you know, at a COO level or a CEO level, you're, you're always focused on what we call horizon 2, kind of 3 years out. I think my job as CEO is if we, if we stumble in 3 years, that's on the CEO. And so I'm always trying to keep my head above the clouds and yet still base myself in reality and and securing the short term, which is, which is feet in the mud and And that transition from COO to CEO, you get, you get less of your feet dirty at times, and, and you're really trying to see above the clouds, you know, I had good advice from Berkshire Hathaway over the years and And when I moved into this role, one of the best advice I got was to understand your biases as you move into new roles, specifically in the CEO role. I grew up at Brooks 27 years there, had many different roles, so I have a lot of biases in what I think I know about each function. And as a CEO, I think you have to hold balance and equity in your frameworks and mental models so that you don't lean on maybe past experiences from 34 years ago that this is how I did it when I was in that role. So it's a, it's an understanding your biases and then really thinking long term as you as you move into the CEO role. So runners are intensely fanatically loyal to specific models and brands and shoes. Um, you know, when you guys discontinued, one of your models a few years ago, I went into mourning and um I think you called us. I, I called Jim Webber, your predecessor. Uh, I did not win, but anyway, um, how do you get customers, especially runners, this is on their feet. This is everybody's thinking. If I had, uh, that shoe prevents me from getting injuries, how do you get people who might be, you know, in love with Hoka and on and, uh, New Balance to give you guys, you know, they all know that Brooks are great shoes, and I also know AI is a great, like how do you get people to give you guys a try when people are so fiercely loyal? Yeah, I think you know over the years in our industry it was really hard to get people to switch brands. I think that's changed in the last 5 to 6 years for a lot of reasons. One, there's a lot of parity in product. There just is. There's a lot of great product out there. I often say that choosing a running shoes is a bit like choosing your favorite wine. Everyone has a different year, a different vintage, and they, they, they kind of go back to that and they try and find it. And so right now we're in a unique, unique era where there's great product from everyone. So then what is the value prop for the consumer? And you know there's a lot of detail on fit e ride and consistency in product season after season. We update our product every 12 months and so we've been able over a 20 plus year period. To be very consistent in our fit. And so if you love that varietal of the glycerin that Phil wears, that you're going to get that fit every single time, and that comes from long term manufacturing relationships, comes from sweating the details on fit feel ride, you know, on a marathon mile 22 really matters if your shoe is going to work, and we spend every day. Trying to figure that out for the runners, so consistency in our industry is the most important thing, and innovation can't disrupt that consistency. So innovation is moving really fast in materials and mid souls and the like, and you know we've been able to keep innovation coming without, you know, really impacting the consistency of our fit, fuel and ride. OK, so a quick final question for you. I mentioned Jim Webber, uh, whom you succeeded last year. Uh, he was there for more than 20 years. Basically, he saved Brooks, um, and it was on the verge of bankruptcy. I did, I forget. How, what, what do you want to do for Brooks? Yeah. Well, what I was super lucky at Brooks. I studied under Jim Webber, who was the modern day founder of this strategy and as Phil said, really set us on a path for growth. You know, our next version is expanding this brand around the world. As I said, 85% of our revenue comes out of the US. We're mostly footwear, and we have now permission to expand this brand. What's happening and running right now is super interesting. Participation rates around the world are skyrocketing. I was in China two weeks ago. The stat that we were told was there were 40 marathons in 2020. There's 450 marathons in China. So this brand is just getting started and it'll be expansion mode for us. All right, well, on that note, go for a run tomorrow at 5 in the morning when it's 70 and stay healthy. So join me in thanking Dan for being with us today. Thank you.

Microsoft’s chief privacy officer—and a former commissioner for the U.S.  government agency responsible for protecting online privacy—discusses AI  regulation, how digital safety and tech uniquely impact the lives of women and  children, and the role her company is playing in the global adoption of responsible AI. 

