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Lindsey Hall: I'm Lindsey Hall, Head of thought leadership at S&P Global Sustainable1.   

Esther Whieldon: And I'm Esther Whieldon, a senior writer on the Sustainable1 Thought Leadership Team   

Lindsey Hall: Welcome to ESG Insider, a podcast hosted by S&P Global, where we explore environmental, social and governance issues that are shaping investor activity and company strategy. 

Esther Whieldon:  Today, we're bringing you the latest episode in our special series focused on women in leadership. We're talking to women in CEO and executive roles from companies around the world. This series builds on research by S&P Global that found the number of women's CEOs across markets and sectors remains relatively small. That research, which we'll link to our show notes, also observed that many women's CEOs displayed more diversity, empathy and adaptability in our leadership styles.

Lindsey Hall: Well, in this series, we're talking with women executives to learn more about their leadership style, their career path and their approach to diversity, equity and inclusion. 

Today, we're hearing from Laura Lane, who is Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Officer for UPS. UPS a the big multinational shipping and receiving and supply chain management company. In 2022, the company had more than $100 billion in revenue. It employs more than 500,000 people across more than 220 countries and territories and delivers about 24.3 million packages daily. So, Esther, when you talk with Laura, what did you learn about her path to the C-Suite at UPS?

Esther Whieldon: I have to say I was really inspired by my interview with Laura. As you'll hear her leadership style and career path has been driven by a passion for advocating for positive change in the world, particularly for driving diversity and equity. 

And much of what drives here today stems from a seminal moment in our life in 1994 when she was just 26. Laure was a foreign affairs officer in Rwanda when many of the members of 1 of 2 major Rwandan ethnic groups, the Hutu set out to kill the minority Tutsi population. The genocide, which lasted about 100 days, resulted in the death of more than 800,000 civilians, primarily Tutsi. 

Laura led the land-based evacuation of about 250 American citizens at the outbreak of that civil war, and she did a TED Talk presentation that we'll include a link to in our show notes, where she goes into a great amount of detail about her experience. But needless to say that experience has shaped her purpose and career path. Here she is.

Laura Lane: One of the most defining points in my career was definitely my tour of duty in Kigali, Rwanda. I had gone to the American Embassy. I actually bid on the assignment to serve there because it was a real opportunity for me to be in a setting where the objective was to bring the warring factions together to implement the Arusha peace accords. And a little bit I know that in the course of serving in Kigali Rwanda, I would become a firsthand witness to genocide and be in the middle of one of the most horrifying conflicts that I think any human being could ever experience.

And it's from living through Rwanda and in essence, surviving Rwanda that I really develop this sense of who I was and what I should strive every day to do to, I know it will sound Polyana, but to make the world a better place. Because when you live through Genocide, you come out the other side and say, I've been given another day, how can I make the most of this day so that we never go back to that kind of violence, that kind of inhumanity, that kind of evil. How do I look forward and think about the ways that I can make a difference? 

And the Rwanda experience was life changing for me on that fundamental level, but it also taught me 3 really important things about myself. One, I learned that the people that are a part of your role or anything that you're doing, the people are probably the most important. Because in my case, most of my staff was killed in that genocide. And I live every day with the deep regret that I didn't do more to save those individual souls. Even though I did everything I could to save as many people in the overland evacuation out of Rwanda that I could. The second I learned is that you're never above the law. In other words, following the rules and the laws in any situation are important because integrity matters. But sometimes, you gotta challenge those rules and advocate for change. And I definitely did that in Rwanda through that experience because, as I explained and a TED Talk that I did on the topic, I did have to challenge the rules in order to save the most lives to affect an overland evacuation of as many innocent people as possible. 

And the third thing that I learned from the Rwanda experience is I have more courage than I realize. And sometimes, you may not be ready for every situation. But if you find the courage inside and you surround yourself with the right people, you'll find the right action steps to take and courage and showing up and trying to be part of a solution is sometimes as important as whatever the solution ends up being. 

And those are powerful game changers for me from the Rwanda experience because they taught me the power of people, the power of advocating for positive change when the rules aren't working and, three, being someone who has the courage to stand up and advocate for that change.

Esther Whieldon: Laura explained that she never expected to end up in a leadership role at UPS.

Laura Lane: I have to say, I'm in the C-suite right now at UPS, but I never thought that this is where my career would take me because when I started out early in my career, my goal and it's maybe my "why" throughout all of my career was always to serve others. And I thought the greatest way I could serve others is through government. And I ended up being one of the youngest women in the U.S. Foreign Service and had the opportunity to serve in a couple of embassies in the world and try to advocate for American values and the importance of democracy and all those things that the United States stands for.

