Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Union head Christiane Benner now holds one of the most powerful jobs in Germany, Australia’s richest woman looks to spoil another lithium deal, and Wellesley College’s president thinks business and higher ed need a closer relationship during turbulent times. Have a productive Monday.
– Direct pipeline. As the president of Wellesley College, Paula Johnson often gets a head start on tackling many of the issues that will rankle workplaces later on. For instance, before Gen Z professionals advocated for transparency and work-life balance, they asked more of their universities. And before anti-affirmative action lawsuits challenged corporate diversity and inclusion initiatives, such matters landed on college campuses first.
At this month’s Conference Board’s Women Lead Festival in New York, Johnson told me how she’s handled that latter crisis, unleashed by the Supreme Court decision overturning affirmative action in June. The decision barring race-based decision-making in higher education was a “canary in the coal mine” for a spate of lawsuits targeting diversity and inclusion in the private sector, Johnson told the audience of female executives.
Paula Johnson, president of Wellesley College. Courtesy of Wellesley Wellesley, a Massachusetts-based women’s college, has responded by investing more in front-line admissions officers and building better relationships with community-based organizations, she said. Even more important is the psychological impact on students of color, she added. “It’s critically important that we send the message that you belong,” Johnson said.
Johnson, who is a cardiologist who has studied sex and gender differences in health, anticipates that the full impact of the Supreme Court’s decision will hit within the next two years. During such a turbulent time, she argues, it’s increasingly important for higher education and business to be in closer communication. “College campuses are a somewhat secluded, secure environment, but [students] are coming to [employers] needing to have a whole other set of skills—and to understand what that real world is,” she said. “There’s a lot of work we can do together.”
Post-affirmative action America is only one part of that. “There’s a lot of work to do to keep that pipeline moving to ensure we are sending to you the most diverse group of young leaders that we hope we can,” Johnson said. Colleges and universities, like businesses, will likely end up navigating a patchwork of laws as states respond differently to lawsuits targeting diversity work. For both, the period of “tremendous evolution” “endangers the future of the country,” Johnson argues.
“Higher ed’s relationship with industry does need to be even closer,” she said.
Emma Hinchliffe
[email protected]
@_emmahinchliffe
The Broadsheet is Fortune’s newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Today’s edition was curated by Joseph Abrams. Subscribe here.
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- Union strong. Union veteran Christiane Benner took over as the first female head of IG Metall, Europe’s largest union that represents 2 million metalworkers, last week. Benner’s legacy in the role, one of the most powerful in German industry, will depend on whether she can preserve jobs as the green revolution remakes the energy-intensive sectors that employ IG Metall's members. Financial Times
- Spoiler alert. Billionaire Gina Rinehart’s crusade to shape the world’s lithium supply continued last week when her holding company announced it had acquired 18% of Australian lithium miner Azure Minerals, enough to threaten a billion-dollar takeover bid by Chilean corporation SQM. Rinehart, Australia's richest woman, similarly built a stake in Liontown Resources, another lithium mine, earlier this month, spoiling another takeover plan. Bloomberg
- Positively X. X CEO Linda Yaccarino seemed as optimistic as ever during the one-year anniversary of Elon Musk’s X takeover last week, sharing a list of 23 positive changes the platform has made over the last year. The CEO praised the platform’s addition of creator payments, its new verification system, audio and video calling, and promised that more was to come as X works to be the social media jack-of-all-trades even as reports suggest X advertising and engagement is way down. Insider
- Pinning hopes. Humane cofounder and CEO Bethany Bongiorno has been full-steam ahead when it comes to the company’s Ai Pin, a small device that can record video, answer questions, project screens, and make phone calls while pinned to users’ clothing. Competition from other AI studios and internal doubts about the product’s viability, however, have cast shadows over what was once speculated to be the flagship tech product of the next generation. The Information
- The D'Amelio dynasty. TikTok sisters Charli and Dixie D'Amelio are launching Be Happy Snack, the latest venture in their growing D'Amelio Brands empire. Four different popcorn flavors are the line's first snacks; they'll be sold at Walmart and online. Bloomberg
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"It requires a lot of preparation. Because if I didn't make that effort, then they could discount me very easily."
—European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde on frequently working with only male leaders
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