 I appreciate you being here today for this exciting launch. A lot of people have put in a lot of hard work to make this day happen, so we just appreciate the encouragement and support of all of these strong leaders that are with us here today. F.C. Will or South Carolina Women in Leadership is a new, multi-partisan organization that's bringing women and men who support women's leadership together to fight for a better South Carolina. Not only politically, but socially, economically, educationally and environmentally, and F.C. Will looks to do this through connection and engagement, that's a big thing, engagement of women to political and policy leadership. F.C. Will's not competing against any other organizations that have been created to advance women's issues, but rather Will's goal is to support organizations like the League of Women Voters, the AARP and REN, by providing future leaders with the tools and information they need to compete at a level playing field. As a former television journalist who arrived in South Carolina in the late 90s, I had a chance to cover the State House, and there were the stories that made the air and many, many stories that didn't. And I remember as a young woman looking back with horror, as I would talk to Representative Gilda Cobb Hunter behind the scenes, and she would tell me stories that she didn't want put out there for the public to hear because she didn't want to be perceived as weak, but she was getting multiple death threats just because she was an African-American woman who was an elected official, someone elected by the people to serve the state. She didn't let those death threats deter, and anyone who's followed South Carolina politics know that they only made her stronger, and she's devoted her life to serving our state. From where I stood also as a journalist, I watched women come to the State House with incredible ideas innovated, ideas to push our state forward. But in order to get those ideas anywhere, they had to search for a strong male legislator because without a strong male leader around their ideas, they would give those ideas over, they wouldn't pass. They didn't have a chance of being taken seriously, and that's how they would try to get their ideas recognized or a bill passed. We've definitely come a long way since I was a journalist in the late 90s, but the journey is definitely far from over as we all know. You only have to watch the news to see the not-so-progressive talk that happens sometimes in our state, and we want to move forward. We want to move beyond that. We are all born with different strengths and different talents, and my faith teaches me that's because we're supposed to come together as a community so we can get rid of those blind spots by working together, that together we are stronger. Together we're going to get things done. We talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion, but SC Will knows it's one thing to have a seat at the table and another to actually have a voice to be listened to and to be taken seriously. Women should not be relegated to only having an opinion on education and issues that are around the female, that are female-oriented. Instead, we know that women can be an accomplished businesswoman and an accomplished mother, and SC Will is here to support women, whether they want to be the head of a bank, the head of a major pharmaceutical company, or governor of South Carolina, SC Will is here for these future leaders. Now we're going to introduce you to one of SC Will's founders, a local leader who has a number of strong women in his life, Columbia City Mayor Steve Benjamin. It's awesome to be with you all here this morning. As a son of a smart and strong woman, as a husband of an incredibly smart and strong woman, many of you know DeAndre, I tell her every day that she is the best thing that ever happened to me, and she agrees with me. It's humbling to have the opportunity to address you briefly here this morning. When Barbara first reached out to me about becoming one of the founding members, it reminded me of a journey I guess we were on maybe over a decade ago, spending some time with South Carolina women in politics. She hired me to sell the articles of incorporation and help founded organization, and it was a continuous thread in what has been an incredibly blessed and charmed life for me. I had the incredible opportunity as a 29-year-old to serve Governor Hodges, my first job, real job, in politics and in government service. Like many of you, we study certain things in school, and then you actually have a chance to apply these ideas and these ideals in the real world. Getting an opportunity to see if all these things that you thought ought to work right, actually do work right in the real world. They gave me a chance to apply these things as director of the South Carolina Department of Probation and Pro-Impartment Services. I took that job 20 years ago this spring. It was an incredible opportunity, and I got there at the time the state's second largest law enforcement agency. I got there, we had 950 employees, $43 million budget. Actually had a pretty significant number of female employees at our agency, but we saw some troubling trends. We saw that regardless of how long our senior managers had served at the agency, that they