Eisenhower Fellowships - Back in Philly - Final Farewells with Friends, Fellows, Trustees, Sponsors

Marni Oaten, November 2010, Eisenhower Fellowship Women’s Leadership Program USA

…..7 weeks, 19 fellows, 22 meetings with leaders, 3 conferences, 1 executive management course, 10 cities in USA, over 400 people met…..

Acknowledgements/Sources:

Eisenhower Fellowships

Chairman of the Board of Trustees: General Colin L Powell (retired)

Eisenhower Fellowships President: John S. Wolf

Program Officer: Brandyn Campbell

Trustees/Sponsors visited during fellowship: Oct-Nov 2010

• Linda Gooden – Executive Vice President Information Systems & Global Services, Lockheed Martin.  (Philadelphia, 11 Oct)
• Suzanne McCarron – President ExxonMobil Foundation and VP of Public Policy, ExxonMobil . (Dallas, 27 Oct)
• Mike Goodrich – Ex-CEO and Chairman of Board, BE&K (EF Trustee/Sponsor) (Birmingham, 15 Nov)

Some of the leaders visited during fellowship: Oct-Nov 2010 (a sample of those met)

• Charlisse R Lillie – Vice President Community Investment, Comcast Corporation
• Noa Gimelli – Vice President, Corporate Citizenship, ExxonMobil (Washington DC, 12 Oct)
• Laurie Jackson – WP Women’s Programs  ExxonMobil (Washington DC, 12 Oct)
• Stephen Jordan – Senior Vice President & Executive Director, Business Civic Leadership Centre (affiliate of US Chamber of Commerce) (Washington DC, 13 Oct)
• Nancy Buczko – Associate Director of Tufts Gordon Institute, (Boston, 14 Oct)
• Dr. Jason Jay – Lecturer and researcher, MIT Sloan School of Management (Boston, 15 Oct)
• Dr. Chris Pinney – Director of Research & Policy, Centre for Corporate Citizenship, Boston College
• Karen Kelly – Water Resources Engineering and Community Engagement officer, CDM (Boston, 22 Oct)
• Karl Pfalzgraf – Director, AccountAbility (New York, 25 Oct)
• Margaret Coady – Director, Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (New York, 25 Oct)
• Lee Tashjian – Vice President, Corporate Affairs, Fluor & Glenn Gilkey – Vice President, Human Resources, Fluor (28 Oct)
• Patty Keck – Director of Community Involvement, CH2M Hill (29 Oct)
• Art Eins – Director of Development, Engineers Without Borders (29 Oct)
• LeeAnne Lang – Bechtel Group Foundation & Community Services Manager, Bechtel (San Francisco, 11 Nov)
• Carol McCauley – Global Programs Senior Specialist, Chevron (San Francisco, 12 Nov)
• Skip Rhodes – Ex- Manager of Corporate Community Involvement, Chevron (San Francisco, 12 Nov)
• Jane Shaw - Chairman of the Board, Intel (Philadelphia, 17 Nov)

Other key contacts developed via conferences or follow-up referrals etc

• Harvard Business School’s Executive Education course in “Leadership for the 21^st Century: Chaos, Conflict and Courage”(Boston, Oct 17-22): Naazlee Sardar (USAID Pakistan), Jay Mroszczak (Booz Allen Hamilton)
• Women’s Leadership Conference (San Francisco, Nov 8-11 ): Mary Bennet, Sharon Schachter (Coca-Cola)

The Eisenhower Fellowships "Leadership & Innovation" Conference
http://www.eisenhowerfellowships.org/events/eisenhower_fellowships_events.php

The 2010 Fellows
http://www.eisenhowerfellowships.org/programs/eisenhower_fellowships_current_international_fellowships.php

What is the relationship between PROFITS, PEOPLE & PLANET?
Governor Chistine Whitman, Suzanne McCarron (ExxonMobil) discussed BP disaster recovery, Meredith Hellicar (Australian Alumni Fellow) spoke about James Hardie experience. 

