ShEquity: A Refugee’s Path to Empowering Women & Their Businesses

March 8, 2022
Hosted by Maureen Metcalf

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Guest Information

Episode Description

Achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 requires bold actions that unlock the potential of local innovators/entrepreneurs and foster inclusive access to opportunities and financing, especially for women. According to McKinsey Global Institute, “closing the gender gap in the workforce could add a staggering $28 trillion to the global GDP”. In Africa, women operate over 40% of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), but there is a financing gap of $42 billion (in USD) between male and female entrepreneurs. Given that women reinvest about 90% of their revenue in sector/activities that benefit their families and societies, compared to about 40% for men, closing the gender funding gap is a win for everyone! Pauline Koelbl, AfriProspect GmbH’s Founder and CEO and ShEquity’s Founder and Managing Partner, joins Maureen to share how ShEquity,’s vision is to close the gender funding gap in Africa. They focus on providing smart investment to female-led and owned businesses, the key driver to socio-economic growth and aim for triple bottom line: financial, social and environmental return.

Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future

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The pace of change in the world is increasing exponentially and shows no signs of slowing down. Leadership is evolving and requires more and more innovative leaders to keep up. Many leaders update what they lead but not how they think about and act as leaders. They become outdated. This matters because Leadership creates strategic advantage.

This show features interviews with global business executives, thought leaders and academics in a wide range of industries. They discuss their most pressing issues and the innovative approaches they have employed to transform their challenges into opportunities and advantages. The application of proven concepts and tools that may be applied to build your organization and deliver sustainable success are presented and discussed.

Become an innovative leader in your own right! Tune in every Tuesday at 11 AM Pacific Time on the VoiceAmerica Business Channel.

Maureen Metcalf

Maureen is the Founder and CEO of the Innovative Leadership Institute, a renowned executive advisor focused on making the world better through leadership! She helps clients strengthen their leadership talent pool so that leadership itself becomes one of your strategic advantages to co-create a thriving future.

Maureen brings 30 years of business experience to provide high-impact, practical solutions that support her clients' leadership development and organizational transformations. She is recognized as an innovative, principled thought leader who combines intellectual rigor and discipline with an ability to translate theory into practice in all her work. Her operational focus is coupled with a strategic ability to analyze, develop and implement successful strategies for profitability, growth and sustainability.

Maureen is the author of an international award-winning book series on Innovative leadership, including the Innovative Leaders Guide to Transforming Organizations, winner of a 2014 International Book Award and a regular contributor to Forbes.

As a board member/chair, Maureen has led multiple organizations through difficult transitions and is open to for-profit board opportunities. Before founding the Innovative Leadership Institute, she led consulting engagements for PricewaterhouseCoopers and Accenture across a broad range of industries, contributing to successful organizational transformation.

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