The Entrepreneurs Foundation (EF) Corporate Citizenship Conference is for companies to develop and strengthen their community involvement and philanthropy programs.
The Conference showcases corporate citizenship programs from a variety of large and small, public and private companies, and other celebrated experts who will address issues, trends, metrics, and best practices.
Bio
Emmett Carson
Emmett Carson is the founding CEO and president of Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
Hired in 2006 to establish a new, regional community foundation from the unprecedented merger of Peninsula Community Foundation and Community Foundation Silicon Valley, Carson is responsible for providing the vision for one of the largest community foundations in the United States with assets of $1.7 billion.
Before coming to Silicon Valley, Carson served as president and CEO of The Minneapolis Foundation for 12 years. During his tenure, the foundation received national recognition for its grantmaking in the areas of housing, immigration and education.
Colleen Cassity
Colleen Cassity is the director of the Oracle Education Foundation, a nonprofit organization funded by Oracle Corporation. Cassity serves on the board of directors of Juma Ventures (2005) and on the education committee of the San Francisco Giants' Community Fund (2003-2005). She joined the board of directors of the San Francisco Historical Society in 2005.
Cassity is also a member of the advisory board of GenArt San Francisco, an organization that supports emerging visual artists, filmmakers and fashion designers (2000-2005).
Bradley Googins
Bradley K. Googins is executive director emeritus of the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship, a membership-based research center that serves as a leading voice in the U.S. on the role of business in society. He took over leadership of the Center in 1997 and served in that capacity until 2009. He is also a Professor in Organizational Studies at the Boston College's Carroll School of Management.
In 1990 Dr. Googins founded the Center for Work & Family at Boston University and directed it for six years before moving the center to Boston College. He has authored dozens of books, monographs, and articles on corporate issues, most recently Beyond Good Company: Next Generation Corporate Citizenship, published by Palgrave in December 2007.
Beach Pace
Beach Pace is Executive Director for City Year San Jose/Silicon Valley.
Diane Solinger
Diane Solinger is the Executive Director of Entrepreneurs Foundation. Since joining Entrepreneurs Foundation in 1999 she has greatly expanded the Foundation's regional and national presence as a leader in corporate philanthropy and corporate community involvement.
As Executive Director, Ms. Solinger oversees all organizational strategy, operations, new business development, program delivery and affiliate relations.
Mark Walker
Mark Walker was appointed Managing Director of Global Community Affairs for Applied Materials in January 2008. He is responsible for the company's corporate social responsibility strategy globally including philanthropy and employee involvement.
Walker also serves as the chief executive for the company's Foundation. Applied Materials has received numerous awards for its leading edge Education Initiative work in Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas.
Voluntary, organized efforts intended for socially useful purposes. Philanthropic groups existed in the ancient civilizations of the Middle East, Greece, and Rome: an endowment supported Plato's Academy (c. 387 BC) for some 900 years; the Islamic waqf (religious endowment) dates to the 7th century AD; and the medieval Christian church administered trusts for benevolent purposes. Merchants in 17th- and 18th-century western Europe founded organizations for worthy causes. Starting in the late 19th century, large personal fortunes led to the creation of private foundations that bequeathed gifts totaling millions and then billions in support of the arts, education, medical research, public policy, social services, environmental causes, and other special interests. SeeAndrew Carnegie; B'nai B'rith; Bill Gates; George Peabody; Rockefeller Foundation; Straus family.