ExxonMobil: Empowering women entrepreneurs across Latin America, Caribbean

Working with Vital Voices, ExxonMobil supports advanced training for women business owners in Latin America, the Caribbean and other regions.

ExxonMobil Exploration Argentina recently participated in a Vital Voices GROW Fellowship event in Buenos Aires to celebrate 21 women from 13 countries across Latin America and the Caribbean working to build their businesses.

Vital Voices identifies high potential, women-owned small- and medium-sized enterprises on the cusp of significant growth. The group’s GROW Fellowship, supported by the ExxonMobil Foundation, offers a comprehensive one-year training program to help these enterprises succeed.

The training program focuses on:

• business planning,
• networking,
• understanding key markets,
• financial management and
• leadership and business ethics.

Competitive selection process

During the event, each participant presented an overview of her plan for growing her business before a panel of judges from different sectors, which included Tomas Hess and Carolina Pascarelli, both of ExxonMobil Argentina Public & Government Affairs. Hess also spoke to the group during the reception. “We are impressed with the work that Vital Voices is doing and believe the training they provide helps women grow their businesses,” Hess says. “The women we met all had unique backgrounds and outstanding business ideas that showed their creativity and professionalism.”

During his remarks, Hess highlighted the courage it takes to become an entrepreneur and the skills and knowledge that are necessary to become a successful business leader. “The participants felt extremely honored by his participation, and one mentioned that the advice he gave her was the best advice she had ever received,” says Eugenia Podesta, director of Vital Voices Global Partnership for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Twenty-one women from across Latin America and the Caribbean will be able to advance their businesses, thanks to the partnership between ExxonMobil and Vital Voices.

ExxonMobil began supporting Vital Voices in 2005 and helped launch the GROW Fellowship in 2013. The partnership’s longstanding goal is to support the development of businesswomen’s networks in Africa, the Middle East and Latin America. Since its founding in 1997, Vital Voices has trained and mentored more than 14,000 emerging women leaders from 144 countries, who in turn have returned home to train and mentor more than 500,000 women and girls in their communities.

Source: ExxonMobil