#BlueStarBrief November 2021 – How Should Companies Best Engage ESG Principles? Elections in Republic of North Macedonia, FDI Spotlight: Denver, Colorado, Karen Tramontano to Speak on One Year Anniversary of Biden Presidency, A Story Of Empowermen t, Diplomacy, & Resilience, The French Dispatch, and more...

By Jeremiah J. Baronberg

As the 26th UN Climate Change Conference known as "COP 26" finishes its meeting in Glasgow, we speak with Charles Di Leva, former chief officer for Environmental and Social Standards at the World Bank Group. Charles explains how Environmental, Social, and Governance frameworks are increasingly being embraced by global businesses as they seek to meet a growing array of expectations that "what is good for business should be good for society and the planet."

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By Pero Jolevski

This October, the Republic of North Macedonia held municipal elections for mayors and city councils resulting in a victory for the country’s largest opposition party, VMRO-DPMNE. The governing party, SDSM, suffered a major defeat in the capital city, Skopje, and other municipalities that have been traditionally pro-SDSM. The elections reflect growing pushback against the ruling SDSM party and its coalition partner, which could lead to early parliamentary elections in 2022.

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Sally Painter and Karen Tramontano hosted a cocktail reception for Lauri Fitz-Pegado to celebrate her recently published book, Dancing in the Dash: My Story Of Empowerment, Diplomacy, and Resilience.

"Dancing in the Dash tells the inspiring and compelling story of a woman whose experiences have taken her around the world. Lauri Fitz-Pegado has had a remarkable life performing in the arts, embracing activism and advocacy, and working in the world of policy, politics, and diplomacy. She became a career diplomat, a presidential appointee in the Clinton Administration at the Department of Commerce under Secretary Ron Brown, and she met with renowned world leaders. Ballet provided ballast and grace throughout the rigors of her life and career, beginning with her training at the prestigious Jones-Haywood School of Ballet in Washington, DC.

The author explores her life's journey, and how her training in dance helped establish the skills-balance, endurance, perseverance-that informed her approach to the challenges that she faced, both professionally and personally, as an African American woman. This memoir is particularly relevant today, during our national conversation reassessing our assumptions, our past, as well as our path forward. In telling her story, the author reveals her insights and observations about history and its consequences, about opportunity and obstacles, and about loss and redemption."

Mathilde Defarges recommends The French Dispatch, a new film by acclaimed director Wes Anderson.

From Mathilde:

"The French Dispatch is based in Ennui-sur-Blasé, a fictional French town that, according to the review by The New York Times "isn’t quite Paris but isn’t quite not Paris, either"—a statement with which I couldn't agree more. As a French person and a huge Wes Anderson fan, this film is not just another romantic, gastronomic French pastiche. Wes Anderson has truly captured the French soul, our way of life, and its DNA and contradictions with pure poetry. Watching the movie transported me back to my own childhood, memories of my grandparents, and stories of my parents during 'May '68.'"