Training AI to Play By The Rules

Hello everybody. OK, so Julie, what are the whole uh range of other things that you do? Lots and lots of things. So privacy, responsible AI, digital safety data governance, it's sort of the whole suite of sounds super, super easy. It's really easy, yeah, yeah, great. OK, so, um, let's let's get into it, uh, lots of very hefty topics, um, I know you recently you're, you're always attending policy, privacy, um. Conferences, but there was one in Venice you were at recently in DC um what what's top of mind at these events right now? So what's fascinating in terms of what's going on right now is there seems to be a consensus that is developing among global regulators, not just in Europe, not just in the United States, but in Asia and elsewhere, which is regulation is deeply important and it's the same. Time regulators need to make sure that there will be innovation. So there's a lot of discussion right now about how do we ensure that we are enabling innovation while protecting fundamental rights and also how do we make sure that startups and small and medium enterprises can navigate the regulatory space? We've heard a lot earlier in Conference about how difficult it can be for those kinds of entities. So regulators are looking at simplification. They're looking at harmonizing across all of these different domains, and they're really looking to drive and enable innovation, and that's actually quite refreshing seeing that now. You've been on both sides, right? Also, you've spent some time on the government side, yes, which do you like better? No, I'm just joking. I um yes, yes, yeah, sure, that's a good answer. um OK, let's uh talk about safety. You spend a lot of time thinking again from from both perspectives from your previous, um, you know, previous career as well, um, as your current one about safety when it comes to AI and and technology more broadly, uh, when it comes to kids, yeah. Do you, what do you think about most? What's most critical, and I'm curious to hear also from the point of view of the corporate side of of your role today. What is companies, uh, you know, role versus the government. Sure, so governments around the world are really focused on kids right now in a way that we haven't actually seen in quite some time. Um, so and the focus is really around social media and the impact on kids, and you're seeing globally outside of the United States the adoption of laws that companies really do need to pay attention to and are paying attention to. And the reason why I say outside of the United States is there's this little thing, the First Amendment, that sort of has. Tied up some of the laws that are that the governments are trying to adopt that said, from a company perspective, what we need to make sure is that we provide parents, moms, dads with the tools so that they can help their kids navigate this space and also can protect their kids from whatever content they're able to control. It's a challenging space because at the same time you want to enable kids to learn about a digital technology. You want them to engage because this is their future digital technology. So there's a balance that needs to be struck, and I think that a lot of jurisdictions are doing that and a lot of governments, so a lot of governments are doing. that and companies are really trying to enable that kind of balance. So if you go back a ways I know you brought up social media and some of the risks and concerns there but um we saw regulators um trying to to catch up when it came to social media, when it came to mobile to those technological transformations. Do you feel like with the advent of AI, um, there's a little bit more of a preemptive thought being given to some of the potential issues? There was absolutely and I'd say, you know, particularly around the EU AI Act and some other very immersive comprehensive laws dealing with AI, the governments were saying, look, we missed the boat on social media, so we need to get out in front. We need to regulate. And I think there's now a recognition that there's a need to take an examination, really take a step back. This is by governments that are saying let's make sure that these laws can be implemented by companies across the spectrum. We want to enable startups. We want to enable innovation, and so I think that that is what is starting this initiative that you're seeing around what I talked about before. Simplification, harmonization, so it isn't so complicated going from privacy to responsible AI to digital safety. Let's bring them together in a way that will work a little bit better for the small and medium enterprises, but it did begin, I think you're right, when governments thought, gee, I think we missed the boat on social media. Do, do you feel like the um this kind of these opposing forces, um, because on the one hand. Obviously there's this AI arms race, um, you can't slow down progress. I know there was in in the US this sort of movement to like take a six month pause on AI progress which is not gonna happen um but you know on the one hand you have that right? you've got. At this this push to keep advancing and um and and there is this race going on on the other hand so many potential issues that are being thought through um how do you thread that needle like these are opposing forces. What are the different approaches to making sure that on the company level by the way that you can move forward, that you're not falling behind and at the same time you're being thoughtful? Yeah, I think that that's really important, especially for companies. I think it's really important that you know even before you. Start looking at regulations and whether and how you're going to comply to really create principles that that you as a company stand for. So at Microsoft, and I don't, we're not the only ones, but we were very early. You're a big one. We're a big one. We're big. Anybody heard of Microsoft in here? We are, we are big and because we're big and because we provide so much infrastructure to the governments and companies around the world, we