The Other Half : Conversations With Men on Gender Equality

Jason Rapp is the cofounder of Whisper Advisors, a boutique strategy advisory firm in Santa Monica. He is an experienced investor, operator and M&A dealmaker who loves helping entrepreneurs. Jason tells us why you can be both a feminist and a capitalist because from an economics point of view we all win if there is an equal playing field that allows the best talent to emerge. He tells us that as an investor it is important to invest in diverse teams because different perspectives can help mitigate individual blindspots. Throughout his life, Jason was influenced by strong female role models, including his former classmate at Duke who became class president and got him to first see the importance of feminism. He tells us about why all fathers should be concerned with gender equality, not only those who have daughters. Jason tells us what it feels like to be one of the only guys waiting for his children in front of school and how that has given him insights into the tough choices women face. He tries to actively raise his son and daughter to live by 3 tenets  in life that we can all take away as a life motto: work hard, be kind to others, and have fun.

Matt Friedman is an expert on human trafficking and the founder of the Mekong Club, a Hong Kong based-business association that helps companies free their supply chains from slavery. We talk with Matt about why there are more people today in slavery than ever before in human history (45 million!) and the role of gender inequality in perpetuating modern-day slavery for women. We learn the moving story of Gita, a woman he was unable to save and why it should push each one of us to act to end modern-day slavery to each be part of healing the world.  Matt tells us that it was easy for him to be a feminist growing up sympathising with the struggles of his 3 older sisters.  He was also raided by a mother who handed him his fighting injustice and his talent for storytelling which have certainly influenced his activism. Matt tells us about being the father of two boys and the importance of being present for them on a daily basis in a way his father could not be. And finally we learn why the time has come for men who are allies to spend a lot more time with those who are not.

Today we talk ethics, luxury and gender equality with Manuel Mallen, the founder of Courbet an ethical jewelry company named after the 19th century artist who wanted to dismantle the iconic column of Place Vendome and whose painting, the Origin of the World, is still considered pornography by modern search engines.  After a career in luxury watch making Manuel decided to disrupt the jewelry business by founding an ethical jewelry company (he co founded with a woman, Marianne)  in Place Vendome, the epicenter of the jewelry world, because “knowing the rules makes you a better revolutionary for disrupting the system.’ Manuel tells us that 15 out of 18 of his employees are women because it is important to consider the needs of his customers, and that having a female cofounder adds balance, background and perspective to important decision making within the company. We talk about how women have transformed the jewelry business, from becoming more involved in their engagement rings, to directly purchasing products instead of being gifted them, to embracing new technology and values. Manuel tells us how his daughters have sparked his evolution and alignment with his own values, which is why he asks himself “what kind of world do I want to leave for my children?” before every decision he makes. Now what if we all did just that?

Farhoud Meybodi is an award winning producer and director in LA. In this episode, Farhoud tells us  about the elements of his values that one would call feminists. He tells us how he has always been sensitive to the subject of diversity, growing up in Los Angeles with parents who had immigrated from Iran while being educated in a Catholic school.  Experiences that have impacted  him and made him interested in equality and how people can heal around these issues through collaborative conversations that integrate men.  He tells us about his hard-working mother who showed him that women could do anything by achieving her own success and dreams (as well as teaching him respect for ancestors). Farhoud then tells us how it was the obvious choice for him to delve into the world of media by founding Wayfarer Entertainment, to use storytelling as a way of changing hearts and minds.  We are lucky that one of the positive impact projects the company undertook was Man Enough, a series that interviews well known male figures about equality subjects, such as the MeToo movement. Although no studio wanted to take up Man Enough, forcing Wayfarer to self finance the project and diffuse it through YouTube, the series has been viewed more than 20 million times. 

Han-Son Lee, the founder of DaddiLife, an online media that champions what’s possible for the modern day dad (while there are 4.2 million mom blogs in the world, there are only 1,000 dad ones). He is a frequent contributor on topics related to fatherhood and his work has been featured on the Daily Telegraph and the Financial Times. Han-Son talks about how having a son has made him cry a lot more, but also inspired him to create a world where children can aspire to achieve everything they want. We talk about millennial dads who want to be more involved, but also the need to create more spaces and workplaces that allow men to do so, and why we should be more tolerant at work and more inclusive on the playground. Han Son tells us about his inspiring mother (who was also a father) to him, a superwoman who taught him the importance of treating everybody equally. He also tells us about how important it was to be involved in his son’s life from day one, and the awareness that being a divorced parent brought to him about doing things equally. His advice to fathers: know what you want out of fatherhood. Now we believe him when he says he is 110% feminist !

