Business

Fortune’s MPW: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Selena Gomez, and the IMF—all on the same stage

Published

2 months ago

October 14, 2025

Good morning from Washington. Today is Day 2 of Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit. From the speed of AI to the shifting policy environment, the theme of Leading in a Dynamic World resonates. There’s cause for concern: Angela Williams, the CEO of United Way Worldwide, the world’s largest privately-funded philanthropy, told me that global uncertainty is prompting a “wait-and-see” approach among donors at a time of growing need. But I’m also struck by the optimism of women leaders here. At a dinner hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce CEO Suzanne P. Clark last night, there was talk about the entrepreneurial energy being channeled into small business and the opportunities right now to disrupt policy for the better.

IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva, who joined us fresh from the first day of the annual World Bank-IMF meetings, talked about how “the private sector is more agile, more adaptable” in this environment, comparing global trade to water: “You put [up an] obstacle, it goes around it.”

SAIC chief Toni Townes-Whitley talked about the need to keep up with U.S. adversaries that are operating in “multiple modes” and can “use their entire industrial base.”

And bestselling author Brené Brown talked about the need to develop new skills and reimagine leadership essentials for this new era, in a conversation that we recorded for the Leadership Next podcast. In her latest book, Strong Ground, Brown makes a compelling case that we’re not wired for this level of uncertainty, and risk losing focus on the core values of courageous and sustainable leadership. It’s a deeply human perspective that emphasizes the kinds of connections we create at events like this.

Be sure to check out our latest Leadership Next podcast that drops today on Apple and Spotify: Ramp CEO Eric Glyman talks to Fortune editor-in-chief Alyson Shontell about how the fintech upstart has scaled to more than $1 billion in annualized revenue by encouraging companies to spend less and creating a culture of urgency and speed at Ramp. The goal of business, in his view, is “companies working to make their customers better off, and customers genuinely choosing the provider that’s helping them grow.”

For more inspiration from the front lines of business, join us at MPW via livestream. Among many others, we will hear from Best Buy CEO Corie Barry, Land O’Lakes CEO Beth Ford, Dame Emma Walmsley of GSK, Nubank Brazil chief Livia Chanes, Ulta Beauty CEO Kecia Steelman, NYSE Group President Lynn Martin, DBS Group CEO Tan Su Shan, Abercrombie CEO Fran Horowitz, Dina Powell McCormick of BDT & MSD Partners, GoodRX CEO Wendy Barnes, Nordstrom’s Alexis DePree, Palantir’s Shannon Clark, Procter & Gamble’s Monica Turner, Lisa Caputo of Travelers, Prudential Financial’s Yanela Frias, Gina Mastantuono of ServiceNow, Airbnb’s Ellie Mertz, and Jamie Dimon of JPMorgan Chase—along with Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, former Vice President Kamala Harris, Rep. Lisa McClain (R-Michigan), Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser and Selena Gomez.

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com

Top news

China wants to ‘pull everybody else down,” Bessent says

China’s export controls on rare earth minerals are “a sign of how weak their economy is, and they want to pull everybody else down with them,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the FT. “Maybe there is some Leninist business model where hurting your customers is a good idea, but they are the largest supplier to the world,” he said. “They are in the middle of a recession/depression, and they are trying to export their way out of it.” Reality check: China imposed the controls after the U.S. imposed tariffs on its exports; and China’s economic growth is stronger than America’s.

All living Gaza hostages are now free

20 living hostages were returned to Israel by Hamas after being held in underground tunnels with little food, water, or medical care for two years. Hamas also returned 4 dead bodies but said it was having difficulty locating 24 other corpses it kept during the war. Israel returned 1,700 Palestinian prisoners. President Trump addressed the Israeli parliament and urged the president to pardon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been charged with corruption. Trump also complained about the way his hair looked on the cover of Time magazine.

Google to build $15 billion AI center in India

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian announced Google’s biggest AI hub outside the U.S. on Tuesday. Google has forecast that it will spend $85 billion on AI this year.

LendingTree CEO dies

Doug Lebda, the founder of LendingTree, was killed in an ATV accident on his family’s farm. He was 55. He will be replaced by COO Scott Peyree, the company said.

Strava intends to go public

Exercise-tracking app Strava intends to “go public at some point,” according to a new Financial Times interview with CEO Michael Horbath. The app was most recently valued at $2.2 billion thanks to a wave of Gen Zers turning to exercise, and running in particular.

Logitech CEO says those not using AI are “missing out”

Also from Fortune’s Most Powerful Women conference, Logitech CEO Hanneke Faber stated that she uses AI bots in almost every meeting and would be open to an AI board member. “If you don’t have an AI agent in every meeting, you’re missing out on some of the productivity,” Faber said.

Most major news brands decline Pentagon censorship rules

A dozen or more major media companies, including conservative-leaning newsrooms, have refused to sign a pledge to only report officially approved news from the Pentagon. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said he will revoke the press credentials of any news brand that refuses to obey the rules.

