Vale

The corporations on our annual list of the world's 500 largest companies combined to generate $41.7 trillion in revenue over the past year.

Fortune Global 500

The corporations on our annual list posted aggregate revenues of $41 trillion for the second year in a row.

The corporations on our annual list of the world’s largest companies delivered a record $41 trillion in aggregate revenues.

Aggregate sales hit $37.8 trillion last year—an increase of 19%, the highest annual growth rate in the list’s history.

Total revenue for the world’s biggest companies fell 4.8% to $31.7 trillion this year—the first decline in half a decade.

This year's Fortune Global 500 generated $33.3 trillion in revenues and $2.1 trillion in profits.

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Here are the World's Most Admired Companies for 2019 as ranked in their industries. See who made the list.

World's Most Admired Companies

This year's Fortune Global 500 generated $27.7 trillion in revenues and $1.5 trillion in profits.

This year's Fortune Global 500 generated $27.6 trillion in revenues and $1.5 trillion in profits.

The world's 500 largest companies generated $31.2 trillion in revenues and $1.7 trillion in profits in 2014. Together, this year's Fortune Global 500 employ 65 million people worldwide and are represented by 36 countries.

Global business is back. After limping through a worldwide financial crisis and economic slowdown, the 500 largest companies ranked by revenues shattered all sorts of performance records in 2013: They racked up combined revenues of $31.1 trillion, up 2.5% from 2012, and profits soared 27% to nearly $2 trillion. China’s 95 companies (up from 89 last year) posted $5.8 trillion in revenues. The U.S. has four fewer companies on the list than last year but remains (for now) the country leader, with 128 corporations on the list—including No. 1 Wal-Mart Stores—reporting $8.6 trillion in revenues. 

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Vale (VALE): Company Profile, Stock Price, News, Rankings

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Vale | Fortune

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Tan Su Shan made history this year as the first woman to lead DBS. With over 15 years at the bank—and earlier leadership roles at Morgan Stanley and Citi—she has been instrumental in expanding DBS’s institutional, consumer, and international banking footprint. Now, as CEO, she’s forging a bold vision for Singapore as the financial bridge between Southeast Asia, China, and India. Tan will share how she navigates geopolitical uncertainty, harnesses the power of AI for next-generation banking, and reimagines what it means to lead in a rapidly changing global landscape.