were not advanced this quickly, that their pay was not commensurate with their peers, and decided that I'd served the governor for three years, Max was my commitment to him, and that we ought to use that window to do something meaningful to change the arc of the agency. We did a pay study and decided that everyone who was underpaid would be paid. We elevated their pay to that of where their peers were. Then decided that our agency had never had a female director at the agency, although we had some pretty talented long-serving managers at the agency. I figured the only way that I could decide who the next director would be since I was not the governor, I couldn't make that ultimate decision, was that I would make sure that every one of my deputy directors was a female, so that when, in fact, I did leave, the odds were pretty good, and we wound up with a series of female directors at the agency since I left. Not only was it the right thing to do, but it was a smart thing to do. The incredible amount of commitment that I've seen, particularly amongst this incredible group of leaders here in council chambers with me here today, feeds this idea, which I don't believe is theory, it's just fact. When you have women in positions of power, we realize that serving, particularly in the public realm, we realize that we're not talking about just serving customers, we're talking about serving citizens. How do we build people so that we can make sure that each and every one of us has the opportunity to live up to our God-given potential? How do we continue to feed families and feed the spirit that we are certainly all on this together? We are greater than the sum total of our parts. And study after study, regardless of where you go, shows that when women are in positions of power, that things get better. You start getting thoughtful policy-making. You get people who are not only principled, but also willing to work across the aisle at times to just get things done. We've seen that type of leadership here at the city of Columbia, through Anson Clear and Franny Heizer and Belinda Gergel, and so proud to serve at my mayor pro-town, Tameka Isaac Devine. We had the opportunity to work together to hire our very first female city manager, Theresa Wilson. And as a result, we're getting some fantastic results on behalf of the people of Columbia, on behalf of the citizens of Columbia. I do believe that it's part of our DNA. Many of you often hear me talk about John Lewis-Gervais and the naming of the city of Columbia over 200 years ago. But folks don't always realize that the name Columbia was actually coined and made popular by Phyllis Wheatley, the former enslaved African-American poet, in her 1776 letter to George Washington, casting the name Columbia as this land of opportunity for all citizens. And we have indeed worked over the last several years to try and make that a reality, a place where people from 194 sovereign nations of the world live here in this city. We speak 90 different languages. We worship various different religions, but we do it and we do it together. And I do believe that in these troubling times in which we live, we are still very much the greatest democracy in the history of the world. I believe that firmly. But we are facing some really troubling times in which there are forces that seek to have us fighting against each other as opposed to working to lift each other up. And if in fact we are going to do the great things that we know we can do, we're going to need a whole lot more of you, we need to do what you're doing, but also hopefully grabbing the mantle of public leadership in deciding that you will serve in public office. We have to continue to create that foundation. We need people on both sides of the aisle and right in the middle as independents, but we need you involved. We have to create the foundation. It allows you to do all the great things that we know you can. As the only man, I think who's fully authorized to be in the room, other than Chris Traynor, I can't leave without teasing Chris one time. It's a mutual admiration society. I, again, am humbled to have the opportunity to serve as one of the founding members and so excited about the future of this great organization. God bless you and keep you. Thank you. One young lady was talking to me as she came in and she was asking me how I got involved in this organization. And many, many moons ago, when Barbara Rex calls, you answer the call. So that's why I'm here today. And with that being said, I just really respect this woman's dedication to public service and her focus on women and making our community better. So with that being said, here's a founding board member, Ms. Barbara Rex. The clothes left. I think I found an old folder. So I'm going to, I just told the mayor he'd already said something that I was going to say, so I really didn't need to stand up, but there are a few things I want to add with my reading glasses. So people ask me all the time why I am so driven to persuade women to step up into leadership roles. And I want to tell you a story. So I'm an entrepreneur. I have, I guess, been an entrepreneur all of my life. Many years ago, I built a company named Rex. I must have done a pretty good job of it because people are still telling me that they wish I'd