Ask any Tuscan if there is anyone or anything more important than God and the answer will always be quick, concise and clear. “Yes, your mother.” La mamma is the boss of the household and, not to be fooled, the boss of everything else. Big talking men are reduced to dust particles in the presence of their mothers and grandmothers, and heresy is much too light a description of a boy of any age who disrespects his mother. In Tuscany, this isn’t a recent development, however. The ethic can be traced back to the 6th century BCE, to the Etruscans who populated Tuscany way before the Romans. The Etruscans were an egalitarian society. Women were referred to by their first names as opposed to just being referred to as a member of their husband’s family. They were free to move about society as they saw fit. They had workshops. They had businesses. Even the Greeks thumbed their noses at all this liberal nonsense. But Etruscan society thrived. Women were equals. If art is meant to be a reflection of humanity, there is no better description of societal relationships than an Etruscan-period sarcophagus of a woman and her husband gently engaged in a moment of sharing. The work immediately brings forth what we might consider the very best of modern relationships. Mutual respect, sensitivity, comfort, and a man both interested and curious as to what his partner has to offer. It decidedly feels like a scene from a modern feminist movie, and it’s very touching. For whatever the reasons, and on exploration there might be many, not the least of which being the sense that Tuscany is paradise, this respect and honor of women began here.
How fitting then to have a group of such women—mothers, daughters, sisters, aunts, nieces and friends but above all business creators, inventors and leaders in various fields—make a pilgrimage to Florence to explore both the impact of Tuscan life of women in the world and to engage with one another and the Florentine public at large in a discussion about what it means to have embarked on a path of female leadership, and finding it to be a lonely experience. Out of that experience, was born The Vault, a group of women leaders in the entertainment industry, arts, technology, food, hospitality and finance.
The Vault was the brainchild of Kim Moses, a Hollywood executive and co-founder of Optin Studios who, besides managing over half a billion dollars in development and production projects all over the world, pioneered the Total Engagement Experience, a strategic brand build-out on all platforms of series, feature films and products exponentially increasing engagement loyalty. In a conversation about her work and life, Moses shared that the higher one rises in one’s profession, the lonelier it can become, and that while men tend to value loneliness as a brand of success, women wish to be more engaged in a societal structure, emboldening and strengthening relationships and creative possibilities rather than thriving alone as a beacon at the top of a mountain. In 2012, she began to reach out to women she knew in similar positions of creative and business leadership, and quickly saw the need for community. The “rules” of the group are based more on an ethic of sharing than anything else. Women of the group reach out to other women in various fields, and women reach out to group members, and if the ethic of community matches, the group expands.
What of the group’s name? This was explained by Keri Selig, a Los Angeles-based award-winning film and television producer, who shared that one of the mandates of The Vault is that women can speak freely to their counterparts without editing, that The Vault is a forum for honesty and a place of communion. There is no “put on” character when women of The Vault share. Discussions are honest and sometimes quite basic, that human quality that men tend to avoid: how a person might “feel” about a situation. What resonates most from Selig is the sense that women can share with one another, accomplished as they are, as “people”, who experience feelings of fear and concern, questioning as much as they do a sense of accomplishment and elation. What is spoken about at Vault gatherings is kept between Vault members unless all agree as to what details can be shared with the public.
Gail Becker speaks about the circle of support from this group of women. Gail founded Caulipower out of a need to find alternative healthy food for her two children when they were diagnosed with celiac disease. Gail jumped from a “regular” high-powered job in the food industry to setting up her own company that grossed $100 million in revenue within four years and became a market leader as the inventor of the cauliflower pizza crust. Gail credits the support of the women in the group as a backbone to making that leap. The risk paid off. Keri adds that the first thing that happens when someone has an idea, or might need help, is that the women jump to help one another in any way possible. They are not just accomplished women figuring out ways to advance their work and ethics. They are friends and care about one another. There’s equality and they speak of the men in their lives highly. It’s all very Etruscan, so when the group decided to have a group gathering, where better than Tuscany?
One of the women who has been a guest of The Vault resides in Tuscany. Kim Campbell, former Prime Minister of Canada, to date the only North American woman to become the leader of her country, the first woman to have been Attorney General, Justice Minister and National Defense Minister of Canada, where she became the first female minister of NATO. For full disclosure, she is also my wife and I continue to be in the unique position of witnessing real leadership and to be able to compare her leadership choices to ones I might have made. Over some 30 years, I have been in awe, curious, thrilled to learn, always respectful, if sometimes questioning, but always fascinated with the culture of gender and understanding the broader and then the individual differences. As different as men and women might be, and in our current time of gender fluidity which further adds interest to cultural experiences, I have been fortunate to be sensitized to something my wife has repeated again and again over all our years together, that decisions are not made in a vacuum. Leadership means understanding that decisions will affect real people who have to live and manage under the circumstances that are not all similar. One cannot make rules for oneself to be comfortable. Other. Empathy. That is what I have gotten out of some 30 years of living in the light of my wife, and that is what I got out of a conversation with some members of The Vault. To that end, I thought it would be interesting to invite these leaders to offer their experiences in a round table format at Teatro Niccolini, our oldest theatre in Florence at the foot of the Duomo.
As recently named artistic director of Teatro Niccolini, I am on the constant lookout for programming that has a connection to Tuscany. Holding up a mirror to the Etruscan ethic is fitting and of interest to the general public, whether Italian or international. And so, on October 17, the theatre will host The Vault in discussion. Moderated by Kim Campbell, the discussion will be in English with Italian live translation for salient points. It promises to be an enlightening evening with 12 women of The Vault who thrive on the Etruscan ethic, once the leading ethic of Tuscany.
