经济学人丨经济学人集团前CEO逝世丨2017.09.17丨总第995期

ROLE models for women in business are still too rare, not least in Britain. Last November an independent review backed by the government urged FTSE 100 companies to raise the share of women on their boards from 27% to 33% by 2020. Sadly, that push this week lost one of its leading champions, Helen Alexander, the deputy chair of the review.

女性在商业领域的模范人物仍然十分少见，尤其是在英国。去年11月，一份由政府支持的独立报告呼吁FTSE 100指数的各家上市公司在2020年前把董事会的女性比例从27%提高至33%。遗憾的是，这项倡议在本周失去了一位排头兵，她就是该报告的副主席海伦·亚历山大（Helen Alexander）。

Business had no better ambassador. She was self-effacing but a world-class networker—a winning combination that helps explain, along with her intelligence and charm, why all sorts of firms wanted her on their board (from Northern Foods to Centrica, Rolls-Royce and the British arm of Huawei), to advise them (Bain Capital) or to chair them (the Port of London Authority and, more recently, UBM, an events business). In 2009 she became the first woman to be president of the Confederation of British Industry, the country’s main employers’ group.

商业中再无比她更好的代表了，她谦虚低调，但同时是顶级的善交际的人——她是二者成功的结合体，再加上她聪明，有魅力，这也解释了为什么大大小小的公司都想将她收入麾下（从北方食品，英国森特理克集团，劳斯莱斯到华为英国分公司）或是给他们咨询（例如贝恩资本）或是领导他们（如伦敦港务局，以及最近的会议活动公司博闻公司）。2009年她成为英国主要雇工组织，英国工业联合会的第一位女主席。

• Self-effacing：自我谦逊，谦逊

• Confederation of British Industry：英国工业联合会

But Helen had built her reputation in the media industry. From 1997 to 2008 she was chief executive of The Economist Group (the publisher of this newspaper), the company she joined as a marketing executive in 1985. During her tenure, profits soared and The Economist’s circulation more than doubled, to 1.3m.

但是海伦的名声是在媒体行业上建立起来的。从1997到2008，她都是经济学人集团（这份报纸的出版商）的CEO，1985年她作为市场营销专员加入。在她的任期内，收益飙升，《经济学人》的发行量翻了一倍多，达到130万。

• Circulation：发行量，流通

Her success owed much to a leadership style that lacked fireworks and did not seek fame, but deserved more recognition, for both its humanity and effectiveness. Helen relied on a quiet wisdom: listening, not lecturing. No name was ever forgotten, no thoughtful personal gesture was too small. For all the fashionable fascination with big strategy, she was unerringly sensible and, where need be, decisive: nothing foolish would happen on her watch. She treated her colleagues with respect, set an example of discipline and solid values (the diary always cleared time for family), and in return inspired confidence. “You can trust Helen completely,” was the word from one Economist editor to his successor.

（期待您的翻译，明天会有针对这句话的长难句解析哟~）海伦依靠安静的智慧——倾听而非长篇大论。她不遗忘一个名字，不忽略掉任何有意义的个人举动。她对于流行的重大战略非常敏感，并且非常理智，在必要的时候非常果断，在她监管之下绝不会发生什么愚蠢的事情。她尊重同事，并在纪律和价值观方面以身作则（日记中总是有为家人留出的时间），并且赢得了人们对她的信心。“你可以完全信任海伦，”一位《经济学人》的编辑对他的继任者说道。

• Unerringly：adv.无过失的，正确的

• Decisive：adj.决定性的，果断的

• Successor：n.继任者，后续的事情

Although she could seem quintessentially British (St Paul’s Girls’ School, Oxford University), she was also thoroughly global. She loved travelling to the Olympic games, where the world came together in good-spirited competition. Her mother was Russian (with roots in Estonia), her grandmother had been Maxim Gorky’s lover; Helen’s MBA was from INSEAD in France and she was a stalwart of an annual Franco-British gathering called the Colloque. France awarded her the Légion d’Honneur in November 2015.

尽管她是看上去是一个典型的英国人（曾就读于圣保罗女子大学和牛津大学），她也是极其国际化的人。她喜欢去看奥林匹克运动会，全世界聚在一起友好竞争。她的妈妈是俄罗斯人（祖籍爱沙尼亚），她的外婆是高尔基的爱人；海伦在法国欧洲工商管理学院取得工商管理硕士学位。她是每年英法会议Colloque的骨干。法国于2015年11月份授予她法国荣誉军团勋章。

• INSEAD：欧洲工商管理学院

• Stalwar：坚定分子

At her acceptance speech at the French embassy in London, delivered in flawless French, her one pause to collect herself came when thanking her husband and three children for their support in her battle against cancer, which had been diagnosed about a year earlier. Helen approached that struggle as she did all else: head on, admirably, a class act.

在伦敦的法国大使馆内她用流畅的法语发表接受勋章的演说。她一度在演讲中停顿来平复心情，感谢她的丈夫和三个小孩支持她抵抗癌症。癌症在一年前被诊断出来。她对待癌症就其他困难一样：义无反顾地向前，无所畏惧地行动。

• Flawless：完美的

• Approached：处理

翻译 ▍下罗小柜员，Bibobibo，陌上，迟暮

审核 ▍白夜叉

图文编辑 ▍leone

责任编辑 ▍毛毛