10/5 Speaker: Kevin Thompson
Social trends are having an enormous impact on company performance and corporate behavior. This interactive discussion will focus on major sociopolitical trends creating opportunities for today's most innovative companies to proactively address topics such as environmental sustainability, poverty alleviation, public health and ethically responsible products. Emphasis will be placed on what the changing business - society relationship means to people looking for careers in this field and related areas.
Recommended pre-reading http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/a_new_era_for_business/ .
Please post a thought, comment or question for Friday's speaker as
a comment to this post by Thursday night. This is for class discussion/participation
purposes only, but will also serve to prepare you to ask a question or
make a comment in the Q&A period after Mr. Thomposn's talk. Thanks.
Bio:
Kevin Thompson is a Senior Program Manager for
Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Affairs at IBM, based in Armonk,
New York. In this role he creates innovative solutions for core
societal problems using IBM's technological expertise and global reach.
Currently he is focused on the challenges and opportunities created by globalization, managing two program areas. The first is leading the design, development and deployment of the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) Toolkit, a free open source platform that delivers interactive tools, online collaboration and educational content to help SMEs in emerging and underserved markets compete and succeed. The SME Toolkit, a partnership with the World Bank's International Finance Corporation, is deployed in 28 markets and translated into 14 languages.
The second program area is the Corporate Service Corps, which exposes IBM employees to the 21st century context for business – diverse cultures, policy environments and societal expectations – by placing teams of IBM employees in developing countries for 4-6 weeks working on societal, educational and environmental challenges.
Additional responsibilities include integrating IBM's societal programs and policies with business strategy, measurement of corporate citizenship performance, internal and external citizenship reporting, cross-company citizenship management systems, and engagement with the socially responsible investment community.
Mr. Thompson has spoken at Cornell University, Harvard University's David Rockefeller Center, University of Michigan and at convenings hosted by the Conference Board, Corporate Responsibility Officer, AHC Group, and Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship where he has been invited to join the board, starting in 2008. He has held roles at IBM in global strategy, marketing management and distribution channels planning. Prior to IBM he managed a farm in rural Ghana, West Africa while a US Peace Corps volunteer and performed as a musician based in Massachusetts. Mr. Thompson holds MBA and MS degrees from Cornell University and a BA from the University of Massachusetts in Natural Systems. A native of Delaware, he currently lives in Connecticut.