The Aspen Institute

For years, the story of America’s prosperity has obscured a fundamental truth about our growth: its tragic inequity. And while the COVID-19 economic crisis has stripped bare any illusion that our economy is just or fair, it has also afforded us an opportunity to reexamine how finance, worker benefits, and health intersect and interact with economic growth and financial security.

Join our new conversation series: Global Inclusive Recovery and Rebuilding

Showcasing leading experts and policymakers in their fields, the Global Inclusive Recovery and Rebuilding Series will explore different yet interconnected topics, drawing on the perspectives of multiple programs and leadership networks at the Aspen Institute. Issues to be addressed include lending for entrepreneurs of color; benefits for workers and the connection between benefits and financial security; the role of global health organizations in the effort to develop and distribute COVID-19 vaccines as a means for economic recovery; and a look at capital management and how fiduciaries are and are not acting on behalf of beneficiaries in the interest of inclusion.

This series is part of the Global Inclusive Growth Partnership, a collaboration between the Aspen Institute and the Mastercard Center For Inclusive Growth. See below for full event descriptions and speakers. Registration is required.

4. Inclusive Investing: Are fiduciaries acting on behalf of beneficiaries in their decision-making?

(with Aspen Finance Leaders Fellowship)
November 19, 2020 10:00am ET

Investors across the world are starting to focus on diversity and inclusion when evaluating corporate boards, who manages their money, and in the leadership of the portfolio companies in which they’re investing. Yet diversity initiatives still face many headwinds. How can we create a culture in which asset managers and fiduciaries proactively seek investing opportunities that herald diversity? What is the responsibility of fiduciaries to take into account the interests of their populations? Members and associates of the Aspen Finance Leaders Fellowship bring their unique perspectives to the table.

Moderating: Ranji Nagaswami, Senior Advisor, SVP Global and Henry Crown Fellow

Panelists:

• Rodrigo Garcia, Deputy State Treasurer Chief Investment Officer, Illinois State Treasury and Finance Leaders Fellow
• Lisa Shalett, Chief Investment Officer, Wealth Management, Morgan Stanley
• Erika Seth Davies, Fellow, Fair Finance, Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation, Georgetown University

1. Scaling Lending to Entrepreneurs of Color

(with Business Ownership Initiative/Economic Opportunity Program)
October 19, 2020 Event video will premiere at 11:00am ET and be available on-demand after.

Infrastructure for lending has long been exclusionary and insufficient. As a result, entrepreneurs of color often lack access to needed capital to grow and sustain their businesses. The COVID-19 crisis has made an already difficult situation dire for many small business owners. How can we help entrepreneurs of color on the path to recovery? What is the role of community development financial institutions (CDFIs) as lenders, and what can we do to overcome some of the obstacles these organizations face?

Moderator: Joyce Klein, Director, Business Ownership Initiative (BOI), Aspen Institute

Panelists:

• Michael Barr, Joan and Sanford Weill Dean, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan (@michael_s_barr)
• Marla Blow, Senior Vice President, Social Impact, Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth (@marla_blow)
• Tim Ogden, Financial Access Initiative, Wagner Graduate School of Public Service, New York University (@timothyogden)
• Francisco Lopez, Vice President of Business Innovation and Partnerships, Dreamspring (@DreamSpringUS)

2. Modernizing Worker Benefits for the 21st Century

(with Future of Work and Financial Security Program)
October 22, 2020 11:00am ET

Public and private benefits are crucial to a worker’s financial security, but the design and delivery of these benefits disproportionately exclude low-wage workers, workers of color, and workers in non-traditional work arrangements. How can we refresh and modernize these systems to the benefit of all workers and their families? Would a new, integrated system of benefits guided by four key principles – people-centric, inclusive, portable and interoperable – be the pathway to an inclusive recovery and long-term prosperity for all workers in America? This event will introduce the work of the Benefits21 initiative and the holistic approach to financial security and economic mobility being undertaken by the Global Inclusive Growth Partnership.

Opening conversation with Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA) and Alastair Fitzpayne, Executive Director of the Future of Work Initiative. Benefits21 presentation by Sarika Abbi, Associate Director, Financial Security Program.

Moderating: Joanna Smith-Ramani, Managing Director, Financial Security Program, Aspen Institute

Panelists:

• William Spriggs, Professor and Former Chair of the Department of Economics, Howard University and Chief Economist, AFL-CIO (@WSpriggs)
• Trent Bigelow, CEO & Co-Founder, Track (@TrentBigelow)
• Molly Hemstreet, Executive Co-Directors, The Industrial Commons (@IndustCommons)
• Parag Mehta, Executive Director and Senior Vice President, Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth (@paragie)

3. Ensuring the Equitable and Effective Global Distribution of Vaccines

(with Global Innovators Group)
October 28, 2020 1:00pm ET

An inclusive global economic recovery in the wake of a pandemic can’t happen without a public health policy approach to vaccine development and distribution. How do we get vaccines across multiple populations in as equitable a way as possible? And how do we not only reach groups left out of both public health and economic infrastructures, but reassure those groups that a vaccine is necessary and safe?

Moderating: Elizabeth Cohen, CNN’s Health, Medical, and Wellness Unit

Panelists:

• Mike Froman, Vice Chairman, Mastercard (@mikefroman)
• Anita Zaidi, Director, Vaccine Development, Surveillance, and Enteric and Diarrheal Diseases Programs, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (@AnitaEDD)
• Kathleen Sebelius, Former US Secretary of Health and Human Services (@Sebelius)
• Marie-Ange Saraka-Yao, Managing Director, Resource Mobilisation, Private Sector Partnerships and Innovative Finance, GAVI (@GaviMarieAnge)

 **Recordings will be available on this page**