THE CORPORATE CITIZEN | WINTER 2023: This article looks at the sustainability strategies of an often overlooked powerhouse, in terms of economic influence and ESG impact.
Examples of Company Mentoring Programs

Featured this week: Amica Insurance, Atrium Health, Bank of America, Black Hills Energy, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, CEMEX, Crowe, CSX Corporation, Deloitte, Delta Air Lines, Deltek, Desert Financial Credit Union, Enbridge, Erie Insurance, Fiserv, Florida Blue, Insperity, KeyBank, Kyndryl, Labcorp, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, Lowe's, MerchSource LLC, PwC, Target, TD Bank, Veolia Water New Jersey, Vanguard, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Walgreens, Webster Financial Corporation
The member community convened by the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship is one of a kind. The 500+ companies we serve each year around the globe are leaders in environmental, social, and governance action, and the thousands of individuals who make up this network are some of the best in the field!
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Here is how our members have been working to build better business and a better world:

Spotlight on You
Sponsor, mentor, and advocate for women, Kyndryl chief transformation officer, Nelly Akoth shared on LinkedIn how she works to grow and develop her team. "Powering progress means stretching myself beyond my comfort zone..."
With younger generations of talent now making up most of the workforce, more likely to change jobs, and far more diverse than older generations, successful organizations must understand who they are and what they value. Mary Schlegel, Labcorp’s learning and development manager, leads the company's reverse diverse mentoring program, which assigns younger employees with diverse backgrounds as diversity mentors to executives. As a result of the program, Brenda Velasquez Wagner, Labcorp chief diversity and inclusion officer, says people feel a greater sense of "belonging and connectedness."
Sarah Grimstead, regional vice president at Insperity, wrote an article about the power of reverse mentoring.
Jane Fraser, the first female CEO in the history of Citi, recently joined Vanguard chairman and CEO Tim Buckley for a fireside chat about leadership. Fraser discussed the importance of mentorship throughout her career: “Three things you look for in a mentor. Who is going to give you the feedback that really matters about upping your game? Who’s going to take a chance on you? Who’s going to give you opportunities? They aren’t always the same person, and they usually aren’t your boss.”
Crowe CEO, Mark Baer, joined the board of directors for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). “Suicide is one of our nation’s leading, yet preventable causes of death. It’s through the leadership and dedication of those who serve on the national board that we will continue advancing suicide prevention in our country,” said AFSP chief executive officer Robert Gebbia. “We would like to congratulate our new National Board of Directors members and thank them for volunteering their time, expertise, and passion to save lives and bring hope to those affected by suicide."
Kseniya Benderskaya started a new position as assistant vice president and community affairs officer, community development at Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
National Mentoring Month Stories and Examples
For National Mentoring Month, Amica Insurance employees talked about their experiences with Amica’s Impact – Excel & Elevate mentorship program, which connects underrepresented employees with a mentor to help build skills, network, and find community.

