Innovating Leadership:
Co-Creating Our Future

Hosted by Maureen Metcalf

Conversations with global thought leaders on leadership, culture, and innovation—designed for executives navigating complexity and building resilient organizations.

Diamonds in the Rough: Sustainability & Corporate Citizenship with DeBeers VP Pat Dambe

Episode Description

Pat Dambe tells a remarkable story of corporate citizenship: the partnership between De Beers and the government of Botswana that helped transform one of Africa’s poorest nations after independence into a prosperous one. Grounded in the principle that every diamond found belonged to every person in Botswana, the joint venture channeled resources into education, healthcare, and infrastructure. Dambe draws out the leadership lessons, visionary focus on collective good over short-term gain, careful stewardship of brand and stakeholder relationships, and the recognition that organizations are complex ecosystems requiring constant relationship-building.

Key Takeaways

Botswana’s transformation shows how public-private partnership can drive national prosperity.
The principle that every diamond belonged to every citizen directed wealth toward education and healthcare.
Visionary leadership prioritizes collective good over short-term individual gain.
Organizations function as complex ecosystems requiring relationship cultivation and tension management.
Companies can balance commercial interests with community contribution and environmental stewardship.

Why This Episode Matters

Executives come away with a powerful example of corporate citizenship, showing how a company can align commercial success with genuine, lasting benefit to an entire nation.

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Featuring

Pat Dambe, VP at De Beers

Episode Topics

Ethics & Moral Decision Making • Governance & Oversight • Organizational Transformation

Podcast Air Date

January 14, 2020

Episode Duration

53min

Watch the episode

Season 6

Episode Number 1

Episode Content:

Corporate Citizenship – The De Beers Group

This blog is provided by Cynthia Cherrey, President and CEO of the International Leadership Association. It is a companion to the 12-week International Leadership Association Interview Series that began with Pat Dambe’s podcast titled Sustainability and Corporate Citizenship.

Global corporations shape the future of business. They play a pivotal role in the communities in which they reside and in the wellbeing of our global community.

This podcast is the first in an International Leadership Association (ILA) 12-part series hosted by ILA Fellow Maureen Metcalf, creator of Innovating Leadership, Co-Creating Our Future on the VoiceAmerica Business Channel. In this episode, Metcalf interviews De Beers Vice President Pat Dambe about the partnership between the government of Botswana and the De Beers Group of companies.

It is a fascinating interview that gives us an understanding of Botswana’s way toward independence from the British in 1966, the discovery of diamonds one year later, and the leaders at the time who had the foresight to build a better future for Botswana. The leaders of De Beers and Botswana, practically from the start, entered into a joint venture committed to ensuring that every diamond found belonged to every person in Botswana, contributing towards education, healthcare, and infrastructure. That vision and commitment resulted in Botswana shifting from one of the poorest African countries 52 years ago to a prosperous African country today.

Pat Dambe, with Maureen’s insightful questions, shares that story, touching on the leadership vision, the partnership between the country and the company, and the successes and challenges of that partnership.

The interview is infused with leadership lessons. It reminds us how everything in nature is related to everything else and how companies and countries reflect these highly complex ecosystems. It reinforces the importance of cultivating relationships and optimizing the tensions to find the commonalities. It reminds us about the importance of leadership looking forward, toward a future for the greater good of all instead of the immediate good of a few. And it helps us to remember that each of us is important, and each of us has the ability and the responsibility to contribute and to give to the common good.

Helping to create a better world through our leadership work is something that we take seriously at the International Leadership Association. We hope you will listen to this thought-provoking podcast series over the coming weeks (episodes air each Tuesday at 2PM Eastern or on-demand) as Maureen explores in each interview various leadership approaches for the health and wellbeing of our future communities.

About the Author

Cynthia Cherrey, President and CEO of the International Leadership Association (ILA), a global network of leadership scholars, educators, and practitioners. Previously, Cynthia served as Vice President and Lecturer in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. She publishes in the areas of leadership, organizational development, and higher education including co-authoring Systemic Leadership: Enriching the Meaning of our Work, co-editing ILA’s Building Leadership Bridges book series, and her most recent publication is Women and Leadership around the World (co-editor). She is a Fellow at the World Business Academy and a recipient of a J.W. Fulbright Scholarship.

Cynthia’s interests and research explore new ways to live, work, and lead in a knowledge driven, interdependent, global society. She consults and speaks to for-profit and non-profit organizations around the world on leadership and organizational change

Resources:

De Beers Vice President Pat Dambe takes a case study approach to the private and public sector partnership between De Beers and the government of Botswana on sustainability and corporate citizenship. She discusses her personal and corporate story and the courage required to contribute responsibly to the communities in which she works and resides. Pat’s story offers a model for a company and a country to create an interconnection that transcends the challenges both face to ensure a vibrant global company and a vibrant company “forever”. She shows that diamonds aren’t the only gems De Beers exports; they serve as an example of how a company can change how it operates even after a century of old-school practices.

Other episodes you’ll enjoy

With Great Success Comes Great Responsibility with Holly Sullivan
Stewarding the Future of the Planet: Views from the Boardroom with Helle Bank Jorgensen
Diversity and Inclusion Insights from IBM South Africa Experience with Roger Madison, Jr.

Guest(s):

Pat Dambe, VP at De Beers

Guest(s) Bio:

Pat has over 20 years executive leadership experience working for a variety of Fortune 500 companies and luxury brands including Coca Cola South Africa, Draft FCB, Thebe Investments, Bentley etc. Educated in Botswana, USA and Canada, she holds a BA Honours from Queens University from Ontario, Canada. Pat is currently the Vice President of Corporate Affairs and Government Relations at De Beers Global Sightholder Sales (DBGSS) and is responsible for Government Relations, External Communications, Sustainability and Social Investment. Her primary role is to protect and promote the brand and reputation of the DBGSS and diamonds as a category and support the commercial interests of the business with external and internal stakeholders. The role also entails managing DBGSS’s relationships with Government and non-Government stakeholders.

Transcript