My guest Dr. Rosemary Ku is the Chief Medical Officer of UnitedAg. Rosemary is a practicing physician with dual-board certification in Internal Medicine and Preventive Medicine. She majored in Molecular Biology with a Certificate in Neuroscience at Princeton University and went on to obtain her MD/MBA from Columbia University and Masters in Public Health in Health Policy and Management from UC Berkeley. Rosemary joined the UnitedAg team as Chief Medical Officer in 2019. My conversation with Dr. Ku brings out the ethos of UnitedAg. Dr. Ku reminds us that the story of human connectedness is not just a one to one relationship with a member but a relationship with the entire community. We also talk about the impact of long term thinking on the overall healthcare cost, and much more. Please enjoy our conversation.
My guest Dr. Rosemary Ku is the Chief Medical Officer of UnitedAg.
Rosemary is a practicing physician with dual-board certification in Internal Medicine and Preventive Medicine. She majored in Molecular Biology with a Certificate in Neuroscience at Princeton University and went on to obtain her MD/MBA from Columbia University and Masters in Public Health in Health Policy and Management from UC Berkeley. Rosemary joined the UnitedAg team as Chief Medical Officer in 2019.
My conversation with Dr. Ku brings out the ethos of UnitedAg. Dr. Ku reminds us that the story of human connectedness is not just a one to one relationship with a member but a relationship with the entire community. We also talk about the impact of long term thinking on the overall healthcare cost, and much more. Please enjoy our conversation.
This episode is sponsored by UnitedAg, one of the largest association health plans to offer healthcare to the agriculture industry of California and Arizona.
Kirti Mutatkar, President and CEO of UnitedAg. Reach me kmutatkar@unitedag.org, www.linkedin.com/in/kirtimutatkar
UnitedAg's website - www.unitedag.org
The episode is also sponsored by
Brent Eastman Insurance Services Inc. - https://brenteastman.com/
Blue Shield of California - https://www.blueshieldca.com/
Elite Medical - https://www.elitecorpmed.com/
Gallagher - https://www.ajg.com/
SAIN Medical - https://sainmedical.com/
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:00:13] Hi, [00:00:10] everyone. This is Kirti Mutatkar, and I welcome you to the second year of This is Ag!. I [00:00:20] am super excited today because this episode I'm starting the year 2023 with an episode which is slightly different than the rest of my episodes from 2022. [00:00:30] I'm in conversation with Dr. Rosemary Ku. She is the chief medical officer at UnitedAg, and through the conversation [00:00:40] that Rosemary and I have, you get a sense of what the ethos of UnitedAg really is. So I am super excited to be starting the year with [00:00:50] this episode. But before we start the episode, I also wanted to take a moment as we ended 2022 and starting 2023, I wanted to thank all of you for [00:01:00] choosing to listen to This is Ag! It has been an extremely successful year. That's all because of all of you. So thank you so much for making this this [00:01:10] an extremely successful Happy New Year and looking forward to many more conversations in 2023. So [00:01:20] I have today [00:01:30] with me Dr. Rosemary Ku. She's a chief medical officer at United Egg. And this is actually a slightly different podcast interview because I'm not talking to one of our members [00:01:40] employer groups, but you're an employee at UnitedAg, so slightly different perspective. So I'm super excited with this interview. Rosemary It's going to be very different. Oh, thank.
Dr. Rosemary Ku : [00:01:49] You, Kirti. I can't.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:01:49] Wait. [00:01:50] So this is so Rosemary, you have come into UnitedAg. What? That's been three years now, right?
Dr. Rosemary Ku : [00:01:56] Oh, I think close to five.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:01:57] Five. And what? What got you a track? What [00:02:00] made you a You are in the medical field. You are practicing physician United Health Plan, right? Sometimes health plan have a negative connotation [00:02:10] attached to it from a physician standpoint. But why were you attracted to United?
