The social activist who learnt lessons in power and capital so she could affect change

Philanthropod

Audette Exel is a lawyer by profession, managed one of Bermuda’s biggest banks and has a sprawling list of banking, leadership and business awards to her name. However, Audette does not think of herself as primarily a businesswoman. Instead, Audette identifies as a social activist who decided to pursue social justice and equality through leveraging traditional business, power and capital.

At 35, she stepped away from the world of law and banking and embarked on her greatest challenge yet: setting up Adara Group - a global organisation that believes in the power of business and partnership to change the lives of people living in poverty. Today, Audette is the Chief Executive Officer of Adara’s two corporate advisory businesses: Adara Advisors and Adara Partners. The Adara businesses were established to help fund Adara’s health and education work with women and children in extreme poverty in some of the world’s remotest places (Adara Development). Knowledge sharing sits at the heart of their model, so that programs such as the Adara Newborn model in Uganda, can be stretched to remote regions and other countries in order to maximise impact. Since 1998, the Adara Group has had a profound impact on hundreds of thousands of people in poverty. 

In this episode, join Philanthropod’s host, Anubha Rawat, in discussion with Audette who takes us on her incredible Adara journey, from Bermuda to Uganda to Nepal, and introduces the listener to inspiring characters along the way. Audette also reflects on the changing international development sector more broadly. She believes that over her 25 years in the Development sector, she has witnessed watershed changes in the role of power dynamics and the addition of new, much-needed actors, such as private and public companies, joining the ecosystem.

Audette's warmth, passion and leadership shines throughout the episode.

To learn more about Adara Group follow the link: https://www.adaragroup.org/ 

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