Celebrating 10 Years of Alliance Mentoring
Last week, the Alliance launched Cohort 13 of our mentoring program, marking 10 years of 1:1 mentoring through our network. As a service by and for our members, mentoring has created a rising tide of leaders with distinct expertise in serving the female economy.
200 Mentor/Mentee Relationships
Since 2013, the Alliance has matched nearly 200 mentees with expert mentors, who run the gamut from women’s market program leads to D&I managers to CEOs. This year, we received the most applications yet, showing the continued need for women’s market practitioners—often faced with developing new programs without a clear playbook—to learn from the real experiences of peers in similar roles at other institutions.
Mentees consistently rate the program more than 4.5 out of 5 stars because they gain practical insights from their meetings with mentors. As one mentee told us, “At the very beginning I was not sure if I had to differentiate the value propositions for micro and SMEs. I had a session with my mentor to discuss how they were managing on their side, and it gave me what I needed to fine-tune my decision.”
From Mentee to Mentor
One of the reasons this program works so well is that mentees often pay it forward by becoming mentors later on. For example, Steven Puig, now CEO of Banco BHD in the Dominican Republic, was mentored by Tania Moussallem, who launched the successful woman-centered program at BLC Bank in Lebanon, as part of our first-ever mentoring cohort in 2013. The next year, he went on to mentor Cinthya Morera at Banco Nacional Costa Rica. Steven and Cinthya both continue to participate as mentors today.
People like Steven and Cinthya come back year after year because of the value the program brings for both mentees and mentors. For mentors, the teaching relationship enables them to discover new ideas, hone their thinking, and build leadership skills. “Being a mentor gives you more confidence, and it indirectly causes you to mature as a person. It also increases your network and your opportunities,” one participant shared.
Continuing the Virtuous Cycle
The mentoring program exemplifies the virtuous cycle this Alliance network is built on. This model works by giving members the chance to learn not just from tools and frameworks, but from the “doers” themselves. There is no better teacher than experience, and our network has that in spades.
We thank all the mentors who have participated over the past ten years, as well as the mentees who have made the most of this unique opportunity and will surely pay it forward in the future. We look forward to launching Cohort 14 this summer and to the next decade of learning together.
