[Applause]
so in 2013 my husband Bob and I were
sitting on the couch in our living room
when the telephone rang much to our
surprise it was President Obama on the
other line
and he was calling to ask my husband if
he wanted to be the US ambassador to
Portugal you cannot imagine how excited
we were by this phone call it was a
once-in-a-lifetime call for sure
well something you probably don’t know
when you’re nominated by the president
to be an ambassador not only you as the
ambassador really but your spouse is
required to go to ambassador school
ambassador school takes place at the
Foreign Service Institute in Virginia
and it lasts for two weeks it’s a great
program but for me it was a little
problematic because I was running a
business that I created 20 years ago and
I knew I couldn’t be in Virginia for
those full two weeks because I needed to
be working back at my company
nonetheless I was going to do what I
could to be there as frequently as
possible so we get you our first week of
classes and the class that stands out
the most was the class on what is an
ambassador reial spouses role when she
because typically it’s a shade gets
overseas and what I hear is that an
ambassador spouses role is about
promoting art promoting literature
promoting music it’s about organizing
the diplomatic bazaar it is about
hosting and attending events
with other diplomatic spouses it’s also
about hosting and attending formal
receptions and dinners with the
Ambassador well I started getting a
little more apprehensive because well
for two reasons the first was my
interest really isn’t in culture my
interest is really in business and the
second part was because I had this
business in the United States that I was
running although I wanted to be in
Portugal frequently the reality was that
I was going to be in Boston
more than Portugal and so the idea of
having to host and attend all these
receptions were just not a reality for
me well my fear got even larger the
following week we had a workshop on
media training and of course because I
had to be in Boston the day before the
workshop for my own business I missed
receiving the homework assignment but
when I flew into Virginia that night I
spoke to Bob and I asked him for my
homework assignment and he gave me the
homework assignment and the homework
assignment said think about a world
event something that’s going on that’s
really important and think of the us’s
role in that event and be ready to speak
on it in class for about five minutes
the next day so I read the papers and
something that really fascinated me at
the time was the Mideast peace talks and
I studied it I prepared and Bob and I
arrived at the Foreign Service Institute
the next morning and we saw something
that really surprised me there was a
sign to the right that said ambassador’s
meeting training and there was one to
the left
that said ambassadors spouses media
training I said okay I went to my media
trainer
i sat down and the instructor got up and
she called on the first spouse the
spouse happened to have been the wife of
the Ambassador to Belize and she got up
there and she started talking about how
much she loved scuba diving and how she
cannot wait to scuba dive in Belize and
about the beautiful fish and the
turquoise waters and I was in shock
because this was nothing about world
events and when she finished the
instructor said you did an incredible
job that was wonderful
and I’m even more shocked but okay well
it so happens I got called next by the
instructor and I got up and I was very
nervous and I stood there and I started
talking about the Mideast peace talks
and all of a sudden I hear stop who do
you think you are an ambassador and I I
didn’t understand and I said what are
you talking about she said your homework
assignment I said here’s my homework
assignment and I gave her what my
husband had given to me and she looked
at me and she said that wasn’t your
homework assignment that was the
ambassador’s homework assignments the
spouses were supposed to talk about
culture well I was now in a really bad
place because not only again was I not
interested in talking about something
I’m not interested in talking about but
in some ways what was worse to me was
that I wasn’t able to speak about the
things that mattered to men so still I
felt so incredibly lucky for the
opportunity that Bob and I had been
given by President
so regardless of what went on in
ambassadorial school what I knew is that
I really wanted to build a bridge
between the u.s. and Portugal and I
really wanted in whatever I did to make
a lasting positive impact on the
Portuguese people Bob and I arrived here
in April of 2014 and when we arrived
here I was here for one full week before
I had to go back to Boston but during
that first week we hosted a breakfast
for the American Chamber of Commerce and
it was there and through the discussions
I heard from me 25 people there and by
the way 24 of them were men there was
only one woman country manager there but
what they spoke about was the Portuguese
economy which had been in seventh year
of an economic downturn and it was so
clear the impact the economy was having
on the country and what was clear to me
is that the economy was not just
impacting the country but it was
impacting the spirit of the Portuguese
people so it was obvious that one of the
things that Portugal needed most in 2014
was an economic boost of some sort well
at the same time I also recognized a
great untapped resource in Portugal and
that is Portuguese women studies prove
that when women thrive the economy
thrives there are a number of reports
out there including the McKinsey report
on diversity that say when women are
also in leadership positions companies
have greater profitability and they
actually recover more quickly from
economic downturns and despite the fact
that there were more women graduating
with graduate degrees from Portuguese
universities still women held
less than 10% of the leadership
positions in corporations in Portugal
and the women that did helped holds
higher positions may 25% less than their
male counterparts and the one thing that
I know well and that I am passionate
about is growing businesses and
understanding what it’s like as a woman
in business to deal with inequality and