really take these responsibilities pretty seriously and so what we had to do early early on before any AI laws were adopted, we created internal standards and that's where you as a company can say. Are we living up to our north star? What is our north star when it comes to making sure that we're trusted and we're trustworthy in terms of the AI that we're providing? And so we had a standard. We developed teams that would test against that standard. The standard included things like ensuring privacy, ensuring security. Security ensuring safety and fairness and making sure that the AI was inclusive, especially when it comes to accessibility issues. So those are pretty big requirements and we had teams that would make sure that we were abiding by that. We tested it was a very robust internal system. And we also published our standards so people could see it, so transparency was a big part of this too, and I think that that's the kind of responsibility that a company like Microsoft owes to our customers, which are also some very big companies and small and medium enterprises and startups, and what we also owe to our public sector customers as well. By the way, are you, are you surprised by the pace of Adoption. I mean, OpenAI's chat GPT, which Microsoft has a stake in, amassed 100 million users, subscribers within two months of its launch, fastest growing app ever. Did that surprise you? You've seen these other, you know, you've been a part of these other technological transformations. I have been. So when I was a commissioner of the US Federal Trade Commission, which, which was my last government role. Um, we used to see a lot of tech technological advances, and we felt like we were always behind. Now the pace of innovation is just accelerated. What used to take years to get out now takes months, and you know, regulators are trying to keep up. They're doing, you know, not a bad job in my view. And what we're seeing in companies. It is just to go to a point you made earlier, a real desire to be ahead, to be leaders, and also to make sure that it is safe and trusted, and that is a big job right now. But it is, but yes, things are moving incredibly quickly. Um, I wanna ask you also about the role of AI in productivity and in the impact, uh, to the workforce, um, and we talked a little bit about that yesterday as well and some of the opportunities, um, there's also uh a potential downside, right? There's a lot of concerns about what it does to jobs, um, you know, I think, I think we talk about it. A lot of like the superpower for employees which it absolutely can be. Can you talk a little bit about just how you look at the impact on the job force, the workforce, you know, both internally and externally, and how does that factor into how you think about the growth? Yeah, I think it's, it's really important to Understand that like here at this conference we have amazing people, amazing women who have been able to do incredible things with AI that I you know, listening to all of these panels I've just been blown away, um, that's a technical term for like really it's been awesome, um, and. At the same time I think it's important to think about the suite of of what's going to be happening particularly to women in the workforce as we go forward and that doesn't necessarily involve this cohort of women but sort of all women so what we are gonna. See is there jobs that are going to be augmented by AI they're going to be improved, you know, medical jobs of people who are in medicine, people who are in research, people who are doing pharmaceuticals, even the financial community. AI generative AI is just going to help them zoom ahead. There are those kinds of jobs we can think of as AI augmenting those roles, and then there are going to be jobs that are going to be disrupted. And you know that's going to be creative. We are, we know about that from what's what's happening in Hollywood. um we are also going to see that in administrative roles. We will see that in some sort of analytic roles, but not all of them. And as it turns out, so, uh, LinkedIn published some data and it got it out on International Women's Day. It turns out that women are going to be more impacted because they are, they take more and aspire to more of the jobs that will be disrupted than augmented and so what that means is it's really important for governments. And for companies to focus on how we can help women now get ready for that so that they just don't lose their jobs and then like they've got no place to go. So what does that mean? It means that we heard a lot about skilling uh over the last couple of days we absolutely need to focus on women in particular who are gonna need skilling and the jobs that that will be disrupted to help them get to that next level. There's also other things that companies can do, I think, to help with this in addition to skilling, and I should just note really quickly, Microsoft has already trained and skilled for AI about 100,000 people in Saudi and millions in just here, just here in Saudi Arabia, millions around the world, and by the end of this year we will hit about 160,000 in Saudi Arabia. Yeah, yeah, it's a big, but it's our responsibility, right? This is something that we can really help with and we partner with the government, we partner with our customers. It's really important to do skilling, but the other thing that companies can do super quick is you can, they can focus on their culture inside their companies to really drive AI training and all of that, and they can change the way they look at new new candidates for jobs. Think about the skills that people have, not their past experience. If you focus on skills, what you'll do is you'll increase by 13% the number of women that are considered for jobs globally. Well, um, Julie, I feel like we only scratched the surface, but as we said, really hefty topics, hopefully you'll be back, and it will be me interviewing you and not a bot or a humanoid, you know, robot so it will definitely be you, but thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you.