Dr. Rosemary Ku : [00:02:15] Agg Yeah, So I was trained as a physician. I did my residency [00:02:20] in internal medicine and preventive medicine, and I did my residency at Kaiser Permanente. And Kaiser is known for really excellent preventive care. They make sure you [00:02:30] get all your screenings. And yet I felt like they weren't really fulfilling the potential of preventive care. And so I actually went to the startup world to [00:02:40] work on health innovation, to develop new software, to help people combat chronic disease, help them manage their lifestyle, really change their behaviors, and ultimately help them [00:02:50] reverse their chronic diseases. After that, through that work, I actually met you, Kirti through the Innovation Forum, and it [00:03:00] really opened my eyes as to what a health plan could potentially do, because working in health innovation, I always felt like health plans were part of the problem. All [00:03:10] the cutting costs, managing, making sure that people didn't have access to care when they really needed it, adjudicating claims, making it really hard for people. [00:03:20] That's what I thought health plans were, and I figured all health plans were the same. Yeah, until I met you and all the questions that you were [00:03:30] asking about how to improve member access to care, how do we really leverage the latest technology? How do we modify what's on the market to serve our population [00:03:40] was really inspiring. So I thought, okay, you know, this is this is something different here that I can get excited about because when you have a partner in health care [00:03:50] with a lot of purchasing power like United Agg does, where you have a lot of control over what the member experience is like and when you really [00:04:00] care actually about the end user, the employee that we cover, the members, I think special things can happen. And so I wanted to be part of it.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:04:09] That's true. And [00:04:10] when you do that right, it actually helps with the cost because we sometimes as a health plan as different, different layers in health care, right. [00:04:20] As we all know, and everybody is actually trying to see how do I not pay this and how does somebody else pay this. So when you look at everything, right, network discounts and the whole [00:04:30] everybody in the health care, but are we really spending the time to understand what is driving these costs and should we really be spending our time thinking through that? So [00:04:40] that's kind of what we're trying to do through unite that.
Dr. Rosemary Ku : [00:04:42] Yeah, And I think that's what really surprised me about Ag, actually. So I don't think I actually told you the story before, [00:04:50] but shortly after I started working with the organization, I was at a conference and someone asked me, Well, what do you do? And I said, Well, I work for UnitedAg. We provide [00:05:00] health benefits, the agricultural industry. And that person said, Well, what does I care about health? Like, do the workers even have health insurance? What are you even doing [00:05:10] there? And I was shocked. I was like, this is this is horrible that people think a whole industry don't care about employees health. And then I had to [00:05:20] try to correct the narrative and that one little end of one experiment there. And and I had to educate that person. Well, the membership at United Egg is different, [00:05:30] and the employers really do care. You know, the choice of United Egg is your health plan is really putting your hand up, saying that I care about my employees. You know, we're not the lowest [00:05:40] cost plan. You don't come to United Egg when you want to nickel and dime people, you know, and risk your employees lives. That's not why you come to us. Right. And I had to [00:05:50] educate this person that the members at Unite, I care so much about their employees that they are so aware of the social determinants of health.
Dr. Rosemary Ku : [00:05:59] It was [00:06:00] it was another level that I hadn't seen before. You know, I'd have a lot of my network is in the large employer space and while they kind of understand the ins and outs of the challenges [00:06:10] people have in their lives, they don't really dig down into the nitty gritty, into the housing situation, what's happening in people's lives. And ag employers know they [00:06:20] know the impact of the multicultural, you know, the multigenerational families. They know the impact of the housing. That's sometimes. It is crowded. Sometimes [00:06:30] you have three generations in one household. They know the challenges of trying to eat well. When there's one person in the family who cooks for the children and the [00:06:40] spouses and for the elderly. And that is on a different level than most employers. And when there are issues that come up in their population, [00:06:50] they come to us. I heard it all over the place. Yeah, yeah. When COVID hit, we heard all the time. You know, our employees are struggling with mental health right away. Like we knew [00:07:00] we got that feedback and we listened to it. And I don't think any other health plan has that type of relationship with their employers.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:07:09] And also [00:07:10] what you just touched on is employers don't have that relationship with the employees. Right? Right. You find that in agriculture. And I actually the reason I continue to stay [00:07:20] in agriculture and do what I do was exactly that. Because you see, we see this I mean, we talk to friends, family or whatever, Right. The way employees are treated at different employer [00:07:30] groups and the way agriculture actually treats employees, the perception out there is so wrong because it's at a very different level.
