 Good day to all of you. My name is Jeff Rochester. I'm the founder of GRC Advising. I'm so happy to be here I've known the folks at Sustainable Brands for years. So thank you to Sustainable Brands, Koan, Scott, Demeter for giving me this opportunity Thank you to SoCAP for partnering with Sustainable Brands on Integrate The key message of my talk today has to do with the role all of you can have, the role of all you can play in helping address inequality issues through the use of capital. So I know this is an audience of CMOs, CFOs and Chief Sustainability Officers, and my major challenge, my major message to all of you is when you wake up in the morning and you're doing your job, do you feel you can impact? Do you feel you can mobilize the capital of your organizations to address some of these issues? So to put this all in context, what a year right? Sad, depressing, stressful, COVID the Black Lives Matters movement, which was deeply personal to me and which led to the thoughts I'm going to share with you all today. And then voter turnout, the year of the vote, we're still in the midst of it this week, hopefully to be resolved soon. And there was one good thing in my mind that came out of this. I've always been passionate about the role of brands and companies in addressing society's ills. This is from a study that Edelman did. Edelman is a world-famous, well-respected PR firm. They've been doing an annual trust survey in multiple countries around the world where they ask questions around the extent to which business, nonprofits, media and the government are trusted by their citizens and they do this in several places, several countries around the world. And what we've seen is a steady rise in consumers' expectations and trust in brands and in nonprofits. And we've seen a steady decline in consumers' trust around the government and in media. Specifically, though, and I think it was clearly driven by the events of this year, this is a study from the second half of this year where consumers increasingly are looking for brands and businesses to address their problems be a dependable provider, be a reliable source of information, be a protector. And increasingly, 80% of consumers are saying, I want that business, that brand that I work with, to solve society's problems, to be a visionary, to be a problem solver, to be a positive force in shaping our culture. And I think this is in direct response to what we've all seen. COVID and health care and the frailties of our health care system, issues of inequity around race, and frustration around voting. So I think all of you, all of we, have a huge opportunity, huge responsibility to play a greater role. And so my central theme is, do you think you can even have an impact on the wealth gap? And we know this. We know that a typical white family has eight times the wealth of the typical black family and five times the wealth of the typical Hispanic family. So if you're working for Koch, if you're working for Nike, if you're working for Google, if you're working for CVS, what role can you plan addressing this issue? Can business, can the CFO be an agent of change? These companies wield enormous financial resources, but do you feel that you've got an ability to drive those resources to affect some of these issues? This is a methodology that I came up with, literally from talking to Koan and Scott and the folks at SB last summer, and just kind of brainstorming and dialoguing with them about how should brands and companies view their reaction to George Floyd, their reaction to Black Lives Matters. And in my mind, this is what I advise my clients. This is what I advise my friends and colleagues in business. First of all, is it about blacks or it's about larger audiences? Are you being authentic in your response? Are you looking at your business and your operational issues? What is the role? What can you be doing with employees relative to race and injustice? And finally, a bolded procurement and supply chain, because I think there's a huge opportunity there. So let me take you through all of these. The quality for all, is your vision broad enough? So look, it's amazing when the NBA says they're going to stand up a $300 million foundation. To focus on empowering Black communities. It's amazing when Pepsi says they're going to allocate $400 million to lift up Black communities and increase Black representation. My issue, my concern, when I see that, what I think about in my head is, okay, so Black Lives Matter is an issue in July. What if there's an issue with Hispanics in September, and an issue around women in November? Do those demand discrete separate strategies, perhaps? But are you taking a holistic view? How comprehensive is your approach on race and gender? Because I think sometimes I feel like companies and brands are reacting reflexively, as opposed to holistically. There's no question that there's an issue with police and Hispanics. There's no question that there are issues of gender and sexual orientation that companies need to be aware of and addressing and doing the best they can. So are you looking at these all as interrelated issues or discrete? Is my question is my challenge. Representation. I don't know how you write a check to Black Lives Matter quite frankly, if you don't look internally at your organization, at your representation, and start there. Again, writing checks to nonprofits, nothing wrong with it. But are companies really using this moment to have a thorough assessment of their practices, starting with representation, C-suite and Board. 