Equality Summit Latest: How to Build a Fairer Future
(Bloomberg) – An ongoing pandemic. geopolitical instability. Rising inflation worldwide. Executives and business leaders gather at the Bloomberg Equality Summit on Tuesday to discuss how to curb rising inequality amid the unrelenting global economic crisis. What does a more inclusive post-Covid development model look like? Can governments tackle skyrocketing inflation without hurting those at the bottom of the economic ladder? A group of leading venture capitalists spoke about the poor funding status of black entrepreneurs in the UK, and Bank of Ireland’s Semin Soher Power and Cebr CEO Nina Skero warned developed countries not to risk a return to 2% inflation at any time expect soon.
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Fidelity’s Anne Richards predicts D&I and ESG to slow down in tough economic times (9:47am)
Sustainability plans are likely to be delayed as companies face rising inflation and an energy crisis, said Fidelity International chief executive officer Anne Richards. Management teams must make difficult decisions to ensure companies are resilient in this challenging environment, and some of these could impact some diversity and inclusion goals and ESG initiatives. “Management teams have to make tough decisions,” she said.
She doesn’t think companies will completely abandon these goals, which have come more into focus in recent years. “I don’t think that’s going to change, I think it’s going to stay that way,” she said. “But part of the near-term emphasis is actually how we’re going to weather this particularly trying economic climate.” Access to venture capital “gone backwards” for black founders (10:23 a.m.)
According to Sharmadean Reid, founder of The Stack World, progress in black entrepreneurs’ access to capital is declining. “What needs to happen is that more black women are experimenting with capital in the same way that white founders are being given that opportunity,” Reid said at the Bloomberg Equality Summit in London.
Charmaine Hayden, founding partner of GOODsoil VC, warned that the economic downturn in the UK could have an undue impact on black founders. “Even if people are raising, the rounds of the down that everyone is facing are going to weigh a lot heavier on those black faces,” Hayden said.
Highlighting the lack of access to capital faced by black British founders, Reid said only 38 of them had received venture capital funding in the past 10 years. Reid says they are forced to go abroad, to the US, to raise funds. “A lot of minority founders in my communities were already looking to America for their next round, which is a very, very bad look at British capital,” Reid said.
Global Inflation Outlook Remains Gloomy (10:57)
“In the US, UK and the Eurozone we expect a near-term inflation peak over the next few months, but what is interesting is that we do not expect any of these markets to see their inflation back towards a 2% target for any number will of years,” said Nina Skero, CEO of Cebr, the economic forecaster. “There are a number of reasons why inflation is expected to persist for some time.”
Semin Soher Power, head of inflation trading at Bank of Ireland, highlighted energy diversification and storage as key challenges to overcome energy-linked inflation and advocated a focus on energy consolidation.
Power also said lessons should be learned from the inequalities that emerged in the aftermath of the global financial crisis, which sparked a generation of resentment. Both agreed that companies should focus on investing profits to improve societal factors and mitigate this effect by investing in communities, benefits, pensions and governments in education and health.
“A tipping point would be when the government offers free or subsidized childcare,” Power added.
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