Monday, June 8, 2015

2007 - NYU Stern Names Alice Tepper Marlin Citi Distiguished Fellow

Alice Tepper Marlin, Fifth Citi Distinguished Fellow
NYU's Stern School has named Alice Tepper Marlin the fifth Citi Distinguished Fellow.

Celebrating the fifth anniversary year of the Citi Leadership and Ethics Program, the Stern School has focused on Global Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), a rubric that spans environmental stewardship and sustainability, respect for labor and its inherent rights and the responsibilities of global capital to developing economies.

In announcing the appointment, Stern describes Alice Tepper Marlin as "one of the true pioneers in the field [who] has been called the "architect" of CSR.

She is the founder and current president of Social Accountability International (SAI), an organization that created the SA8000 workplace standard to addresses the ethics of supply chains. Slice Tepper Marlin was also the founding president and CEO of the Council on Economic Priorities (CEP), the first organization to research and publish information on corporate ethics for consumers. Its consumer handbook, "Shopping for a Better World," sold more than a million copies.

As fellow, Alice Tepper Marlin will visit Professional Responsibility classes and anchor the Citi Program's annual conference on Friday, February 22, 2008, which will include the participation of Pamela Flaherty, president and chief executive officer of the Citi Foundation. She also plans to meet with the MBA Social Enterprise Association and the undergraduate Stern Business Ethics Society student clubs, engage with members of the faculty and bring leaders from her field to the Stern community.

The four previous Citi Distinguished Fellows were Arthur Levitt, Jr., the 25th and longest-serving Chairman of the SEC; John Biggs, former Chairman and CEO of TIAA-CREF; Harvey Goldschmid, Dwight Professor of Law at Columbia University and former SEC Commissioner; and Charles Ellis, Trustee of the RW Johnson Foundation and for 30 years Managing Director of Greenwich Associates.

In anouncing the appointment, Thomas F. Cooley, Dean of NYU's Stern School, said: "The Stern School has had an abiding interest in research and teaching on the relationship between business and society and sees itself at the center of this dialogue. We are delighted that our partnership with Citi enables us to welcome Alice Tepper Marlin to the School. Her contribution to the discussion on global corporate social security is sure to stimulate discussion and debate on this important area."

Citi's commitment to CSR in the area of global climate change was recognized in September 2007 when it was named a top financial institution in the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index. In May 2007, Citi announced that it will direct $50 billion over 10 years to address global climate change through investments and financings to support the commercialization and growth of alternative energy and clean technology.

The Citi Leadership and Ethics Program at Stern was established in 2003, through the support of the Citi Foundation. It is managed by Stern's Markets, Ethics and Law Program.

2013 - Photos from SAI Advisory Board, May

Alice Tepper Marlin, President, Social Accountability International (SAI) , NYC and Ivano Corraini, Italian General Confederation of Labour (CGIL), Rome, Italy. Photo by JT Marlin.

Laura Rubbo, Disney, Burbank, Calif. and Olga Orozco, Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI), Lima, Peru. Photo by JT Marlin.

John Tepper Marlin, New Jersey Institute for Social Justice, Newark, NJ and Dorianne Beyer, National Child Labor Committee, New York City. Photo by Alice Tepper Marlin.

Dorianne Beyer, Alice Tepper Marlin, Laura Rubbo. Photo by JT Marlin..

Olga Orozco; Eileen Kohl Kaufman, Executive Director, SAI; Anant G. Nadkarni, Tata Council for Community Initiatives, Mumbai, India. Photo by JT Marlin.

Darryl Knudsen, Gap Inc., San Francisco, Calif.; Joleen Ong, SAI, NYC. Photo by JT Marlin.

Luna Lee, Eileen Fisher, New York City; Harriet Lamb, Fairtrade International (FLO), Bonn, Germany. Photo by JT Marlin.

David Zwiebel, National Child Labor Committee, New York City; Alex Katz, SAI, NYC. Photo by JT Marlin.

Ivano Corraini and Federico Tani, General Confederation of Labour (CGIL), Rome, Italy; Christie Daly, SAI, NYC. Photo by JT Marlin.

Achim Lohrie, Tchibo, Bonn, Germany; Jane Hwang, SAI, NYC; Federico  Tani; Christie Daly, SAI, NYC; Ivano Corraini, CGIL. Photo by JT Marlin.

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

2015 - Small Wellesley Gathering in Boston, April

At the Union Club in Boston, celebrating the 70th birthday of Joan Hass.
 L to R: Mary Shepard, Hannah McClennan, Joan Barkhorn Hass, 
Jolinda K. Taylor, Alice Tepper Marlin. Photo by JT Marlin.
April 13, 2015 - As Hillary Rodham Clinton, Wellesley '69, was announcing her candidacy for President, I accompanied five members of the Class of 1966 at Wellesley.