Dr. Rosemary Ku : [00:07:38] Oh, it's shocking. I remember [00:07:40] in the beginning of COVID, you know, we were right on the ball. We started educating our employer groups almost immediately about the pandemic. And whenever there was an outbreak, I got [00:07:50] calls immediately. And at first even I had that kind of bias. I was like, Oh, I'm so worried about employers trying to shorten the quarantine time in case there's an outbreak, [00:08:00] you know, kind of riding the edge of what is scientifically okay in controlling those outbreaks. But yet the response was very different. People were very conservative with their employee lives. [00:08:10] They were like, okay, well, if the quarantine period is now from 10 to 5 days, I'm going to still keep that ten just to make sure you know, when when the CDC shortened the quarantine [00:08:20] time, our employers did not. They took the safety of their employees as the top priority no matter what the business cost was. And that was incredibly inspiring. [00:08:30]
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:08:30] And what you said earlier with the mental health, because I remember Disney from Rancho Guadalupe was our chairman at that time, and he reached out and he had some [00:08:40] of his employees impacted by that and how passionate he was to provide that. And at United, we actually did it at zero Co pay and nothing going to deductible. [00:08:50] We said, let's just offer this for a year and see what happens. But that's that speaks volumes of the employee centricity centric nature.
Dr. Rosemary Ku : [00:08:59] And [00:09:00] you know, in AGG, the employee employer relationship is very different. The employer is actually part of the family of the employees. You [00:09:10] know, think about like corporate America. If you're an employee of a large corporate company, you're not going to go to your HR When you have mental health issues. You're [00:09:20] just not you're going to be afraid. You're going to be worried about getting fired. But in agg, the employees tell their companies they're there. They know that at least with our employers, [00:09:30] they know that their employer is on their side and wants to give them the best care possible.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:09:37] And one of the reasons I usually when what [00:09:40] this happens, I see when newer people or different people in different industries and TPPA industries or other health plans kind of come into the United Act fold. And [00:09:50] I introduce you as the chief medical officer at United Agg. And it's a very different perspective because they're like, What? What does Rosemary do? Right? [00:10:00] Because they don't understand your role at United Agg is not the role that a typical CMO, a chief medical officer, would have in any other health plan. Your [00:10:10] role is to say, how do I increase access to care? How do we provide the best care possible? And what kind of innovations can we bring in to address some of these chronic [00:10:20] conditions and do that? So a very different role, right?
Dr. Rosemary Ku : [00:10:22] A very different role, a dream role, because I feel like I'm always on the right side, right? You [00:10:30] know, I don't have to say no to anyone. I'm usually saying yes, and we can do that or oh, that's a great idea. That's try this or [00:10:40] how can I help these Up and coming companies design their solutions for AGG for us so that maybe in a year or two, even if they're not the best fit for us now, they can grow into [00:10:50] something that's a really good fit for us. So it's an incredible experience to really be like doggedly focused on how do we improve access, how do we improve the member [00:11:00] experience, and then ultimately how do we turn around the health for an entire industry.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:11:05] Really, Right. So what do you you were just saying something and that made me think a little bit [00:11:10] right now with chronic conditions or anything else out there. They is a ton and ton of startup companies, right? I mean, it's it's it's [00:11:20] overwhelming sometimes to see like you take one part where you say, oh, let's control diabetes, right? And you have like 1000 products. What, in your opinion, from [00:11:30] your experience in the startup world and your experience, how how do we go about testing that? What does that look like and how what should united act do and what are we doing? [00:11:40] Correct. I mean, is it what is right and what's wrong?
Dr. Rosemary Ku : [00:11:42] Yeah, I think so. The startups, they often focus on their software and their technology. And there's this [00:11:50] kind of notion that technology might solve all you know, if you get your algorithms right, you can personalize the experience that will in turn [00:12:00] cause behavior change and then health benefits. But when we think about social determinants of health, it's not algorithmic. You know, things happen [00:12:10] to people and it's not predetermined. Sometimes you can predict them, sometimes you can't. And the most important thing when I look [00:12:20] at solutions out there is how do you blend the technology with the human side? And for us, we luckily have a lot of human resources, meaning like we [00:12:30] have a very good relationship with the health and wellness centers and we integrate them into the care delivery system and we have our lifestyle management program. And so we have [00:12:40] humans on our end to be able to plug that gap. If there's a good technology company that doesn't have that humanistic approach, we can plug that gap. But, [00:12:50] you know, it's curious to figure out how much of that human side you need and how much of the technology side that you need. I would posit probably right now we need more of the human side, [00:13:00] especially for our population, for other populations that might not face the same social determinants of health. They can probably get by with like 90% tech, 10% [00:13:10] human. But I think for us it's probably majority human and then tech supporting that.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:13:16] I actually think I know for our industry for sure, but [00:13:20] any other industry, right, Because what COVID brought out was yes, telemedicine and the technology kind of got went to a different level, but it also brought out the [00:13:30] importance of the human connectedness. And that's that's going to come back more, I feel. So the what you said earlier, the technology helping augment what [00:13:40] we do from a human side, I think that's going to be the best option going forward.
