Future 500 Teleconference Series featuring Sarah Severn, Nike's Director of Stakeholder Partnerships and Michael Marx, Executive Director of Corporate Ethics International in a conversation on Achieving Sustainability: The Urgency and Potential for new Business-NGO Alliances. 

Sarah and Michael together have decades of experience in corporate/NGO engagement, both confrontational and collaborative.  In this session, they will share lessons learned from these engagements and their implications for collaboration.   They will explore the potential and necessity for corporations and NGOs to work together to address some of the most urgent challenges of our time like climate change, sustainability, and corporate dominance of our democracy. They will envision a future where collaboration could be a game-changer by re-directing capital away from unsustainable companies, countering destructive industries in the political arena, and progressing joint cause-oriented marketing efforts.

About the Speakers:

Sarah Severn is a pioneer in the field of corporate social responsibility having catalysed sustainability at Nike in the mid 90’s and currently serves as Director of Stakeholder Partnerships within Nike’s Sustainable Business and Innovation team. She currently serves on the faculty of the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership and the Board of "Focus the Nation," an advocacy group working to accelerate our transition to a clean energy future by empowering and supporting young people through education, engagement, and action.

Michael Marx is Executive Director of Corporate Ethics International, and founded the Business Ethics Network, which convenes and trains corporate campaigners from Greenpeace, Dogwood Alliance, Electronics Takeback Campaign and 150 other groups.  He is also the founder of ForestEthics, a leading forest conservation organization, and a former staff and board member of Rainforest Action Network (RAN). Prior to his environmental career he was a management consultant to Fortune 500 companies such as AmEx, PacBell, and H-P.