Shaping Asia's Financial Future with Tan Su Shan

Conferences

So it was originally the Development Bank of Singapore, but I have to say in addition to being Southeast Asia's largest bank, I see here it's the world's best bank, the safest bank, the top for customer experience, customer service. I just think, how do you build on that? You've been in the role since March. How's it going? Is it just, you know, Diane. Let me tell you, I, I joined in 2010. In 2010 we were the worst bank. OK, worst for customer service, for the longest queues, worst bank for product. I mean, the whole works. Um, and, and really it was the team under my, my, my previous boss, the previous CEO of Bush and we, we, we put a lot of, we, we worked really hard as a Singaporean. I don't know if any of you, have you ever flown Singapore Airlines? Oh, you have. OK, so we were all marshaled to Singapore Airlines headquarters by the airport. And taught how do you offer good service quality SQ as they called it. And so that was our first learning was how do you give good service and how do you, how, how are you respectful, easy to deal with and dependable RED red as we as we sags when people look at their bank account. I don't know. pretty well. Um, look, I, I want to ask, you know, first of all, congratulations on being number one on the list. I'd be remiss not to ask how your peers reacted to that, by the way, since I know that you're known and beloved throughout Asia. How did that go? Shock. Yeah, I think a surprise suddenly from my part, surprise from my kids is like, what? Um, but, um, uh, you know, look, it's, it's a great honor. I'm humbled by it. Um, didn't expect it at all. And honestly, the word power, I, you know, I don't know how I feel about the word powerful. Um, I like the word impactful, um, and, um, I don't feel very powerful, to be honest. I, I, I just think, um, it's the team, right? It really is, it's the team that gets stuff done. Uh, and it's my job as a CEO to be the chief energy officer, right? To give energy to the team and to make sure that everyone is headed in the right direction and, and, and we're learning together and when we're doing new stuff together and we're dealing with problems together and we're taking responsibility together and, and, and we're owning up to the mistakes and taking accountability. When I was doing my research, you have wonderful Acronyms. I feel like you're a student of leadership, you know, in addition to the fact that DBS, the D is no longer development for you. You've called it something else. Well, I often joke that the D should stand for digital, digital bank or data bank, but you know, in this very bifurcated world where you have so much volatility and people are so Bifurcated in their views, um, we wanted to be a dependable bank. In Chinese people say Feng Yu Jian Zheing right when this wind and the storm, you see the true, uh, loyalty of your, your, your, your partnership, um, and so we wanted to be that dependable partner through thick and thin. We wanted it to be digital, we want it to be disruptive, you know, using new technologies, and we wanted to be a diversify a bank, you know, because you kind of need to diversify. You need to diversify your supply chain, your counterparts, your currencies, your demand, your supply, your, your interoperability of your tech, etc. So we want to be that bank that if you were Thank you with me. You should think about it because I'm your risk diversity. Well, they will not, and you know one of the things I should mention is that you started pretty soon after that, I believe was Liberation Day and day one, so day one you have Liberation Day, and you are a bridge, among other things, your largest China, India, Indonesia. How is that going for you? So Asia um is 60% of the global growth. Um, and I know I'm in the US and the US is the world's biggest capital markets, but when it comes to global trade, Um, actually, trade within Asia, trade between Asia and Europe, Asia and the GCC is actually growing. Um, and so the two financial hubs that we're in is Singapore and Hong Kong, and then the big growth markets are China, India, Indonesia, we're in all these markets, and they don't tend to move together when India's good, China's in a slowdown when China recovers, India may or may not slow down, but it gives us a good base. It's Huge market. It's growing. It's pretty young, especially in India and Indonesia and Vietnam, and it's very digital. So there's been a lot of digital leapfrogging happening in a lot of our major markets. So how are you helping your customers cope with some of the fallout from the new trade environment? Is that impacting you at all? Diversify. Absolutely. So first all impact was liberation Day, and then everybody had to digest, oh my God, how much more do I have to pay? Um, and if you're only getting your supplies from China, you diversify. So China plus 1, China plus N. I have a client who makes Christmas trees from Shenzhen, and you can imagine he sells to Walmart and Target and all the, you know, big great companies here. He had to diversify, so he moved a lot of his production to Surabaya in Indonesia, and he also sells now to Europe. So that's just one example. You also diversify your demand if you only sell to the US, well, you have to diversify. Um, and so producers are now finding new markets in the GCC within India, Taiwanese producers are going to Taiwan. Um, um, China, you know, China, Taiwan, China, and sorry, China and India historically are not that close, but I think this might actually create more opportunities for Chinese and Indian companies to do more together, certainly on the supply chain. Seeing that right now, China and India getting closer together among Uh, it'll take time to build the trust, but I, the opportunities are there, uh, certainly from a supply chain perspective. We're already seeing one or two good partnerships. There's, uh, Shanghai Auto now partnering through that, that, that ownership of the MG car with JSW, which is a big conglomerate in India, um, and there will be more, you know, there's a lot of solar panels being imported as well from China. to India. So if that grows, the opportunities could be tremendous. You know, one of the things about DBS is it really has been a pioneer and a leader. I think you mentioned digital, certainly with AI. One of you when you spoke to Fortune earlier this year, I loved your anecdote. First of all, you have a WhatsApp group with your board, which I thought OK, let's stop right there with the WhatsApp group, but then they said even the CEO could be replaced by AI so them marching orders for you, but what have you done to really make generative AI sort of the the foundation of the banks? I think that's something that a lot of people can learn from. Well, the first thing and the hardest thing to do is to get your data into a data lake. A lot of banks, corporates have legacy data, so did we. Um, and it was the hard work creating a big data lake. We call it, you know, a a a ADA, it's the analytics for DBS, but Uh, advanced analytics BBS, but really, it's creating metadata so that you can then have protocols and reusable models and, and you have a governance and process that that is common. So that's important, that takes years. Then you learn to create machine learning models. That doesn't come intuitively, by the way, you have to learn. And we tried to make learning fun. So we, we, we adopted AWS's Deep racer. I didn't know how to do machine learning, but through using the deep racer. I'm a gamer, um, I learned to be a gamer. I'm not naturally a gamer, but I had to learn to be a gamer to understand how, you know, you could cut bits of code to make your car turn right or left when you need to, and then you can try and win the race. I didn't win, of course, but I