Dr. Rosemary Ku : [00:13:44] Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, the human side is also not just [00:13:50] 1 to 1. It's actually one to your community and the people that you're around all the time, too. And so how do you bring in more people than just [00:14:00] that one member into the fold? How can you educate a whole community so that they can look out for each other, for instance, around risks, around domestic violence, [00:14:10] alcohol abuse? How do you get a community think about their food sources differently? And I think, you know, we have enough of that [00:14:20] humanistic approach and focus on community to try to do that. We just need the good tech partners who are willing to build for our population.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:14:29] Yeah, because [00:14:30] that human connection is going to be important. And at UNILAG, or maybe it's because we're smaller or maybe because it's we serve one industry, we can do that. Well, I [00:14:40] was only telling a story. I just took a tour of one of our California grown floral operations, and I see how much of an impact [00:14:50] the compliance expense has, the health care and all of that on the income statement. And a request came in and said, Can we waive our late fees? [00:15:00] Right. Based on what? And I said, okay, because but you can do that at United and you can go one member at a time, understand what's really driving it and help that member. Right. [00:15:10] And that's that's a that's a human approach. It's you're not lost in the whole kind of you're not a number, right?
Dr. Rosemary Ku : [00:15:16] Absolutely. You're not in number. And you're also not just a human [00:15:20] for today. Yep. Yeah. You know, I think, you know, United Egg has a very long term view with our employers that we want to keep our employers for generations. [00:15:30] Right. Not just this year, not just the next five years, but decades. Right. And when you have that long term view, weighing a fee doesn't make a difference. It's [00:15:40] a drop in the bucket. But what it does is solidify that relationship and it creates loyalty. And that's how we need to think about health care. You know, we [00:15:50] often don't think about that like it like that in health care. You know, we think about, oh, this employer is going to have this employee for, you know, just the next three years. It doesn't matter if [00:16:00] they have a heart attack then. So why should I bother investing in diabetes care now and even health plans? A lot of other big health plans think like that, too. You know, why pay [00:16:10] for this kidney transplant now when we're not going to get the savings until ten years down the road? Right. But United Egg is so different. It's like your your view is so much longer [00:16:20] than that.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:16:20] Right. And it is hard because as humans, as when we're going through financial issues and all that, we tend to. Be short term thinkers because we are [00:16:30] stressed. That's the anxiety. Even if we are human and the best person possible, sometimes that kind of creeps in, right? But then always kind of saying, [00:16:40] okay, short term, yeah, maybe this saves us a few dollars, but long term it's going to be a loss, right? So that that I find my role as a CEO [00:16:50] is over and over reinforcing that.
Dr. Rosemary Ku : [00:16:52] Yeah. And as a customer, who would you rather work with? Someone that only sees you as, you know, $50 [00:17:00] today? Or do you want to work with someone who sees you as a lot like basically a lifetime partner? I'm so grateful for our leadership and our board to support [00:17:10] us in that. It is it's revolutionary thinking, you know, And for people who think about business as just transactions, you know, one [00:17:20] employer in one employer out, they don't have that long term view. It is very hard for them to change their mindset to our mindset. And so we are just so lucky to [00:17:30] have a board and leadership team that innately understands that and is aligned.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:17:35] Yeah, and like you said earlier, not all employers actually shouldn't even [00:17:40] join United or we shouldn't because it's it's not for everybody. It's like what we see from employees at United are always, always say this when I meet new employees, I said [00:17:50] United Dag is not everybody's cup of tea. Right? Right. It's it's not it's not like we're going to be okay with everything. You you have to be a certain way to be in United egg employee take [00:18:00] it or leave it. And the same thing with an employer group. There are certain employers might are not not the right people for United. So we don't want anybody in everybody out there. We want [00:18:10] the right people to be part of United Act because we have a bigger goal and bigger strategy in what we're trying to do than just what [00:18:20] providing health insurance to agriculture. Right? Success means something very different to us than just the growth and to find where financially being where, [00:18:30] where we are with the United.
Dr. Rosemary Ku : [00:18:31] Dag Yeah, I think that really highlights the aspect that our employers are not just customers, but they're really partners, correct? Because [00:18:40] they have to be okay with the experimentation. They have to be okay with us piloting certain things with maybe just part of their employees or maybe their group, but not another group. And [00:18:50] and that's challenging sometimes.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:18:52] It is.
