Kirsten Curtis teams up with William Scriven to bridge the gap between PPE suppliers and hospitals

Kirsten Curtis is a supply chain expert, Principal at a private equity firm, former CEO and COO of technology companies as well as a National Karate Champion. With a Masters in Engineering in Supply Chain Logistics from MIT, as well as an undergraduate degree from Stanford, Kirsten has been COO of a Cyber Security Company, VP of Operations at a Consumer Goods Company, and Head of Supply Chain at a Restaurant Company. She also speaks five languages. This is what she told me today:

"During the past three weeks, William Scriven and I have teamed up to assist our country in this time of national crisis.  We quickly mobilized a team of about 10 other people, and together we are working to bridge the gap between PPE suppliers and hospitals.  Given my supply chain background and Will’s power network, we have been working with hospitals across the country (NYC, Boston, Detroit, LA, etc.) and suppliers around the world (US, China, the UAE, Mexico, etc.)  One of the interesting things that we’re finding is that we don’t so much have a shortage of supply of medical PPE, but rather a mismatch between supply and demand.  There are several reasons for this, but one of the largest issues we are seeing in the market place right now is that suppliers are demanding payments of 50% to 100% up front to fund their working capital needs, but buyers don’t want to pay until the product is received and verified, given the amount of fraudulent products in the market and shady characters who are cropping up.  Additionally, given the frenzied need for medical supplies, distributors and suppliers are selling out of product in a matter of hours, often faster than it takes for a hospital to issue a PO. As such, suppliers are saying they have inventory, hospitals need product, but without alignment on payment terms, and the ability to act at lightning speed, product isn’t flowing properly.  This opens up an opportunity for financiers who can act quickly and are willing to bear the risk that the suppliers they are backing are legitimate and will ship the product.  Will and I are working on creating such a financial vehicle / product that can assist to bridge this gap." Kirsten bless you and Will for your expertise and the way you are applying it during this crisis.

Amy is the CEO of the Health Care Foundation for Ventura County in California

Amy Towner is one of the Exceptional Women Awardees and also is a Mentor Liaison for other EWAs. Amy is the CEO of the Health Care Foundation for Ventura County in California. Amy is one of our EWA Heroes. She is working from home as much as possible. However, she serves on the Ventura Hospital Incident Command Team. In the last few weeks she has organized hundreds of women sewing masks for doctors; assembled a 3D printer organization producing shields for Health Care Workers protection. She has assisted in converting 12 rooms in the hospital for Doctors who are COVID exposed so that they do not go home to their own families. She is collecting baby monitors so nurses can watch and communicate with isolated patients. She is also collecting donations and securing PPE for the whole health care system. She has leveraged the World Central Kitchen (the organization that fed those passengers on cruise ships that tested positive) to feed over 1,000 healthcare workers daily. She assembled the National Charity League via doctors' spouses collecting snacks and drinks for doctors. She is still in need of 50 iPads for isolated patients so they can FaceTime with loved ones and have mental stimulation  while in isolation, for mental health. Asked Elon Musk for 40 ventilators - no word yet. Working with United Airlines for first class airline snacks. Her day starts at 5 am, ends at 11 pm, 7 days a week. We are so proud of Amy Towner! She is just one of our incredible EWA's and one of our Women Heroes!

EWA Case Study: Zoe and Spacenet

(NOTE: Fictitious names are used for our women leaders)

Zoe is a physicist with a PhD and 20 years of experience in R&D working for companies in the Aerospace arena. She is now with a startup and although not the founder, has entered the company very early in its development. The company, Spacenet, values Zoe as a great contributor and acknowledges that she is the one in the company who has the most domain expertise about the scientific area of their research.

Partnerships are being developed with large Aerospace companies and in those presentations, Zoe is often the only one who knows what the company’s competitive advantage is scientifically, and so she takes the lead. Her impressive presentations, simplifying complex ideas, impresses potential partners and so when the founder goes out to raise capital, it is Zoe’s successes that are enabling him to close on $20 million in funding.

Zoe has never seen herself as a CEO or indeed a chief anything. She loves science and is quite happy fiddling around in the lab. She joined EWA thinking that it would enable her to find other women leaders in technology and science as well as business and other arenas and that would help her settle into her new environment, having moved alone from another part of the USA. It was quite lonely adjusting to a new company, new area, new home having no real friends. She reckoned that EWA would achieve both of her goals – help her learn new skills, find a sisterhood of likeminded leaders who were not intimidated by her smarts and successes, and a support network for her future.

Zoe was not disappointed. She is a naturally shy person. Her mentor immediately started to enable her to have a different life vision for herself – one as CEO. It had never occurred to her that the company she was now part of was depending on her excellence for its success – and that should be recognized and rewarded. Through months of mentoring with support from her mentor liaison and other women in her cohort, she realized that she needed to speak up about what she was doing, what her impact was, the value of the company and her contribution to it and so much more. Over the next few months she did exactly that, using her instincts as well as the tools she learned in EWA and frequent updates with her Mentor Liaison, to position her for THE conversation ( which ended up being multiple good conversations) with the company founder.

It worked! Within the first 7 months of the program she was promoted to President and joined the Board of Directors. Her success was celebrated with her cohort and the rest of the network – and now she is thinking forward to the future strategic positioning of the company, being involved in the business operations as well as the science of the organization. She is finding new areas of excitement while well supported by the EWA Mentors and network.