"Creating opportunities for the next generation of leaders" with Dr. Sally Ride, President and CEO, Sally Ride Science - First Female NASA Astronaut

Myself and Meredith Hellicar (Australian Fellow 1993) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art reception

The South - Birmingham, Alabama

Mike Goodrich and Ted Kennedy, BE&K

Lunch at The Club in Birmingham, Alabama with Mike Goodrich, Ted Kennedy & Joe McCarthy

Who I met:

Michael Goodrich (an Eisenhower sponsor) is the chief executive officer and chairman of the board of BE&K, Inc., providing engineering, construction, and maintenance services throughout the world. BE&K was recognized by author Robert Levering and by Fortune magazine as "One of the 100 Best Companies to Work for in America."

Goodrich began his career at BE&K in 1972 as legal counsel. His responsibility grew along with the company, and he became vice president and general counsel. In 1989, he was named president, in 1995, CEO, and in 2003, chairman. BE&K companies have built such diverse projects as Fulton County Stadium, Ericsson Stadium, Discovery Cove for Sea World, NASCAR Hall of Fame, and numerous industrial and telecommunications projects. In addition to work in the United States, BE&K operates an industrial construction company in Poland and Russia and a biotech-engineering firm in Helsinki, Finland.

Goodrich has served as board member and officer with numerous industry and civic organizations, including Associated Builders and Contractors of Alabama; Birmingham Construction Industry Authority; Construction Industry Institute; National Building Museum; Birmingham Civil Rights Institute; Lakeshore Hospital; Leadership Council, University of Alabama at Birmingham; University of Alabama Health System; Eisenhower Exchange Fellow; Board of Governors of Indian Springs School; Leadership Alabama; Leadership Birmingham; South Highland Presbyterian Church; and state and national Boy Scouts of America. His awards and honors include the NOVA Award from the Construction Innovation Forum; the Excellence in Construction Cornerstone Award from the Associated Builders and Contractors; the President's Medal from UAB; and the Silver Antelope and Distinguished Eagle Scout awards from the Boys Scouts of America. He was inducted into the National Academy of Construction in 2002 and the State of Alabama Engineering Hall of Fame in 2004.

Steps of the 16th Street Baptist Church - centre of Civil Rights conflict in the 1960s.

Business Meetings in San Francisco

Bechtel

Who I met:
Ms. LeeAnne Lang, Manager of theBechtel Group Foundation and Communications Services Manager, Bechtel Corporation to speak about their community involvement work. Dinner will be courtesy of Bechtel.

 

Bechtel Group Foundation was created in 1954 to respond to the needs of the communities around the world in which Bechtel has offices or major projects. In 2009, the Foundation made grants totaling $2.02 million to 216 non-profit organizations in 8 countries. All grants are initiated internally by Bechtel's office and project managers.

 

LeeAnne Lang and myself after Dinner in San Franscisco:

Chevron

Who I met:

1) Ms. Carol McCauley, Senior Specialist Global Programs,  is organizing a meeting between herself; colleagues that work with Chevron's Employee Involvement program;  and those that create Chevron's CSR report.

 

2) Skip Rhodes - President of Skip Rhodes & Associates, LLC, a consulting firm specializing in strategic corporate and non-profit philanthropic organizational and community activities. A Chevron executive for 46 years, he was Manager of Corporate Community Involvement for almost 20 years, responsible for the company's charitable contributions and community programs worldwide. Formerly Mayor of Piedmont, CA and city councilmember, Mr. Rhodes is a past President and current member of the Board of Governors of the Commonwealth Club of California, and a current Board member of the World Affairs Council of Northern California, the Yosemite Fund, and the Oakland Zoo Foundation. He has also served as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Council on Foundations in Washington, DC.

