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Fernanda, thank you so much for
joining me here at Davos.

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Thank you for having me.

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So I just wanted you to, within
the week, take a look back.

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We hear so much about leaders
being still very, very occupied

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with the volatility of the world
economy.

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The question on how global trade
develops, AI, obviously climate

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change, but I'm really curious
to hear what you've been

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focusing on in these past days.

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Yeah, I've been focusing on a
few things of course related to

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the nature of my job.

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So leading Africa and Asia in
Yara, which is a fertilizer

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company.

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So a lot of my engagements have
to do with food, food security,

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transitioning the food system to
a more sustainable system.

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A lot of talks also on
decarbonization and regenerative

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agriculture.

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So I have participated in
smaller forums, larger forums,

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have met some government
officials, NGOs, and other

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stakeholders, to talk about it
because I think one of the great

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things about Davos is it's a
forum where you can bring

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awareness, right, about those
issues.

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So I don't think many people
understand that all these

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geopolitical issues that we are
facing today, they are

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intrinsically linked with food
and food security. Be it the

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conflicts in the Middle East or
the Russian-Ukrainian War.

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So that was really an
opportunity for companies like

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mine to bring awareness and
hopefully find some great

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solutions as well.

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You mentioned geopolitics and I
remember a recent conversation

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we had and you said, "look, if
you look at all the geopolitical

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dynamics in the world, so many
people want to speak but only

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very few want to listen."

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Now we're headed into 2024 that
doesn't look much calmer from a

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geopolitical perspective than
2023 did.

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So what would your advice be for
business leaders?

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I think that in businesses, like
in diplomacy, listening is still

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the best skill.

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So particularly in my corner of
the world, I live in Asia, as

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you know, I see a lot of leaders
being confronted with questions

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around China, for example,
should I be in China.

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I also lead Africa and you know
leaders thinking about you know

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will I ever make money in
Africa, would this ever be

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profitable, and so on.

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So I feel that many leaders,
they mix their political views

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or their personal views, with
facts around business, right.

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I feel that making decisions
that are factual and not based

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on you know, personal political
views, I think that's still the

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best for the business. At least
that's how I try to do it.

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I'd like to come back to
something you said before. You

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mentioned your own
passion, Yara's passion,

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obviously, about food security,
sustainability.

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If you look back at the last big
gathering, COP28 has just

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happened.

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It actually didn't get a lot of
media attention on the progress

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achieved.

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I'm an optimist.

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So I actually think that COP28
had some good outcomes. It was

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the first time that fossil fuels
were actually officially

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recognized as the source, or as
the root cause, for the climate

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issues that we are facing today.

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I think there were some good
pledges and charters that were

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signed, for example, renewable
energy, and also oil-producing

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countries and companies, also
exactly methane, signed in this

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charter, right.

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And committing to transitioning
away from fossil fuels into, you

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know, into a net-zero situation.

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Of course, you know, a lot of
people still criticized and

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said, OK, transitioning away is
not the same as phasing out, but

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I think it's better than
nothing, right, because the

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alternative would be to not have
that pledge signed at all.

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So I think, yeah, it didn't get
much publicity, but I think some

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some good things came out of it.

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As for Davos, it's much more, at
least the way I see, it's much

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more business focused, right.

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So COP is very much of the
government and the politician

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level, and here you have
businesses and other entities

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coming together and trying to
find solutions.

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I think that's my expectation
for Davos: that we move a bit

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from thought leadership into
action leadership, that we get

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out of here with many more
concrete plans on how to resolve

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sustainability issues.

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For example, in my case you know
in the food system, versus what

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has happened in the previous
years.

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So I'm hopeful.

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So if I can stay on action
leadership for a moment, but

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broaden the aperture.

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You've always been very
passionate about what leadership

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skills the next generation of
leaders needs.

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You've been passionate about
driving transformation in your

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own company,

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but also more broadly. If you
look at the state of the world

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today, that's so much at the
focus of this Davos, as in all

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gatherings, what do you believe
are the transformational

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leadership skills that really
matter today?

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I think it's still about
curiosity.

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If you're going to drive
transformation, you need to be

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curious about the new, about
what is out there that you're

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not tackling yet.

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It's about cultural
intelligence.

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So we talked a bit about, right,
how to operate in different

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parts of the world.

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So it's about making sure that,
despite these geopolitical

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issues that we are facing, that
your teams remain united, right,

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and committed to your strategy
and to your mission.

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It is about agility.

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I know it's a word that a lot of
people like to use, but I do

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believe that leadership without
agility these days, it's not

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going to work because things are
changing so fast all the time.

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I mean look at the past three
years, right, that we've had in

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business.

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So you need to adapt, and adapt
very, very quickly, and be

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resilient. Resilient, not only
to withstand pressure, but also

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to resist the temptation to go
back, or stop your

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transformation, or scale down
your transformation and do

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things in the old way, just
because they're comfortable.

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Sometimes it's very tempting to
to stop chartering the path of

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transformation.

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And just you know what, let me
do things as we've always done,

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but I think we need to be
resilient and resist that.

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Because otherwise, we're never
going to transform what we need

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to transform in business and in
society.

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So, Fernanda, thank you so much
for joining me, for sharing your

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expectations and impressions
from this Davos.

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And have a very good week.

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Thank you.

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Thank you very much.

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Have a great week.

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You too.

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Thank you.

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Thanks.