learned that it was really that the machine can learn really quickly. Um, and then you just have to do these experiments, and I still remember my favorite experiment was when we realized we were losing a lot of our customers to the fintech companies on foreign exchange, right, Trans-wise, new wise, Revolut. So they were getting a lot of our FX flows from our SMEs. So I asked the dealers, hey, why are we losing all this market share? And they said, Susan, very easy. It's all about the rates. So if I cut the rates, we're going to get them, the clients back. Yeah, absolutely. Then I thought that seemed too easy. And we thought we had all these machine learning, we should try and test them out. So the, the, the Uber equivalent in Asia is called Grab. And on Valentine's Day, Grab sent me a message and it said, I miss you. I love you. And my husband didn't send me a card that Valentine's Day, but grabbed it. I'm like, hm, interesting. And of course, I opened the EDM and I, I, I looked at the coupon. So I said, how about I miss you because these customers used to deal with us and they went away. And I remember my dealers cringe, like, no, no, no, no, no, that's just too emotional, and I miss. No, this is facts we're talking about, like, try. So just to humor me, they put it in the machine. They had some messages that went great rates, you know, and they had message messages that said I miss you. Guess which one worked better. I love that. There you go, connecting on an emotional level. So, and, and you have to take out the human bias when you're doing this machine learning and the machine helps to take out because everyone, all of us are biased. I was biased with something, the dealers were biased with something else, but the machine takes away the biases, right? And it really tests and learns. So that's how we learn. We learned. Honestly, I learn best by doing, learn by your mistakes, learn by doing, and that's what we did. We started, you know, NLP in 2014, very early on, and it was so hard in those days and we failed, we failed, we failed. And you know what, it was all that failures in the early days that taught us how to do, how to do this in a in a faster. Better way. I want to get into some more about your background, but talk a little bit first about crypto digital assets, anything you want to say on that front, it's been very volatile and it's something that a lot of bankers have sort of kept it at an arm's length. How do you feel about it? So we started custody for crypto in 2021. Yeah, and you know why? Because we found a lot of our, well, in, in, in Christmas of 2019, I looked at all the credit card payments and I realized a lot of the kids were buying Bitcoin through their parents' credit cards. Oh, that sounds dangerous. Yeah. And it was really it was like almost a billion dollars in one month. I was like, what the hell? What is this? And then, um, my friends who had bought them as, as, oh, they were given, oh, there was an organization where the lady boss gave everybody one Bitcoin, it was worth $70 and and and when she gave them all one. Then of course, guess what, nobody could remember their password or the crypto. So when I got to 30,000, I get all these calls and panic like, what the hell, I lost my password, how do I get it back? Then I realized, we realized together that there was a use case to create a safe custody for crypto. Or for whatever tokenized assets to show assets. So we created that custody. So it came from this realization that if you are a bank, and you're supposed to be the custodian of your client's assets, their financial assets, if you don't know how to custodize the tokenize assets, you're going to lose this game long term. So we created the custody. After we did that, our client said, Hey, heck, why don't I just go on ramp off ramp with you? That means buy and sell digital assets with you because I don't want to have to open an account with FTX or whatever. I don't know if they'll last. So we said, oh, OK, never done an exchange before, but Talk to the regulator. They go where the where the customer. So that's what we did and then we thought we'll learn to tokenize as well. So that was the journey we started with the cus, started the exchange, and then we started the tokenization journey. And it's been, honestly, it's been patchy because I think regulators are very schizophrenic. They want to do it, don't want to do it, want to do it, don't want to do it. So you just have to go with the flow. So I feel like I'm we're now into a lightning round here, but I'm curious about you were nominated member of parliament, you know, about a decade ago. I feel like, uh, which is where you're basically a nonpartisan. Member of the Singapore parliament and and now you're in this um economic strategic review committee on global competitiveness. What do you learn from experience in the public sector because we're always talking about what the private sector can bring to public, but not as much about what public can bring to private. Any quick thoughts there? So I learned what it meant to be a congresswoman, right? And I learned that a lot of what happens in Parliament and I guess here in Congress, it's quite staged, but the real negotiation happens in the tea room after during recess, right? Um, but at least, you know, from, from the Singapore perspective, I also learned that They were very open to feedback. That was great. I, I sent all my speeches in before and I thought they might fetch it, they might say, no, don't say this, don't say that. Absolutely not. They will just bring it on. You don't agree, just bring it on. So that was good. I, I, I felt that we had a voice and that was useful. Not everything. That that we suggested was was taken on, to be honest, it took some of the issues took time. Like I I I asked for egg freezing in 2014 and didn't happening for all. So we didn't allow egg freezing unless the woman had a sort of a very bad disease, you know, like a life threatening disease, um, and I was arguing for egg freezing. Uh, for, for, for women before they got married with the view that they could use it after they get married, um, if in case, you know, they couldn't get pregnant naturally, um, that, you know, didn't go down so well at first, but I suggested it, but I think gradually, you know, the society will change, you know, somebody just bid $15,000 I believe to have dinner with you, so it's kind of a warm buffet. But you and your husband you do a lot of great work as a family, by the way, in Cambodia, so I should mention that. But in our final minute here, if you were to give advice to this person who wants some time with you right now and what you've done at DBS and what you intend to do, what would you say? Well, my advice would be, you know, life is in a straight line. Sometimes you have to take one step back to take two steps forward. And so when the going is good, don't lose your head. When the going is bad, don't lose your heart. I love that. I think that's, that's fabulous. And um, I think the other thing I just want to say quickly with regard to parenting advice because I was trolling your kids and they all seem to be, both of them seem to be doing very well. As a family, I think that collective giving that you. is very powerful. Anything you say that and I know a lot of, there's nothing more powerful than bonding with where you're all doing good. That's been a thing for us every year we do one trip together, we go to Cambodia and we do this. You know, activity, it could be cataract, um, it could be cataract operations for, for, for, for the people who can't see or building a school or something, and it really bonds the family, highly recommend it. Most powerful woman in Asia, it's a great honor to have you here. Thank you very much, Susan and to be continued. Thank you.

