Bill Gates and Warren Buffet public pledge
Kiwi behind Bill Gates' Giving Pledge to speak at first Fantail symposium
Last updated 16:14 21/08/2015
TAO LIN
Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have given most of their wealth to the Giving Pledge and encourage fellow billionaires to do the same.
RICK WILKING
Billionaires Bill Gates and his wife, Melinda and Warren Buffett are the face of the Giving Pledge campaign which encourages the world's richest people to give at least half their money to good causes.
Kiwi woman Alex Mercer worked closely with the Gates behind the scenes to help launch the pledge.
Mercer worked for Microsoft as a spokeswoman for several years before being shoulder-tapped to work on the Giving Pledge.
Now back in New Zealand, Mercer is a consultant and founder of women-focused angel investor ArcAngels.
She will speak about her experiences at the first Fantail Network Wisdom Symposium on Saturday at the ASB Cube in Auckland.
Mercer said coming back to New Zealand sent her into a bit of an identity crisis before she decided her skills were best put towards helping businesses in growth and philanthropy.
"We have in New Zealand an incredible array and number of ideas and start-ups and small businesses.
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"However, what we need to be doing is really giving them the support they need to grow," she said.
She set up ArcAngels to try and improve some of the gender issues she saw in New Zealand businesses.
Mercer said she saw inequality everywhere when she entered the workforce, from the lack of women in boardrooms to pay.
Research showed investors were more likely to back businesses they were familiar with, so women tended to invest in women, but there was a great discrepancy among funding of women founders, she said.
"I am a big fan of women. I have a daughter so it would be great to pave the way for her and not have as many equality issues going into the workforce."
Her other interest is philanthropy, which she developed by working at Microsoft.
She saw younger people adopt philanthropic attitudes towards work in ways that were not seen when she was younger.
"[Philanthropy] was a very separate business. Now it's required. Employers have to show their potential hires that they do have a social good element to what the organisation does," she said.
Mercer will join a line-up offemale and male business leaders at Fantail's first symposium.
Director and founder of Frog Recruitment Jane Kennelly started Fantail in 2014 with former chief executive of the Workchoice Trust Kathy McCombe after finding there was a lack of networking opportunities for women.
"There was a feeling some of the networking opportunities available for women were quite elitist." Kennelly said.
Fantail co-founderShe said the symposium in particular was designed to help women "lift their game".
"We are keen they walk away with information, practical tools and know-how and feeling inspired but also connected to other women," she said.
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Comments
What's the deal with that face it's making me laugh? May I add that I was the inspiration for the Stephen H's
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