Dr. Rosemary Ku : [00:18:52] It is when you try to have consistency and the benefits. But because our employers are open [00:19:00] minded and they do have that long term view, they're open to that because they know ultimately it'll pay off.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:19:06] So you've worked with us for five years, like you said, right. There [00:19:10] was a different life out there for you. So do you ever kind of think back and say, maybe I could have been somewhere else? What how does that does that thought [00:19:20] ever cross your mind? And they'll start up.
Dr. Rosemary Ku : [00:19:22] Oh, that's getting like extra central.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:19:27] You know what, Rosemary? What did you expect? You [00:19:30] and I talking here? Yeah.
Dr. Rosemary Ku : [00:19:31] This is really exciting. I, I don't really dwell on what could be or what should be. I [00:19:40] really just do what I feel is right. And having impact is really important to me personally. And there are certain paths to having [00:19:50] impact that are easier than others. When I was in the startup world developing solutions, the impact somehow feels more tangible. [00:20:00] It's like, you know, you're developing the solution, you're designing or testing it. That's all nice and great. But in health care, it's not the end user who makes a decision about whether or not your product [00:20:10] succeeds. The decision makers are health plans, large employers, provider organizations in government, Right. And [00:20:20] and therefore in health care, there is a limit to to making an impact. Just focusing on the solutions. You have to also partner with the buyers. [00:20:30] And in my work with United Egg, I feel so fulfilled knowing that ultimately the work that we've put in and all the changes we've made [00:20:40] will ultimately make people healthier.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:20:42] So looking at from your experience from outside of United and looking at agriculture in the UnitedAg, what do [00:20:50] you think is the biggest challenge for us at UnitedAg?
Dr. Rosemary Ku : [00:20:52] We do have a lot of burden of chronic conditions, diabetes, hypertension in [00:21:00] the screenings that we have done. I've also detected a quite a bit of excessive alcohol drinking, and all those conditions are born in lifestyle. [00:21:10] And with lifestyle you can't just tell someone to eat better. Like that's not going to work if they don't have access. And so we actually [00:21:20] talk a lot about the root causes. So whenever we present the results of the biometric screening to our employers, we talk about. Out the causes. What's what's causing these [00:21:30] unhealthy behaviors are the employees not sleeping, which we actually assess for in our biometric screening. A lot of times they're not. Do they potentially have obstructive sleep apnea [00:21:40] and going undetected? We also screen for that. And, you know, all the things that's happening in the employees lives are reflected [00:21:50] in these chronic conditions. So the chronic conditions in and of themselves are not the problem. They're the symptom. And so we really have to focus on the problem. And every time I have talked to employer [00:22:00] about helping your employees feel less stressed, making sure their housing is okay, what is their access to food? And they are all willing [00:22:10] to make changes. I've heard of employers taking away the soda at work. You know, they are very passionate about making sure that their workplaces are as healthy and supportive as [00:22:20] possible.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:22:20] So what do you see as challenges? What what what are the challenges that we face?
Dr. Rosemary Ku : [00:22:27] Language is one challenge, and [00:22:30] it's not just about translating something from English to Spanish, but it's also translating it into the culturally appropriate Spanish that they understand and that [00:22:40] resonates with them. Connecting to the population that's at risk is incredibly important and it can also be challenging, especially if there is a digital [00:22:50] divide where they might have access to the latest technology. Many of them have smartphones, but do they feel like that's an avenue of trust? [00:23:00] Can they use telemedicine and still feel trust and care from their provider? It is very different. Culturally, it's different. They prefer to see someone in [00:23:10] person, and us being aware of those cultural nuances is incredibly important and it's both a challenge and [00:23:20] an opportunity.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:23:20] So one of the things, Rosemary, you've not grown up in agriculture, right? So this is a very different podcast interview than my rest of my podcast interviews because [00:23:30] I usually am talking to people who have either grown up or part of agriculture for years and years. So what has your experience being coming into agriculture? [00:23:40]
Dr. Rosemary Ku : [00:23:40] Yeah, so most of my adult life I've lived in large cities New York City, San Francisco. I grew up in upstate New York though, and [00:23:50] I really did love going to the farms to pick apples or cherries and that kind of stuff. But that's the extent of my exposure to agriculture. And [00:24:00] I think as a whole, the society in America has very little knowledge of what agriculture means, and it's because we're so disconnected [00:24:10] from our food. I mean, if you go down the street and you ask five people, what is an Arctic choke plant look like, probably none of them could tell you. Right. Or [00:24:20] what is an almond look like before it's shelled? They can't tell you we're so disconnected from our food. We assume it's magic that it gets to our grocery stores or restaurants. [00:24:30] And because we're so disconnected, that also means we have no concept of what agriculture is really like. And that's actually very dangerous because it opens our industry up to [00:24:40] narratives that are heavily politicized, that really share only part of the story or potentially are completely untrue. And those [00:24:50] assumptions, I think, actually fall into three basic buckets. The one that I see a lot is that people think most ag is bad and the only [00:25:00] good egg is really micro egg, like really tiny farms. So not even the small to medium agriculture, but like farmers markets, like my neighbor who is, you know, [00:25:10] growing oranges in their backyard or something that's good egg and everything else bigger. So if you have two lots of land, you're already bad.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:25:17] You're a big bag.