Employees are spending the equivalent of a month’s groceries on the return to office — and growing more resentful than ever, according to a new survey. Read more on Fortune.

Workers Spend $561 a Month on RTO

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Employees are spending the equivalent of a month’s groceries on the return to office — and growing more resentful than ever, according to a new survey. 

In the aftermath of the global pandemic, remote work which was once a widespread necessity is becoming increasingly rare. A recent survey from better up shows that the number of primarily remote roles have been cut in half with one in four organizations shifting to in person work to improve quote connection and culture. As more companies implement return to office mandates, opinions are divided on whether the shift is truly beneficial for both employees and organizations. Fortune took a deep dive on hidden price tag of the workplace trend. A survey of 1400 us employees who were required to return to office found significant disruptions to work life balance. Many workers reported higher levels of stress burnout and a growing intention to leave their jobs. Employees also indicated that their trust in the company has decreased and workplace cultures seem to suffer according to Gallup, even commutes as short as 30 minutes are linked to increased stress. While commutes, 45 are more can negatively affect both physical and mental. Well being, the financial cost of return to office is another key concern. The average worker spends around $561 a month. On transportation, child care and other support services just to be present at work equivalent to the cost of a month's groceries for a two person household according to zip for many employees, this adds a significant financial burden on top of the stress and time lost to commuting. Despite costs, proponents of in person work argue that it fosters stronger collaboration, improves company culture and strengthens relationship among colleagues. JP Morgan Chase, Ceo Jamie Dimond, for example, has repeatedly emphasized that in person work is essential for building connections within teams and ensuring long term success. Other major companies such as Disney Google IBM and META have adopted similar return to office policies while Amazon is pushing for a full five day in office requirement by 2025. However, critics of return to office argue that these benefits may not be as clear cut as some believe. Research suggests that remote workers are often just as productive if not more so than their in office counterparts. One study found that remote workers tend to give more total hours to their companies, challenging the notion that remote work results in lower productivity or commitment. So what's the best approach? Experts suggest that offering a hybrid model, a mix of in office and remote work may be the ideal solution, meeting the needs of both employers and employees. As companies continue to navigate the shift from remote work to in office mandates the future of work remains uncertain. The challenge will be finding a balance that supports both productivity and workplace culture while also considering the financial and emotional well being of workers. The solution may lie in a flexible hybrid approach that adapts to changing needs in the workforce.

Valerie Jarrett, Chief Executive Officer, The Obama Foundation
Interviewer: Jessica Yellin, Founder, News Not Noise 

