it’s so great to be here and it’s such a
difficult thing to follow that wonderful
video but in a way it is very much a
good Segway because I do believe that
personal responsibility is behind not
only what I have done but what every one
of us should be doing and I always tell
everybody particularly when I was doing
my entrepreneurial activities that my
mother who was love personified you know
she would always say Candace no matter
what if it doesn’t work out I love you
and when you’re not too preneur and
you’re going forth and you’re creating
new things is very nice indeed to have
that unconditional love of your mother
who also then gave to each of her
children together with my father both of
whom were very very poor when we were
growing up and when they were growing up
in the United States the possibility to
dream and to do great things but also to
always do it because it was making the
world better so I’d also like to just
talk a little bit about this idea about
disruption because I agree with I think
it was Bill this morning this afternoon
when you know he questioned the word
disruption for me in my life and I’m 65
so I’m not 70 but I’m 65 the you know I
never ever really thought about
disruption I thought about creation I
did think about revolution and the fact
that when something that I had done had
brought about a revolution had changed
the world for the
that then this gave me a happy day so I
tend to think in terms of happy days
when changed for the good has been
brought about and you know I think we
are all so fortunate today because we
can make a difference in just about
everything that we do we can you know we
can we can make sustainable energy
happen we can make a better environment
we can take away illness we can destroy
poverty we can destroy illiteracy we can
literally save the world and its really
if you do have that feeling of personal
responsibility you can really do all of
these things and also for all of you who
are students you know I tell every
single person I do believe that every
single person has their own talent and
that there’s something good in every
single person and I also tell everybody
think big now it’s just is easy to do
little things as it is to do big things
but if you do think big and perhaps you
only reach half of it you’ll reach much
more and you’ll have made much more of
an impact than if you had just thought
small and you’ll also go outside of
yourself and you will force yourself to
grow so today we really do have the
whole world in our hands and it’s been a
great afternoon and so I’d like
everybody just to stand up and get out
I had to borrow this and a watch but
that’s okay I can’t see them get them
way up there way up there way up there
okay I’ve got the whole world in my hand
[Laughter]
and you know you really do you can
literally with a push of a click with a
program with an app you can make the
world better and you know this afternoon
at lunch we were talking and somebody
says oh are you gonna talk about small
businesses and I said no I’m going to
talk about entrepreneurs because small
businesses are absolutely wonderful but
they do not bring about change and that
is what entrepreneurs do as bill was
saying when he talked about Jupiter so
um I would like to you know somebody
when I was at one of these conferences
somebody said okay you have to turn to
your person to your right and you have
to tell them you know what drives you
and I hadn’t quite figured out that
personal responsibility was what drove
me but I did know that I liked to right
wrongs and over the years that righting
the wrong and democratizing access has
kind of become a light motif in my life
and I’d like to share with
you just a few case histories which are
my own or while at one time I was said I
was called Europe’s most dangerous woman
or enemy number one and Francois Mita
Hall said to mr. Gensler so the
president of France said to the foreign
minister of Germany this woman is going
to sell Europe’s skies to the Americans
and I retorted and you’ll see a little
bit later that I said no I bought
America’s skies for Europe so my life
has been a life of being in satellites
and it doesn’t really matter if it’s
personal responsibility that is making
you get up every morning or if it is
mobile phones or big data or gastronomy
or music whatever your tool is to make
the world better to may have an impact
that’s what you need to do and you need
to follow that and so in 1957 when I was
5 years old
indeed the first satellite ever came and
I of course did not get a satellite
model like that I got a satellite model
like the little flying saucer in the
middle of that Christmas tree and inside
Santa Claus was there yes so from that
point on when I was 5 years old
by the way that flying saucer is on my
cell my Christmas tree every year you
can all come and many of the edek MBA
