Leading Global Companies Gather Virtually to Drive Solutions to Society's Greatest Challenges
Lata Reddy, Prudential Financial, honored with 2020 Charles H. Moore Award for leadership in corporate social investment
NEW YORK, May 19, 2020 /3BL Media/ – Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP) is virtually hosting hundreds of corporate leaders from across the U.S. and around the world for the 2020 CECP Summit: Strength in Solutions. The event, the 17th CECP Summit, brings together corporate responsibility professionals who drive societal investment strategies at the world’s largest companies during a time when connections and collaboration are propelling social innovations to tackle immediate and future needs.
Companies addressing the current Covid-19 crisis and moving towards recovery and resiliency find a renewed purpose of how they can contribute. CECP’s Summit attendees will hear from peers and practitioners who are taking a long-term view while responding to stakeholder needs in the moment.
“These corporate leaders have a shared experience with other corporate colleagues,” said Kari Niedfeldt-Thomas, Managing Director, CECP. “CECP’s Summit provides a virtual experience to discuss how they are leading on BOTH addressing health and safety issues with the virus, AND continuing to champion the issues on which they have invested their skills and resources for years, such as mental health, reskilling their workforce, cancer research, domestic violence, and financial literacy.”
“As the world thinks about recovery and the next normal, leading companies are redefining how they invest in society,” said Daryl Brewster, CEO, CECP. “With the right actions, companies will be remembered for being a force for good in society at a critical time in a way that drives sustainable value. While companies are experiencing the pandemic in different ways, coming together at CECP’s Summit brings the type of inspiration and collaboration we need.”
The Summit includes the presentation of the Charles H. Moore Award for Leadership in Corporate Community Engagement, this year awarded to Lata Reddy, Senior Vice President of Diversity, Inclusion & Impact at Prudential Financial and Chair of The Prudential Foundation. The “Charlie Award”–named to honor CECP’s founding Executive Director–is presented to senior leaders who exemplify perseverance in the pursuit of societal advancement, the trait for which Charlie Moore is best known.
Recognized for her capacity to harness the power of capital markets to drive financial and social mobility, Reddy has combined diversity strategies, impact investments, philanthropy, corporate contributions, and employee engagement to promote inclusive economic opportunity and sustainable growth in communities throughout the world. She oversees a yearly grantmaking budget of $40 million through The Prudential Foundation, a $20 million corporate contributions budget and an impact investing portfolio that recently reached $1 billion assets under management. Now, in the wake of COVID-19, Lata and her team have supported response efforts to care for employees and communities across the United States, but especially in their headquartered city of Newark NJ.
“For more than 20 years, it has been my privilege to advance Prudential's purpose to help solve the financial challenges of our changing world, and to work toward eliminating systemic barriers in order to drive social and financial mobility for all," said Reddy. "In the wake of COVID-19, when people around the world are reeling from the impact of this pandemic, Prudential’s mission of uplifting communities is of paramount importance."
The 2020 CECP Summit will also celebrate this year’s Company Spotlights, including Abercrombie & Fitch Co., Alcoa, Carlson and CWT, Cisco, CSAA, HSBC, KPMG, Macquarie, Regeneron, State Farm, and Tata Consultancy Services. These companies were recognized throughout the year for their work in the areas of CECP’s Pillars of Excellence: innovation, CEO leadership, measurement, partnership, narrative, and long-term focus.
The CECP Summit offers an unparalleled line-up of speakers responding to issue areas of interest to companies, including:
- Barbara Humpton, CEO, Siemens USA joins Daryl Brewster, CEO, CECP for an honest conversation on what lies ahead for business in a post-Covid-19 environment.
- Carla Harris, Vice Chairman, Managing Director and Senior Client Advisor, Morgan Stanley on what it means to lead, how that has changed, and how to do it authentically.
- Darren Walker, President, Ford Foundation on the fluid nature of progress and how to keep moving to build a more equitable future.
- Lars Kurznack, Long Term Value Creation Lead, KPMG on how companies who blend short- and long-term thinking in their business and corporate strategy can deliver superior and more stable financial performance than their peers.
- Lata Reddy, Senior Vice President, Diversity, Inclusion & Impact and Chair of The Prudential Foundation, Prudential Financial, Inc. will share her perspective on how leaders of large companies can encourage cross-sector partnerships to rebuild local economies to be more equitable, resilient, connected, and innovative after Covid-19.
- Aria Finger, CEO & Chief Old Person, DoSomething.org on the core tenants of engaging Gen Z in a company’s brand purpose, specifically around mental health.
Breakout sessions will feature a variety of topics:
- Cross-Functional Corporate Purpose Collaboration
- The Road to Recovery for Corporations and Society
- The Future of Work is Now
- B2B and the Possibilities of Purpose
- Brand-Building Through Storytelling
CECP will also share with attendees’ data from the Giving in NumbersTM Survey. As the unrivaled leader in benchmarking on corporate social investments, in partnership with companies, Giving in Numbers is the largest and most historical data set on trends in the industry, shared by more than 550 multi-billion-dollar companies over nearly 18 years, representing more than $290 billion in corporate social investments over that time span.
CECP thanks its Convening Sponsors for their generous support of the 2020 CECP Summit: The Allstate Foundation, Assurant, BNY Mellon, KPMG LLP, Mastercard, Newman's Own Foundation, Prudential Financial, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, UPS, USAA, and Wynn Resorts, Ltd.
The application for the 2021 Charlie Award is available on the CECP website and is due June 30, 2021. The award will again be presented at the CECP Summit in 2021 to a senior executive in corporate social investment who demonstrates a tenure of impact.
The 2020 convening is being held virtually. Following the conclusion of the 2020 CECP Summit, CECP will be posting on its website media, photos, videos, guest blogs, and an Executive Summary.
ABOUT CHIEF EXECUTIVES FOR CORPORATE PURPOSE (CECP)
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 $6.8 trillion in revenues, $23.8 billion in social investment, 13.8 million employees, 27 million hours of employee engagement, and $21 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.