Most Powerful Women Summit 2024: Protecting Democracy Globally

Oh, you guys look fabulous. And Martin, ladies, ladies. Not, not too many guys. Good, good, good. It is so nice to sit here and talk to you, Valerie. I think the first time we met you were CEO in Chicago. It was before then Senator Obama was starting to run. Of course, you became a senior adviser in the White House and you're now again, a CEO of a $1.5 billion foundation, the Obama Foundation and counting and counting just in case anybody's interested. Well, that's an impressive start. Thank you. I know you're still fundraising. Um, first, I'd love to give people a sense of what's happening at the Obama Foundation. There are programs for girls and young people we'll talk about, but let's start with the facility itself. It's a very impressive campus. Tell us a little bit about what its focus is when it opens and why it's on the south side of Chicago. Ah, so I grew up on the south side of Chicago. That's why it's there. Right. No, that's not exactly why it's there, but it does make it very special for me. It's a 19.3 or campus right adjacent to the Museum of Science and Industry. Chicago's amazing Michigan lakefront and on the other side of the University of Chicago, just a 10 minute drive to downtown and it is going to be fabulous. It opens in the spring of 2026. You are all invited and come and take a hard head tour. Now, if you're curious and so it will be not only an economic engine for Chicago, but a beacon of hope for the world and it will house the presidential museum that will tell the story of not just President and Michelle Obama, but also the people upon whose shoulders they stand, it will have a Chicago public library because it's so important to the Obamas that the young people in the neighborhood feel that this is their home. We'll have a forum building for huge gatherings, including our democracy forum, which I know we're going to talk about and also an athletic center where we're not going to just do sports, but teach young people about the importance of self esteem and team building and the business of sports because not everybody's 68 and can dunk and, and they will have walking trails and vegetable gardens and fruit gardens and sledding. You can't sled anywhere else in Chicago and growing up Michelle Obama always wanted to go sledding. So we're building a sledding hill for her and it will just be an incredible asset for the city that we call home. Why Chicago? Well, it's where the Obamas began their career together, their life together. Michelle was born about two miles from where the center is located. He came to Chicago and he tells a story about coming those of, you know, Chicago along the sky way from Indiana and landing on the south side. They lived basically when they married not far from where we're located, their kids were born at the hospital less than a mile away. And it's where they built their life together and they wanted to put down their library in a place where they already had roots and where the people in the community would welcome them. And that's what Chicago has done. It's lovely. We're all excited to go good, please. The foundation is already doing work that is up and running a lot of scholarships and programs for young people because you're very focused on building the next generation of leaders. Yes. So when President Obama left office, he and Michelle spent a lot of time just trying to think through what do we want to do next? They're obviously still very young. They're very popular and they wanted to continue to be a force for good, but they also believe in taking the long view and building the next generation of leaders. And so we have leaders programs in the United States, Asia, Africa and Europe. We have a scholarship program thanks to airbnb for juniors and seniors in college to not only provide financial aid but provide them a summer travel experience. And these young people just came back a couple months ago and all of them were standing like 3 ft taller as a result of going 70% of them left the country and the other 30% went to cities or counties or rural communities where they had not grown up. And so this experience, as you can tell is one of my, my favorites. We also have uh my brother's keeper, which President Obama started when he was still in the White House to help improve the trajectory of boys and young men of color. And we have leadership programs for young girls. Uh And our goal is to keep adolescent girls globally in school and also in the United States. Um So and Columbia and the University of Chicago also have leadership programs. So we have now over 1000 alumni who've been through our leadership programs who are out there changing the world and uh spending time with them is what keeps me hopeful. A number of the students who come through your program actually live in countries with authoritarian leaders where democracy is not functioning for them. Can you speak a little bit about the challenges of training kids for young people to work in a world they don't yet live in. Well, it's hard for a variety of reasons and I'll give you an example of a young leader in our program. Who was uh from Vietnam and she was actually incarcerated. And the Obama leaders program isn't necessarily the best calling card in some countries. And so you have to really respect and admire these leaders who are willing to take a risk to fight for human rights when they are enco countries that are not supportive of those rights. We have another young leader named Zuma who's from Poland and she's now the Deputy Minister for Justice, fighting for human rights and civic engagement. And she says if it wasn't for our program, she would have never considered putting her hat in the ring for this office. And her best friend said grade was also in the leaders program and occupies the top position in government as well. And so when you see that so many people out there have great ideas and they're working so hard and they feel alone and they feel overwhelmed and all they need are some simple tools to help them do what they're doing, take it for, to scale and meet other people from around the world who are trying to tackle the same challenges. And so we don't tell our leaders care about this or care about that. We're not issue specific. We just want them to have the tools to be more effective and to take what they're doing to scale and to meet some people from around the world with whom they can bond and develop relationships and maybe even do a little business together, strengthening democracy here at home and overseas is a big focus for you all. Would you talk a little bit about your democracy forum? Which I think is coming up. Yes, December 5th. We have our third annual democracy forum. I'll be honest with you. When President Obama left office, he didn't think he had to have anything focused explicitly on democracy. It's kind of a through line in all of our programs. But given the state of the world he thought, well, let's zero in on that. So our first one a couple of years ago was on disinformation. And he gave a speech at Stanford University, my alma mater on the different ways that business, civil society, the individual and government could try to tackle this huge problem of disinformation, which we know is only going to get exacerbated as a result of A I um last year, we focused on inclusive capitalism. What are the ways in which we can build a strong middle class? Because we know that a threat to democracy is if you have countries where you have the rich and the poor and you see uprisings when people feel government is actually not working for me. So what can we do to make the tent big enough and the pie large enough for everybody to benefit? I always say that look, um talent is ubiquitous. It's opportunity. That is not. And so how do we build this bigger opportunity? Platform. And then this year we're focusing on pluralism and I was talking to someone earlier who I won't out. But she said she probably hadn't heard that word since college. And it's particularly relevant right now, I think because we are in this polarized, not just country but world and people are so comfortable in their echo chambers. And as a result of social media and the way we are organized and the people who came of age during COVID, some of the basic skills of having a very difficult conversation with someone with whom you disagree, but you come to the table in goodwill