Strive and Tsitsi Masiyiwa receive the 2025 David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award

Good evening everybody and it's good to see so many familiar faces. It's also frightening to realize that the award was given to me in 2014 because it looks like yesterday, which is another reminder to us to make the most of our lives and give the most. But an incredible group of people that have been honored and tonight again it's a real joy to be here and share this enormously important occasion with all of you. And in particular, I'm delighted to introduce and to honor a very remarkable couple, which is Strive represented here and Tsitsi Masiyiwa. Tsitsi herself unfortunately is not able to join us, but Strive is here with his wonderful daughter and I'm happy that you were able to make it just flying in from San Francisco. Strive was telling me the contributions that both have made across business as well as philanthropy have long stood as an example to all of us. I can only describe it as grounded in a deep moral purpose, guided by humility, and committed to building a better and fairer world for us all. I had the pleasure myself to benefit from Strive's enormous insights and wisdom when he was nine years a board member of Unilever and I'm grateful for that. The Masiyiwas have been part of the Skoll community as well for years actually, including as a former member of the Global Philanthropists Circle. So Strive also served on the Rockefeller board, although he was smart enough to get off the board before I got on. So unfortunately we did not overlap, but I couldn't find any skeletons in the closet. So that was very good. So it feels therefore especially meaningful to me at least tonight to recognize and honor two of our own if you want to. I've always had the privilege for a long time already to serve on the jury for these distinguished awards. And I can tell you the discussions are intense, are thorough, and it's not easy to make these decisions. But each year we actually look at how these honorees embody the core elements of what is bridging leadership: empathy, trust, collaboration, a commitment to collective action. But this year, as you heard before, one theme in particular stood out: the theme of courage. A word we need no more and a word coupled to action obviously that we need now more than ever. It's a hard word and it's hard to imagine in that case two people who exemplify that spirit more powerfully than I believe Strive does and Tsitsi does. Whether it is building one of Africa's most successful businesses against all odds and with deep integrity, or using the platform to uplift millions through health, through education, or youth empowerment, or speaking out on issues that frankly others too easily shy away from. Issues like corruption, inequality, climate change, or the urgent urgent need for ethical leadership. They do so both with uncommon bravery and with a moral clarity that has inspired so many of us around the world. We certainly are lucky to have Strive with us this evening as well as his daughter Johanna as I mentioned before and we're thinking of Tsitsi actually who was unable to join us because of another historic milestone that is so typical in the family: the announcement by Delta Philanthropies of the Beginnings Fund, which is an ambitious and deeply needed effort to improve the outcomes again once more for mothers and newborns across Africa with a particularly audacious goal Strive was just telling me of preventing 300,000 deaths by improving maternal health. I couldn't think of a better purpose that too I believe is bridging leadership in action. So Strive, it is an honor for me to stand with you here tonight and on behalf of Skoll and our entire global community, I'm actually delighted to present you and Tsitsi with the 2025 David Rockefeller Bridging Leadership Award. Please join me.