students have actually come to my home
at Christmas because I always invite the
edek MBA global students to come for
Christmas at my home and they have seen
this little satellite flying saucer so
that inspired me from that point on I
thought my gosh everything good comes
from satellite Santa Claus is up there
and my father was the special advisor to
the president
the united states for the apollo mission
and he told me he said Candace one day
we will have satellites for education
for entertainment for telecommunications
and when we have wars we will have wars
with satellites and we will have peace
on earth he said this in 1962 so he was
really quite ahead of his time so when I
grew up when I was 28 years old I
married my husband now my husband
besides being very cute was the
ambassador of Luxembourg to the United
States and you know Luxembourg is a very
very small country next to of course
France and it only has 500,000 people
but they were having a crisis they were
having a steel crisis a broadcasting
crisis and the financial crisis and I
who had just married my husband
I felt the personal responsibility to
help lexan Berg have a new pillar for
them to continue to be independent and
so I told the the prime minister of
Luxembourg who was 70 at the time I said
you know you could have a satellite
system now during my five years to 28
years I had indeed started many
satellite systems in the United States
and so I said you could have a
european-wide system now this was in
1983 by this time and the Europe did not
look like it this footprint the color
zone of that astro satellite the Ostra
satellite is a satellite that I started
in 1983 there was a line through Europe
there was Eastern Europe and there was
Western Europe and you know but I didn’t
see that line I just saw that with the
satellite that we could bring cultures
together that we could bring the East
and the West
together that we could have true
communication and that we could
democratize
access to television so that citizens
could have freedom of choice this is
what I’m talking about when I say
personal responsibility it never entered
my mind that this satellite system which
I then grew to be the world’s largest
satellite system would make billions of
money and trillions actually for
creating industries in Europe and then
the world the thing that drove me was
this idea of bringing freedom of choice
to Europe citizens and when in 1995
people ask me about Elon Musk and Elon
Musk is doing amazing things but
actually in 1995 so I’ve heard I created
the first private satellite system in
the world in 1988 with that Astro
satellite system and in 1995 I created
the first private launcher
between crew Nietzsche in Russia and
Lockheed Martin in the United States so
a private launcher to launch my
satellite on top that you can see that
Astra logo in 1995 and this was because
I wanted to use space for international
cooperation and to achieve peace and
today even though still we may be at
loggerheads in a Europe and in the
United States with China and with Russia
the one thing where we are in total
cooperation with is still in space and
this makes me very very happy now you
know
when you are very successful you become
a target for people and so my astro
satellite system which I had started and
by the way we had to totally bootstrap
it nobody believed in us we were doing
the first private transporter satellite
system in the world we had
one person who believed in us who gave
us 1 million dollars by we’re in
nineteen we launched our first satellite
in 1988 and 11 months later the wall
fell down and because I had seen this
idea of having a total combined Europe
we were the only ones who covered all of
Europe and so we became very successful
right away and everybody wanted our
satellite system and they tried to take
it over and so much so that the three
people who we had helped Leo Kirsch
Rupert Murdoch Silvio Berlusconi get
their satellite television systems onto
our satellite they tried to take our
company over and all of the board and
the bankers except for me said okay and
I said no if this happens the freedom of
choice that I had tried so hard to
create in that Astra satellite system
would be gone and so here again personal
responsibility I was scared you know
what I went to the press and I told the
press that a cartel was trying to take
over the Astra satellite and if this
happened there would no be there would
not be open disguised there would be
closed skies the press sued for my name
and they and for one year it was
terrible but finally the Chancellor of
Germany called the President of
Luxembourg and said who is this Candice
Johnson and the president said why and
he said because she is not letting my
friend Leo Kirsch and his friends Silvio
Berlusconi and Rupert Murdoch take over
the Astra satellite system and mr.