As AI takes hold, so do the risks for the next generation. In this important conversation, filmmaker and children’s rights campaigner Baroness Kidron joins WeProtect Global Alliance founder Baroness Shields, OBE to explore how AI is impacting childhood – and what we must do to protect it.  

Who’s Protecting Our Kids from AI?

Valerie Jarrett, Chief Executive Officer, The Obama Foundation
Interviewer: Jessica Yellin, Founder, News Not Noise 

Most Powerful Women Summit 2024: Protecting Democracy Globally

Oh, you guys look fabulous. And Martin, ladies, ladies. Not, not too many guys. Good, good, good. It is so nice to sit here and talk to you, Valerie. I think the first time we met you were CEO in Chicago. It was before then Senator Obama was starting to run. Of course, you became a senior adviser in the White House and you're now again, a CEO of a $1.5 billion foundation, the Obama Foundation and counting and counting just in case anybody's interested. Well, that's an impressive start. Thank you. I know you're still fundraising. Um, first, I'd love to give people a sense of what's happening at the Obama Foundation. There are programs for girls and young people we'll talk about, but let's start with the facility itself. It's a very impressive campus. Tell us a little bit about what its focus is when it opens and why it's on the south side of Chicago. Ah, so I grew up on the south side of Chicago. That's why it's there. Right. No, that's not exactly why it's there, but it does make it very special for me. It's a 19.3 or campus right adjacent to the Museum of Science and Industry. Chicago's amazing Michigan lakefront and on the other side of the University of Chicago, just a 10 minute drive to downtown and it is going to be fabulous. It opens in the spring of 2026. You are all invited and come and take a hard head tour. Now, if you're curious and so it will be not only an economic engine for Chicago, but a beacon of hope for the world and it will house the presidential museum that will tell the story of not just President and Michelle Obama, but also the people upon whose shoulders they stand, it will have a Chicago public library because it's so important to the Obamas that the young people in the neighborhood feel that this is their home. We'll have a forum building for huge gatherings, including our democracy forum, which I know we're going to talk about and also an athletic center where we're not going to just do sports, but teach young people about the importance of self esteem and team building and the business of sports because not everybody's 68 and can dunk and, and they will have walking trails and vegetable gardens and fruit gardens and sledding. You can't sled anywhere else in Chicago and growing up Michelle Obama always wanted to go sledding. So we're building a sledding hill for her and it will just be an incredible asset for the city that we call home. Why Chicago? Well, it's where the Obamas began their career together, their life together. Michelle was born about two miles from where the center is located. He came to Chicago and he tells a story about coming those of, you know, Chicago along the sky way from Indiana and landing on the south side. They lived basically when they married not far from where we're located, their kids were born at the hospital less than a mile away. And it's where they built their life together and they wanted to put down their library in a place where they already had roots and where the people in the community would welcome them. And that's what Chicago has done. It's lovely. We're all excited to go good, please. The foundation is already doing work that is up and running a lot of scholarships and programs for young people because you're very focused on building the next generation of leaders. Yes. So when President Obama left office, he and Michelle spent a lot of time just trying to think through what do we want to do next? They're obviously still very young. They're very popular and they wanted to continue to be a force for good, but they also believe in taking the long view and building the next generation of leaders. And so we have leaders programs in the United States, Asia, Africa and Europe. We have a scholarship program thanks to airbnb for juniors and seniors in college to not only provide financial aid but provide them a summer travel experience. And these young people just came back a couple months ago and all of them were standing like 3 ft taller as a result of going 70% of them left the country and the other 30% went to cities or counties or rural communities where they had not grown up. And so this experience, as you can tell is one of my, my favorites. We also have uh my brother's keeper, which President Obama started when he was still in the White House to help improve the trajectory of boys and young men of color. And we have leadership programs for young girls. Uh And our goal is to keep adolescent girls globally in school and also in the United States. Um So and Columbia and the University of Chicago also have leadership programs. So we have now over 1000 alumni who've been through our leadership programs who are out there changing the world and uh spending time with them is what keeps me hopeful. A number of the students who come through your program actually live in countries with authoritarian leaders where democracy is not functioning for them. Can you speak a little bit about the challenges of training kids for young people to work in a world they don't yet live in. Well, it's hard for a variety of reasons and I'll give you an example of a young leader in our program. Who was uh from Vietnam and she was actually incarcerated. And the Obama leaders program isn't necessarily the best calling card in some countries. And so you have to really respect and