2019, 37%, almost 4 out of 10 American companies did not have a single Black on their board. Unacceptable. California, mini case study, California passed something called Proposition 826 in 2018, where they stipulated that publicly traded companies doing business in the state of California had to have at least one female board member. So guess what, they went from 30% of the boards in doing business in California having no female representation to only 4% by the end of 2019. Huge improvement, huge. That led to 138 women serving on these boards and several states, including Massachusetts, New Jersey, Illinois, are following suit. And hopefully you all saw this year that Goldman said they would no longer take out companies, support companies doing an IPO if they did not have appropriate representation on their board. So these are just some best practices and some initiatives that you should all be aware. Let's talk about operations. I remember, this was probably, I can't remember the year, but probably a dozen years ago, there's an article about Oprah being followed around in a store in Paris. Well, whether that was a written protocol operation or not, it was clearly a cultural bias that company had. Walgreens and CVS, I thought this was a tremendous example of what I'm talking about, where they looked inside their operations. They realized there was clear bias to people of color and they changed. They changed their protocols. So CVS said, we are taking steps in our stores to ensure that no here beauty or personal care products for communities of color are kept in lock displays or shelving units. Imagine your young girl, 10 to 12 of color, ethnic, and you're going to the CVS or a store because your mom is buying cosmetics and she's taking you with her. And you experienced having someone unlock a cabinet to get the cosmetics or the beauty products to give to your mom. What statement does that make to a 10, 12 year old? So I was so happy that CVS had the courage to look inside their operations and modify that behavior. And as I said, they were joined by several other brands and companies. Voter engagement. I did a lot of work on voting this summer. I worked with a group called vote.org. Fantastic group focused on getting millennials and people of color to the polls. And I learned a staggering statistic that only 44% of companies give their employees time off with pay. So you're an hourly worker. You're making $10, $15 an hour. You can't afford to take three, five, six hours to wait in line for vote to vote. Thankfully, several companies signed up to change their practices this year. But when you think about race and injustice, don't underestimate that one of the most empowering things you can help your employees with is facilitating voting. So hopefully you did your best this time. Hopefully you'll do more next time. But I always encourage companies when they think about their response to race and injustice, voting needs to be a part of it. Supplier diversity. This is the one I have the most hope for. And several of you probably have diverse supplier programs, but can you be doing more? And look, I look inside myself. I used to run a 40 million dollar budget when I was at the Nature Conservancy. And I didn't do enough to say, how could we have, so I'm a marketing guy, could we be looking at women's social media experts? Could I be looking at black owned ad agencies? Could I be looking at minority research companies? I think this is one of the most powerful levers you all have to affect change. When you fund, when you include a woman or minority as part of your vendor program, you're creating jobs, right? And, and you know, go back to that wealth gap. That wealth gap is about wages, it's about net worth. It's about people creating businesses that will support their family and their grandchildren down the road. So I can't stress enough. And again, I know a lot of you have those programs, but do you and your role as CMO? Do you and your role as CSO? Do you and your role as CFO really think about how much more you can be doing in that area? Because, again, when I think about the ills of our society, especially related to race, one of the most important things we can all help to do and facilitate is economic activity. Now, these are some people I think you should know, and I'm Jeffgeof.RochesterGmail. So I'm happy to talk about any of these topics in greater length after the conference, Jeff.RochesterGmail.com. But these are people you should know. These are best practices. These are people doing groundbreaking work. Elle Vest. Sally Crawcheck. She came from B of A. She was one of the most powerful and well-respected people in business. And she eschewed the traditional big banks and left and created her own initiative around empowering and advising and facilitating capital for women by women. Elle Vest. So if you're not familiar with it, please check it out. At Harvest, this is a group I do a lot of work with. They are really a leading edge, ambitious, what's called controlled environmental ad company, Greenhouses. They're building a facility. In fact, I'm here in Lexington right now. They're building a facility 60 acres in size, almost three million square feet. It will produce 40 million pounds of tomatoes a year. They've