Audette Exel, Adara Group

Leadership 2050

In episode 3, Andrew talks to Audette Exel, the founder and CEO of the pioneering Adara Group – one of the world’s first businesses for purpose.

Audette Exel is not afraid to rip up the rulebook. In fact she’d positively encourage it. Because now is not the time for “business as usual”, and it’s the rebels who are doing things differently.

When she left the world of activism to become a lawyer and then a corporate finance magnet, critics said she’d sold out. But by connecting the world of finance with humanitarian development, she has shown a new way forward for the business world.

It’s been said of Audette “she makes money to make change”.

25 years ago she set up the Adara Group, with a radical new model – a development foundation funded by a financial advisory business. To date, Adara businesses have donated nearly £10million (AUD $18million) to Adara Development, which provides health and education support to remote communities in Nepal and Uganda. Donors have contributed a further £30million (AUD $54million) to the projects.

Corporate philanthropy is, Audette believes, the way of the future. “I am a social justice business person,” she says.

Says Audette: “I believe the next ten years are going to be the most important in all of our lives, facing existential threats to humanity. And business knows that. Companies that are not purpose-led are not going to be in existence in any significant way within a decade.”

Featuring:

Dr Andrew White, Senior Fellow of Management Practice, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford.

Audette Exel, founder and CEO, Adara Group.

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