CECP Announces Winners of the 2013 Excellence Awards in Corporate Philanthropy
IBM and Mosaic Win Coveted Awards for Outstanding Community Engagement
NEW YORK, NY, February 25, 2013 /3BL Media/ – CECP, an organization that leverages the work of global corporate leaders to address societal challenges, announced today that IBM (NYSE: IBM) and The Mosaic Company (NYSE: MOS) are the recipients of the 13th annual Excellence Awards. CECP recognizes these companies’ commitments to the communities around them and for exemplifying the Award’s four rigorous Standards of Excellence: CEO leadership, partnership, dedication to measurement, and innovation.
The award ceremony was held this morning in conjunction with the 2013 Board of Boards CEO Conference at The McGraw-Hill Companies in New York City. This year’s awards were presented by Douglas Conant, CECP Chairman, Founder and CEO of ConantLeadership, and former President and CEO of The Campbell Soup Company. Accepting on behalf of their companies were Ginni Rometty, President, Chairman, and CEO of IBM and Jim Prokopanko, President and CEO of Mosaic.
The Chairman’s Award, for companies with revenues of $20B and more, goes to IBM for its Smarter Cities Challenge. This $50 million three-year competitive grant program provides cities with six-person teams of top IBM talent who leverage their skills to work in close partnership with city staff to make cities smarter and more livable by addressing issues such as healthcare, education, public safety, social services, communications, and energy and utilities. By the end of 2012, IBM had successfully completed 65 engagements with cities around the world, and the final 35 cities will be completed in 2013. This is IBM’s second Excellence Award; IBM received the 2nd annual Excellence Award in 2002. No other company has received the award twice.
“As our planet becomes urbanized at an unprecedented rate, it creates both major challenges and exciting opportunities to make our cities more efficient, sustainable, safe and livable – in a word, smarter,” said Ginni Rometty, President, Chairman, and CEO of IBM. “This recognition of our Smarter Cities Challenge by CECP reinforces our own conviction that this work is not simply an alignment of business and citizenship strategies, but a fusion of the two.”
The President’s Award, for companies with revenues under $20 billion, goes to The Mosaic Company for its The Mosaic Villages Project. The award recognizes Mosaic’s success in helping smallhold farmers in India, Guatemala and eight African countries break the cycle of insufficient crop yields and poverty. Participating farmers are granted no-interest loans to buy crop nutrients and receive agronomic education based on the 4Rs (right time, right place, right source and right rate) of nutrient application. Farmers then repay their loan through the sale of surplus crop yields at harvest. On average, farmers participating in The Mosaic Villages Project have seen crop production increase three to five times over traditional farming practices. Since the program’s inception in 2008, The Mosaic Company and The Mosaic Company Foundation have invested approximately $9 million in The Mosaic Villages Project.
“As a global leader in crop nutrition, Mosaic sits at the nexus of two of the world’s most pressing problems—food security and water scarcity,” said James Prokopanko, President and CEO of Mosaic. “In order to fulfill our mission of helping the world grow the food it needs, Mosaic has a responsibility to bring its financial resources, innovative spirit and expertise to the table through strategic partnerships with effective organizations.”
The Directors’ Award, recognizing a partnership between a corporation and a nonprofit, will be presented at the CECP Summit on June 4-5, 2013.
“The independent jury that selected these winners was deeply impressed by the widespread impact these two corporations have had through the success of their programs and the ways in which they exceeded each of CECP’s Standards of Excellence,” stated Daryl Brewster, CEO of CECP. “We congratulate the winners of the 2013 Excellence Award for applying their core business strategies to addressing some of the world’s most pressing problems, and positively impacting individuals, families, and cities around the world through their corporate societal engagement.”
Additional information on this year’s winners can be found on the Excellence Awards section of the CECP website. Applications for the 2014 award will be available this spring at www.corporatephilanthropy.org/EAApplication.
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About CECP
CECP draws together and empowers senior executives of the world’s leading companies to achieve unprecedented progress on society challenges while driving business performance. Through high-powered connectivity and the platform to multiply investments in solving the world’s most pressing issues, CECP is an irreplaceable tool catalyzing the forces that drive big change.
About the Excellence Awards in Corporate Philanthropy
CECP has presented Excellence Awards annually to more than 25 companies and non-profit partners since 2000. The awards jury comprises representatives from corporate, nonprofit, government, investment, consulting, media, and academic communities. The 2014 jury will be announced later this year.
About IBM
For more information about IBM, please visit www.citizenibm.com
About The Mosaic Company and The Mosaic Company Foundation
The Mosaic Company is the world’s leading producer and marketer of concentrated phosphate and potash. Driven by its mission to help the world grow the food it needs, Mosaic is committed to strengthening global food security and protecting critical water resources. The Mosaic Company and The Mosaic Company Foundation make investments in and partner with best-of-class leaders in the focus areas of food, water and local community investments. For more information on The Mosaic Company and The Mosaic Company Foundation, visit www.mosaicco.com.