And so early on in my career, I thought the way I'm going to deliver good in the world is by being representative of the U.S. government in our advocacy efforts around the world. And it landed me in Bogota, Colombia, which was my first tour of duty and then Kigali, Rwanda, which was my second tour of duty and probably one of the most life-changing career experiences that I had that taught me the importance of people, the importance of principles and gave me, I think that internal courage to challenge the status quo, advocate for new paths, and in many ways, I think set me on the path to eventually joining the private sector and being a part of the change that we wanted to see and how companies show up in the world and how they make a difference for the people that are part of their employee base as well as the customers and the communities that they serve. 

And I feel pretty lucky to have ended up in the C-suite for a company like UPS because it seems, in my mind, it's the best company positioned and placed to be able to serve our people, our communities and the world in such incredible ways. But it was a path that began with government service wove its way through the private sector and then landed me here in the C-suite at UPS with this incredible role that is all about how we advocate for policy change, how we communicate the human stories of what makes UPS, who it is and how we show up in the world, and also the opportunity through the foundation and community relations and our sustainability initiatives to really do more than just deliver packages but deliver real good. So, it's been an incredible journey. And I, as you can probably tell, am passionate about the role that I've had the opportunity to be given here at UPS.

Esther Whieldon: So you have all this motivation now to make the world different to drive change. How does that fit into your, and sort of shape, your leadership style?

Laura Lane: So I'd say that my leadership style has evolved over the course of my career. But one of the constants has always been something that was career advice that I was given early on in my foreign service days, which was don't wait for someone to give you a title to act to lead from where you are.

And I'm definitely someone who, in my various leadership roles has really tried to instill that into the members of my team. I think the greatest leaders are the ones that aren't amassing followers, but those that are finding the leadership qualities that they have on their teams so that they're amplifying their leadership by creating more leaders across the organization in which they work in. And I definitely have tried to do that. 

I've also, my leadership style is one of being real. I know, I don't know at all. I don't have all the answers. But I do know that I know good people, I know how to pull together diverse teams of people with different experiences and different backgrounds. And I think in the diversity of teams that I've tried to cultivate, I think that the outcomes of those teams have been greater because of that diversity. And so I tried to lead by leaning into supporting teams that fill the gaps of what I don't know or give me the perspectives that maybe I don't have, because I think through that kind of collaboration you can make 1 plus 1 equal 3, you can drive incredible results. And so my leadership style is definitely one of driving diversity and inclusivity. 

And the third is to be real authentic. What you see is what you get. I am someone who shares my personal stories, that shares the struggles that I have had, that is open about where I know I need to be better as a leader and really leading authentically. So I'm not someone that puts on a front. What you see is what you get and what you get is a leader who's committed to being a partner, leading on the front lines and being in the rear so that no one is left behind at the same time.

Esther Whieldon: So obviously, you have a big focus on equity and diversity. You've talked about that already. And how does diversity, equity and inclusion -- what kind of role does it play in your company? And what kind of things have you brought to the table to help UPS develop those areas?

Laura Lane: Yes. So I think one of the powers of UPS is we are a diverse and inclusive company. And there's been real intentionality behind our new CEO, Carol Tomé, who joined the company in June of 2020 in terms of encouraging more of that diversity and inclusivity in our company. 

We have a rallying cry: "You belong at UPS." And when I think about that, think about the fact that UPS serves 220 countries and territories, we serve the world, and the world is a big, beautiful, diverse world. And so we want to look more like the communities we serve, and we want to create opportunities for a diverse range of individuals to be part of our company's success. So there's a lot of intentionality behind it in terms of our programming to attract more talent on the front lines in our organization. 

But the tone is also set from the top. I mean, Carol Tomé is the first woman CEO of our company, and that's been a powerful change in how we are leaning into that leadership. She's changed the character of our Board. We now have 31% of our Board members who are ethnically diverse and a whopping 46% who are women. And what happens when you have that kind of a leadership team, you have that diverse perspective that drives some of the leadership decisions. And when you guided at the entry level ranks within the organization, we're seeing this beautiful amalgamation of lots of different perspectives at every level in our organization. And I really think it's driving our success. 

I'm fortunate because one of my roles is to oversee the foundation and our community relations teams who systematically engage with partners and communities to advance equity and justice. And one of the most powerful ones that I'm particularly proud of is our efforts at women's economic empowerment. 

I see some of the challenges that women face in the workplace and/or in engaging in economic activity, especially in parts of the world where women don't have some of the same rights that many women here in the United States sometimes, I think, take for granted because I see the challenges that women in parts of the world have to battle up against in addition to just starting their own businesses. They have the other challenges, the barriers and law and lack of protections. 

And so I'm really proud of the fact that UPS has been a company that has focused on working with women's small and medium-sized businesses working with women entrepreneurs to give them the tools for how to take their business ideas and have them grow and make them successful businesses because we know what it takes to take business as global because we do that every day as UPS. 

But it's also in being the voices for these women in advocating for changes in law, changes in the trade rules that sometimes discriminate against women engaging in economic activity. And I'm really proud of the fact that we recognize that when women thrive, humanity thrives. 