 

San Fran - Women in Leadership Summit

Nov 8-10 Women in Leadership Summit - San Francisco




Each year, this Summit attracts hundreds of female leaders and managers from across industries and around the world. This year’s event will feature inspirational keynotes addresses from Lisa Ling and other female leaders. Many best-in-class practitioners presented where we developed interpersonal skills and networks with a community of peers that motivated us all to move forward in our career.

Conference at the legendary Fairmoint Hotel at the top of the many hils of central San Fran.

The meeting rooms for grogeous - and created a great atmosphere for the 400 participants to share and learn

 This photo of me was posted on the official conference website - 'the time is now' resonates

 Julie Gilbert - one of the keynote speakers spoke of the measured $ value of the women's contribution to business and consumer influnence.

Key Messages:

Dallas, Texas

ExxonMobil Corporation, Irving (near Dallas, Tx)

Who I met:

Suzanne McCarron - uPresident ExxonMobil Foundation, General Manager Public and Government Affairs, ExxonMobil

About ExxonMobil Foundation
The ExxonMobil Foundation is the primary philanthropic arm of Exxon Mobil Corporation in the United States. The Foundation and the Corporation engage in a range of philanthropic activities that advance education, health and science in the communities where ExxonMobil has significant operations. In the United States, ExxonMobil supports initiatives to improve math and science education at the K-12 and higher education levels.
Globally, ExxonMobil provides funding to improve basic education, promote women as catalysts for development, and combat malaria and other infectious diseases in developing countries. In 2009, together with its employees and retirees, Exxon Mobil Corporation, its divisions and affiliates, and the ExxonMobil Foundation provided $235 million in contributions worldwide, of which more than $112 million was dedicated to education. Additional information on ExxonMobil’s community partnerships and contributions programs is available at http://cts.businesswire.com/ct/CT?id=smartlink&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.exxonmobil.com%2Fcommunity&esheet=6290897&lan=en_US&anchor=www.exxonmobil.com%2Fcommunity&index=8&md5=34d8c7c5a1f81f14cb8f4c1cf1a8e366.


Key Messages
Suzanne shared her story of how she came to her current role/s and was passionate about the journey and the progress made in CSR over the past few decades.

- “A few key areas of ‘focus and scale’ has made a big difference to achieve significant results that can be publically celebrated. "

-- Ethical supply chain is a emerging new initiative that will require collaboration with peers and contractors, embedding broader controls and risk management

-- "More work with NGOs and governments is needed as the impact to communities is broadening in some locations without a strong existing position”

Fluor Corporation, Irving (near Dallas, Tx) 

Who I met:
Mr. Glenn Gilkey, Senior Vice President of Human Resources and
Mr. Lee Tashjian, Vice President of Corporate Affairs

 web: http://www.fluor.com/

Marni with Lee Tashjian at meeting near Dallas, Tx

Key themes of discussion: Their Sustainability/CSR/community involvement efforts, as well as any women's leadership programs.

Bio for Mr. Gilkey: http://www.fluor.com/about_fluor/leadership/Pages/LeaderDetailPage.aspx?leaderID=7&updateMeta=1

Bio for Mr. Tashjian: http://www.fluor.com/about_fluor/leadership/Pages/LeaderDetailPage.aspx?leaderID=20&updateMeta=1

Fluor

Key messages:

-          Based on their own corporate experience:  Focus for greater impact on key 1-2 topics top down – but be supported by CEO’s passion and all external and internal messages. Fluor has selected Corruption via World Economic Forum – ‘Partners Against Corruption’ and belongs to 100 strategic partner companies.