santur the president of Luxembourg
miss Johnson has always defended the
freedom and the independence of
Luxembourg and of Astra and we stand
behind her as a result aster went on and
I made it become the world’s largest
satellite system quite frankly so that
nobody could ever take it over again
but that that personal responsibility to
the goal to you know to be in a
situation where there were even there
were not even any lawyers who would
defend me because they were all working
for those other people but you have to
go through no matter what and in 1992
when I started the association of
private telecom operators and I realized
that the Deutsche Telekom was
subsidizing illegally the data networks
and we did a study and we showed that it
was 2.2 billion euros of illegal subsidy
and I went to the antitrust anti cartel
amp’d it was called in Germany and I
said this is what’s happening and at
first they said ok we’ll we’ll we’ll do
something about it and then they said no
we’re not going to announce it and I
called up the president who I did not
know and I said look either you go
tomorrow to the press
with our findings or I will go tomorrow
to the press no matter what if you see
that something is wrong and you have the
opportunity to write it you have to do
it as hard it as hard as it sometimes is
and you know also in 1992 when finally I
was not the only woman speaking at a
conference I think like today and there
were other like there were five other
women I said wow we have to start the
global telecom Women’s Network and so
here we are 26 years later we’ve we’ve
you know we publish books we are
thousands of women across the world who
care about the changing culture
of communications and bringing up the
next generation of fantastic women in my
life I was fortunate to be able to bring
the first satellite mobile the first
satellite internet communications to
start the global board ready women I’m a
big fan of women and I’m trying to give
back because everybody was so amazing to
me helping kids learn how to and women
in particular learn how to code and
program with Raspberry Pi and the edek
kids who came to my students who came to
my Christmas parties they said Candace
what can we give you and I said you can
give me raspberry pies for the kids in
Syria and Anne in Lebanon the Syrian
kids who are in Lebanon in the refugee
camps and who are now being trained on
raspberry pi to learn how to code and
program and this was a five thousand
dollar investment this was nothing you
know but look at the impact UNICEF has
taken over our program and our Arabic
language raspberry pie to be able to do
this and you know so four years ago I
started Oceania Women’s Network
satellite with other women in the
Pacific and we created Pacific so
bringing you see all those islands there
we’re bringing high throughput Internet
to those islands via satellite of course
it’s only women only women are allowed
to invest and we do all of the work on
the ground and we’re bringing to schools
and to hospitals communications and more
because of the climate change so many of
these islands will disappear and we’re
also then saving lives by bringing in
time communications and you know today
the challenges are different than what
they used to be when I was doing my
first satellite systems today we have
space debris and we have the earth to
take care of and so here again it is
satellites that I worked
with to do space situation awareness to
track the debris and to look at the
earth with hyperspectral imaging to be
able to take away the pollution to take
away the the possibilities of forest
fires of pipeline leaks etc and you know
still trying to create new access for
women just recently I’ve been involved
in having the first women German women
astronauts come into space and I’ll
conclude my my presentation today by
telling a little anecdote when I had my
second business idea for the Steinway
hour I crashed a party where I knew mr.
