Speeches and Remarks 2013
OFFICIAL TEXT
(As Prepared for Delivery)
January 14, 2013
Consul General Jennifer McIntyre’s Remarks at Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Entrepreneurship Development Program
CHENNAI: Greetings to my esteemed colleagues on the dais and to our graduates today. My congratulations to the Indian School of Business and Goldman Sachs for successfully launching this first class of the 10,000 Women Entrepreneurship Development Program here in Chennai, and my congratulations to the entrepreneurs for completion of the course. It gives me great personal pleasure to participate in today’s graduation ceremony.
As U.S. Consul General in South India for the last year and a half, I have been introduced to a range of extraordinary individuals, and women across career fields and civil society. And many of these extraordinary people have been women entrepreneurs in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.
U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, has been a champion for greater empowerment for women worldwide, and a tremendous advocate for encouraging a greater role for women in business. She has noted on repeated occasions, “When we liberate the economic potential of women, we elevate the economic performance of communities, nations and, indeed, the world.” We are seeing the truth of her statement in my own country.
Today, in the U.S., women comprise half the workforce and own close to 8 million businesses, accounting for $1.2 trillion of our GDP. And future job growth in the United States will be created largely by women-owned small businesses.
By 2018, women entrepreneurs are expected to create between 5 to 5.5 million new jobs in the U.S. This potential for women to make such a significant impact in the U.S. economy, also holds true for other countries that seek to encourage and facilitate the growth of their women entrepreneurs.
Last month, the U.S. State Department hosted a Global Entrepreneurship Symposium in Dhaka, Bangladesh to help support this potential in the South Asia region, and I’m really pleased that we had three participants from South India, as well as one of my Consulate officers attending.
At the conference, our State Department’s Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues Melanne Verveer emphasized that investing in women, - and particularly women entrepreneurs - is “not only the right thing to do, but the smart thing to do” - a statement supported by data from the World Bank and other institutions showing that women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises are key drivers for economic growth and job creation and in strengthening communities.
Women who are successful in business also find themselves empowered as leaders in their communities and countries. One outstanding example in South India of a women entrepreneur profoundly impacting both the business sphere and her community is Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, an incredible individual whom I also had the privilege of meeting in Bangalore this last year.
Kiran started her professional career as a trainee in beer brewing at Carlton & United Beverages in 1974. In 1978, she founded Biocon India in collaboration with Biocon Biochemicals Limited with a 10,000 rupee investment. Kiran has noted that she initially faced many problems, as banks were hesitant to loan to her because she was a woman and also because biotechnology was such a new field at the time.
She persevered, however, and grew her company into a powerhouse in the global pharmaceutical market and her company now employs around five thousand people. Gender aside, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw is one of the most successful businesspeople in India.
But what particularly impressed me most, upon meeting her, was her passion in contributing back to the community through launching extensive programs in the areas of grassroots health initiatives as well as education, and infrastructure development.
Like Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, all of us have the potential to positively impact our communities –albeit for most of us, it will probably be on a slightly smaller scale. And the Goldman Sachs program is designed to help women entrepreneurs realize their potential.
I note that my participation here today isn’t the result of a chance invitation. I first heard about the 10,000 Women’s program over a year ago, a few months after my arrival as Consul General in south India. I was very impressed by the concept and initiative and asked my staff to contact Goldman Sachs to see if I could meet with their executives to learn about the program.
Goldman Sachs graciously agreed, and last March, they and ISB Hyderabad’s trainer met with me in Bangalore to explain the program. I was really delighted to discover on this trip that they were expanding the program to Chennai in the summer.
I also had the opportunity to meet and hear from two of their alumni about their experiences in the program, one of these women operated her business in Chennai - S. Jayashree, who is also with us today. I was really impressed with Jayashree at our meeting and her personal story about how the 10,000 Women’s Program helped her expand her business.
Recently, Jayashree arranged a wonderful visit for me and others of my Consulate Team to visit her “Dream Finders” unit at the Golden Jubilee Biotechnology Park for Women - where she is providing employment to a dozen local women residents and manufacturing ecologically green cosmetics and related products - Jayashree also arranged for us to visit several other impressive small, women-owned businesses in the park.
These businesses - Jayashree’s business - and no doubt the businesses of our graduates here today - are providing great products to the market and employment in the community.
So, I’m here at today’s graduation because I believe in the research that shows clearly that women’s greater participation in the economy has enormous benefits to their communities, their countries, and globally to expanded peace, prosperity and progress -- and that women entrepreneurs are critical to this endeavor.
I’m here today because I believe in the Goldman Sachs program to help women entrepreneurs achieve their goals which also contributes to these larger objectives.
And I’m here today, - frankly - because I asked Goldman Sachs if I could come and be part of the crowd cheering on the women entrepreneurs graduating from this program - women who on their own, had the courage and drive to start their own businesses and the vision to seek out this program as the next step in growing their enterprises.
I was really happy when Goldman Sachs readily agreed that I could attend, and deeply honored when they then asked if I’d like to come as the Chief Guest.
I congratulate you graduates on your successes that brought you here, your achievement in completely this program, and I extend my best wishes for your continued endeavors.
Thank you.