CEO Roundtable:
The Good Fight
HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria are ravaging emerging global economies. A group of CEOs shares lifesaving solutions that are restoring hope around the world.
Andrew French
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E-mailThe statistics are staggering: According to the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GBC), 33 million people worldwide are infected with the HIV virus. Despite near eradication in the developed world, malaria still kills more than 1 million individuals in emerging countries every year. And no fewer than 14.4 million adults and children currently live with tuberculosis, which kills more women than all causes of maternal mortality combined.
Rather than dispirited acceptance, corporate leaders are increasingly taking up the battle against the global health crisis. Although most corporations give money, many provide expertise or products and donate employee time. Executives say the results of these efforts are worthwhile: Not only are they making significant headway against the global pandemics, but their own companies are more robust.
Recently, nyse magazine, in partnership with the GBC, hosted a discussion among executives who have declared war on the global health crisis. In the following pages, the CEOs explain what their companies are doing and how their efforts are motivating employees, boards, shareholders and communities.
These diseases are bigger than all of us combined. What has been your connection to the global health crisis?Roundtable Participants
(pictured above, from left)
JOERG REINHARDT, COO
Novartis AG (NVS)
The company makes pharmaceuticals, vaccines, generic drugs and consumer health products. At the time of the roundtable, Reinhardt was CEO of Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics.MICHAEL DAN, chairman, President/CEO
The Brink’s Co. (BCO)
Brink’s employs nearly 54,000 people and provides armored-car transport and cash logistics services in 55 countries.DUNCAN NIEDERAUER, CEO
NYSE Euronext (NYX)
The world’s largest and most diverse exchange group, NYSE Euronext is home to more than 4,600 listed issuers.EDWARD LUDWIG, Chairman/President/CEO
BD (Becton, Dickinson and Co.) (BDX)
The global medical technology company, with 28,000 employees in roughly 50 countries, develops, manufactures and sells medical devices, instrument systems and reagents.JOHN TEDSTROM, Moderator; Executive Director, Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria
Founded in 2001, the 220-member organization is committed to defeating the pandemics. GBC represents the private-sector delegation to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
EDWARD LUDWIG Becton Dickinson’s purpose is to help people live healthy lives through our technology. We are blessed with more than 100 years of that tradition. We were involved in the Salk polio vaccination program in the 1950s, for example. Many of the products we routinely donate are distributed only in the developing world. In the U.S., you don’t need syringes that self-destruct — people in health-care settings know not to reuse them. Our heritage goes beyond the products we sell. We also bring skills and learning by donating the talent and time of our people.
JOERG REINHARDT Novartis has been involved in not-for-profit programs to support global health for at least 10 years, mainly from a treatment perspective. Since we acquired Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics three years ago, we have also been active in disease prevention.
Novartis has created two not-for-profit institutes: one to focus on malaria, dengue and TB and the other to develop vaccines for diseases that pharmaceutical companies would not otherwise consider. Third-world diseases, especially diarrhea-related illnesses, kill millions each year. But no one will create vaccines for those diseases because there is no developed-country market. We believe development can happen only if you know from the beginning that it will be not for profit.
MICHAEL DAN Brink’s is a service business that provides security. We have more than 50,000 employees all over the world, many of whom take on risky jobs. Our company credo is that every employee comes home safe to their family at night. If you think about global health, it’s a safety issue. When I saw the statistics on AIDS and HIV infection rates, it was shocking. I decided our involvement was a way to help globalize the company and bring everybody together. The Brink’s initiative involves educating all of our employees about the global HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria issues. Additionally, we have made sure our employees have access to appropriate testing and health-care facilities.
We started our initiative as a global effort but had trouble getting traction. We went to a regional model, appointing regional monitors and then country monitors, and really engaged the organization in gathering information about the availability of health care for our employees and their families as it relates to HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. It took two years to launch the program, to understand the laws of the countries, privacy issues and other concerns, then to take the local charitable actions of Brink’s divisions and turn them toward HIV.
DUNCAN NIEDERAUER The NYSE Foundation isn’t huge, but we have an amazing community of businesses under our umbrella that we can help mobilize. A lot of corporate leaders are less exposed to these health issues than the three of you, so we use our name, our umbrella, to bring the message to the NYSE Euronext community of companies. For example, last spring we and the GBC co-hosted World Malaria Day with a goal of eliminating malaria mortality by 2010. United Nations Foundation Chairman Ted Turner and Nothing But Nets founder Rick Reilly rang the Closing Bell™ to raise awareness that malaria kills a million people a year. It may seem like theater, but more people around the world watch the Opening Bell™ and Closing Bell than any other single event on a daily basis.
What is the biggest win for your company as you’ve taken on these diseases?
LUDWIG One specific thing that we’ve done happens to be with PEPFAR [the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief]. Our third wave of volunteers is now coming back from Africa, where they have provided on-the-ground training, building and teaching diagnostics skills. They will leave behind a public health infrastructure that’s much more robust than what existed 10 years ago. There will be labs. There will be hospitals. There will be trained public health workers.
Two other programs come to mind. Africa has experienced a 91 percent reduction in measles deaths since the launch of our initiative in 2001. BD donated injection devices for the measles program to the American Red Cross, which led to an innovative global health partnership with UNICEF, the United Nations Foundation, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the World Health Organization.
We also worked on a 10-year program with UNICEF to eliminate maternal and neonatal tetanus in the developing world. When was the last time you heard of someone dying from tetanus? With the funding and devices donated by BD and the support of other partners, hundreds of thousands of women were vaccinated with the tetanus toxoid vaccine, protecting them and their newborns against tetanus.
REINHARDT We are especially proud of two projects. Since 2000 Novartis has given away leprosy treatment for free, which has helped eliminate the disease in large parts of India and Asia. The second is our Coartem program, in which we have distributed more than 195 million treatments for malaria at cost since 2001 to save an estimated 500,000 lives.
NIEDERAUER That’s what’s amazing about working with companies such as Novartis and BD that can make such statements. That reality must galvanize employees and our family of listed companies like nothing else. NYSE Euronext is at a different point in its life cycle. We’ve been a public company for about two and a half years. We’re just starting to get involved with groups like GBC and making contributions elsewhere. Our greatest asset lies in bringing leaders of the biggest companies together and effecting change. Our involvement in the global health crisis is a great reminder to our employees that we’re a global company. People want to work with companies that try to make a difference.
DAN I agree. The number of e-mails and phone calls from employees asking to volunteer at their branch, or in their region or country is amazing. When I visit a location, people ask me how our efforts are going. I’m excited to tell them about this roundtable and the things that my colleagues and I discussed. Our employees will talk about it. They will.
