In July 2013, Shara Ticku traveled to Singapore on a work trip for Goldman Sachs. The investment bank made her bring N95 masks to protect her from the terrible air quality at the time.
“I land in Singapore, and the air quality index is over 400. Air quality index: anything over 300 is considered super toxic. In New York right now, it’s probably in the 20s, and that’s for a big city,” Ticku told CNBC in a video interview on Tuesday. “They closed schools, they told pregnant women they can’t walk outside. It was crazy. And I had no clue what was going on.”
Ticku asked her local colleagues who informed her that neighboring countries Indonesia and Malaysia were burning rain forests to make palm oil. “By the way, we deal with this every year,” they told her.
That was the first time Ticku ever heard about palm oil but the experience would stick with her.
Ticku went on to work for in health issues, first at the Clinton Health Access Initiative, then at the fertility benefits management company Progyny, and then at the United Nations as the Secretary General’s Special Envoy for Health and Malaria.
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