The class is preparing for its 50th Reunion on June 3-5, 2016.

The first three events were in New York City (my photo), East Hampton, N.Y. and Vero Beach, Fla.

This one was in Boston, Mass., to celebrate the birthday of Joan Barkhorn Hass. The event was held at the Union Club, of which Joan Hass was the first female President, during the 2012-2013 term that included the club's 150th Anniversary year.

Dr. Edward Everett, former President of
Harvard, then the Union Club.
The Union Club was founded in late 1862 by Bostonians who were concerned about the future of the American Union. Article I of the club charter says:
The condition of membership shall be unqualified loyalty to the Constitution and Union of the United States and unwavering support of the federal government in efforts for the suppression of the Rebellion.
The club's first elected president, Dr. Edward Everett, was a man of great distinction - former president of Harvard, Governor of Massachusetts, Ambassador to the Court of St. James's, U.S. Secretary of State and U.S. Senator. The club was formal inaugurated on April 9, 1863 and Everett made a lengthy speech for the Union.
Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

Two years later, to the day, Confederate General Lee surrendered his huge Army of Northern Virginia, which had been surrounded by Union General Ulysses S. Grant, at the Court House in Appomattox, Virginia. This made inevitable total victory by the North in the Civil War, although the war did not end immediately.

John Wilkes Booth - a famed 26-year-old actor who took the side of the Confederacy - was increasingly agitated by the bad news for the South.

He met with six friends to plot how to kidnap the president and abduct him to Richmond, the capital of the Confederacy. They fixed a date on March 20, 1865 and lay in wait… but Lincoln failed to appear as he was scheduled.
Lincoln was assassinated five days after Lee's surrender.

Booth’s revised plan, to give hope to those continuing to fight on for the Confederacy, was the assassination of Lincoln,

Booth found out that Lincoln was to attend Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre. Lincoln was in a private box next the stage, with his wife Mary and a young couple - Army Major Henry Rathbone and Clara Harris (Rathbone’s fiancée, daughter of one of New York’s senators).

Booth entered the box and, at point blank range, fired a single shot (a one-ounce ball) at the back of Lincoln’s head with his .44 Deringer pistol. He then knifed Rathbone, as he was coming toward him, and jumped onto the stage shouting, “Sic semper tyrannis!” (“Thus ever to tyrants!”), the Virginia state motto. Booth broke his leg in the jump. He hobbled out of the theater and escaped on horseback.


The audience at first viewed the assassination as part of the play. Only when Mary screamed did they understand what had happened. A 23-year-old young Army doctor (Dr. Charles A. Leale) rushed to the presidential box and found the president slumped in his chair, in paralysis and struggling to breathe. 

Booth had been recognized and fled with David Herold across the Potomac to Virginia, where he was hunted down to a farmhouse. The soldiers torched it. Herold surrendered. Booth stayed inside until the heat became too intense. When he became visible, a sergeant shot him and Booth lived only three more hours.

Meanwhile, several soldiers carried Lincoln across the street to a red-brick boarding house. Dr. Robert King Stone, the Lincoln family physician, arrived soon in his carriage and pronounced that nothing could be done for Lincoln.

Lincoln had already been suffering from the health effects of being a wartime president. He had fainted two months earlier in an argument with his Attorney General over pardons for desertion.

The president’s body was taken to the White House and was carried to the Capitol rotunda to lay in state. On April 21, the President's body was put on a train to his hometown of Springfield, Ill. Tens of thousands lined the railroad route. Lincoln was buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery, near Springfield, next his son Willie, who predeceased him.

Four co-conspirators including David Herold were convicted of conspiracy to murder and were hanged for this on July 7, 1865. The four included Mary Surratt, who ran the boarding house where the seven conspirators first met.

2014 - LongHouse Reserve with Wellesley Class of 1966

Seven Members of the Wellesley Class of 1966, plus escort, before Peter's
Pond (#16 on map). L to R: Roschel Holland Stearns, Sally Swigert
Hamilton, [John Tepper Marlin,] Alice Tepper Marlin, Susan Rittenhouse,
Joan Hass, Robin Reisig, Hannah McClennan. Photo by James Zajac. 
In July 2014 I was proud to accompany a group of seven Wellesley alumnae, Class of 1966, visiting LongHouse Reserve.

It was my second visit, and much more interesting than the first, in part because this time we had a  docent to tell us the many stories of each part of LongHouse.

He was James Zajac and was  exceptionally well informed - not so surprising if you know that he is also a Trustee of the foundation.