The markets

S&P 500 futures were down 0.75% this morning. The index closed up 1.56% in its last session. STOXX Europe 600 was down 0.47% in early trading. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 was flat in early trading. Japan’s Nikkei 225 was down 2.58%. China’s CSI 300 was down 1.2%. The South Korea KOSPI was down 0.63%. India’s Nifty 50 was down 0.42% before the end of the session. Bitcoin was down to $111.8K.

Around the watercooler

Top analyst warns that ‘larger than expected correction is likely’ if Trump and China don’t kiss and make up by Nick Lichtenberg

‘Scandalous’: Top economist Jeremy Siegel says U.S. sleepwalked into rare earths crisis as China tightens its grip by Eva Roytburg

Former Apple CEO says ‘AI has not been a particular strength’ for the tech giant and warns it has its first major competitor in decades by Sasha Rogelberg

Peter Thiel says he warned Elon Musk to ditch donating to The Giving Pledge because Bill Gates will give his wealth away ‘to left-wing nonprofits’ by Jessica Coacci

CEO Daily is compiled and edited by Joey Abrams and Jim Edwards.

This is the web version of CEO Daily, a newsletter of must-read global insights from CEOs and industry leaders. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.

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Business

Trump turns on CBS, Kushner pulls out and Paramount’s hostile bid for Warner Bros. shows signs of collapse

Published

21 minutes ago

December 16, 2025

Jace Porter

Paramount’s hostile bid for Warner Bros. showed signs of unraveling just moments after President Donald Trump aired fresh grievances about the flagship newsmagazine 60 Minutes. Just hours after Trump’s latest lashed out at CBS News, accusing the Paramount-owned network of treating him “far worse” since its new ownership took over earlier this year, Jared Kushner pulled his Affinity Partners private equity firm out of the Warner bid, as reports swirled that the Looney Tunes studio planned to reject the star-topped mountain.

“For those people that think I am close with the new owners of CBS, please understand that 60 Minutes has treated me far worse since the so-called ‘takeover,’ than they have ever treated me before,” Trump said. “If they are friends, I’d hate to see my enemies!”

Paramount had entered the bidding for Warner, with its $77.9 billion offer for all of Warner Bros. Discovery coming one working day after Netflix’s $72 billion offer for the studio and HBO Max, as a seeming friend of the White House.

CEO David Ellison has repeatedly highlighted his ties to Trump, with his father Larry a longtime Trump donor (and second-richest man alive). CBS News, under Ellison, recently installed Bari Weiss, owner of independent news organization The Free Press and a prominent critic of progressive media culture, in a senior editorial role, a move widely read in Hollywood and Washington as gestures toward an anti-“woke” White House. Kushner’s participation, as son-in-law to the President, reinforced that impression. His roughly $200 million equity commitment via his firm functioned, some analysts said, as a political signal as much as a financing tool.

Trump’s outburst disrupted that calculus. By openly distancing himself from Paramount and criticizing its flagship news division, the president stripped the bid of its most implicit advantage: the perception of regulatory goodwill. Almost immediately after Trump’s post circulated, Affinity announced it was exiting the deal, citing a shift in “investment dynamics” amid competition from Netflix. Now, reports indicate that Warner Bros. plans to reject Paramount’s hostile bid over financing concerns.

Trump’s public remarks have continuously scrambled assumptions about his supposed friendships, or loyalties. He confirmed to reporters at the Kennedy Center, the weekend after Netflix’s bid, that he had met with Co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who he called a “fantastic man.” Later, he said that neither Paramount nor Netflix were “great friends” of his. As the corporate takeover saga unfolds, who will be revealed next as friend or enemy?

Join us at the Fortune Workplace Innovation Summit May 19–20, 2026, in Atlanta. The next era of workplace innovation is here—and the old playbook is being rewritten. At this exclusive, high-energy event, the world’s most innovative leaders will convene to explore how AI, humanity, and strategy converge to redefine, again, the future of work. Register now.

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Business

Kushner’s Affinity withdraws from Warner Bros. takeover battle

Published

52 minutes ago

December 16, 2025

Jace Porter

Jared Kushner’s Affinity Partners is exiting from the takeover battle for Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.

The private equity firm this month emerged as a participant in Paramount Skydance Corp.’s hostile bid for Warner Bros., which valued the media and entertainment company at $108.4 billion including debt. Paramount is seeking to scupper Netflix Inc.’s agreed $82.7 billion deal for Warner Bros.

Affinity was helping to finance Paramount’s move. It now believes the dynamics of an investment have changed since it became involved in the process in October, a representative for the firm said.

“With two strong competitors vying to secure the future of this unique American asset, Affinity has decided no longer to pursue the opportunity,” the firm said. “We continue to believe there is a strong strategic rationale for Paramount’s offer.”

Warner Bros. is planning to reject Paramount’s offer due to concerns about financing and other terms, people familiar with the matter said Tuesday. Affinity’s investment in the bid is about $200 million in equity, Bloomberg News has reported.