and you want to try to figure out is there common ground and there may not be but it's healthy and it is essential in a democracy to go through that exercise. And so how do we build a pluralistic society if we don't, then the chances of us having a strong democracy begins to fail. And so each year we're looking at what are the foundations, what are the threats? What are the opportunities to strengthen our democracy and taking on specific areas of focus? You guys never take on the big challenges. Um I want to switch gears a little bit and ask you about the Girls Opportunity Alliance because I remember this from some of the work Mrs Obama did at the White House. It's an outgrowth of some of her work there. Um Tell us what this focus is on and how it really is could help strengthen democracy here in the US. Yes. So, um as you said, Jessica, first of all, can I just say how happy I am to be here with Jessica? I should have said it from the beginning, but you realize her focus is to tell good news stories, stories that don't just scare people to death. And I think that's good because of this current climate. You can seem overwhelmed by all the bad news. And so taking a moment to put out the good things that are actually out there. So I wanted to give you that shout out before we run out of time. So um when Michelle Obama was the first lady, she launched a program called Let Girls Learn. And her goal was to focus on the 100 million girls around the world. Adolescent girls who are not in school, why are they not in school? A variety of different reasons. Some of it's poverty, some of it's child marriage, some of it's oppression, some of it's just lack of good resources and opportunity. And she worked with a variety of organizations when she was in the White House, raised a billion dollars to help keep girls in school when she left. She said, well, what can I do without the platform of first lady but continue this hard work. And so the girls opportunity alliance and I hope they are partners. We have so many partners in the corporate community that are focusing on this here in the United States and around the world is the same. How can we keep these girls in school? And we work with a whole range of grassroots organizations on the ground that they're having success, evidence based strategies that are keeping our young people in school. And last year, Melinda French Gates and Amal Clooney and Michelle Obama teamed up quite a, quite a threesome if you asked and went to Africa and really put a spotlight on the issue of child marriage, which is a huge challenge. And one of our leaders, a young 18 year old was very instrumental in Malawi in trying to raise the age with which young people could get married. Uh So this is our plan and what we wanna do around the United States as well as around the world is to find those organizations that care about this passionately partner with us and let's help girls learn from it. So finally, you've been a leader, your whole career. Um and not my whole career. Let's be honest. Well, in the very beginning, maybe not started out a lawyer at a big law firm. That was a nightmare. So just in the spirit of full disclosure, I like that. That's true. But we all come from humble beginnings. Uh Talk a little bit about if you would, you, you were a $1.5 billion foundation. You're juggling family and life and all the pressures we all deal with but also in a tense election year while you're trying to raise money, what advice would you give other women leaders about doing the job without compromising your essential needs and values? Well, first of all, um this notion of work life balance, I think sets us up for disappointment and the way I prefer to look at it and I can say this because I'm older than most of you. Thank you. Is that life is full of chapters and, and different chapters. There are going to be trade offs that you're going to make and some chapters are just really hard, like raising Children. Any of you have kids in this room. Ok. Well, the best thing is when they have Children because first of all, it's payback. But second of all, there's just nothing better than grandchildren. I have two, don't hate me, but they're just the best. But when you are young, I felt and I still obviously remember it quite vivid searingly like I was holding on by my fingertips and I felt particularly when I was in that law firm that I couldn't really, and this is 38 years ago, but I just felt like I didn't tell anybody I was pregnant until I was six months pregnant. I gained so much weight. I was obviously pregnant, but I was afraid if I talked about it, people wouldn't take me as seriously. And that was the way the environment was back then. And so I was compartmentalizing and if I had to take Laura to a doctor's appointment or anywhere else, I would just, oh, I'm going to a meeting and why couldn't I just say taking her to a doctor's appointment? Because when the men would leave for soccer practice, everybody thought, oh, what a wonderful dad. He is. Right. And, and so in that era, I also felt alone and I felt like I had to do it all myself. And I used to think about, well, what must it be like for moms who don't have the good paying job and the health insurance and the great childcare and the support system that I have. And how can we take care of those structural and cultural impediments and legal impediments? Which is why part of my passion when I worked in the White House was chairing the White House Council on Women and girls. And so look, it's hard when you're younger, but then they grow up. And so I think part of what I'm trying to say is that during these different chapters of life, make informed decisions and don't feel like you're compromising, make it intentional and own the decision and be realistic about what you can do and what you can't do. But I also say you have to, you know, put the oxygen mask on yourself first. And so even in the White House and you know what that was like covering us is, is that I get up an hour earlier and exercise. Do I enjoy exercising? I do not enjoy exercising. Let me be really clear, but I needed to clear my mind. I knew I would feel better when I was finished. The happiest moment of the day was when I got off that treadmill. Um, and I was doing something for myself and I would, you know, in the beginning I'd say, well, I do it after work. Well, there was no after work. And, and so this notion of balance sets you up to think that you can have it all at the same time. And what I would encourage you to think instead is when you look back, I'm not saying my life is over. But let's say when I look back, I've had multiple chapters and the question is, do the chapters add up to a whole life? You know, did you love, did you build relationships? Did you find time and space in your heart for the people that you care about? Knowing that that meant that you didn't get to do some other things. And when my daughter was young, I, I had her when I was 28 and most of my friends and relatives didn't have Children. They would go off to Europe and they go doing whatever partying all night and I would be home with Laura and they said, well, don't you miss being out with us? And I was like, no, I made this decision to have this baby and now they're paying college tuition and Ih, that's nice. So that's my point. And so just be intentional about your life and try, try not to put too much pressure on yourself to say I have to have it. All right, this second. And I think for the younger generation where let's face it as a result of technology so much does happen quickly and it's right there at the palm of your hand. And I'm always telling them this is actually not a sprint. It's a marathon with lots of hopefully twists and turns. And the final thing I'll say as our clock runs down, I wrote a book called Finding My Voice, The Journey To the West Wing and the Path Forward. And then when I did a paperback, I changed the subtitle because it's really the story of my life, which is when the perfect plan crumbles. And I thought I had a perfect plan, a 10 year plan and I checked off all the boxes on my plan except for 10 years in the last one was live happily ever after and I was miserable. And so when the perfect plan crumbles, that's when the adventure begins. Yeah. And if you look at life like an adventure, then the swerves end up being an incredible line. Thank you guys, Valerie. Thank you. Thank you for your leader.

