foundation places top priority on helping women and girls

Robbi Luxbacher, ExxonMobil general manager of corporate planning, says the company will expand efforts to help women and girls – especially in countries where the company has a strong presence and interest in capacity building.

Program promotes company’s core business expertise.

This article originally appeared in the Lamp, 2007 — Number 3

Afaf Zeidan, customer services manager for CreditCard Services Co. (CSC) SAL in Lebanon, was chosen as one of 32 businesswomen worldwide to participate in the Fortune/U.S. State Department International Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership. The honor brought Zeidan to the United States to meet with influential women such as Senators Hillary Clinton and Kay Bailey Hutchison as well as Robbi Luxbacher, general manager of corporate planning for ExxonMobil.

The partnership is one of the latest programs to gain the support of the ExxonMobil Foundation and its Educating Women and Girls Initiative (EWGI). EWGI provides funding and applies the company’s core business and management expertise to help women and girls realize their full potential. Projects funded by EWGI reduce barriers preventing girls from attending school, and give women training to start or improve businesses and non-governmental organizations.

Luxbacher learned of the new mentorship program at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women summit last fall. The program pairs talented, emerging women leaders with some of America’s top women executives for a month of meetings and networking in the United States.

"I was impressed by the presentations from the first year’s participants," says Luxbacher. "These dynamic women were enthusiastic about what they had learned and how they would use their new knowledge in their home countries." Luxbacher persuaded ExxonMobil to participate in and contribute to the program in 2007. She also volunteered to get involved and be the company’s first mentor to Afaf Zeidan.

Zeidan began her professional career with Lebanon’s state government in 1995, after earning a Public Administration degree from the American University of Beirut. In 1999, she joined CSC, a $16 million company of 230 employees that administers credit card operations for 70 banks and businesses in 19 Middle Eastern and African countries.

Zeidan’s U.S. trip began in Washington, D.C., with three days of orientation with her fellow participants, who came from Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Asia. They met with their mentors and other senior women in government, academia and business.

"Meeting important women from all over the world and sharing experiences, ideas and cultural habits was exciting," says Zeidan.

Zeidan spent the next three weeks at ExxonMobil — in Texas, Virginia and the District of Columbia — gaining insights into management practices from Luxbacher and other executives representing a range of business functions. "I was impressed by how well-structured and disciplined ExxonMobil is, with very high standards of excellence in its departments and worldwide operations," she says.

"We valued what we learned from Afaf as well," says Luxbacher, "especially her perspectives on the United States and the energy business."

Much of Zeidan’s mentorship focused on ExxonMobil’s marketing operations, and she learned a variety of skills she could use on her job. She examined the company’s Global Card Services and Customer Relations groups, and explored big-company strategies that might transfer to a mid-size operation like CSC.

"My impressions were that ExxonMobil’s card services are similar to the card operations we have in Lebanon," she says. "The main differences are in automation and global presence." Zeidan has convinced CSC to establish an automated call center, based on methodologies she learned at ExxonMobil.

Before returning to their respective countries, the 2007 participants and their mentors reconvened in New York at the end of May to share experiences and discuss next steps.

"They went home not only as better businesswomen but also as leaders advancing the progress of their countries," says Melanne Verveer, chairman of the board of Vital Voices Global Partnership, the organization that administers the International Women Leaders Mentoring Partnership on behalf of its partners.

Verveer is delighted with the strong — and growing — support the program has drawn from participating companies and their executives.

In January, the ExxonMobil Foundation was a key sponsor of the Pan African Leadership Summit for Women and Girls, convened by Vital Voices in Cape Town, South Africa. "Your company’s participation is an excellent example of how business and other sectors of society are joining together to invest in women leaders who are advancing progress in their countries," says Verveer.

Through the program, more women are expected to be mentored in the future — especially those in regions where the company has a strong presence and a long-term interest in capacity building. But there are challenges, and Luxbacher is realistic: "In developing countries it’s difficult to find women executives in the energy industry; however, this program helps address that need."