The venue was well chosen for a mini-reunion, one of several Wellesley mini-reunions in the run-up to the class's 50th Reunion in 2015-2016.

James Zajac, our Docent
and a LongHouse Trustee.
The combination of imaginative landscaping, startling sculptures and endlessly changing varieties of perennial plantings added up to a great setting for renewing friendships and making new friends.

The 16 acres of parkland in Northwest Woods, East Hampton are located 0.7 of a mile from Cedar Street, at 133 Hands Creek Road. It was acquired by Jack Lenor Larsen, famed textile designer and collector, in 1970.

The Gateway Bell (#4). Susan Ritten-
house '66 wields the Docent's mallet.
The Gateway Bell by Toshiko Takaezu (next to #4 on the map) is the first sculpture you see after entering. The docent provided a mallet and we were allowed to announce our arrival.

Professor Takaezu was named a Japanese "national treasure" for her work with ceramics before she went to Princeton to teach in Visual Arts for 25 years. She died in 2011 at the lucky (in Asia) age of 88. She won Princeton's three highest awards in the humanities, and an honorary doctorate. One of her students was Brooke Shields, who complied with the course requirement that ceramics students keep their nails short.

Peter's Pond (#16), Ground Level.
Peter's Pond (#16) can be thought of as the center of LongHouse. It dominates the view from the large terrace on the second floor of the main house, and also the view at the ground level, anchored by a large stone bird bath.

On the LongHouse map, Peter's Pond is shown in blue but in fact it is almost entirely covered by lily pads and other green plants. The view we had of the pond at ground level is shown at right.

Alice Tepper Marlin '66 looks at our docent who appears
giant-like in the Red Garden (#17).
The Red Garden (#17) is so called because it has red flowers and red posts. The posts are carefully sized (height, circumference, interval distance) to give the illusion of greater depth. The posts that are farther away look as though they are farther away than they really are, so that as people walk toward them they appear to have been eating some kind of mushroom that makes them grow into giants.

The photo at left captures the effect, but it would be clearer with 3D or with multiple photos showing the change in size as a person walks toward the smaller posts.

Among the sculptures, the story behind Yoko Ono's colors-be-damned life-size Chess Set (#26) was particularly inspiring once the story behind it emerges like Brigadoon from the mist.

If you look at the photo, note there are no black pieces and no black squares on the chess board.

The Yoko Ono Chess Set (#26) is about half the size of a tennis court. Why no black pieces? Why no black squares?
At first it looks like a mistake or an unfinished installation. Or maybe the black paint has worn off in the 15 years since the sculpture was installed. The docent patiently waits for the penny to drop among the mystified tour members. The sculpture has more impact when the viewer has spent time puzzling over it.

It turns out that the lack of black lacquer on half of the pieces, the lack of black paint on half of the squares... is the point of the sculpture.

 Yoko Ono is hammering home the point that war is about establishing identities and territories and then fighting over them.

As soon as we recognize that walk under many different colors - we have many IDs - we can deal with attempts to dehumanize other people based on a single ID that they share.

As soon as we understand that we can share our square, peace is possible.

Easier said than done, but... Imagine.

(Losing the colors, by the way, also happens to be an effective way of waging war by the defenders. If the defenders are out of sight or hard to identify, the attackers don't know what to do. That's what Edward II and Edward III found out when they tried to attack Robert the Bruce's Scotland. The outnumbered Scottish defenders under the "Good Sir James Douglas", as he is known on the Scottish side of the border, melted into the woods. They pursued what they called a "secret war". The musclebound American military machine has been subject to the same quandary in the face of a guerrilla or terrorist enemy that has a hidden identity. Where do we go to punish those responsible if we don't know who they are? Do we "round up the usual suspects"?)

Torii-like Sculpture in front of Peter's
Pond (#16), viewed from the terrace
of the Pavilion (#34).
The group was privileged to be allowed inside the main house (#36). The house's architecture was inspired by the remarkably sustainable 7th Century Jingū (神宮) the Ise Jingū Grand Shrine in Ise, Japan, which I visited in 1986. The ancestral Shinto shrine, the equivalent in Japan to St. Peter's for Roman Catholics, is built to last 20 years.

Features of a Torii.
It takes 20 years for a permanently employed family of artisans to build the shrine's replacement. Then the 20-year-old shrine is is torn down, and a new one is started with wood that comes from trees that were specially planted in the sacred imperial woods to mature at the time they are needed.

We were not permitted to take photos of the interior of the Pavilion (#34), but I was allowed to take a photo of Peter's Pond from the large terrace. It shows the torii-like effect of the two sculptures at that end of the pond.