Tips: 

-          Tone set from the TOP (CEO and senior execs)

-          Focus on headline/ key initiative that is game changing

-          Ethical behaviour throughout organisation

-          Strong and regular internal communication

-          Consistent external communication

Grand Canyon Retreat Conference

All 20 of the Eisenhower Fellowship team reunited at The Grand Canyon to compare experiences and discuss the next few weeks

Denver, Colorado

CH2M Hill


This morning I drove out of Denver with the Rock Mountains in the distance, to hunt down Patty Keck at CH2M Hill in a business estate about 30min away.I was mildly affected by the altitude as the 'mile high' status of this city takes a while for the lungs to adjust! With 23,000 employees (mainly engineers) across 220 offices in many countries, CH2M Hill faces many cultural challenges similar to that of WorleyParsons, and has been very successful in branding itself as a leader in Sustainability, bother internally as a role of corporate citizenship, and externally as a business consulting service. It also have a strong position in disaster relief.

Who I met: Patty Keck, Director, Community Investment

website: www.ch2m.com/ <http://www.ch2m.com/>

About CH2M Hill: Motivated to achieve the "triple bottom line" benefits of environmental stewardship, social equity, and economic progress, CH2M HILL's professionals apply sustainability principles to practically every design, construction, and operations challenge our clients face.

CH2M HILL possesses both the culture and the talent to deliver lasting results for complex, multi-disciplinary, long-term projects. We promote the technical interaction required to create robust, system-based, and integrated sustainable solutions, producing tangible benefits for the environment, communities, and our clients' business success.

Key Messages:

Patty explained the selection process as what gets corporate support by CH2M Hill (i.e not funded out of location operating budgets). Last year 2 global themes/initiatives were selected 

1) Environmental Sustainability

2) Science & Technology Education

These are intended to be supported by all offices, and represent ~80% of funding, 20% to locally selected and implemented community initiatives.

There is a high level of staff voluntary involvement (unpaid) and the company is considering a paid structure for some Pro Bono type work.

Other points made:

- The annual Sustainability report ties together many pieces of work being managed by selected managers who sit within a range of business units (distributed model). There is no central Governance committee or equivalent.

- Awards like Catalyst (women's / diversity) are applied for. Top 100 most Ethical companies

- Partners with Engineers Without Borders ~100 participants pa.

- Participates in World Economic Forum "Disaster Resource Network" (Gary Craft) setting up structure and resources in a co-ordinated manner

- CEO attends CECP forums

- Challenges around volunteerism, becomes low priority when busy or harder economic climate.
- Transparency around link between core business and community work is sincere and open

 Engineers Without Borders (EWB) USA

Dubbed the “Blueprint Brigade,” by Time Magazine, EWB-USA grew from little more than a handful of members in 2002 to over 12,000 today.  EWB-USA has over 350 projects in over 45 developing countries around the world including water, renewable energy, sanitation and more.  These projects are completed in partnership with local communities and NGOs.

Who I Met: Art Ens. Business Development & Strategy

Art's role is to provide overall strategic leadership and management for implementation of EWB-USA's fundraising efforts. Our goal is to create numerous, efficient, and compelling opportunities for donors to support EWB-USA and to make the experience of giving satisfying and rewarding. Responsibilities include annual giving, major gifts, foundation giving, planned giving, and all fundraising support functions.
EWB-USA helps create a more stable and prosperous world by addressing people's basic human needs by providing necessities such as clean water, power, sanitation and education.

EWB-USA’s strength comes from its over 250 dedicated chapters, including university chapters on 180 campuses in the United States.

New York High Line in Sunshine

New York exploration with Maggie from KPMG

Wall St & Midtown Corporate Citizenship Hunt

AccountAbility

Who I met: Karl Pfalzgraf    Director at  AccountAbility

web:   http://www.accountability.org/

Bio on Karl Pfalzgraf:

http://www.accountability.org/about-us/our-people/karl-pfalzgraf.html

Key themes discussed: We explored successful models of corporate social responsibility and learn how buy-in among shareholders, employees and clients is obtained.

AccountAbility is a leading international organisation providing innovative solutions to the most critical challenges in corporate responsibility and sustainable development. Since 1995 we have been helping corporations, non-profits and governments embed ethical, environmental, social, and governance accountability into their organisational DNA. Our unique value proposition brings together leading-edge research, widely-recognised standards and strategic advisory services to deliver practical solutions for our clients.  

