What it's like to chair a stock exchange in a pandemic

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May 8, 2020

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! A new coalition asks for a childcare stimulus, Melania Trump celebrates two years of Be Best, and we get crisis leadership insight from the first woman to chair the Hong Kong stock exchange. Have a relaxing weekend and, for those of you celebrating, a wonderful Mother’s Day.
– Taking stock . Last week, Emma provided perspective on coronavirus crisis management from Enterprise CEO Chrissy Taylor , who’s based in St. Louis, Mo. For the latest installment in the series that asks female business leaders to talk about leading through the public health and economic crisis, we get perspective from Hong Kong, which has emerged as a standout in its response to the outbreak.
Hong Kong Stock Exchange Chair Laura Cha, who also sits on the boards of HSBC Holdings and Unilever, shared her insights on leading through this moment.
Cha, the first woman to chair the bourse , says HKEX is “carefully executing our staged return to the office,” as the city itself eases social distancing restrictions. The exchange’s new workplace strategy will feature “split-team arrangements” and will continue to encourage “digital communications and meetings where possible to minimize personal contact at this still-critical time,” Cha says.
Beyond the return-to-the-office strategy, I was especially interested in what Cha sees as long-term—even beneficial—effects of the pandemic. By cutting off nearly all air travel, the crisis has forced Cha to reconsider how often she gets on a plane. Rather than fly to London and Rotterdam for board meetings, she’s participated remotely. Directors’ camera shyness notwithstanding, she says virtual board meetings are becoming the new norm. The change has been so sudden, so dramatic that she thinks it will prompt her industry to operate differently from now on.
“This crisis shows that the travel we did as an industry in financial services was huge, and now we are able to do that with a lot less,” she says. A narrower definition of essential business travel could help reduce carbon footprints.
The crisis has—of course—affected Cha’s personal life too, prompting what she calls “forced downtime.”
“I got to clean up a lot of things in my study,” she says, “all the emails and reading, and I’ve never watched so much Netflix.”
You can read the entire Q&A here.
Claire Zillman
[email protected]
@clairezillman
Today’s Broadsheet was produced by Emma Hinchliffe.

ALSO IN THE HEADLINES

- Mother's Day Zoom. San Francisco's director of public health warned residents that the greatest gift they can give their moms this Mother's Day is to "stay away." Ahead of what is sure to be an emotional holiday, read about seven ways to celebrate from afar.
- Reade interview. Tara Reade, the former Senate staffer who has said that Joe Biden sexually assaulted her (he has denied the allegation), sat down for an interview with Megyn Kelly; in the portion of their conversation released so far, Reade says that Biden should drop out of the presidential race. For Vox, reporter Laura McGann writes about how she's investigated Reade's claim for more than a year and hasn't been able to prove it out.
- The level below Lagarde. The European Central Bank, led by Christine Lagarde, aimed to have women in 28% of senior management roles and 35% of all manager roles. The institution achieved the former, with women holding 30.8% of those senior positions, but fell short of the latter, with women in 30.3% of the jobs. Bloomberg
- Childcare crisis. Women in Italy are already employed at lower rates than women throughout the rest of Europe, and the pandemic is putting more pressure on them; Italy has reopened workplaces without reopening schools. In the U.S., parents are already encountering the same problem; a coalition of businesses and advocacy organizations yesterday asked Congress for a targeted stimulus for childcare providers.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Carolyn Tisch Blodgett is leaving her role as Peloton's head of global marketing. The Human Rights Campaign hired Jennifer Fiore, former senior advisor for communications and digital on Secretary Julián Castro’s presidential campaign, as SVP of communications and marketing. The delivery service Deliv is shutting down operations; CEO Daphne Carmeli will head to Target, which purchased the startup's technology assets.

Content From Deloitte
The world remade by COVID-19
How can resilient business leaders plan today to thrive in a post-COVID world? Deloitte and Salesforce hosted a dialogue among renown scenario thinkers to consider the potential business and societal impact of the pandemic. Explore the scenarios

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

- No, NY1. The five women who filed a lawsuit alleging gender and age discrimination at New York's local news network NY1 say they have been retaliated against, isolated, and even further sidelined in the months since. An NY1 spokeswoman said the channel "reject[s] these claims of retaliation." Vice
- Stay inside in Scotland. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson is planning to ease lockdown restrictions, but Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon says she won't agree to lift stay-at-home orders before it's safe. Sturgeon says the lockdown could continue for longer in Scotland, even if it's over in other parts of the U.K. Bloomberg
- Still being best. It's been two years since First Lady Melania Trump launched Be Best; she celebrated the program's anniversary with a Zoom call with a class of first-graders. Plus, some bonus Mother's Day reading: how was President Trump influenced by his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod?

ON MY RADAR

Misty Copeland launching virtual ballet performance to benefit dancers affected by COVID-19 The Root
Michigan governor to allow state’s auto manufacturing plants to reopen next week CNBC
How racism is shaping the coronavirus pandemic The New Yorker
Hayley Williams on what went wrong with Paramore, Warped Tour war stories, and her new solo life Vulture

PARTING WORDS

"We think of ourselves as halfway down Everest. I think it’s clear that no one wants to hike back up that peak."
-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on coronavirus in New Zealand

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