admire these leaders who are willing to take a risk to fight for human rights when they are enco countries that are not supportive of those rights. We have another young leader named Zuma who's from Poland and she's now the Deputy Minister for Justice, fighting for human rights and civic engagement. And she says if it wasn't for our program, she would have never considered putting her hat in the ring for this office. And her best friend said grade was also in the leaders program and occupies the top position in government as well. And so when you see that so many people out there have great ideas and they're working so hard and they feel alone and they feel overwhelmed and all they need are some simple tools to help them do what they're doing, take it for, to scale and meet other people from around the world who are trying to tackle the same challenges. And so we don't tell our leaders care about this or care about that. We're not issue specific. We just want them to have the tools to be more effective and to take what they're doing to scale and to meet some people from around the world with whom they can bond and develop relationships and maybe even do a little business together, strengthening democracy here at home and overseas is a big focus for you all. Would you talk a little bit about your democracy forum? Which I think is coming up. Yes, December 5th. We have our third annual democracy forum. I'll be honest with you. When President Obama left office, he didn't think he had to have anything focused explicitly on democracy. It's kind of a through line in all of our programs. But given the state of the world he thought, well, let's zero in on that. So our first one a couple of years ago was on disinformation. And he gave a speech at Stanford University, my alma mater on the different ways that business, civil society, the individual and government could try to tackle this huge problem of disinformation, which we know is only going to get exacerbated as a result of A I um last year, we focused on inclusive capitalism. What are the ways in which we can build a strong middle class? Because we know that a threat to democracy is if you have countries where you have the rich and the poor and you see uprisings when people feel government is actually not working for me. So what can we do to make the tent big enough and the pie large enough for everybody to benefit? I always say that look, um talent is ubiquitous. It's opportunity. That is not. And so how do we build this bigger opportunity? Platform. And then this year we're focusing on pluralism and I was talking to someone earlier who I won't out. But she said she probably hadn't heard that word since college. And it's particularly relevant right now, I think because we are in this polarized, not just country but world and people are so comfortable in their echo chambers. And as a result of social media and the way we are organized and the people who came of age during COVID, some of the basic skills of having a very difficult conversation with someone with whom you disagree, but you come to the table in goodwill and you want to try to figure out is there common ground and there may not be but it's healthy and it is essential in a democracy to go through that exercise. And so how do we build a pluralistic society if we don't, then the chances of us having a strong democracy begins to fail. And so each year we're looking at what are the foundations, what are the threats? What are the opportunities to strengthen our democracy and taking on specific areas of focus? You guys never take on the big challenges. Um I want to switch gears a little bit and ask you about the Girls Opportunity Alliance because I remember this from some of the work Mrs Obama did at the White House. It's an outgrowth of some of her work there. Um Tell us what this focus is on and how it really is could help strengthen democracy here in the US. Yes. So, um as you said, Jessica, first of all, can I just say how happy I am to be here with Jessica? I should have said it from the beginning, but you realize her focus is to tell good news stories, stories that don't just scare people to death. And I think that's good because of this current climate. You can seem overwhelmed by all the bad news. And so taking a moment to put out the good things that are actually out there. So I wanted to give you that shout out before we run out of time. So um when Michelle Obama was the first lady, she launched a program called Let Girls Learn. And her goal was to focus on the 100 million girls around the world. Adolescent girls who are not in school, why are they not in school? A variety of different reasons. Some of it's poverty, some of it's child marriage, some of it's oppression, some of it's just lack of good resources and opportunity. And she worked with a variety of organizations when she was in the White House, raised a billion dollars to help keep girls in school when she left. She said, well, what can I do without the platform of first lady but continue this hard work. And so the girls opportunity alliance and I hope they are partners. We have so many partners in the corporate community that are focusing on this here in the United States and around the world is the same. How can we keep these girls in school? And we work with a whole range of grassroots organizations on the ground that they're having success, evidence based strategies that are keeping our young people in school. And last year, Melinda French Gates and Amal Clooney and Michelle Obama teamed up quite a, quite a threesome if you asked and went to Africa and really put a spotlight on the issue of child marriage, which is a huge challenge. And one of our leaders, a young 18 year old was very instrumental in Malawi in trying to raise the age with which young