Key Messages:

- Young company providing services

- Practical models / guidelines ready to use for CSR at companies

- Keen to expand into Australia

- Further communications and collaboration expected

This was a  really fun experience, and I especially enjoyed spending lunch on Madison Ave with 4 of the team discussing a range of relevant issues. 

AccountAbility team lead by Karl Pfalzgraf - Madison Ave lunch after a great meeting 

 Recognise the street sceene from Mad Men TV series?

 The Roosevelt Hitel, Madison Ave

The Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy. (CECP)

 

Who I met: Ms. Margaret Coady, Director at the The Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy. She was told that you are interested in learning more about the work of the organization as well as to explore its philosophy on the best strategies to maximize the impact of donations.

A bio: http://www.corporatephilanthropy.org/about-cecp/staff.html

 

What they do:

The Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy is the only international forum of business CEOs and chairpersons focused exclusively on corporate philanthropy.

 

CECP's mission is to lead the business community in raising the level and quality of corporate philanthropy. We offer our members essential resources, including a proprietary online benchmarking tool, networking programs, research, and opportunities for best-practice sharing.

 

CECP believes that discipline applies to philanthropy, like any other business function. When companies demonstrate programmatic effectiveness, fiscal accountability, and good stewardship in their philanthropic programs, society and business both stand to benefit greatly. Through innovative programs like those aimed at eradicating disease or raising childhood literacy rates, companies can also improve employee retention and heighten brand recognition.

 

Key Messages –

-          Important for senior manager to debate the role of business involvement in solving social projects

-          Learn from others: Open discussions at a peer level can be very productive to simplify complex themes

 

 

 



New York New York

Roof & city skyline from Susie & Mat's place in Midtown-Chealsea area of Manhattan

 Susie & Mat

 Susie & Maggie at The Met roof overlooking Central Park

 Bamboo art sculpture on roof of The Met

Harvard - more

Marni making a statement ....

 Harvard Yard architecture

Harvard University - Kennedy School

I am still in Boston. This week doing a one week course on "Leadership for the 21Century: Chaos, Conflict and Courage" at Harvard ....so this baby is going to be highly educated before it is even born! The 68 'executives' are from 19 countries and are an impressive group.

What is the course about?

"In our daily lives, we all operate from a certain set of assumptions by which we make decisions. Whether we know it or not, we are often guided by our gut. Leadership for the 21st Century: Chaos, Conflict and Courage is an executive education program offered at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government that delves into why we lead the way we do. The program offers a personal, stimulating, and challenging week that invites you to learn how to act courageously and skillfully when exercising leadership.

The program is different from the average leadership development programs that focus primarily on building a distinct set of skills and tactics. Leadership for the 21st Century does more by pushing you to reflect on your deepest assumptions and most strongly held values, and encouraging you to consider how your values and beliefs may have limited you in the past. It challenges you to look beyond formulating quick technical solutions that act as band-aids to deeper organizational challenges, and instead asks you to examine yourself and the competing commitments and loyalties in your organization or community.

The five-day course requires participants to be actively engaged on several levels - in the classroom, in small groups, and in individual reflection. You will discuss issues like creating and claiming value, understanding the relationship between leadership and authority, exercising influence, and managing the individual and institutional dynamics of change. We will explore a wide range of leadership strategies and practice new ways of exercising leadership, whether in a position of authority or just one member of a group. We will confront the dangers and risks associated with exercising leadership – the chaos and conflict – and explore how you can build up your capacity to navigate unpredictable waters.

Where is your leadership taking you? Do you have the courage and skills to exercise leadership for the purposes you care about most? Leadership for the 21st Century is a provocative seminar that introduces a set of conceptual frameworks and a unique teaching method designed to challenge your fundamental assumptions about how you can courageously and effectively exercise leadership and authority during hard times."