Steinway was going to be I was only 24
years old and I went to him he didn’t
know that I had crashed the party
so I said wow you know mr. Steinway I
have this great idea for the Steinway
Tower and says oh that’s very nice you
know please send it to me and of course
I did and then I called for the next six
months every day and finally I used the
old trick I didn’t know it was an old
trick as I was very young at the time
and I called him at 7:30 in the morning
when the when the secretary wasn’t there
and he said miss Johnson did you believe
my secretary when she told you I wasn’t
there I was in the meeting I was on the
phone and I said yes and he said ok
we’ll do this time we are with you now
the moral of the story is not that I was
persistent or that I persevered the
moral of the story is that it never
occurred to me that he did not want to
speak with me
I did believe the secretary and you know
when you’re taking on what other people
would consider to be great challenges
but if you believe that you are doing
the right thing and that you can do it
and that you have the personal
responsibility to do it you will succeed
and I look forward now at the cocktail
hopefully to speaking and hearing from
all of you about what you’re going to be
doing to make the world better thank you [Applause]
difficult thing to follow that wonderful
video but in a way it is very much a
good Segway because I do believe that
personal responsibility is behind not
only what I have done but what every one
of us should be doing and I always tell
everybody particularly when I was doing
my entrepreneurial activities that my
mother who was love personified you know
she would always say Candace no matter
what if it doesn’t work out I love you
and when you’re not too preneur and
you’re going forth and you’re creating
new things is very nice indeed to have
that unconditional love of your mother
who also then gave to each of her
children together with my father both of
whom were very very poor when we were
growing up and when they were growing up
in the United States the possibility to
dream and to do great things but also to
always do it because it was making the
world better so I’d also like to just
talk a little bit about this idea about
disruption because I agree with I think
it was Bill this morning this afternoon
when you know he questioned the word
disruption for me in my life and I’m 65
so I’m not 70 but I’m 65 the you know I
never ever really thought about
disruption I thought about creation I
did think about revolution and the fact
that when something that I had done had
brought about a revolution had changed
the world for the
that then this gave me a happy day so I
tend to think in terms of happy days
when changed for the good has been
brought about and you know I think we
are all so fortunate today because we
can make a difference in just about
everything that we do we can you know we
can we can make sustainable energy
happen we can make a better environment
we can take away illness we can destroy
poverty we can destroy illiteracy we can
literally save the world and its really
if you do have that feeling of personal
responsibility you can really do all of
these things and also for all of you who
are students you know I tell every
single person I do believe that every
single person has their own talent and
that there’s something good in every
single person and I also tell everybody
think big now it’s just is easy to do
little things as it is to do big things
but if you do think big and perhaps you
only reach half of it you’ll reach much
more and you’ll have made much more of
an impact than if you had just thought
small and you’ll also go outside of
yourself and you will force yourself to
grow so today we really do have the
whole world in our hands and it’s been a
great afternoon and so I’d like
everybody just to stand up and get out
I had to borrow this and a watch but
that’s okay I can’t see them get them
way up there way up there way up there
okay I’ve got the whole world in my hand
[Laughter]
and you know you really do you can
literally with a push of a click with a
program with an app you can make the
world better and you know this afternoon
at lunch we were talking and somebody
says oh are you gonna talk about small
businesses and I said no I’m going to
talk about entrepreneurs because small
businesses are absolutely wonderful but
they do not bring about change and that
is what entrepreneurs do as bill was
saying when he talked about Jupiter so
um I would like to you know somebody
when I was at one of these conferences
somebody said okay you have to turn to
your person to your right and you have
to tell them you know what drives you
and I hadn’t quite figured out that
personal responsibility was what drove
me but I did know that I liked to right
wrongs and over the years that righting
the wrong and democratizing access has
kind of become a light motif in my life
and I’d like to share with
you just a few case histories which are
my own or while at one time I was said I
was called Europe’s most dangerous woman
or enemy number one and Francois Mita
Hall said to mr. Gensler so the
president of France said to the foreign
minister of Germany this woman is going
to sell Europe’s skies to the Americans
and I retorted and you’ll see a little
bit later that I said no I bought
America’s skies for Europe so my life
has been a life of being in satellites
and it doesn’t really matter if it’s
personal responsibility that is making
