Breakout Session 3

New York City's Olympic Bid
Susan Fainstein, Professor of Urban Planning, Program Director Urban Planning, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
Alexander Garvin, New York City Planning Commission, and Director of Planning, Design, and Development for NYC2012
David Oats, President, Queens Olympic Committee
Grant Thomas, Senior Advisor for Planning, NYC2012

Will the greatest city in the world get to play host to the greatest sporting event in the world? Learn about the NYC 2012 Olympic bid proposal, why New York City is the ideal host city, how the city would prepare to stage the event, why some are opposed to the proposal, and the ways in which New York would be transformed if it does, in fact, gain the honor of hosting. This session will cover the key issues that surround planning for and staging the 2012 Olympics.

Business and the Environment: Strategic Positioning for Competitive Advantage
Geoffrey Heal, Professor, Columbia Business School
Marc Brammer, Senior Analyst, Innovest Strategic Value Advisors
Rob Frederick, Manager, Corporate Responsibility, Ford Motor Company
Tony Prophet, Vice President, Supply and Logistics, Carrier Corporation

Increasingly, businesses are incorporating environmental considerations into all levels of their decision-making. Some, however, go further. Companies in sectors as diverse as energy, automotive, cosmetics and food are positioning themselves as leaders in environmental best-practice and cutting edge technologies. This session will highlight some of the strategic considerations behind companies’ decisions to become environmental leaders and discuss future trends and challenges.

Urban and Minority Investment
David Maurrasse, President and CEO, Marga Incorporated
Justine Zinkin, Executive Director, Neighborhood Trust Federal Credit Union
Alicia Glen, Vice President, Goldman, Sachs & Co.
Paul Quintero, Senior Vice President of Business Investments, Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone Development Corporation (UMEZ)
Clyde Williams, Vice President of State and Local Government Relations, Center for American Progress

The purpose of this panel is to explore the viability, sustainability, and significance of investments in urban communities and minority owned businesses. For the purpose of this discussion, urban areas are defined as city centers inhabited primarily by ethnic minorities. This panel will explore investment opportunities designed to create wealth, employment opportunities, and improved quality of life without displacing current residents. The panel will also discuss the role government plays in creating a pro business environment and encouraging entrepreneurship.

Fair Trade Coffee: A Sustainable Development
Barbara Fiorito, Board Chair, Oxfam America
Rick Peyser, Director of Social Advocacy and Public Relations, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
John Sage, CEO, Pura Vida Coffee
Steve Sellers, COO, TransFair USA

What's in your daily cup of coffee? With the current global coffee glut, farmers' incomes have plummeted along with world market prices, relegating millions of smallscale coffee growers to poverty. One viable solution that farmers and coffee companies are using to address this problem is Fair Trade certification. This panel will explore the ways in which key players in the global coffee market are using the win-win business model of Fair Trade to enhance economic and environmental sustainability in coffee-growing communities.

States In the Lead: The Challenge of Financing Clean Energy
Cameron Brooks, Project Director, Clean Energy Group
Bryan Garcia, Director of Programs, CT Clean Energy Fund
Josh Green, COO, MA Renewable Energy Trust
Brian Keane, Executive Director, Smart Power
B. Scott Hunter, Renewable Energy Program Administrator, Office of Clean Energy

A new breed of state-level funds is forging a unique role for public sector involvement in overcoming clean energy marketplace barriers. Using dedicated public funds, these new organizations target gaps in the innovation chain and develop new financing vehicles that move beyond the traditional research and development public sector role. The result is public-private alliances that move public money into equity investments, subordinated debt, long-term contract support, and option instruments for emerging renewable energy credit markets.

International Business Community and HIV/AIDS: Public Private Partnerships
Josh Ruxin, Assistant Clinical Professor of Public Health, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health
Charles Gardner, Associate Director for Health Equity, Rockefeller Foundation
Thomas W. Hardy, Associate Director, Columbia Mailman School of Public Health
Barbara Holmes, Director, Advocacy & Communications, Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS
Maggie Kohn, Director of Corporate Responsibility Communications, Merck

HIV/AIDS is a core issue that companies around the world must address. Increased action by business, through policy development, leadership, and partnerships with governments and communities will enhance the economic and social value of business. Innovative approaches and collaborative efforts are likely to result in more effective solutions across sectors. How do partnerships tap into the unique skills and expertise of private, public, academic, and NGO sectors? Do they ensure productive and sustainable solutions? How does a business balance its responsibility to its shareholders with those to its stakeholders? How do these solutions work in practice? Panelists will debate and discuss these complex issues.

Entrepreneurs Improving Education
Andy Kaplan, Partner, Quad Ventures
Iris Chen, NYC Executive Director, Teach for America
Aaron Lieberman, Founder and CEO, Acelero Learning
Matthew Mugo Fields, Vice President of Development and Marketing, Platform Learning

Now more than ever, the role of educating America's children is being shifted to the private sector. This panel brings together a group of the most innovative entrepreneurs who have recently launched firms in the field of education. Challenges, successes, and opportunities will be highlighted as the panelists share their experiences.

Technology Enterprises
Srikumar Rao, Professor of Marketing, Long Island University and Adjunct Professor, Columbia Business School
Nick Gleason, Founder and CEO, CitySoft, Inc.; co-founder, CitySkills, Inc.
Josh Knauer, Director of Advanced Development, Maya Design
David Macquart, Director of Communications, Global Nomads Group

How do entrepreneurs identify and use feasible technology to benefit society? In addition to exploring technology opportunities, this panel will examine the issues these entrepreneurs face raising funding and drawing talent to their companies.

Ethics, Values And Social Responsibility: Challenges Women Leaders Face
Frances Hesselbein, Chairman of the Board of Governors, Leader to Leader Institute

Acclaimed visionary Frances Hesselbein, former CEO & President of the Girl Scouts of the USA, current Chairman of the Board of the Leader to Leader Institute (formerly the Peter F. Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management) and Volunteers of America, offers her insights on leadership and the particular challenges that women leaders face. Mrs. Hesselbein will discuss her philosophy that leadership is a matter of how to be, not how to do, and that in the end it is the quality and character of the leader that determines the performance and results.

How to Sell Yourself in Today's Environment
Eric Baron, Professor, Columbia Business School

The current job market is challenging and competitive. To get the job you want you need to sell yourself effectively. By using a problem solving approach to selling you can impress the people you will meet during the interview process. This workshop will introduce you to the Consultative Selling process and the skills that make it work. It will be highly interactive and participative. The overall objective is to teach the participants how to sell themselves in a challenging environment.

Why No Company is Sustainable and What Can Be Done About: It Total Corporate Responsibility - Achieving Sustainability and Real Prosperity
Frank Dixon, Managing Director, Innovest Strategic Value Advisors

Frank Dixon will argue that environmental and social conditions are in rapid decline around the world (with some regional exceptions), and that no company comes close to being sustainable due primarily to the failure to think systemically. As a result, economic and political systems compel firms to act unsustainably and irresponsibly. Total Corporate Responsibility is a method of driving system change and system thinking through the capital markets and corporate sector. It teaches firms to be agents of system change -- to address the economic, social and political system flaws that force humanity to be unsustainable. The approach represents the most advanced corporate social responsibility strategy available. TCR is being implemented by a subsidiary of one of the largest corporations in the world. Mr. Dixon will describe the economic, social and political system flaws that drive humanity's unsustainability and force firms to operate at odds with larger systems. The TCR theory and practical implementation processes also will be described.
Download papers on Gross National Happiness (.doc); Total Corporate Responsibility (.doc); and presentation on Addressing Systemic Barriers to Sustainability (.ppt).