As one would expect of a famed collector of fabrics, the house has an unusual collection of interesting fabrics - and also ceramics, furniture and other objects.

The map of LongHouse sculptures and sites, available at the entrance (#3).
For those have not arranged a docent-guided tour in advance, LongHouse offers a Dial-In Docent. The OnCell guided tour is actually narrated by LongHouse Founder Jack Lenor Larsen. It can be accessed at any time by calling 631-604-7110.

Call the number and instructions for use are provided. Stories about each of the sculptures and other features of LongHouse can be listened to via cell phone.

Each story is linked to the number posted at the site, in front of the  sculpture or other feature.

The Dial-In Docent, available 24/7.
For those who are sufficiently expert in cell-phone technology, a bar code is provided at each site that can be read by the phone and will take you directly to the right point in the Dial-In Docent's repertoire.

There were countless different forms of seating, most of which could be utilized for a break in the walk. There is a rest room at the entrance (#3), to which one can return if necessary during one's visit.

Don't miss this gem of a place. It is rated by Trip Advisor as the #1 attraction in East Hampton - but then the Atlantic Ocean is not included in the rating (Main Beach is, and ranks below LongHouse).

2014 - Elevate Honors Alice Tepper Marlin at BSR Meeting

L to R: Tom Nelson (VF Corporation), Alice Tepper Marlin, Mark Jones
(Elevate). Photo by JT Marlin.
In November 2014, Business for Social Reponsibility met in New York City.

One evening of their meeting, Elevate took the opportunity to convene a reception in Manhattan to honor Alice Tepper Marlin for her 45 years of work on behalf of better workplace conditions.

The event was appropriately held on West 45th Street, at the Perfect Pint.

Based in Hong Kong, Elevate was formed in 2013 by a merger between Level Works and INFACT.

(I am privately informed that other groups intend to host tributes before the end of 2015, when Alice is set to retire as CEO.)
L to R: Alice Tepper Marlin, Ian Spaulding, Laura Rubbo. Photo by
JT Marlin.


Her work on behalf of better workplaces throughout the world was as founder and head of two different organizations:

CEP, 1969-1996: Alice founded and headed the Council on Economic Priorities (CEP), the first organization to focus on research for social investment funds.

CEP pioneered in policy analysis on energy. It was a training ground for many leaders in the CSR arena.

It is probably most remembered for its best-selling book, Shopping for a Better World (CEP and Ballantine Books), which sold one million copies between 1988 and 1991.

CEP was even-handed, identifying corporations that did more than they were required to do by law, as well as the worst offenders.
"Selfie" of Participants by Ian Spaulding (Elevate), partly visible front left. L to R, first row, Laura Rubbo (the Walt Disney Company) and Alice Tepper Marlin (SAI). Center: Badri Gulur (SAI) and behind him Christian Ewert (BSCI). Behind Rubbo: Mark Jones (Elevate). Others - behind Jones, Alex Katz (SAI). Left second row, Didier Bergeret (GSCP).

As a centrist NGO, CEP dissatisfied some of those on the left who believed that there is no good corporation, and those on the right who believed that there is no bad one (the social responsibility of a corporate executive being, in their view, to make money and stay out of jail).

SAI, 1997-2015: Alice then founded a new organization, Social Accountability International (SAI), to develop auditable standards for a decent workplace.

Built on principles (or "conventions") developed by the  International Labor Organization, SAI created the nine-point SA8000 standard.

SAI in turn created Social Accountability Accreditation Services (SAAS) to ensure that auditors against the SA8000 standard were qualified.

The CEO of Elevate, Ian Spaulding, presented Alice with a huge bouquet of flowers.

L to R: Alice Tepper Marlin, Christian Ewert (FTA), Laura
Rubbo (Walt Disney Company).
He told the group how Alice was one of the first to identify and use the multi-stakeholder model. She managed meetings of leading corporate executives, trade unionists and NGOs to arrive at a consensus on a shared mission for Human Rights at Work, developing the highly respected SA8000 standard. Ian attended the first meeting that established SAI.

Laura Rubbo of the Walt Disney Company described the successful SAI 100-day project, now named TenSquared, and the benefits that her company has enjoyed from being an SAI corporate member.

SAI worked with Disney on designing its licensee program and it delivered the Social Fingerprint screening for companies seeking to qualify as Disney licensees.

Christian Ewert, newly appointed head of the Foreign Trade Association of Europe (FTA), shared his appreciation of the oversight services delivered to FTA's Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI) by SAAS, and of Alice's service on the BSCI Stakeholder Council. He presented Alice with a box of premium Belgian chocolates.