Anticipating Complex Challenges Ahead, Social Investment Leaders Meet to Share Best Practices and Map Strategy

NEW YORK, May 22, 2018, /3BL Media/ – CECP: The CEO Force for Good will convene the 2018 CECP Summit: Leading Through Complexity May 22-23, 2018 in NYC, bringing together 250 corporate leaders who drive societal investment strategies at the world’s largest companies. Attendees will learn and connect with the trailblazers making big, bold moves in a complex business climate – those who are taking charge and re-defining ‘purpose’ and success for themselves. CECP is a coalition of more than 200 companies and CEOs that believes that a company’s social strategy--how it engages with key stakeholders including employees, communities, investors, and customers--determines company success.

Sourced from its work with 200+ companies, hundreds of monthly discussions, its proprietary surveys, and conversations with leading experts and on-the-ground practitioners, CECP decided on this year’s theme with the intent of exploring how companies are navigating business, social, political, and environmental complexity – by both innovating where change and action is needed and staying the course when key stakeholders call for stability.

The event – the 15^th annual hosted by CECP – includes sessions designed to address issues top of minds for professionals, including employee communications, building strategy, making the business case, engaging employees, integrating with HR and other business units, building or expanding global programs, building a culture of purpose, and many others. CECP will also offer attendees the chance to hear from leading practitioners on the latest efforts to integrate ESG into business strategy, innovative social investment measurement techniques, advancements in diversity and inclusion, pioneering cross-sector collaborations in response to the opioid epidemic, plus intimate networking opportunities with peers and colleagues.

“In these complex and uncertain times, businesses are increasingly expected to step up to help build a better world,” said Daryl Brewster, CEO, CECP. “For corporate leaders tasked with setting and executing the social strategies for the world’s largest companies, CECP’s Summit provides a powerful venue to learn, share, and engage on critical issues.”

The Summit will include the presentation of the Charles H. Moore Award for Leadership in Corporate Community Engagement, this year awarded to Heather Nesle, Vice President, Corporate Responsibility, New York Life, and President, New York Life Foundation. The “Charlie Award”–named to honor CECP’s founding Executive Director–is presented to individuals who exemplify perseverance in the pursuit of societal advancement, the trait for which Charlie Moore is best known. As the leading corporate funder of childhood bereavement, the New York Life Foundation, under Heather’s leadership, has been instrumental in helping to build the capacity of this emergent field. Since 2008, the New York Life Foundation has committed more than $35 million to the cause including 153 grants totaling nearly $6 million through its Grief Reach program, which provides grants to local bereavement centers across the country.

“I’m truly honored to receive this esteemed award from CECP,” said Nesle. “At the New York Life Foundation, we’re proud of the work we do in the education and bereavement sectors. Our unique focus on bereavement has produced a cross-company effort to deliver much-needed support to our nation’s grieving kids and families, who so often go unnoticed in our local communities and society at large. Thanks to the tireless work of our grantee partners and our employees and agents, the childhood bereavement field is becoming ever more robust, collaborative, and innovative – united by the goal of letting no child grieve alone.”

The 2018 CECP Summit will also celebrate companies that demonstrate leadership in CECP’s Pillars of Excellence: CEO Leadership, Partnership, Innovation, Measurement, Integration into the Business, and Long-Term View. This year’s Company Spotlights include Aetna, Arconic, AT&T, CA Technologies, CarMax, CVS Health, Discovery Education, EY, GE, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Northrup Grumman, and The Hershey Company.