Jake Aust, Chief Innovation Officer, AGBO Cristóbal Valenzuela, Co-founder and CEO, Runway Moderator: Sharon Goldman, Fortune

Brainstorm Tech 2024: AI Goes To Hollywood

Hi, everyone. Thanks so much, Chris. It's great to see you again. Jake, it's great to meet you. Well, well, this is amazing. I, well remember seeing the first generation of runway A I and I think, you know, we can all see the progress that's been made. But Jake, I'm going to immediately go to what I consider to be the cinematic elephant in the room and that is will A I kill Hollywood. Hollywood's been around for 100 years. Will A I kind of end this run of Hollywood as we know it or are we not there yet? I think we've been here before and I think it's, it's important to recognize that Hollywood exists because of technology and there have been many, many technological revolutions that have happened across the history of Hollywood. You know, from bringing sound and color to, to the, to the picture, to CG and there has been existential angst in Hollywood and outside of Hollywood as to whether or not this was going to kill Hollywood. I don't see A I as something that's going to kill Hollywood. We are at the end of the day, an artist driven company at Agbo and it still takes the human, the human touch, the human connection. Now that said, will it be revolutionary? I believe it will. I believe it will. But I don't see it as a revolution that kills Hollywood. OK, Chris, I'm going to push back on that a little bit because you know, as Ali was saying, and as we've discussed, you know, many actors, writers, creatives of all stripes have pushed back on this technology. We can see how amazing it is and folks have raised concerns about it just a year ago, started the SAG actor strike. And you know, just last week, there was news that actors had pushing back against digital scans of their likenesses. What are they misunderstanding? We were just talking in the green room about kind of the nuance around this discussion. Can you talk about that? Yeah, absolutely. The first thing is, I think I agree with you, Jake with regards to how really art and technology are entwined like cinema and filmmaking, the history of technology in a way. And I think what we're seeing right now are more disdain. These are really exceptional tools for great artists and kind of what we're discussing before to a point of nuance. I think these days it's really hard to get nuanced conversations. I think we get into extremes. This is either destroying everything we know or is the best thing we've ever seen in our lifetime. And I think it's like none of those. It's like somehow in between it's gonna create a lot of change. I think technology creates change. And that's a good thing. And it also is going to allow for many more things that we never thought could be possible to be possible. And I think that the first type of thing that I think is necessary to get a bit more of a nuance is if you're afraid, if you have your opinions around this, if you've never used any of those tools, then the first thing you should do is use them. Like if you've never ever created a video, using a model like gen three, then go ahead and create a video and you'll see by experience in like two minutes where things are, what are the challenges, how it can be used and how filmmakers are using it so far. And so getting to a nuance is somehow difficult, but I think it's needed. Well, I want to come in a few minutes. I want to take some questions for the audience. I'm sure there is some. So just think about that. But Jake, I'm going to turn to you again. I'm not sure how many people realize that for a long time, you were a producer, you know, on some iconic TV, shows that we all love like the office and community. So I feel like you have a unique take on this, moving into this innovation role at ADVO can you talk a little bit about how you use today's A I tools in production, whether that is runway or I think you were talking about kind of even earlier in the R and D process. Sure. Yeah, I did start as a producer and I've been involved in technology through my entire career right now. I think what's important to realize is this technology when it comes to being useful to a company like ours, Agbo is very much in its infancy. We're in a, we're in a very early stage of now. We're all watching it progress at a fairly rapid pace. The question is, does it continue to accelerate or to progress at that same same pace? But what we see opportunity in right now is, is what a lot of people in Hollywood are using generative A I for is bringing vision, visualizing your creative idea prior to when you would even have access to a crew to a team of artists that can visualize that for which might have been the traditional process or you just don't have the money to do it because you're, you know, you're an independent filmmaker with, you know, a much lower budget potential and the generative tools can really help you. It's like sketching, you can, you can get your ideas out and look at it and say is that it's not what you're going to put on the screen at the end of the day. The way we look at it right now anyway. Um it, it is, it is a way to get your ideas out there and to communicate your ideas visually. And that's a, that's a very powerful thing. We've seen it as a, as a powerful thing, especially when you're in the middle of still creating what the story, what the world is. And again, like I said, it's, it's early in the process we call development where you're, you're, you don't have access to things, you're going out to the studios to pitch your ideas, to try and secure financing. And this gives you the ability to, to, to give just a little more than you could before Chris, we've talked about your early days runway started in 2018, you and your two co founders met at NYU at art school. So I've always been super interested in the fact that you are a visual artist historically and you know, that has sort of helped inform run. Can you talk about how that is the case? And now when you kind of get pushback from creative communities, how you kind of bring that back to your own background? Yeah, absolutely. So yeah, we better runway 2018, I've been working on some of the concepts and ideas of runway almost for a decade now. And I think like the unique aspect of what we build over time is really the intersection of art and science in a way that makes sense for tool makers for artists who want to use this and leverage it. My personal passion was really trying to understand what new art forms can emerge out of like new models like this ones. Now, the world was very different in 2018 in terms of what journal models could do, what even computer vision could do at the time. But I felt like there was something there that just felt very differently. And I think over time, we're pushing only the research boundaries with the timeliness of the videos that we just saw, but also with how accessible these tools can become for more people. And that accessibility requires empathy and understanding how artists really work. If you simplify the creative process to pushing a button that missed the whole point, it's a process, you sometimes don't know exactly where you're going. You start with an idea and it's about experimentation. And so building tools with the experimentation mindset at the beginning is something we've encouraged the team to do from the very beginning. And I think we'll continue to do so for, for the time being. Um And then how we've uh I think how we manage that, that to communicate that across and also speak more about the nuances with uh encouraging more people to um view what's possible with A I States in the context of really high kind of like production like environments. Like we have this film festival we host every year, I think you, you went, that uh that's an