MILKEN GLOBAL 2025: WOMEN, WEALTH & HEALTH
The Wellness Revolution:Building Business For Impact and Purpose, Milken Global 2025 Jessica Alba Mark Hyman
By Laura Nix Gerson, Venture:F and Leanna Haakons, Black Hawk Financial
WOMEN AND THE MILKEN GLOBAL CONFERENCE
Navigating the throngs of men and women in business attire, catching up over cups of hotel coffee while crowded into hallways and doorways like a burgeoning sea of suits took a new level of skill this year. It seems like day one is always bursting at the seams. Year after year, the Milken Global Conference brings 4,000 attendees and 1,000 speakers together over three days to discuss the critical issues facing humanity, including health, finance, business, technology, philanthropy, industry, and society. While many key conversations take place behind closed doors, allowing policymakers, heads of state, thought leaders, and corporate titans to collaborate on global partnerships and solutions, the discussions on the main stages address many of the same topics and allow for broader discourse.
Each year, we’ve noticed a continuing growth in the number of women attending and speaking at the conference, and in many cases, driving the conversation. Former First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden, and Esther Krofah, Executive Vice President, Milken Institute Health kicked off Monday’s session with the announcement of the newly-formed Milken Institute Women’s Health Network under the Chairmanship of Dr. Jill Biden. In November of 2023 Dr. Biden announced the first ever White House Initiative on Women’s Health Research, followed in December of 2024 by the first ever White House Conference on Women’s Health Research. Dr. Biden emphasized that her work on women's health would continue after leaving the White House, with a commitment to building alliances and pushing for funding for innovative research, and we are delighted to see that, true to her word, she has joined forces with the Milken Institute to further these efforts.
WOMEN BOARD DIRECTORS DOMINATE THE CONVERSATION
We headed to our next session, Corporate Boards in the Digital Age, through the underground tunnel from the Beverly Hilton to the Waldorf Astoria, past the well-heeled Middle Eastern attendees packing the lobby and the numerous women executives greeting each other by the elevator. Four women, and two men sat on the stage. Let that sink in for a moment. Four women, who serve on publicly held corporate boards, Betsy Atkins Board Member, Google Cloud and Wynn Resorts; Debra Lee Co-Founder and Partner, The Monarchs Collective and Board Member, Marriott International, Procter & Gamble, Warner Bros. Discovery; Merit Janow Chair of the Board of Directors, Mastercard; Dean Emerita & Professor of Practice, School of Int'l & Public Affairs (SIPA), Columbia University; and Dina Powell McCormick Vice Chair, President, and Head of Global Client Services, BDT & MSD Partners; Board Member, Meta Platforms Inc.; Board Member, the Exxon Mobil Corporation - four women were on that stage. Why is that relevant? Women currently hold 29% of corporate board seats, while the share of new directors who are Black fell from 26% to 12%. Board Governance, now more than ever, requires diverse perspectives and thought leadership and that stage was an excellent representation. The conversation covered a number of topics that day but kept coming back to AI. In tackling the question of how businesses leverage disruptive technology to stay competitive, and how can they ensure strong governance while driving growth, Dina Powell McCormick stated “AI is no longer 100% of the conversation - zooms will never be able to replace in person feedback and mentorship - this is a huge part of what being a leader and board member is about.”
WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS CONTINUE TO LEAD IN THE CARE ECONOMY
AI was a leading topic threading through nearly every stage of the conference. Did you know a billion dollars in AI is going into solving productivity at work? Sheila Marcelo, CEO and Co-Founder, Ohai.ai wants to know why AI dollars aren’t going into solving productivity in the home. “The #1 crises in the US is parental stress. Parents need help. I realized after Care.com that my work wasn’t done. We have built a virtual assistant for families to help with the mundane tasks every day. Women do an additional 4.8hrs of unpaid labor every day. If we can free up just one hour of unpaid labor, that’s a trillion dollars of GDP. Care is the work that makes all work possible.”
Eve Rodsky, Author of "Fair Play" and founder of the Fair Play Policy Institute agrees “Parenting is work, it’s a lot of labor, and women are still shouldering 2/3 of this labor. The Fair Play Policy Institute recently published a study that shows that of the 100 household tasks tracked, women are doing all of them and many women are experiencing burnout as a result. Until we invite partnership in the home, women will continue to bear the majority of the household work.”
WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS CONTINUE TO DRIVE THE ECONOMY
Despite the challenges women face bearing the majority of the responsibilities at home, women continue to drive our economy and start businesses at a faster rate than men do. “The missing piece,” according to Linnea Roberts Founder and CEO, GingerBread Capital, “is the capital side and getting people energized around investments. We’re at this critical time where women have created some incredible businesses. Just look at what’s happening in women’s sports. A lot of women’s healthcare has been fundamentally ignored for a very long time (as well as) women as consumers. When women are making 85% of consumer decisions and 90% of healthcare decisions, they’re bound to come up with ideas around what needs to change. When 98% of the market is going one way, I think this is an arbitrage.”
When asked why are more women over 45 entering entrepreneurship now than ever, Sheila Marcelo CEO and Co-Founder, Ohai.ai replied that she is “not surprised because as we age we have more experience and more proximity to issues, and the desire for the freedom of owning your own time. Women are also solving problems relevant to them….(Be mindful) entrepreneurship is not for faint of heart…it is a long-haul commitment to your team, investors, and community you serve - plan for 5-10 years.”
Jessica Alba Actress, Producer, Founder, The Honest Company and Lady Metalmark Entertainment furthered that thought stating that “If business was easy everyone would do it. If I could give any advice to startup founders, it would be to surround yourself with people who care about differentiation and remember that large corporations don’t have to share all the ideas that failed, the stakes are bigger for startup founders with one idea, one product or service.”
Jessica was joined onstage by Moj Mahdara, Managing Partner, Co-Founder, Kinship Ventures. Seeing Moj and Jessica reunite onstage years after BeautyCon took us back to when they were forerunners in the parenting and women’s wellness space and Honest hosted the Mother’s Rooms at BeautyCon and other major events. The reason Moj shifted from being a founder to being an investor is because she did not have a good experience with shareholders and did not feel they were aligned with what she wanted to build. Most founders she knows build something they are passionate about, and that may not align with the goals of the investors. As a result, Moj is focused on being a more strategically aligned investor.
THIS IS THE MOMENT FOR WOMEN TO INVEST IN WOMEN
This alignment of values from investors and the power of women to drive change is a salient point that we continue to address at Venture:F. Now is our time. Women are launching more businesses, are sitting in more decision-making seats, including the board room, and are set to inherit two-thirds or 60% of the wealth in the United States.
Penny Pennington, Managing Partner, Edward Jones says “We are in the midst of a $124T wealth transfer, 2/3 of that transfer is being transferred from a man to a woman. Much of the research shows that often (women) look for a different financial advisor after the death of a male spouse (because women) think about this wealth transfer and what matters to us, we will actually reshape the economy and investment markets based on the decisions we make. This is the challenge and the opportunity we are leaning into.”
