EVERYONE'S TALKING
- Morning of stars. For the last day of the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, we went to Hollywood.
Facebook VP for global partnerships and business development Marne Levine (who was previously the COO of Instagram) brought a pair of entrepreneurs and reality stars onstage: Huda Kattan and Mona Kattan, the sisters behind Huda Beauty. The duo star in the Facebook Watch show Huda Boss.
Huda Kattan said they were inspired to launch the beauty brand because growing up in Tennessee they were the "only brown people in the city," and there were "a lot of times when children made us feel like we were not beautiful." To fight those feelings, she turned to makeup—ultimately helping build a $1.2 billion empire and creating the popular show. "Business is personal," Levine said to explain their success.
From reality stars to Hollywood's marketing star: we also heard from Bozoma Saint John, the chief marketing officer for talent giant Endeavor (and former Uber and Apple exec). Saint John talked about moving to the United States from Ghana as a child and being in environments where she was expected to "assimilate." But, she says: "[I] made sure it felt like I was showing up and not dimming it down for anybody else."
Finally, we closed out the Summit with Eva Longoria, joined by Netflix vice president of international originals Bela Bajaria. Bajaria makes truly global—and local—shows for Netflix, finding local showrunners to make projects that resonate with their home audiences around the world. Longoria pitched Bajaria on her dream story about women—a historical series about women who dressed as men to fight in the Civil War—and closed out the gathering with some exceptional advice:
"If you’re in a leadership position, say yes. Be the first line on her resume. Say yes to someone with a different perspective. Say yes to someone with a different skin color. Say yes to someone who speaks a different language. That is your job: Say yes. And if you’re a woman who’s not in leadership position, say no. No to the door that closes in your face; no to the person who says you can’t do it. Say ‘no, I’m going to do it.'”
Thanks for joining us this year! More from the MPW Summit below—and see you at MPW Next Gen in December.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
MORE FROM THE MPW SUMMIT
- Space race. Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin wants to land the first woman on the moon—but Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson isn't letting Blue Origin make history on its own; the companies are partnering. "We want a sustainable presence on the moon, and this is going to be a capability that we’re going to compete on the team with Blue Origin to pursue," Hewson said. Fortune
- Bidding war. Teresa Carlson, vice president for Amazon’s government business, has seen a lot of bidding wars for government contracts. Of a contentious $10 billion Department of Defense contract that came down to Amazon and Microsoft, Carlson says: "The process was not rigged." Fortune
- Mayor Mom. D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser adopted a baby as a single mom last year. The first female two-term mayor of the capital city thought the adoption process would take two or three years, but it moved faster than she expected, giving Bowser a new baby in middle of her re-election campaign. New motherhood, Bowser says, "opened my eyes to all decisions moms and dads make during that time immediately after birth or adoption." Fortune
- Worth the risk. Brands should ask themselves the question: "What issues am I willing to lose customers over?" That's the advice of Pinterest CMO Andrea Mallard. Pinterest has taken a stand on anti-vaccination content. Fortune
- Trade war. The U.S.-China trade war is constantly top of mind for Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su. "Every day we wake up and there could be something different that you’re addressing," says Su, No. 44 on Fortune's Most Powerful Women list. Fortune
- Shrinking but strong. Some mass market retailers are closing stores by the thousands, but not Kohl's. The chain's stores are a "strategic asset," says CEO Michelle Gass (a 17-year Starbucks vet who is responsible for some of the signature touches on Frappuccinos!). Instead of shuttering, Kohl's stores are shrinking in footprint, taking up less space but maintaining a neighborhood presence. Fortune
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Droga5, the agency acquired by Accenture, promoted group creative Juliana Cobb to executive creative director and group account director Julia Albu to head of creative integration. Seema Hingorani, founder of Girls Who Invest and former chief investment officer for the New York City Retirement System, joins Morgan Stanley Investment Management as a managing director. Glassdoor promoted Annie Pearl to chief product officer and Kate Ahlering to chief sales officer. Panasonic hired Celina Mikolajczak, formerly of Uber and Tesla, as VP of battery technology.
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ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Facebook faces congresswomen. Testifying in front of the House Financial Services Committee about Facebook's cryptocurrency Libra, Mark Zuckerberg was grilled about the project and some, er, other issues. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.) stumped the CEO with pointed questions about her or other politicians' ability to purchase political ads that contain lies (it's worth watching the video). Rep. Katie Porter (D–Calif.) challenged Zuckerberg to spend an hour a day doing the work of Facebook's content moderators, who view traumatic content without much support (or benefits) from Facebook. Rep. Joyce Beatty (D–Ohio) pushed Zuckerberg on Facebook's record on diversity and race: asking whether the company contracts with women-owned or minority-owned firms, and about housing discrimination facilitated through its advertising platform.
- Women will ask. The fifth Democratic debate is set for November with four moderators. For the first time ever, all of those journalists will be women: MSNBC's Rachel Maddow, Andrea Mitchell of MSNBC and NBC News, Kristen Welker of NBC News, and The Washington Post's Ashley Parker. At the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit this week, Anita Hill criticized the past debates for failing to address gender-based violence and the #MeToo movement—maybe this is the one that asks those questions. NBC News
- NighmarEY. EY U.S. chairman and Americas managing partner Kelly Grier responded to the report about a mind-bogglingly offensive training program for women at the company. "Had I heeded those aspects of the program, I can assure you that I would not be sitting here today as your U.S. chair," Grier said in a message to EY alumni that was leaked. HuffPost
- House committee investigates Hill. Rep. Katie Hill (D-Calif.) faces an investigation by the House Ethics Committee after a conservative website published allegations that she had sexual relationships with a staffer in her Congressional office and a member of her campaign staff; the site also published intimate photos. Hill denies the relationship her Congressional staffer, but said she did have a separate relationship with a campaign staffer during "the final tumultuous years of my abusive marriage” (she is currently in divorce proceedings from her husband). Hill said that her ex-husband is "determined to try to humiliate me" and that "distributing intimate photos with the intent to publish them is a crime, and the perpetrator should be punished to the full extent of the law." Congress instituted a new rule last year prohibiting relationships between House members and their employees. LA Times
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ON MY RADAR
Rose McGowan sues, alleging intimidation by Harvey Weinstein, Lisa Bloom Fortune
Lilly Singh takes on new Matt Lauer claims The Hollywood Reporter
Why sexist bias in natural history museums really matters Guardian
One family built Forever 21, and fueled its collapse New York Times
QUOTE
"You can decide somewhere here there is a nugget of truth."
-Best Buy CEO Corie Barry on how she worked on her weaknesses after being told she was "a risk" to the company early in her 20-year career there. Barry spoke at the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit.