The CECP Summit offers an unparalleled line-up of speakers, including:

• An opening keynote session with Melissa Bradley, Managing Director, Project 500; Nancy Lublin, CEO, Crisis Text Line; and Liz Plank, Senior Producer and Correspondent, Vox.com on what it means to step up, speak out, and lead with values through even the most complicated of environments.
• A conversation and learning opportunity with Bob Ottenhoff, President and CEO, Center for Disaster Philanthropy and Leslie Parpart, Director, Community Relations, CarMax focused on strategies to strengthen future disaster response plans, when it makes sense to lever unique business competencies, and how to ensure your contributions meet short-term needs but also go toward rebuilding the community for the long-term.  
• Jennifer Crozier, VP, Corporate Citizenship and IBM Foundation President will delve into how IBM is developing tech innovations, such as artificial intelligence, for greater societal impact. and integrating promising IBM technologies into its corporate citizenship initiatives.
• Nineteen-year-old Ziad Ahmed, Founder, JÜV Consulting, will offer insights on the unique perspectives and voices of Gen Z and advice to view them not as leaders of tomorrow, but as leaders of today.
• David Miliband, President and CEO, International Rescue Committee and Gillian Tett, U.S. Managing Editor, Financial Times, on the challenges that globalization and immigration pose, common misperceptions around the refugee crisis, and how corporations, particularly in the US, can play a critical role in these complex issues.
• An intimate conversation with actor and producer David Schwimmer and his partners at the National Women’s Law Center, who have teamed up to create ‘#ThatsHarassment,’ a national campaign to empower victims and bystanders to speak out and provide tools for employers to create a safe work environment.
• Newly appointed Executive Director of UNICEF Henrietta Fore on the most pressing challenges facing youth globally, and the opportunities at hand for corporations to join the fight to protect the lives of every child, every day.
• Leading CEOs including Doug Conant, Former Chairman, Avon Products; Founder and CEO, ConantLeadership; Former CEO, Campbell Soup Company; ConantLeadership; Lynn Doughtie, U.S. Chairman and CEO, KPMG and Ted Mathas, Chairman and CEO, New York Life with perspectives on current challenges and opportunities facing our communities, our businesses, and our future.

Breakout sessions will feature a variety of topics:

• Advancing Diversity & Inclusion through the Lens of Corporate Social Engagement
• Weaving CSR throughout the Brand: Internal Collaborations that Work
• Building a Culture of Purpose
• Integrating ESG into Long-Term Business Strategy
• Seeing Around the Corner: Evolving Measurement
• Addressing the Opioid Epidemic
• Driving Systemic Investments in Equity, Talent & Tech

CECP will also share with attendees results from the Giving in Numbers Survey, an analysis of 2017 corporate giving trends data. In the most complete annual survey of societal engagement, CECP, in association with The Conference Board, heard from 252 multi-billion dollar companies with aggregate revenues of US$11.3 trillion. This trends database is regarded as the leading analysis of corporate societal engagement and giving and covered widely in media year-round (see related press releases and news articles in CECP’s Press Room). Shortly following the Summit in June, CECP will be releasing the second annual Investing in Society, a compendium of CECP’s leading-edge research, data, and trends. 

CECP thanks its Convening Sponsors for their generous support of the 2018 CECP Summit: The Allstate Foundation, Assurant, BNY Mellon, Citi, KPMG LLP, MasterCard, Newman's Own Foundation, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Prudential, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, Target, UPS, and USAA.

The application for the 2019 Charlie Award is available on the CECP website and is due June 30, 2018. The award will again be presented at the CECP Summit in 2019 to a senior executive in corporate societal engagement, someone who demonstrates a tenure of impact.

The convening is being held at the Time Warner Center in New York City. Following the conclusion of the 2018 CECP Summit, CECP will be posting on its website media, photos, videos, guest blogs, and an Executive Summary.

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ABOUT CECP: THE CEO FORCE FOR GOOD

CECP is a CEO-led coalition that believes that a company’s social strategy — how it engages with key stakeholders including employees, communities, investors, and customers —determines company success. Founded in 1999 by actor and philanthropist Paul Newman and other business leaders to create a better world through business, CECP has grown to a movement of more than 200 of the world’s largest companies that represent $7 trillion in revenues, $18.6 billion in societal investment, 13 million employees, and $15 trillion in assets under management. CECP helps companies transform their social strategy by providing customized connections and networking, counsel and support, benchmarking and trends, and awareness building and recognition.