The Fowler Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit, Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University and the College of Business Administration, Kent State University proudly co-hosted the 2019 UN PRME Chapter North America 5th Regional Meeting June 2nd - 4th, 2019. This collaboration reflected a commitment to our shared community of Northeast Ohio as we engaged students, faculty and the business community in responsible management and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals).
The event brought together more than 70 participants from academic, non-profit, and corporate backgrounds. On the first day, in addition to several academic presentations, we hosted interactive sessions with business and social enterprise professionals focused on strengthening the economic and social impact of their organizations through examining potential partnerships with private, public, and social sector organizations. We explored the opportunities afforded by strategic partnerships across organizational boundaries of business, non-profits, government and academe to accelerate achievements of shared regional goals, as expressed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
Jens Molbak, founder of WinWin and Coinstar, gave the morning Keynote address and spoke about his company WinWin which is a non-profit that seeks to utilize a data-driven “tri-sector” approach to align the resources available in the private, social, and public sectors to generate superior societal and financial outcomes. WinWin is based on the idea that tremendous value can be created (and waste reduced) when assets from companies, non-profits, and government agencies are collaboratively leveraged to reduce inefficiency and improve overall outcomes. After lunch we heard from a panel of professionals from Northeast Ohio including, Brian Broadbent – President and CEO, Business Volunteers Unlimited, Kristin Hall – Director, City of Cleveland Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, Lillian Kuri – VP of Strategic Grantmaking, Arts and Urban Design Initiatives, Cleveland Foundation, Rosanne Potter – Senior VP and CFO, Cleveland Foundation, Bill Vogelgesang – Co-founder of EPOCH Pi, and Andrew Watterson – Senior VP, Head of Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility Officer, KeyBank.
Day two was initiated with a Keynote address by Dr. Chris Laszlo, professor of Organizational Behavior at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management and one of the originators of the concept of Sustainable Value. Dr. Laszlo spoke about social enterprise in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The day also featured more than 10 lightning round and breakout sessions focused on sharing academic initiatives and results.
Thank you to everyone who was able to join us for the PRME North America conference this year. Our dedication to responsible management education remains unwavering and we appreciated the opportunity to host so many of our colleagues at Case Western Reserve University and to partner on the opportunity with our neighbor, Kent State University. Through our own initiatives and future collaborations, we encourage and support business to serve as a powerful force for good. In the spirit of Global Goal #17 Partnership for the Goals, we thank you for joining us in Cleveland, Ohio and look forward to future collaborations.