Dr. Rosemary Ku : [00:25:18] Yeah. Um, [00:25:20] and then the second is I think people think that egg is old and it's all low skill, but there's so much there's [00:25:30] so much technology that goes into egg, and a lot of that technology is somehow demonized. Pesticides, GMOs are all demonized. [00:25:40] Right? But where's the other end of the story where our chemical sciences, our ability to harness other organisms, whether that be, you know, microorganisms [00:25:50] or insects, potentially, how do we harness our natural resources? All of that is like very sophisticated science that we don't hear about. [00:26:00] And so Agg is in this bucket of being low tech, low skill, and old people think it's just about putting seeds into dirt, right? And that's [00:26:10] really damaging, I think, as well. And then lastly, I was thinking about this AGG is somehow has this connotation of exploitation. That I think [00:26:20] is really sad because it's not what we experience at all at UnitedAg. But if you ask an outsider, agg exploits, people land the environment, [00:26:30] natural resources, it exploits everything around it. And that's really not true. From from the farmers that we've talked about, they [00:26:40] are very focused on preservation. It's their livelihood. For generations, their farm has been their livelihood. Why would they damage the thing that has given [00:26:50] them money and fulfillment over the years? It doesn't make any sense. And so I think that the challenges are really people [00:27:00] understanding what agriculture really is past. All of these negative narratives will help. I think them understand that [00:27:10] Ag is really a bright spot, not just for technology but also for health. And that's what we're trying to do at UnitedAg.
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:27:16] That's so well said, Rosemary. That was awesome. What [00:27:20] you said is just so true because that was the reason I felt the need to start this podcast. This is ag, Right? [00:27:30] Because when you see people coming into agriculture, they're surprised. They're like, We need scientist, we need mechanical engineers, we need I mean, it's such a sophisticated [00:27:40] industry that people outside of agriculture always have this what this is like. So this is [00:27:50] that's where the birth of this is egg happened. So you you're so, so true. That's so, so true. Rosemary, thank you so much. This was really fun. It's always really fun to talk to you. [00:28:00] I do that all the time when I'm feeling anxious or stressed or I just want to run some idea by you. You have just not in your role as a CMO, but just being part of [00:28:10] the executive team at United Agg You've done a lot right, to unite our innovation panels and our different products that we've introduced to United Agg And even today [00:28:20] we are here today where you you've come in to the Women Academy and you're leading a session. Do you want to talk a little bit about why that is important?
Dr. Rosemary Ku : [00:28:30] Oh, [00:28:30] yeah, absolutely. I think unfortunately for women, this is still true that women are pigeonholed into certain roles [00:28:40] from a very young age. We're told we should be a certain way. Usually that's quiet and cute, pretty, not speaking up, not speaking our minds. [00:28:50] And in a in an industry that has historically been very male dominated, the only way to elevate the whole industry as a as [00:29:00] a as a whole really is to also elevate the women. Because if you have only half of your leaders being fully capable of achieving their potential, your [00:29:10] industry is going to collapse. You need everyone to be able to reach their potential to elevate the industry and a lot of what we do and women egg and what we talk about [00:29:20] is not about business practices or PowerPoints. It's really about how do you find your own superpowers and how do you [00:29:30] leverage and manifest them in a way that achieves what you want to do in your life, in your career? And that's really exciting, right?
Kirti Mutatkar: [00:29:37] So I'm looking forward to the session. I know you're starting with the [00:29:40] meditation sessions, so I'm really, really looking forward to that session. And thank you so much, Rosemary. This has been fun.
Dr. Rosemary Ku :
[00:29:47] Thank you, Kirti. It's always an honor to work with you and UnitedAg. [00:29:50] Thank you