And for UPS, we want to help women be successful, and we leverage the tools that we have and the powerful voice that UPS has in communities and with governments around the world to advocate for the change that we think is needed so that, proverbially, women can hold up the other half of the sky and be equal partners in changing the world for the better and creating economic opportunity for all. That's one concrete example of some of the work that we're doing to be change agents. 

We also engage with a lot of community partners in areas of equitable access to health, health care, for example. So think about us coming out of the pandemic and so many people in countries outside the United States not having access to those all-important vaccines that could turn the tide on the battle against COVID-19. 

Well, UPS decided we were going to play a very consequential role in that equitable access to health care space. We delivered over $1.5 billion of the vaccines to combat the COVID-19 virus. But we also stood up efforts to work with community partners, especially in many of the countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, which don't have robust health care systems and partner with them so that we could be helping them with the logistics supply chains for the essential delivery of those life-saving vaccines and have since been working with a lot of those countries to stand up better logistics supply chains to serve greater health care needs above and beyond just the COVID-19 virus and the pandemic.

Esther Whieldon: One way that Laura has worked to empower local communities and businesses around the world is through the UPS Women Exporters Program, which he helped create and launch in 2018 to provide targeted assistance to women-owned small and medium-sized businesses. Here she is talking about the program.

Laura Lane: With our women's exporter program, what's beautiful about it is we're not trying to give handouts. We're trying to get the hands up to lift people up. A lot of the women entrepreneurs that I had the opportunity to interact with, they just need the help in terms of how to organize their businesses, how to understand the trade rules, how to get the access to financing, how to develop the smart logistics and supply chain solutions so that they're not paying extra for what they don't need, but they're efficiently getting their product to the customers that are interested in buying whatever they're making or selling. 

And the women's exporter program is really a program about empowering women and giving them the tools and the training that they need so that they can take their businesses to the next level. And it's been inspiring to watch how many women's lives we've touched and what's been beautiful is we've realized that in supporting these women in their efforts to grow their businesses, you invest in a woman, you invest in empowering a family, and by empowering families, you're strengthening communities. 

And it has this beautiful ripple effect, which is why UPS has really made a priority about working with women entrepreneurs because the return on that investment we've seen delivered in the communities that we're also serving. So it's a powerful example of how we're trying to deliver that impact.

We have this huge goal of improving the well-being of 1 billion lives by 2040. I'd love it to be really focused and intentional on women in many respects because the amplification effect from investing in a woman is incredible. And I think we'll hit the 1 billion lives impacted a lot sooner when we partner with organizations that devote a lot to women's economic empowerment.

Esther Whieldon: Given that you had such a non-direct route to where you're at right now, what advice would you give to people entering the sustainability field for finding their path?

Laura Lane: In my career journey, I always was encouraged to have that openness to opportunities and not being someone that planned out my next steps along every step of my career. 

And I will say my experiences in Rwanda taught me that I never wanted to be someone after that experience that was climbing some career ladder, some corporate ladder to some defined level of success. 

I learned from that critical moment in serving in Kigali, Rwanda that what you really need to do is map out how you can learn a variety of different skills and be in different kinds of settings and environments where you're tested and challenged to think outside the box about problems and really focus all of those learning opportunities on what fuels your passion and your purpose. 

And I think that is such an important way in which you're not plotting out your career like I'm going to be first a manager here and then a director here and then a Vice President here. And instead, it's about what are all the tools that I need to have, what kind of background and understanding do I need to really drive the difference that I want to make in the world?

And when you approach your career in that way with that real purpose-driven approach about where you want to bring your talents and your passion to bear to make a difference, I think it makes every day an interesting day and not like a career journey. It becomes living your purpose every day and just finding ways to have bigger and bigger spheres of influence along the way.

Esther Whieldon: We just heard Laura talk about using her passion and purpose to drive our personal and professional path in life. One thing we talked about, in particular, resonated with me, which was the amplifying effect of investing in women. We heard Laura say how when you invest in a woman, you're also investing in their family and strengthening their communities.

Lindsey Hall: And several of those things we heard Laura say is at this common theme we're hearing throughout our interviews with women executives, specifically about the importance of leading authentically by surrounding yourself with a diverse group of people who can really help fill in your gaps in experience and knowledge and then really listening to what the people with those diverse viewpoints have to say.

Esther Whieldon: That's right. And diversity is a topic we'll keep covering throughout the year on this podcast. Please stay tuned for our continuing coverage of this and other issues driving the sustainability world.

Lindsey Hall: Thanks so much for listening to this episode of ESG Insider and a special thanks to our producer, Kyle Cangialosi. Please be sure to subscribe to our podcast and sign up for our weekly newsletter, ESG Insider. See you next time.

Copyright ©2023 by S&P Global  


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