Bank of America is mentoring emerging women leaders through its Global Ambassadors program. The Global Ambassadors program, developed in 2012 in partnership with Vital Voices, pairs emerging talent across small and medium social businesses and non-profit organizations with senior women executives in various industries for a week of one-on-one, group and peer mentoring. Participants of the Global Ambassadors Program are tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges – the climate crisis, gender-based violence, and economic and racial inequalities – all while boosting their local economies and creating a positive social impact in their communities.
TD Bank believes return-to-work professionals should be able to excel in the workplace just like their peers who did not take career breaks. TD is working with iRelaunch, a career reentry company, to offer a 6-month career transition program for financial professionals who are relaunching their careers. The program includes skill refreshers, mentoring, coaching, networking and a personalized development plan.
Last month, Florida Blue lit up its Riverside office green in honor of #NationalMentoringMonth. The company urged stakeholders to take a moment to thank the mentors in their lives. "Let them know what their support means to you and then inspire others to consider becoming a mentor themselves!" the company shared in a LinkedIn post.
During a 45-minute Q&A session, attendees heard first-hand how women leaders at Deltek navigated their journey to the C-Suite. Leaders shared their personal experiences with mentorship and career advancement, and provided advice for reaching professional goals.
More Member Companies in the News
Ten military-affiliated entrepreneurs recently received $10,000 grants at the conclusion of a competition hosted by Syracuse University’s D’Aniello Institute for Veterans and Military Families (IVMF) and sponsored by Fiserv, a leading global provider of payments and financial services technology. The grants will provide capital to fuel the growth of each business.
In its latest "Hometowns" success story (one example from a five-year, $100 million commitment to improvement projects across the country), Lowe's shared how team volunteering and grant funding helped to triple the size of a local food pantry.
CEMEX launched its global waste management subsidiary Regenera, a business that provides circularity solutions, including reception, management, recycling, and coprocessing of waste of three major waste streams: municipal and industrial waste; construction, demolition, and excavation waste (CDEW); and industrial by-products. Regenera leverages CEMEX’s global footprint and the ability of its production processes to use non-recyclable refuse and industrial byproducts as more sustainable substitutes for fossil fuels and natural raw materials.
The Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) recently published its 2022 Environmental, Social, and Governance Report highlighting the past year of achievements and progress. WBA places healthcare at the center of its ESG framework and pursued a number of projects related to its goal of reimagining local healthcare and wellbeing for all. Some highlights include: WBA administered approximately 36 million COVID-19 vaccinations during fiscal 2022; donated a total of $100 million to communities around the world to bolster health and wellbeing; and achieved 21.2 percent carbon emissions reduction against its goal to reduce carbon emissions by 30 percent by 2030 compared with 2019 baseline. Walgreens ranked 40 on the 2022 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity.
Webster Bank recently collaborated with Yonkers Partners in Education (YPIE) to launch the first-ever Webster/YPIE Finance Lab and the YPIE Finance Major in Yonkers schools. Webster has sponsored these programs with a $100,000 investment. Students in low- to moderate-income communities will have the opportunity to enhance their financial literacy skills, which contributes to overall economic empowerment. “Webster is committed to investing in programs that foster youth leadership and help build our future workforce,” said Marissa Weidner, chief corporate responsibility officer, Webster Bank. “This opportunity to expand our existing relationship with Yonkers Partners in Education with the launch of our first Webster Finance Lab will allow us to educate and empower more people in the communities we serve.”
In 2022, Enbridge raised $3.6 million in their 30th annual campaign for chapters of United Way across North America. In Houston, Enbridge employees focused their efforts on Target Hunger, one of the city’s largest non-profits providing direct food assistance for children, families, and seniors in northeast and east Houston neighborhoods. Over the entire company, employees logged nearly 2,900 volunteer hours. Other highlights from the year included: a 480-hour volunteer effort supporting Edmonton’s Food Bank and Tools for School in Edmonton, Canada and a raffle organized by our U.S. Midwest region that raised $2,165 for the Head of the Lakes United Way.
The KeyBank Foundation recently distributed a charitable grant of $500,000 payable over three years to Connecticut Foodshare. The grant funds will be crucial to making planned strategic improvements to Connecticut Foodshare’s Mobile Pantry program, which distributes food to those in need who lack direct proximity to a supermarket or food pantry or may not have a vehicle or the physical means to access other resources. Connecticut Foodshare currently operates over 100 Mobile Pantry sites statewide. In 2022, the program distributed 4.9 million pounds of food and served an average of 17,718 food-insecure households per month.

Members on the Move
Join us in welcoming new member: Deltek!
A big thanks to Brie Tangney, manager, signature initiatives and civic leadership development, corporate citizenship at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts and Sarah Knaus, manager, social impact at Deloitte, who recently joined us as panelists at our January Member Meetup on pro bono work and skills-based volunteering. Members who are interested can download the meeting recap notes here.
Members from Atrium Health, Desert Financial Credit Union, Black Hills Energy, Delta Air Lines, MerchSource LLC, PwC, CSX Corporation, MassMutual, Veolia Water New Jersey, Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, and Erie Insurance have recently registered for the 2023 International Corporate Citizenship Conference, happening this spring in Minneapolis, hometown of our convening sponsor, Target. Reserve your spot today!
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