Dermalogica was honored to join a select group of entrepreneurs and senior United Nations officials at the first Global Accelerator Conference, hosted recently by the United Nations Foundation’s Global Entrepreneurs Council and the UN Department of Public Information. The day-long event, which addressed women’s economic empowerment as one of the central focal points, was held at the UN Headquarters in New York City. It brought together 100 of the world’s top entrepreneurs to act as policy leaders on several global issues, help to find scalable solutions to some of the world’s most pressing challenges, and drive progress on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to alleviate poverty and save lives. Jane Wurwand, founder and chief visionary at Dermalogica and its philanthropic women’s initiative, FITE, participated on a panel that spoke upon women’s financial independence. Other notable speakers, including Kristin Hetle, director of strategic partnerships of UN Women, and Ashish Thakkar, founder and managing director of Mara Group, joined the panel, which was moderated by Rana Foroohar, assistant managing editor of TIME magazine. “We have an obligation to embed our business consciousness with a sense of social responsibility which provides women with economic opportunities,” says Wurwand. “In order for world economies and countries global domestic product (GDP) to thrive, women must thrive. Providing economic opportunities to women isn’t just a woman’s issue—it is a human rights issue.” The conference brought together notable leaders in media, technology, and public policy, including Arianna Huffington, chair, president, and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group; Elizabeth Gore, entrepreneur-in-residence of the United Nations Foundation; and Kathy Calvin, president and CEO of the United Nations Foundation.
For more information on Dermalogica and its philanthropic initiative, FITE, visit www.joinfite.org. For more information on the 2014 Global Accelerator Conference, visit www.globalaccelerator.org. To view the Global Accelerator wrap-up video, visit www.youtube.com.