so it was at that point I had my aha
moment and what I realized I needed to
do and what I could do to make that long
and lasting difference was to take the
opportunities that I had in the United
States as a small business owner that
most benefited my business and bring
them to Portugal and I now knew the
bridge I wanted to create and that
bridge has a name and it is connect to
success and connect to successes mission
is to help grow the Portuguese economy
by supporting the creation and growth of
women-owned businesses the program has
four main initiatives each one of the
initiatives is free and each one of the
initiatives relate to connecting were
the women of Portugal with other people
as well as with resources the first
component of the program is a corporate
mentoring program where a team of
subject matter experts work with a woman
business owner over the course of a year
to help her work on instead of in her
business the second component is an mba
master’s consulting program we’re a
group of students from the top
university
and Portugal will serve as business
consultants for a woman owned business
to help her solve a specific business
problem over the course of the semester
this program also connects Portuguese
business students with real practical
experience the third component or
workshops that will offer both practical
business skills as well as soft skills
and the last component which is directly
a people-to-people connection is
networking something that has been
missing in Portugal for women you know
it was fairly amazing that this program
which really took American values such
as corporate social responsibility
gender equality and entrepreneurship and
brought them to Portugal it was amazing
that this program that was actually
started by an ambassador’s spouse became
the Embassy’s flagship initiative and
what I really want to tell you about now
are the results because that’s what
really matters
today it’s three years after the program
began my husband and I are no longer in
Portugal it’s been almost a year since
my husband was the ambassador but we
have nine hundred and two women
registered in the program we are on to
our fourth corporate mentoring edition
we have already helped ninety-eight
women-owned businesses through corporate
mentoring we’re on our sixth edition of
the MBA masters consulting program we’ve
helped 75 women-owned businesses solve
specific problems we’ve provided real
practical experience to more than 250
business students in Portugal on top of
that we now have had almost 70 workshops
health and close to 1,500 people it’s
been absolutely amazing
on top of that
we are now in the Azores and we are
expanding to Africa but what I really
learned and what I really realized is
that bridges are about people and
connecting people and it doesn’t really
matter whether the bridge is centered
around scuba-diving culture or economic
initiatives what matters most to have a
strong and sustainable bridge is that
that bridge and that bridge diplomatic
or otherwise be built with passion or
authenticity and commitment thank you
[Applause]
you
so in 2013 my husband Bob and I were
sitting on the couch in our living room
when the telephone rang much to our
surprise it was President Obama on the
other line
and he was calling to ask my husband if
he wanted to be the US ambassador to
Portugal you cannot imagine how excited
we were by this phone call it was a
once-in-a-lifetime call for sure
well something you probably don’t know
when you’re nominated by the president
to be an ambassador not only you as the
ambassador really but your spouse is
required to go to ambassador school
ambassador school takes place at the
Foreign Service Institute in Virginia
and it lasts for two weeks it’s a great
program but for me it was a little
problematic because I was running a
business that I created 20 years ago and
I knew I couldn’t be in Virginia for
those full two weeks because I needed to
be working back at my company
nonetheless I was going to do what I
could to be there as frequently as
possible so we get you our first week of
classes and the class that stands out
the most was the class on what is an
ambassador reial spouses role when she
because typically it’s a shade gets
overseas and what I hear is that an
ambassador spouses role is about
promoting art promoting literature
promoting music it’s about organizing
the diplomatic bazaar it is about
hosting and attending events
with other diplomatic spouses it’s also
about hosting and attending formal
receptions and dinners with the
Ambassador well I started getting a
little more apprehensive because well
for two reasons the first was my
interest really isn’t in culture my
interest is really in business and the
second part was because I had this
business in the United States that I was
running although I wanted to be in
Portugal frequently the reality was that
I was going to be in Boston
more than Portugal and so the idea of
having to host and attend all these
receptions were just not a reality for
me well my fear got even larger the
following week we had a workshop on
media training and of course because I
had to be in Boston the day before the
workshop for my own business I missed
receiving the homework assignment but
when I flew into Virginia that night I
spoke to Bob and I asked him for my
homework assignment and he gave me the
homework assignment and the homework
assignment said think about a world
event something that’s going on that’s
really important and think of the us’s
role in that event and be ready to speak
on it in class for about five minutes
the next day so I read the papers and
something that really fascinated me at
the time was the Mideast peace talks and
I studied it I prepared and Bob and I
arrived at the Foreign Service Institute
the next morning and we saw something
that really surprised me there was a
sign to the right that said ambassador’s
meeting training and there was one to
the left
that said ambassadors spouses media
training I said okay I went to my media
trainer
i sat down and the instructor got up and
she called on the first spouse the
spouse happened to have been the wife of
the Ambassador to Belize and she got up
there and she started talking about how
much she loved scuba diving and how she