you get up every morning or if it is
mobile phones or big data or gastronomy
or music whatever your tool is to make
the world better to may have an impact
that’s what you need to do and you need
to follow that and so in 1957 when I was
5 years old
indeed the first satellite ever came and
I of course did not get a satellite
model like that I got a satellite model
like the little flying saucer in the
middle of that Christmas tree and inside
Santa Claus was there yes so from that
point on when I was 5 years old
by the way that flying saucer is on my
cell my Christmas tree every year you
can all come and many of the edek MBA
students have actually come to my home
at Christmas because I always invite the
edek MBA global students to come for
Christmas at my home and they have seen
this little satellite flying saucer so
that inspired me from that point on I
thought my gosh everything good comes
from satellite Santa Claus is up there
and my father was the special advisor to
the president
the united states for the apollo mission
and he told me he said Candace one day
we will have satellites for education
for entertainment for telecommunications
and when we have wars we will have wars
with satellites and we will have peace
on earth he said this in 1962 so he was
really quite ahead of his time so when I
grew up when I was 28 years old I
married my husband now my husband
besides being very cute was the
ambassador of Luxembourg to the United
States and you know Luxembourg is a very
very small country next to of course
France and it only has 500,000 people
but they were having a crisis they were
having a steel crisis a broadcasting
crisis and the financial crisis and I
who had just married my husband
I felt the personal responsibility to
help lexan Berg have a new pillar for
them to continue to be independent and
so I told the the prime minister of
Luxembourg who was 70 at the time I said
you know you could have a satellite
system now during my five years to 28
years I had indeed started many
satellite systems in the United States
and so I said you could have a
european-wide system now this was in
1983 by this time and the Europe did not
look like it this footprint the color
zone of that astro satellite the Ostra
satellite is a satellite that I started
in 1983 there was a line through Europe
there was Eastern Europe and there was
Western Europe and you know but I didn’t
see that line I just saw that with the
satellite that we could bring cultures
together that we could bring the East
and the West
together that we could have true
communication and that we could
democratize
access to television so that citizens
could have freedom of choice this is
what I’m talking about when I say
personal responsibility it never entered
my mind that this satellite system which
I then grew to be the world’s largest
satellite system would make billions of
money and trillions actually for
creating industries in Europe and then
the world the thing that drove me was
this idea of bringing freedom of choice
to Europe citizens and when in 1995
people ask me about Elon Musk and Elon
Musk is doing amazing things but
actually in 1995 so I’ve heard I created
the first private satellite system in
the world in 1988 with that Astro
satellite system and in 1995 I created
the first private launcher
between crew Nietzsche in Russia and
Lockheed Martin in the United States so
a private launcher to launch my
satellite on top that you can see that
Astra logo in 1995 and this was because
I wanted to use space for international
cooperation and to achieve peace and
today even though still we may be at
loggerheads in a Europe and in the
United States with China and with Russia
the one thing where we are in total
cooperation with is still in space and
this makes me very very happy now you
know
when you are very successful you become
a target for people and so my astro
satellite system which I had started and
by the way we had to totally bootstrap
it nobody believed in us we were doing
the first private transporter satellite
system in the world we had
one person who believed in us who gave
us 1 million dollars by we’re in
nineteen we launched our first satellite
in 1988 and 11 months later the wall
fell down and because I had seen this
idea of having a total combined Europe
we were the only ones who covered all of
Europe and so we became very successful
right away and everybody wanted our
satellite system and they tried to take
it over and so much so that the three
people who we had helped Leo Kirsch
Rupert Murdoch Silvio Berlusconi get
their satellite television systems onto
our satellite they tried to take our
company over and all of the board and
the bankers except for me said okay and
I said no if this happens the freedom of
choice that I had tried so hard to
create in that Astra satellite system
would be gone and so here again personal
responsibility I was scared you know
what I went to the press and I told the
press that a cartel was trying to take
over the Astra satellite and if this
happened there would no be there would
not be open disguised there would be
closed skies the press sued for my name
and they and for one year it was
terrible but finally the Chancellor of
Germany called the President of
Luxembourg and said who is this Candice
Johnson and the president said why and
he said because she is not letting my
friend Leo Kirsch and his friends Silvio
Berlusconi and Rupert Murdoch take over
the Astra satellite system and mr.
