Women Shaping Economic Policy in Slovenia - Meet Ilana Singer

How do you change the world?

Dream big and make a difference.

At femmebought we prove that women’s voices are strong in our global marketplace so much so that economic policy can’t move without us.

Today’s segment is the first of our series of interviews with Ilana Singer about Women Shaping the Global Economic Marketplace. Ilana is the VP & Corporate Secretary, Canadian Investor Protection Fund and who recently returned from a program in Slovenia with fellow IMF experts on crisis management for securities regulators at the Centre of Excellence in Finance.

Ilana, I’m not sure you know this, but you are an Inspiration and Role Model to me and others. As you know, I’ve launched a blog series called Thinking Differently in Supporting Women.

I’m curious to know, what does it mean to you to Thinking Differently in Supporting Women?

For me it’s about actually supporting women. A great example is what you’re doing with femmebought - people using their collective buying power and voices to create collective strength and using that strength to frame women’s voices in the global marketplace.

What problem do you think femmebought can solve for hurdles faced by women entrepreneurs?

Proactively supporting female-led businesses and female entrepreneurs is a key step to addressing some significant hurdles faced by women in business. Even though there are successful female entrepreneurs, growing in numbers, by sheer volume, women just don’t have as many role models or available mentors. In my area, capital markets, there is still a lot of work for us to do on gender diversity. With growing commitments toward institutionalizing diversity by our capital market participants, I am hopeful that we will see even more much needed changes in an accelerated timeframe.

You recently helped to design and participate in an IMF mission for Securities Regulators on Crisis Management with the International Monetary Fund where you brought together securities experts mainly from Eastern European and Slavic nations. That’s a lot of work on top of your day job. What inspired you to put this on?

I want to be part of the framing of global and international policy around crisis management in capital markets. We know a lot about successes, failures, strengths and weaknesses in crisis management in the western world, and I believe it is incumbent upon us to share those lessons and best practices. As our global markets expand and emerging economies become larger participants in capital markets, we want to be partners in developing global policy.

Tell us about the mission. Not only did you help in designing the program, but you were a speaker and a panelist on multiple panels. Tell us about that.

The mission was launched in Ljubljana, Slovenia and was a big success. The program was delivered by IMF capital markets experts, and was held in collaboration with the Centre for Excellence in Finance based in Ljubljana. I helped design the program, and spoke and presented on a number of panels. Participants from the region had many interesting questions and comments to add to the discussion, and my fellow panelists were fantastic.

I was heartened to see many female participants at the session.

One crisis we discussed was a wide-scale securities fraud scheme in the late nineties that resulted in thousands of deaths. It was amazing to hear about the impact first-hand on a crisis that predates the multi-media outlets that exist today. The crisis required government intervention and had a significant impact on the country.

How can gender diversity benefit resolving crisis and establishing better crisis management programs and protocols?

The ability to anticipate and mitigate crises, and the ability to mobilize and respond swiftly are not gender-specific, so why would the responders be gender- specific? There’s also the fact that populations are diverse. Anticipating how people will respond to a financial crisis or any crisis requires an understanding of how people will react and what mitigants they’ll respond to. In a globally diverse world, it is crucial that women actively participate in leading crisis mitigation and management initiatives.

What take-aways do you have for the audience about the Summit?

It is important to gather all of the relevant facts and consider your options. Do not be afraid to challenge people’s assumptions and assessments, and remain in constant communication with key stakeholders. Make a decision based on the facts at hand and your risk tolerance. It will often come down to a matter of judgement since it is not always possible to be in possession of all relevant facts. Be willing to live with the consequences of your decision, and to take away valuable lessons to incorporate into future crisis management plans.

How do you think we best reach across oceans and jurisdictions to help foster gender diversity in the securities field and advance the voice of women as economic powerhouses?

We have to continue to work on gender diversity here and lead by example. Women need to support women, show women entering the work force that they have role models in the capital markets. We also need the support of seasoned professionals in the industry to remember there was a first time for them at various points in their career journey. To use femmebought’s words, pay it forward. What you’re doing is ground-breaking. You’re making a first-hand difference!

Ilana, the femmebought community is really excited to keep up with what you’re doing.

We can’t wait to see the podcast coming this summer. Thank you for bringing your inspiring work to us. It’s incredible to hear about the differences between countries on crisis management. We hear about cyber hackers all the time in the news. It’s refreshing to hear about all the things being done world-wide to manage and mitigate those risks. You’re quite a leader and role model for our femmebought community. We can’t wait to hear more from you when we delve into Thinking Differently in Supporting Women in relation to the Canadian Capital Markets.