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HONG KONG, Dec. 12, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- In the second episode of Visionaries, Bill Weir speaks with former Patagonia CEO Kristine Tompkins about her mission to channel company revenue towards environmental conservation. Meanwhile, Anna Stewart interviews Lila Ibrahim, Chief Operating Officer of Google DeepMind, as she reflects on her journey as the company's first COO and her efforts to bring more women into tech roles.
Kristine Tompkins on how her business background helps with conservation work
> Any Use of This Material Must Clearly Credit CNN's Visionaries <
Watch the full interview on Visionaries, airing on CNN International on Saturday 14th December
In a new episode of Visionaries, CNN's Bill Weir sits down with CEO turned conservationist Kristine Tompkins, who has made it her mission to protect the vast South American wilderness.
Tompkins served as the first CEO of outdoor apparel brand Patagonia for 20 years. She talks about founder Yvon Chouinard's commitment to funding environmental causes with the company's revenue, "It shouldn't be based on profit, because if you're not profitable, you're still contaminating things and so on. So, he said, let's make it 10% of our revenue. So, sink or swim, we owed Mother Earth 10% of whatever we were selling. And it's still that way today."
At the age of 43, Tompkins decided to pack up her life in the US and join her future husband Doug, founder of The North Face, in South America. Having both amassed sizeable fortunes in the corporate world, the Tompkins realized that they could use their resources to protect natural ones. Inspired by the US National Park system, they began purchasing land. Tompkins explains that people struggled to believe the concept, "In a lot of ways, that's how we got so far into trouble in the early years because we were telling people about, we'll aggregate these lands together, and then we're going to return them all to the country as National Parks. And that's, now looking at it today, 30 years ago, that was pretty naive. Nobody's going to believe that."
Over the last few decades, the Tompkins acquired roughly 15 million acres of land, converting them to more than a dozen National Parks, and returning them to Chile and Argentina. Among the largest private land donations in history, Tompkins says this proof of performance helped change people's minds, "Once we opened up Pumalín and there were trails, and there were campgrounds, and there was a restaurant, and there was a little hotel […] That really was a tectonic shift because people could see that, crazy though it may have seemed to them then, we were doing what we were saying that we were going to do."
Tompkins believes that her background in business has prepared her well for her current role, telling Weir, "The globalized economy needs ecological and conservation and rewilding ethos. But also, conservationists, rewilders can really benefit from the discipline. You know, you come out of business, you have a financial side to you. You can run budgets. You know what to do if something is under over. People tend to be relentless and especially in conservation, you need that."
Key quotes from Kristine Tompkins:
On Yvon Chouinard's commitment to environmental funding:
"We have to start giving away 1% of our profits every year to environmental groups, who typically had a harder time raising money. And within a few years he said, well, wait a second, everybody can hide profits. So, it shouldn't be based on profit, because if you're not profitable, you're still contaminating things and so on. So, he said, let's make it 10% of our revenue. So, sink or swim, we owed Mother Earth 10% of whatever we were selling. And it's still that way today."
On Patagonia's struggles in the early 90s:
"I loved that period because we were in the doghouse with the bankers, and we weren't sure if we could really get the company back into a form and fashion that we had always believed it should be. And I loved the stress of that. I loved the risk of doing that. And then once things stabilized again, I started to feel like I'm going to be here for the rest of my life."
On buying land to create National Parks in South America:
"In a lot of ways, that's how we got so far into trouble in the early years because we, we were telling people about, we'll aggregate these lands together, and then we're going to return them all to the country as national parks. And that's, now looking at it today, 30 years ago, that was pretty naive. Nobody's going to believe that."
On the success of the first National Park:
"Once we opened up Pumalín and there were trails, and there were campgrounds, and there was a restaurant, and there was a little hotel. And the infrastructure was beautiful and respectful. And the architecture looked like the architecture of the area. And everything was for free, you didn't have to pay passage into the park. You didn't have to pay to camp. And that really was a tectonic shift because people could see that, crazy though it may have seemed to them, then, we were doing what we were saying that we were going to do."
On how her business background helps in her current role:
"The globalized economy needs ecological and conservation and rewilding ethos. But also, conservationists, rewilders can really benefit from the discipline. You know, you come out of business, you have a financial side to you. You can run budgets. You know what to do if something is under over. People tend to be relentless and especially in conservation, you need that."
On how her husband's death has altered her outlook:
"You know, when Doug died, I understood then, I had no fear because the worst thing that could happen to me had happened. He's been gone nine years now, but I feel that every day. Go for broke. You have nothing to be afraid of. And I would tell my younger self the same thing I tell my current 74-year-old self, is live with no fear."