mobilized almost $400 million this year as a ramp up. And you know what? They invited this gentleman, Kevin Johnson, to be part of their race. He's an early investor. And that was a very deliberate choice. And I'm proud of the fact that they made that choice. And look, Kevin has created something called Black Capital. And his vision is to have people of color involved, blacks involved, in these kind of high profile projects. So again, if any of you have the ability, if you're investors, if your companies are making investments, what's your thesis? What's your strategy where you're partnering with and inviting people of color and women to be part of that economic activity? We know that early stage venture capital is highly successful, 123% return over the past 20 years. But guess what? Very few portions of the population are involved in that activity. And even fewer are people of color and women. So if you want to do something that has lasting impacts, is a point of leverage, what can you be doing? How can you be thinking differently about including people of color and women in your investment thesis? This is a good friend, Mike Lear. If you care about this issue, you should know Mike. He's a capital group. Capital group is one of the largest asset management companies in the world. They think a lot about this. They're trying to evolve their business practices. This is an article where their chief diversity officer was quoted. So get to know Mike and get to know capital group. They're fantastic. And they're thinking about these issues. Danielle Lee, good friend of mine. I've known her for years. Georgetown alum started a nonprofit when she was 19. She's had tremendous success. And what's relevant for this audience is that, when you think about accelerators, when you think about allocation of capital to fund next generation entrepreneurs, she's doing it. She's a Hispanic woman. She's an immigrant to the US and she has a big vision. And the vision is how do you mobilize, how do you encourage entrepreneurship from millennials to solve the world's biggest marine protection problems through the use of technology? Mark Benioff, founder of Salesforce, has given her over a million dollars. And so her thesis is she's going to change the world. She's going to impact climate change through entrepreneurship. She has a goal to stand up 100 entrepreneurs over the next few years. She's funded 21 of them. And these 21 entrepreneurs that she selects, they apply to be part of her program. The winners, they go to San Francisco. They go through a boot camp. They get funding. They get mentorship and away they go. She's done this 21 times. And collectively, her accelerator graduates have raised $20 million. And several of these are women and people of color. So she's attacking this issue in her own way. Her priority is marine protection, but she's making sure that she's doing outreach to diverse audiences to make them part of this entrepreneurial wave. This is a group that was formed as part of the Black Lives Matter movement. They're called Racial Justice Investing Coalition. If you don't know about them, they should be on your radar. And they've gotten 128 institutional investors to make a commitment to diversity and inclusion in their investment thesis. So they should be on your radar. So as I close this out, I've been a CMO all my life. Several of you are Chiefs of Sustainability Officers. Several of you are Chiefs of Financial Officers. Do you feel that you have permission to mobilize and impact the way your institution is using capital? This is a quote from an article from Nonprofit Quarterly. Anyone who cares to look deeply at the intersection of race and the economy knows that the economy doesn't work on a race-neutral basis. True words were never said. Further, the financial system determines where capital flows and on what terms where wealth gets extracted. So again, I think in your day jobs, as a marketing person, you're thinking about marketing promotions and non-profit support and your operations, et cetera. Same thing with the CSO. You're thinking about carbon footprint, reducing carbon footprint of your operations. But the reality is we all know is that money moves the world. So my challenge to all of you is what is your strategy and how hard are you working to augment the impact you can have in the world through partnering with the CEO, the CFO, the CMO and the CSO to bring greater decisions, greater impact to how you're making decisions around capital allocation. So look, thank you. I love the Sustainable Brands team. Thank you, SOCAP, for giving me this opportunity. This has been a hell of a year, a trying year. I've shed a bunch of tears, election night, quite frankly, November 3rd. But I have a deep and abiding belief and hope that we as professionals and as a community of professionals that care about social purpose, that we will double down. 2020 was a god-awful year. God-awful. God-awful. But my hope to all of you is that you can double down and you can spend some time thinking about this issue of the massive financial resources that your company commands. And I want you to feel that you can have a seat at a table. I think, and I want you to feel that you can have a seat at a table to use those assets to further diversity and inclusion and uplift the status, the well-being of women and people of color in this country. So thank you very much. Thank you.