opened my store again and little things like that, but I've moved on to other endeavors. Some of you may remember shopping there, others may remember because your mom or your grandma told you that they once shopped there. Whether you remember or not, we built a $10 million company with stores in three different cities. It was great. I was the lone ranger. So the media would call me and they'd say, they'd ask me questions about women in business and business successes and different kinds of issues, and then they'd ask me to refer them to another woman or other women that were in similar positions. I thought, and I thought, I would have been honored to refer them to someone else, but there was no someone else. Remember, this is a few years ago. There were no bank presidents like Kim Wilkerson from Bank of America. There were no CEOs like Lou Woods Kennedy. There were no Joanne Turnquist running multi-million-dollar community foundations, and there were no women in the South Carolina Senate. The question from the media and my absence of peers at that point stuck with me and have driven me for all these years until we got to what I'm proud to announce today as the launch of South Carolina Women in Leadership. It's not just my dream. It's the dream of many others, but I'll get back to a discussion of those other dreamers in just a few minutes. So today's pool of women leaders is very shallow. Our mission at Wilk is to deepen that pool and to achieve what experts call critical mass, or 20 to 30 percent representation by women, we need to persuade a whole lot of women to set aside their learned and reinforced lack of self-confident confidence. For years women have told me, you know, I'm not smart enough. I'm not rich enough. I don't have nice enough clothes. I need more degrees. I need to take care of my family. I like to tell a joke sometimes that sometimes, and this is a broad brush stroke, so forgive me, Dwayne and other gentlemen that are in the room, but I like to say that sometimes men get up in the morning and they look at themselves in the mirror and they say, hmm, not bad. I think I'll run for Senate. Well, by contrast, women look at themselves in that same mirror and they make a long list of their shortcomings, why they can't even think about running for office. So studies say almost across the board that unless you have at least a 20 percent representation by women, outcomes do not change. They're at the table, but they don't say anything or they aren't listened to. But somewhere between 20 and 30 percent we achieve that critical mass and suddenly women voices are heard. Women approach the world through a different kind of lens. We have a different background. We're raised to be perhaps more compassionate, to be more aligned with each other to solve problems, and I've lost my place, but we challenge old-speak by asking things like, are you open to new information? Because I've got some ideas. So whether it's a Navy ship or the U.S. Senate or a seat on the board, all organizations function better with diversity. So women solve problems. I know that's a broad brush stroke. Not all women solve problems and not all men fail to solve problems. But if you consider presenting a problem to a group of men and women, my personal experience is that men say, who's going to fix this? And women put their heads together and they say, all right, let's do this. And we do. We get things done. Here you, it's got to get done. So Will aims to work with our allied organizations, like Wren, like AAUW, like AARP, to help identify prospective leaders and offer them the tools and resources to grow their leadership skills. We do not endorse issues. We do not support candidates. We provide tools and resources that every organization and every individual can use to learn how to run for office, how to become a public speaker, how to reduce polarization by improving our civic discourse. I think Allison told me not to use that term and there was a better one, but... Sorry about that. So today we launched our new website, scwomenlead.net. I will tell you it's not perfect, but a work in progress. One of the things that I learned in being in technology is that you're better off being 80% and on time than 100% and late. So we are 80% and on time, and I am counting on everyone in this room and everyone else who may hear this, just give us your feedback and tell us what we can do to improve it. We accept new information. We invite new information, and we will change as we gain that new information. So I want returning to my story. Why is this so important to me? So I have five children, three of them are girls. I have six grandchildren, and heaven forbid, I have another one on the way. I feel that I owe them all a way to ensure that their children and their children's children have the kind of bright future that I do or the bright opportunities that I do. I owe it to them to ensure that they are not lone rangers like I was with no one else, no peers to turn to to say, how do I do this better? Engage me, help me out. I want that list of peers to be so long that I run out of breath trying to read the entire thing. So I invite you all to become participants in women in leadership. South Carolina women in leadership will for short because we will overcome. We will get this done.