The battle for Warner Bros. stands to reshape the entertainment industry regardless of which bidder emerges victorious. With the company’s films and TV shows, Netflix would wield tremendous new power over the content offered to online audiences. Paramount, meanwhile, aims to marry two legacy Hollywood studios to counter the influence of Netflix, Walt Disney Co. and Amazon.com Inc.

Both bids raise significant antitrust concerns — something underscored by multibillion-dollar breakup fees the parties have offered. Netflix and Paramount have each been laying the groundwork to win over the White House, with US President Donald Trump having indicated he will weigh in on the approval process for a sale of Warner Bros. Kushner is Trump’s son-in-law.

Paramount’s offer is being bankrolled by a list of influential Middle Eastern investors, including Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund and the Qatar Investment Authority, as well as a little-known group from Abu Dhabi called L’imad Holding Co. Kushner has strong ties to the Middle East. He founded Affinity in 2021 with funding from sovereign wealth funds from the region.

This week, Bloomberg News reported that Affinity dropped plans for a hotel in Serbia after tensions around the project culminated in the indictment of a government official who helped clear a path for its development.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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Business

As millions of Gen Zers face unemployment, McDonald’s CEO dishes out some tough love career advice for navigating the market: ‘You’ve got to make things happen for yourself’

Published

2 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Jace Porter

Instead, the 57-year-old executive is offering some blunt advice for aspiring young professionals: whether the market is hot or cold, no one is going to give you a handout. Your career is yours to build, and the onus is on you to make it happen.

“Remember, nobody cares about your career as much as you do,” Kempczinski said in a recent Instagram video. “You’ve got to own it, you’ve got to make things happen for yourself.”

At a time when many young workers are grasping at their networks for a leg up, the risks of falling behind are real: millions of young people are now classified as NEET—not in employment, education, or training. Against that backdrop, Kempczinski warned there’s no guarantee anyone will always have your back—or ensure you reach your career goals.

Kempczinski knows firsthand that careers rarely unfold as planned. He once dreamed of becoming a professional soccer player, not a CEO. When it became clear early on that his athletic capability wasn’t up to star-level, he took his future into his own hands: turning lessons learned from washing dishes at 16 at First Watch into a three-decade-long career across companies like Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo before he was tapped to lead McDonald’s in 2019.

Keeping an open mind could be a career changer

Instead of expecting stability, one of the biggest paths to long-term success is embracing the chaos with curiosity—and a willingness to say yes when opportunities arise, according to Kempczinski.

“ To be a yes person is way better than to be a no person,” he told LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky. “So as those career twists and turns happen, the more that you’re seen as someone who’s willing to say yes and to go do something, it just means you’re gonna get that next call.”

For Loreal’s Chief Human Resource Officer Stephanie Kramer, saying yes to things—even if they were unglamorous and “junior” looking, like grabbing coffee—was pivotal to her success.

“At the beginning of my career, I often credit it with the ability to say yes to the very, very little things,” Kramer recently told Fortune. “Who’s going to make the copies and going to get the coffee? Me. Who is going to be there early to set up the meeting? Me. Who is going to go watch which door consumers go in to determine what the best bay or window is for Saks Fifth Avenue that we want to have? Me.”

And the benefits of keeping an open mind early on may be more relevant now than ever, as opportunities have become slimmer for recent graduates.

In the U.K., more than 1.2 million applications were submitted for just under 17,000 open graduate roles in 2023 and 2024, according to the Institute of Student Employers. And back stateside, lawmakers have warned that joblessness among recent graduates could hit 25% in the next two to three years as AI reshapes entry-level work.

Fortune reached out to Kempczinski for further comment.

The endless pursuit of knowledge—no matter what life throws at you

The emphasis on staying curious—even when plans change—is a theme echoed by other top executives.

Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan has long credited asking questions and continuously learning as central to both the bank’s success and his own decade-plus tenure at the helm of a Fortune 500 company.

“You lose your curiosity, and you are on your way out of this company,” Moynihan told Fortune in 2017.

He echoed that message just last week, saying his top leadership advice remains simple: “You have to keep learning, you have to be curious, you have to read a lot,” he told The Master Investor podcast.

That mindset has also shaped the unconventional career path of Life360 CEO Lauren Antonoff.

She once planned to become a civil rights lawyer, but an unexpected curiosity sparked by her first MacBook in college pulled her toward technology. She ultimately climbed the corporate ladder in tech—even without finishing her degree.

“I’m a big believer in finding your way in the world,” Antonoff recently told Fortune. “That’s not just about getting a job; if you don’t have a job, start something. If you don’t have a job, go volunteer someplace. In my experience, being active and working on problems that you’re interested in—one thing leads to another.”

This idea that careers aren’t built by waiting for someone to tell you what to do is exactly the message Kempczinski wanted to send to Gen Z. Staying curious and being willing to step through doors before you know exactly where they lead is often the key to long-term success.

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