On what she thinks a visionary is:
"I think visionaries are unencumbered. They are not tied to this earth. They're not stuck like an air balloon. And you have to cut the ropes to really think of things from a completely different point of view."
Google DeepMind COO: "I'm not very good at predicting the future, but I'm very good at building it."
> Any Use of This Material Must Clearly Credit CNN's Visionaries <
Watch the full interview on Visionaries, airing on CNN International on Saturday 14th December
In a new episode of Visionaries, CNN's Anna Stewart talks to the first Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Google DeepMind Lila Ibrahim.
Ibrahim was born in the United States to Lebanese immigrant parents. She speaks about choosing her career path, "I became an engineer because I thought it was a combination of math, art, and science. And along the way, I actually really enjoyed working with people."
While her background made her feel like an outsider growing up, Ibrahim says university was also alienating, "There weren't that many women. By the time I was in my early twenties, I was just had to get comfortable with bringing a different perspective into everything."
After a career working at Intel, then a venture capitalist firm, and as the first president and COO of Coursera, Ibrahim was approached about the job at Google DeepMind. She tells Stewart that the decision came after 50 hours of interviewing, "I'd go home, and I would tuck my daughters in at night saying, what kind of legacy will I leave in the world? Can I bring my 30 years of technology, experience, and social impact of this through line of how technology can make a social impact and bring it into this moment in AI? And at the end of the day, after 50 hours of interviewing, I felt that there was no better place to build AI responsibly than DeepMind."
Ibrahim believes that in her current role she has a responsibility to introduce more women to tech jobs, explaining that, "In my entire career, I have only once had a woman that was above me in my reporting line."
She concludes, "It's my responsibility now in this role, at this time in history, to make sure that I am not just bringing women along, but like thinking about bringing others along. And whether it's gender, geographic diversity, ethnic diversity, because I think to have the impact in society that we need to have, we need the diverse voices in from the beginning."
Key quotes from Lila Ibrahim:
On her outlook:
"One thing I have really learned is I'm not very good at predicting the future, but I'm very good at building it."
On feeling like an outsider as a child and at university:
"Growing up as a child of immigrants in the Midwest, with English as my second language. I was like the dark-haired kid in my school growing up like an outsider."
"There weren't that many women. By the time I was in my early twenties, I was just had to get comfortable with bringing a different perspective into everything."
On her career path:
"I became an engineer because I thought it was a combination of math, art, and science. And along the way, I actually really enjoyed working with people. And what I've enjoyed about my engineering career, is the ability to bring all of that together and bring a unique view into everything that I do. Being an engineer has taught me to ask the question of what, why, and what are we trying to achieve? So that if you can really understand a problem, you can figure out what the right solution is rather than just throw a bunch of solutions at an undefined problem."
On her thought process when accepting the job:
"When you have a chance to work on such a transformative technology as AI and in a role as I'm in, which is the first COO, first chief operating officer of Google DeepMind, how do you say no? So, I actually engaged in the conversations, but very slowly and intentional. I wanted to understand what were the founders' vision for what I could make possible and what were the risks. And I'd go home, and I would tuck my daughters in at night saying, what kind of legacy will I leave in the world? Can I bring my 30 years of technology, experience, and social impact of this through line of how technology can make a social impact and bring it into this moment in AI? And at the end of the day, after 50 hours of interviewing, I felt that there was no better place to build AI responsibly than DeepMind."
On whether she worries about being involved with AI:
"Part of my job is to worry, to think about, what are the risks and how do we mitigate them, and also to think about the opportunities and how do we support them. Have I ever regretted it? Not at all. I feel like I had almost like a moral calling to be in this role, all of a sudden, my very weird, circuitous background kind of makes sense with where I'm sitting right now."
On more women in tech:
"In my entire career, I have only once had a woman that was above me in my reporting line. But I've been extraordinarily fortunate in having men who were leaders who pulled me into their circle, so that I could have a voice and learn from them. So, I do feel like part of that is generational. But I also feel like it's my responsibility now in this role, at this time in history, to make sure that I am not just bringing women along, but like thinking about bringing others along. And whether it's gender, geographic diversity, ethnic diversity, because I think to have the impact in society that we need to have, we need the diverse voices in from the beginning."
On what she thinks a visionary is:
"A visionary is a person who can imagine a future, who can organize and inspire a team around them, to achieve something that may be unthinkable yet have profound impact in the world."
Visionaries airs on CNN International on Saturday 14th December 2024 at 1:30pm HKT
The show also airs at the following times:
Sunday 15th December at 1:30am, 12:00pm and 8:00pm HKT
See more from Visionaries:
https://edition.cnn.com/world/visionaries
Visionaries trailer: https://bit.ly/3VwsRP7
Visionaries images: https://bit.ly/4g7s1R1
source: CNN International
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