cannot wait to scuba dive in Belize and
about the beautiful fish and the
turquoise waters and I was in shock
because this was nothing about world
events and when she finished the
instructor said you did an incredible
job that was wonderful
and I’m even more shocked but okay well
it so happens I got called next by the
instructor and I got up and I was very
nervous and I stood there and I started
talking about the Mideast peace talks
and all of a sudden I hear stop who do
you think you are an ambassador and I I
didn’t understand and I said what are
you talking about she said your homework
assignment I said here’s my homework
assignment and I gave her what my
husband had given to me and she looked
at me and she said that wasn’t your
homework assignment that was the
ambassador’s homework assignments the
spouses were supposed to talk about
culture well I was now in a really bad
place because not only again was I not
interested in talking about something
I’m not interested in talking about but
in some ways what was worse to me was
that I wasn’t able to speak about the
things that mattered to men so still I
felt so incredibly lucky for the
opportunity that Bob and I had been
given by President
so regardless of what went on in
ambassadorial school what I knew is that
I really wanted to build a bridge
between the u.s. and Portugal and I
really wanted in whatever I did to make
a lasting positive impact on the
Portuguese people Bob and I arrived here
in April of 2014 and when we arrived
here I was here for one full week before
I had to go back to Boston but during
that first week we hosted a breakfast
for the American Chamber of Commerce and
it was there and through the discussions
I heard from me 25 people there and by
the way 24 of them were men there was
only one woman country manager there but
what they spoke about was the Portuguese
economy which had been in seventh year
of an economic downturn and it was so
clear the impact the economy was having
on the country and what was clear to me
is that the economy was not just
impacting the country but it was
impacting the spirit of the Portuguese
people so it was obvious that one of the
things that Portugal needed most in 2014
was an economic boost of some sort well
at the same time I also recognized a
great untapped resource in Portugal and
that is Portuguese women studies prove
that when women thrive the economy
thrives there are a number of reports
out there including the McKinsey report
on diversity that say when women are
also in leadership positions companies
have greater profitability and they
actually recover more quickly from
economic downturns and despite the fact
that there were more women graduating
with graduate degrees from Portuguese
universities still women held
less than 10% of the leadership
positions in corporations in Portugal
and the women that did helped holds
higher positions may 25% less than their
male counterparts and the one thing that
I know well and that I am passionate
about is growing businesses and
understanding what it’s like as a woman
in business to deal with inequality and
so it was at that point I had my aha
moment and what I realized I needed to
do and what I could do to make that long
and lasting difference was to take the
opportunities that I had in the United
States as a small business owner that
most benefited my business and bring
them to Portugal and I now knew the
bridge I wanted to create and that
bridge has a name and it is connect to
success and connect to successes mission
is to help grow the Portuguese economy
by supporting the creation and growth of
women-owned businesses the program has
four main initiatives each one of the
initiatives is free and each one of the
initiatives relate to connecting were
the women of Portugal with other people
as well as with resources the first
component of the program is a corporate
mentoring program where a team of
subject matter experts work with a woman
business owner over the course of a year
to help her work on instead of in her
business the second component is an mba
master’s consulting program we’re a
group of students from the top
university
and Portugal will serve as business
consultants for a woman owned business
to help her solve a specific business
problem over the course of the semester
this program also connects Portuguese
business students with real practical
experience the third component or
workshops that will offer both practical
business skills as well as soft skills
and the last component which is directly
a people-to-people connection is
networking something that has been
missing in Portugal for women you know
it was fairly amazing that this program
which really took American values such
as corporate social responsibility
gender equality and entrepreneurship and
brought them to Portugal it was amazing
that this program that was actually
started by an ambassador’s spouse became
the Embassy’s flagship initiative and
what I really want to tell you about now
are the results because that’s what
really matters
today it’s three years after the program
began my husband and I are no longer in
Portugal it’s been almost a year since
my husband was the ambassador but we
have nine hundred and two women
registered in the program we are on to
our fourth corporate mentoring edition
we have already helped ninety-eight
women-owned businesses through corporate
mentoring we’re on our sixth edition of
the MBA masters consulting program we’ve
helped 75 women-owned businesses solve
specific problems we’ve provided real
practical experience to more than 250
business students in Portugal on top of
that we now have had almost 70 workshops
health and close to 1,500 people it’s
been absolutely amazing
on top of that
we are now in the Azores and we are
expanding to Africa but what I really
learned and what I really realized is
that bridges are about people and
connecting people and it doesn’t really
matter whether the bridge is centered
around scuba-diving culture or economic
initiatives what matters most to have a
strong and sustainable bridge is that
that bridge and that bridge diplomatic
or otherwise be built with passion or
authenticity and commitment thank you
[Applause]
you
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