S8-Ep10: ShEquity - A Refugee’s Path to Empowering Women & Their Businesses

Guest: Pauline Koelbl

 

Surviving life as a refugee is one thing.  To turn that life into a mission to empower other women is quite another. 

 

That’s exactly what Pauline Koelbl did.  Escaping the war in Rwanda, she found herself a homeless refugee.  Eventually, Pauline found a home in Tucson, Arizona.  More importantly, she found mentoring and support there – and now “pays it forward” as the founder and managing director of ShEquity, and investment firm providing capital and other resources to women-led and -owned businesses in Africa.  Women are the key to unlocking economic success on the continent; they operate over 40% of small and medium sized enterprises.  What’s more, they reinvest about 90% of their revenue in sectors and activities that benefit their families and communities – men only reinvest 40%.  That’s one of many reasons the McKinsey Global Institute estimates the global GDP would increase by $28 trillion if we simply closed the business gender gap! 

 

Pauline shares her compelling story of refugee-turned-entrepreneur focused on female empowerment with host Maureen Metcalf. 

 

Here's what Pauline and Maureen cover:

• How closing the gender gap in the workforce potentially adds $28 trillion to the global GDP;
• Why, despite the stereotypes, refugees bring with them vast amounts of intellectual capital host countries tend to waste; and
• Why women are the key to African (and other) nations fully realizing their economic potential.

 

Other episodes you'll find edifying: 

- Diamonds in the Rough: Sustainability & Corporate Citizenship – with Pat Dambe

- Diversity & Inclusion Insights from IBM South Africa – with Roger Madison

- Empowering Women for the Prosperity of Nations – with Amanda Ellis & Augusto Lopez-Claros

For daily wisdom from our guests, be sure to follow us on LinkedIn . We're on Mastodon, Facebook, and Twitter, too!  

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RESOURCES:  

More on Pauline’s investment firm is online at https://shequity.com/ .

Our host Maureen Metcalf posts a newsletter every week on LinkedIn. You can subscribe here .

She’s also written several award-winning books on leadership development. You can peruse and purchase them here: https://amzn.to/3C4eSX0 .

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OUR PODCAST TEAM:  

Host & Executive Producer: Maureen Metcalf 

Editor & Producer: Dan Mushalko 

Video & Graphics Editor: Devon Mushalko 

They Who Shall Remain Unnamed: Luigi Morelli and Connor Carson

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Website: InnovativeLeadership.com

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About Our Guest:  

Pauline Koelbl is AfriProspect GmbH’s Founder/CEO as well as ShEquity’s Founder/Managing Partner.  AfriProspect focuses on connecting African innovators with global markets, and ShEquity provides smart investment to impactful and scalable African female-led and owned businesses. Pauline also has 10+ years’ experience catalyzing innovation and entrepreneurship across Africa.  Her passion lies in innovation, entrepreneurship, youth, and women economic empowerment.  A double Fulbright -Scholar and Fellow-, Pauline is currently serving on a variety of boards of companies/organizations connected to business, entrepreneurship and innovation in Africa.

Pauline holds an Executive Education in Innovation for Economic Development from Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government; a Master’s Degree in Poverty and Development, Institute of Development Studies (IDS) from the University of Sussex, United Kingdom, and a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies (Honors) from the University of Arizona, USA.