people could get married. Uh So this is our plan and what we wanna do around the United States as well as around the world is to find those organizations that care about this passionately partner with us and let's help girls learn from it. So finally, you've been a leader, your whole career. Um and not my whole career. Let's be honest. Well, in the very beginning, maybe not started out a lawyer at a big law firm. That was a nightmare. So just in the spirit of full disclosure, I like that. That's true. But we all come from humble beginnings. Uh Talk a little bit about if you would, you, you were a $1.5 billion foundation. You're juggling family and life and all the pressures we all deal with but also in a tense election year while you're trying to raise money, what advice would you give other women leaders about doing the job without compromising your essential needs and values? Well, first of all, um this notion of work life balance, I think sets us up for disappointment and the way I prefer to look at it and I can say this because I'm older than most of you. Thank you. Is that life is full of chapters and, and different chapters. There are going to be trade offs that you're going to make and some chapters are just really hard, like raising Children. Any of you have kids in this room. Ok. Well, the best thing is when they have Children because first of all, it's payback. But second of all, there's just nothing better than grandchildren. I have two, don't hate me, but they're just the best. But when you are young, I felt and I still obviously remember it quite vivid searingly like I was holding on by my fingertips and I felt particularly when I was in that law firm that I couldn't really, and this is 38 years ago, but I just felt like I didn't tell anybody I was pregnant until I was six months pregnant. I gained so much weight. I was obviously pregnant, but I was afraid if I talked about it, people wouldn't take me as seriously. And that was the way the environment was back then. And so I was compartmentalizing and if I had to take Laura to a doctor's appointment or anywhere else, I would just, oh, I'm going to a meeting and why couldn't I just say taking her to a doctor's appointment? Because when the men would leave for soccer practice, everybody thought, oh, what a wonderful dad. He is. Right. And, and so in that era, I also felt alone and I felt like I had to do it all myself. And I used to think about, well, what must it be like for moms who don't have the good paying job and the health insurance and the great childcare and the support system that I have. And how can we take care of those structural and cultural impediments and legal impediments? Which is why part of my passion when I worked in the White House was chairing the White House Council on Women and girls. And so look, it's hard when you're younger, but then they grow up. And so I think part of what I'm trying to say is that during these different chapters of life, make informed decisions and don't feel like you're compromising, make it intentional and own the decision and be realistic about what you can do and what you can't do. But I also say you have to, you know, put the oxygen mask on yourself first. And so even in the White House and you know what that was like covering us is, is that I get up an hour earlier and exercise. Do I enjoy exercising? I do not enjoy exercising. Let me be really clear, but I needed to clear my mind. I knew I would feel better when I was finished. The happiest moment of the day was when I got off that treadmill. Um, and I was doing something for myself and I would, you know, in the beginning I'd say, well, I do it after work. Well, there was no after work. And, and so this notion of balance sets you up to think that you can have it all at the same time. And what I would encourage you to think instead is when you look back, I'm not saying my life is over. But let's say when I look back, I've had multiple chapters and the question is, do the chapters add up to a whole life? You know, did you love, did you build relationships? Did you find time and space in your heart for the people that you care about? Knowing that that meant that you didn't get to do some other things. And when my daughter was young, I, I had her when I was 28 and most of my friends and relatives didn't have Children. They would go off to Europe and they go doing whatever partying all night and I would be home with Laura and they said, well, don't you miss being out with us? And I was like, no, I made this decision to have this baby and now they're paying college tuition and Ih, that's nice. So that's my point. And so just be intentional about your life and try, try not to put too much pressure on yourself to say I have to have it. All right, this second. And I think for the younger generation where let's face it as a result of technology so much does happen quickly and it's right there at the palm of your hand. And I'm always telling them this is actually not a sprint. It's a marathon with lots of hopefully twists and turns. And the final thing I'll say as our clock runs down, I wrote a book called Finding My Voice, The Journey To the West Wing and the Path Forward. And then when I did a paperback, I changed the subtitle because it's really the story of my life, which is when the perfect plan crumbles. And I thought I had a perfect plan, a 10 year plan and I checked off all the boxes on my plan except for 10 years in the last one was live happily ever after and I was miserable. And so when the perfect plan crumbles, that's when the adventure begins. Yeah. And if you look at life like an adventure, then the swerves end up being an incredible line. Thank you guys, Valerie. Thank you. Thank you for your leader.

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