Yann Borgstedt is a successful entrepreneur whose success started with the sale of his first company, Net Architects, in 1996.  Yann decided in 2005 to start his foundation, Womanity, that focuses on women’s education, training, and development in Afghanistan, Brazil, India, the West Bank, Israel, and Morocco. Having always been sensitive to injustice, Yann felt frustrated that half of the world’s population did not have the same rights and opportunities to realize its potential.  Taking an entrepreneurial approach to philanthropy, the Womanity Foundation does things differently.  Whether it is opening a radio station in the Middle East or teaching girls how to code in Afghanistan, it does things innovatively, taking risks that others would not take, building and then scaling upon its successes. And Yann realizes that despite the Foundation’s successes,  changing mentalities is a long haul process.  That’s why he says he has been doing this for the last ten years, and will be doing this for the next ten years. Yann also tells us about his own experience growing up being inspired by entrepreneurial parents, the importance of raising your children equal, and how difficult it is to find a non-pink bike for your daughter.

In this episode Sridhar Iyengar, serial entrepreneur shares his point of view on many subjects from tech startups (of which he has founded 3) and newborns (he only has one so far).  Sri tells us about his previous adventures  and building a company with values and why that has become more important to him to transform these into concrete objectives. Sri tells us about the importance of having women in boards, including his amazing board member Uma, as well as considering women in product design, a lesson he learned from his previous company Misfit Wearables.

He also tells us about learning how to navigate the world as the son of Indian immigrants in Tennessee and what he learned from his father by not going to his high school prom. Sri tells us about his musically inclined mother who taught him to always fight for his rights. He discusses sharing a workplace with his wife, a biomedical engineer, who contributes immensely to the team at Elemental Machines. Sri shares how his own experience, as well as seeing the women around him struggle, has made him see the need to build  the world differently, as a more inclusive place for everyone, including his own daughter, to whom he will teach that she can be absolutely anything she wants.

In this episode we interview Mohannad El Khairy, a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley, founder of E-11 Capital. Mo tells us about why he supports feminism today, and why he uses his flexibility to support his wife’s corporate career and care for his children, which has earned him the title “modern man,” when it should just be normal. He tells us about how it is important to raise children with perspective and awareness and about how inspired he was by his own mother, a bold Palestinian artist. Mo delves into how his own background growing up in many countries, including as a Palestinian immigrant in Canada, taught him the value of inclusion.

He tells us about why the culture of Silicon Valley needs to profoundly change to catch up with the future, to become more inclusive and impact oriented rather than simply growth focused. We talk about building entrepreneurial ecosystems in the Middle East and why there are more female entrepreneurs percentage wise than in the Silicon Valley. We talk about Mo’s experience building the Bloomberg of the Middle East, the fact that 80% of his staff in Beirut was female, and selling the company to Thomson Reuters and moving to Silicon Valley and why Silicon Valley is in need of a deep culture change.

On our fourth episode of The Other Half we are joined by Todd Krim from L.A. also known as Mr. Charity.  Todd connects celebrities with causes that they care about to help charities promote their work.  In this episode he tells us about coming to the realization that women are not treated equally, do not have the same rights and pay, which has turned him into a supporter. He talks about the power of using Hollywood as a voice and a platform for positive change and his work finding influencers and celebrities that have authentic connections to causes.

He tells us about his connection to his amazing mother, who was smart, creative, compassionate, outspoken, strong, and had great values and ethics. She was the one who inspired his life mantra, to “make the most of every day.”  Todd tells us about designing the The World is in Your Hands Campaign with Justin Wu to educate and inspire people to take action now to combat climate change he launched with  Antonio Banderas, Susan Sarandon, Rosario Dawson. Perhaps a great idea for what we can all do for gender equality.  Everyone can be an actor of change and, through education and individual actions, we would create massive change.  He also tells us that this is the time for men to stand up for women.

For our third episode we interviewed Philippe D’Ornano CEO of Sisley, one of the leading cosmetics companies in the world. Philippe tells us about how it has been to work as a man in a female dominated industry and leading a company where the workforce across all levels is mostly female. Philippe’s values have largely been inspired by the work of his mother and father who founded the company, upon which he continues to innovate. Philippe guides us through the importance of looking at motivation to hire humans based on their worth and the importance of living in a society where everyone can express their full potential. He advocates for why government-supported maternity leave is a good idea.

Philippe also promotes his commitment to gender equality through the Sisley Foundation, which engages in countless projects to bring about inclusion of marginalized women who have been through homelessness and prostitution in France and around the world.  He also supports the importance of having female role models in fields in which they still are too few, which is why he created the Women in Cinema at the Arcs Film Festival for independent film. Finally he tells us about raising three girls with plenty of curiosity and empathy and their latest joint poetry project, “Bêtes de Compagnie”.

For the second episode of The Other Half we interview Christian Vit, an Italian actor who lives in London and has played in several well known series, including Holby City and Game of Thrones.

We talk about the numerous inequalities in the movie industry, including the enormous pay gap between male and female actors. Christian tells us why this is unjustified and unacceptable, as well as his prediction that this will change in the future. According to Christian the future of cinema holds a much greater place for women who are heroes and leaders.

It is not surprising that Christian holds such values, he is the son of as he terms it a mother and father “team” in which no individual was more important than the other. His team consists of female mentors and agents.  As a foreigner in London and in the English movie industry, he also tells us about his own experience with diversity.