Work in Progress RR300

‘There is no time to rest’: Prioritizing work opportunities that could move millions out of poverty

A conversation with Ryan Rippel, U.S. director of economic mobility and opportunity, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
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In this episode of Work in Progress, I’m joined by Ryan Rippel, the U.S. director of economic mobility and opportunity for Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to discuss how the Gates Foundation is addressing barriers to economic opportunity for vulnerable individuals

Recently, the Gates Foundation announced more than $100 million dollars in new partnerships and investments in economic mobility with the mission of improving the lives of more than 50 million people experiencing poverty in the U.S.

Rippel says the Gates Foundation uses “200% of the federal poverty line, not as the only measure, but as a really important one…to tell a story of who is facing some of the greatest vulnerability in the country.”

“It is disproportionately people of color, individuals who identify as female, but it’s a population that is in every corner of our country,” he adds. “It is in urban areas, it is in small towns and mid-sized towns. It is in rural areas. And so it is a challenge that is not isolated to any one community but is present in all of our communities and is therefore a challenge for all of us.”

The Gates Foundation’s strategy to lift up this vulnerable population includes three pillars:

  • making lives better now by focusing on the safety net and work opportunities,
  • supporting small- and medium-sized businesses in creating good jobs,
  • and working with local governments to prioritize economic mobility issues.

Rippel goes into detail about the Foundation’s recent investments and partnerships, which he says have the ultimate goal of creating momentum and tangible improvements in people’s lives, while also fostering a movement to address economic mobility challenges in the long term.

Rippel tells me, “There is no time to rest. This is a critical moment in the course of history for our country and my children and my generation and what’s going to be true 10, 20, 30 years from now. We have to be at work at it in new ways, in bolder ways, and in more collaborative ways.”

To learn more about the important work the Gates Foundation is doing to increase economic mobility for millions, you can listen to the full podcast here, or download it wherever you get your podcasts, including on our new Work in Progress YouTube channel.

Episode 300: Ryan Rippel, U.S. director of economic mobility and opportunity, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Host & Executive Producer: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNation
Producer: Larry Buhl
Theme Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4
Transcript: Download the transcript for this episode here
Work in Progress Podcast: Catch up on previous episodes here

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.