invitation basically to celebrate artists who are using new technologies, not technology. We're not, we don't discuss models, we don't discuss A I, we, we just discuss like people using models or technologies and that is one of the key things I would say they need to do more of. We, I'm obsessed with technology. I think a lot of people here are, but we should start obsessing with people more than like the technology itself. Well, speaking of the people, I'd love to take a, a question. Does anyone have one? We've got a mic back there. OK. Right here. Just say your name and where you're from. Hi, Chris Willis from Domo. Um I love what you said about uh your creativity is not just pushing a button uh with these new tools, you know, we, we, we hear that it's not gonna replace jobs, it's gonna replace kinds of tasks, but going forward. What kind of people do you think will really thrive with these kind of tools or what do schools like our schools at NYU need to be teaching? Yeah, that's a great question. I think like you can look at the past to get a sense of uh of how to make sense of the future. I would say this is uh the, the, the current like generation of artists were benefited a lot from the f transformation technology that we saw a couple of decades ago. And right now, something similar is happening where a new generation of art of artists are gonna be embracing this as tools for them to take on will be the ones that will like I would say thrive. I think the the mindset that I'm trying to um uh move away from is the stasis mindset, which is thinking that what we have right now, production wise, tool wise, uh technology wise is the forever way we will ever do things. And I think that for me is a mistake that uh puts not like the history of art in like context. There's, there's art is an ever changing like form. And I'm curious and I'm really thoughtful and I'm really excited for the ones that are going to think of these things as a new media type, as a new art form that will require people to experiment, to create new things that we haven't never seen before. And the ones that are doing that are the ones that are not constrained by how things used to work. And those for me are like the ones that are pushing the boundaries these days. And so we incentivize also in schools for students to be more of that mindset. That leads me to my next question for Jake, I feel like video and photography and creative mediums are a good example of where we've already had so many tech developments in that area. You know, we've had Photoshop, we have youtube, we have different apps on tiktok to make videos. How is this different? Do you see it as different even more game changer down the line or do you see it as just another evolution in the history of video and photo and, and visual art? I would say probably somewhere in the middle of that, I think there's a lot of similarities to, let's say the release of Photoshop and the ubiquity of Photoshop. We were grappling at the time with a lot of very similar issues, which is what's real. You used to see a picture, you could see a picture of something, it was that man, it was real. And then all of a sudden Photoshop started questioning and you started Photoshop became a verb very quickly and we grappled with that and we are all fine still, you know, like it's OK, you know, and so I think that there's some of the same wisdom should be applied today to what A I tools are that said, I think it is, I very much agree with Chris. I think there's a, there's potentially a new medium here that is about enabling something that doesn't currently exist um in terms of personalized interactions, in terms of um you know, um uh being able to, to get exactly what you want at the time that you want it um in, in, in, in relation to, to creative works, you know, an IP that might exist or have been created. It's a really, it's a really interesting, I think, possibility and that's where I'd like to keep my eye is not trying to save a nickel doing the stuff that we've always done. But like, what's new? What, what can we create here with this technology? We have, we have one more question here. I'd love to take uh Hi, I'm Kako Shrivastava, uh CEO of Splice. We are creator first, uh A I tech for music and musicians. So I really appreciate your question, Sharon. Um We also believe that it's about the creative process first and you have to focus on the creator. I'm super curious in both of your work. What have you seen artists do differently with this technology? That's not just a productivity gain but a creativity gain and more specific, the better. Um Go ahead. Sure. Um You know, I've been, I've been, we, we've released a new model. Uh I think it's been like 12 days or so. Um I've been obsessed just watching people generate things. So I do like something where I just see people like generate things and, and work with these models and the more I see them, the more I started to understand that um this is becoming more of what I I've been thinking about as um think about it as like a dream for the mind. You're going to exercise your creativity, not for the sake of creating some sort of like mastermind picture like film that's gonna make you an award winning director. But more because you wanna just exercise your own creative like mind and it's a tool that allows you to basically do that. You go in with some ideas you have in your head, something you've ever wanted, always wanted to create, you start creating with it. The model responds back with new things you've never thought of before. You take those things, you adjust them and you spend hours doing it and then suddenly you're like in a flow state where like you spend hours thinking about stuff, creating stuff, the output is not some productivity, like video that you're gonna put for a self pitch or I don't know a film. It's just for your own like like joy and you're happy with it. And I think that for me has been something I've never seen before that you engage with the technology in a way you've never engaged with any other technology before. I think part of it is the model becomes extremely creative as you use it more. And also it's a very fast feedback process. So you, you think about something you see it, you think about it again and you start doing this all the time. That for me has been like one of the most interesting non like productive like use cases I've seen so far. All right, we've got literally just over a minute left. I want so, so watch that. I want final thoughts. Three final thoughts. But what should we be thinking here? I mean, I think, you know, just to relate back to what I just said. I think it's, it's keep, keep our eyes on the future, keep our eyes on what's possible. I think the artists are going to show us what's possible. I think Chris's art background is, is, is uh, is so critical to what you're doing and, and I think it's going to be the artists that show us how these tools are used and it's the happy accidents. It's the, it's the, you know, the hallucinations that happen that are inspirational. I think that is, is what's new about this. What do you say, Chris? I basically think the same, think about and try to go for the things that don't have names that you've never seen before. When photography was first invented, people didn't have the words to describe it and they looked at it as something new. The first photographers ever made were referred to as mirrors with memories because that was the language people have, they had time to describe this new thing. I think pretty much what you were saying. Focus on the artists are going to push the bond just to figure out those new languages. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Chris and Jake. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all. Thank you.

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