santur the president of Luxembourg
miss Johnson has always defended the
freedom and the independence of
Luxembourg and of Astra and we stand
behind her as a result aster went on and
I made it become the world’s largest
satellite system quite frankly so that
nobody could ever take it over again
but that that personal responsibility to
the goal to you know to be in a
situation where there were even there
were not even any lawyers who would
defend me because they were all working
for those other people but you have to
go through no matter what and in 1992
when I started the association of
private telecom operators and I realized
that the Deutsche Telekom was
subsidizing illegally the data networks
and we did a study and we showed that it
was 2.2 billion euros of illegal subsidy
and I went to the antitrust anti cartel
amp’d it was called in Germany and I
said this is what’s happening and at
first they said ok we’ll we’ll we’ll do
something about it and then they said no
we’re not going to announce it and I
called up the president who I did not
know and I said look either you go
tomorrow to the press
with our findings or I will go tomorrow
to the press no matter what if you see
that something is wrong and you have the
opportunity to write it you have to do
it as hard it as hard as it sometimes is
and you know also in 1992 when finally I
was not the only woman speaking at a
conference I think like today and there
were other like there were five other
women I said wow we have to start the
global telecom Women’s Network and so
here we are 26 years later we’ve we’ve
you know we publish books we are
thousands of women across the world who
care about the changing culture
of communications and bringing up the
next generation of fantastic women in my
life I was fortunate to be able to bring
the first satellite mobile the first
satellite internet communications to
start the global board ready women I’m a
big fan of women and I’m trying to give
back because everybody was so amazing to
me helping kids learn how to and women
in particular learn how to code and
program with Raspberry Pi and the edek
kids who came to my students who came to
my Christmas parties they said Candace
what can we give you and I said you can
give me raspberry pies for the kids in
Syria and Anne in Lebanon the Syrian
kids who are in Lebanon in the refugee
camps and who are now being trained on
raspberry pi to learn how to code and
program and this was a five thousand
dollar investment this was nothing you
know but look at the impact UNICEF has
taken over our program and our Arabic
language raspberry pie to be able to do
this and you know so four years ago I
started Oceania Women’s Network
satellite with other women in the
Pacific and we created Pacific so
bringing you see all those islands there
we’re bringing high throughput Internet
to those islands via satellite of course
it’s only women only women are allowed
to invest and we do all of the work on
the ground and we’re bringing to schools
and to hospitals communications and more
because of the climate change so many of
these islands will disappear and we’re
also then saving lives by bringing in
time communications and you know today
the challenges are different than what
they used to be when I was doing my
first satellite systems today we have
space debris and we have the earth to
take care of and so here again it is
satellites that I worked
with to do space situation awareness to
track the debris and to look at the
earth with hyperspectral imaging to be
able to take away the pollution to take
away the the possibilities of forest
fires of pipeline leaks etc and you know
still trying to create new access for
women just recently I’ve been involved
in having the first women German women
astronauts come into space and I’ll
conclude my my presentation today by
telling a little anecdote when I had my
second business idea for the Steinway
hour I crashed a party where I knew mr.
Steinway was going to be I was only 24
years old and I went to him he didn’t
know that I had crashed the party
so I said wow you know mr. Steinway I
have this great idea for the Steinway
Tower and says oh that’s very nice you
know please send it to me and of course
I did and then I called for the next six
months every day and finally I used the
old trick I didn’t know it was an old
trick as I was very young at the time
and I called him at 7:30 in the morning
when the when the secretary wasn’t there
and he said miss Johnson did you believe
my secretary when she told you I wasn’t
there I was in the meeting I was on the
phone and I said yes and he said ok
we’ll do this time we are with you now
the moral of the story is not that I was
persistent or that I persevered the
moral of the story is that it never
occurred to me that he did not want to
speak with me
I did believe the secretary and you know
when you’re taking on what other people
would consider to be great challenges
but if you believe that you are doing
the right thing and that you can do it
and that you have the personal
responsibility to do it you will succeed
and I look forward now at the cocktail
hopefully to speaking and hearing from
all of you about what you’re going to be
doing to make the world better thank you [Applause]
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