Teneo Insights Webinar: Corporate America’s Response to Social and Environmental Imperatives Teneo Insights / March 25, 2021 Kevin Kajiwara (KK): Good day, everyone. Thank you for joining Van Jones Teneo Senior Advisor Teneo Insights. I’m Kevin Kajiwara, Co-President of Teneo Political [email protected] Risk Advisory in New York City, and thank you very much for accommodating our time change today. On Saturday, November 7th Mark Weinberger Senior Advisor of last year, I was at home with the TV on in the background, and [email protected] like so many of you, I was waiting for that inevitable but painfully Kevin Kajiwara slow to arrive moment when the election was finally called. And in Co-President, the event, I heard it, and after watching John King and Wolf Blitzer Political Risk Advisory [email protected] up at the magic wall there for about a hundred straight hours, I have to admit that it took a second for it to sink in. And the enormity of the event was evident throughout the rest of that day on the streets of New York and obviously in so many other places, but really, Teneo Insights Webinar: Corporate America’s Response to Social and Environmental Imperatives what stood out for me was actually a election, its aftermath, January 6th, and now relatively quiet moment between that initial adjusting to a new administration. announcement and the rebels on the streets later that day. That is an awful lot for leaders of major corporations, not to mention the rest of us, It was Van Jones’s reaction, and his now to have to navigate. So, I want to start by famous line, “It’s easier to be a parent this just level setting here. How did corporate morning.” That resonated. It summed up, I America do, and how well poised are they think, in many ways, the lifting of a weight to follow through on the decisions and off of the nation’s shoulders that, finally, pledges that were made, even as they whatever side you were on, the election was prepare for this post pandemic era with so finally over, but it meant so much more to so much uncertainty out there? Van, you talk to many people as well. So, I am very pleased corporate leaders. What are your thoughts today to be joined today for the first time by as we head into this new phase? Teneo’s newest Senior Advisor, Van Jones, best known to many of you probably for his Van Jones (VJ): Well, I think we have to be appearances on CNN. He is also an Emmy hopeful for a couple reasons. First of all, even Award winning producer. He’s a New York 12 months ago, if you’d asked most people, Times bestselling author. He was Green certainly people in the mainstream, white Jobs Advisor to President Obama, and a Americans, how important is anti-black racism very prominent advocate of the First Step to you? How important is police reform, the Act for criminal justice reform, and he has racial wealth gap? You’d have gotten very also founded or co-founded several non- disappointing answers, even 12 months ago. profit social enterprises. We’re in the middle of COVID, and some of the racial imbalances in COVID were just We’re also joined today by someone familiar becoming a part of the public conversation, and to regulars of this call. Mark Weinberger, we were still a couple of months before George a Senior Advisor and longtime friend of Floyd. Twelve months later, frankly by the end Teneo. He’s the former Global Chairman of the summer, polls showed 20 to 30 million and CEO of EY. Today, he sits on the boards white Americans had changed their position of Johnson & Johnson, MetLife, and Saudi dramatically and were putting anti-black racism Aramco, and he has also served, in various near the top of their list of concerns. That’s an capacities, every president going back extraordinary development. Dr. King never had to Bill Clinton. We’ve got a lot to discuss one summer where he picked up 30 million new about how corporate America is meeting supporters. So, against that backdrop, I think the challenges that it feels like all hit at corporate America did the right thing in stepping once, but really, in reality, we’re years and forward, trying to meet the moment. decades in the making. If you’d like to join our conversation, please do so via the I think the challenge in 2021 is to shift from moderator chat button on your screen, what I would call pity to partnership. We’ve got and we’ll try to get to your questions. to move now from a kind of grievance-based So, gentlemen, welcome. Obviously, it’s set of concessions that were really rooted in an been a hell of a year, the pandemic and awareness of injustice in the present and the the economic disruption it caused, the past. That was a very important moment, but deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor that’s not sustainable. I don’t care how sorry and others, leading to the largest social you feel for your neighbors, there’s only so justice movement in American history, the much pity you can generate from somebody 2 Teneo Insights Webinar: Corporate America’s Response to Social and Environmental Imperatives who’s not directly related to you and even ago or 10 years ago ever. I think you’ve got a your cousin gets on your nerves. So, you can’t bunch of pools of capital, pension funds and just stay in a pity based, concession-based others, that now have screens. They used to model. You’ve got to move to an asset-based have these kinds of funds off to the side, now partnership model that’s rooted more in bigger and bigger pools of capital have screens opportunity now and in the future. on them. And that’s the challenge, because partnerships So, if you want customers or capital, which you are sustainable, especially when they’re asset should want, you’re going to have to be able based. We’ve got a whole bunch of people who to answer these questions. If you want to be came in because they were feeling selfless able to answer these questions in a way that’s and generous. I want people to stay because other than just checking the box and tokenism, they’re feeling selfish and greedy and think, which is going to become less and less tenable “Hey, this is a way for us all to make a ton more and more and more easy to expose, I think money by tapping the wisdom and the genius people have to take this as a springboard and the markets and the talent that’s been left into a deeper engagement, with the promise out for too long.” I want people to think, “I can of more customers and more capital, but as make a lot more money, get into a lot more, a springboard and not as a kind of a resting great partnerships. My company can be more place. Well, now we’ve arrived. I think that competitive. I can have a lot more fun if I crack mentality is going to get you the worst of all this sort of diversity thing,” not out of pity, but possible worlds. You’ll do just enough talking out of partnership. Not out of trying to help for people to ask what you’re doing, but not somebody else. That’s good to do, but also enough doing to satisfy the next question. trying to help my own bottom line. KK: You know, Mark, I’d love to hear your KK: And so do you think that what actually thoughts on this as well, but I want to also happened in terms of entering into these broaden the discussion here a little bit to partnerships, in terms of joining these this point of all of the different issues that initiatives and the like, enough of that has CEOs are facing going forward and boards gone or enough of a base of that has been and so on. And obviously, as we think established for this to be sustainable once about what’s to come, companies cannot sort of the headlines have worked away and fully prepare for every eventuality, right? all kinds of new challenges and objectives Or, every black swan event or black fat tail arise for corporate leadership? Do you risk. So, what are the lessons learned here? think that base has been sort of irrevocably I mean, some industries, you know, we’re established? utilizing one that did very well right now, right? Video conferencing. Some industries VJ: Well, I hope so, but I don’t know. Here’s did better than others, like hospitality due what I know has changed. You’ve got a to circumstances, but within industries, bunch of consumers out there that are asking some companies did far better than others, questions, and they’re on social media and due to preparedness and/or management they want to know, where are you on race? skill. What did we, what did you learn about Where are you on gender? Where are you on leadership that can be emulated going the environment, ecology, climate? So, the forward, particularly when we can’t lose consumer has moved, and I don’t think they’re the momentum on the stuff that Van is going to move back to where they were a year importantly talking about here? 3 Teneo Insights Webinar: Corporate America’s Response to Social and Environmental Imperatives Mark Weinberger (MW): Great.