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Above, from left: Paul Tsaparis, Carly Fiorina and Dezsö J. Horváth
Carly Fiorina, who has twice topped Fortune magazine's list of the most powerful women in American business as chairman and chief executive officer of computer giant Hewlett-Packard, took another leading role yesterday in connection with York University.
Left: Carly Fiorina delivering the Gillies lecture
Fiorina unveiled a $2-million endowment, set up by Hewlett-Packard (Canada) Co. in collaboration with York’s Schulich School of Business, during her delivery of the Schulich School’s annual James Gillies Alumni Lecture. The prestigious endowment is for the Hewlett-Packard Chair in Corporate Social Responsibility at the business school.
The creation of this Chair is the result of more than 10 years of academic leadership by Schulich in corporate social responsibility, or CSR. The Chair will extend Schulich’s impact across the globe, playing a pivotal role in defining emerging corporate social responsibility issues, conducting research, teaching CSR-related courses and engaging in community outreach.
A key area of exploration will be new models of stakeholder engagement and the role of information technology within the global economy. "It is imperative that the next generation of global business leaders graduate with not only the right business skills, but also the ethical depth they will need to do right by all stakeholders," said Fiorina.
"This endowment reflects HP’s strong belief that the academic community must continue to play a key role in the development of corporate leaders who will use corporate behaviour as a lever for positive social change."
Right: Paul Tsaparis
HP has a long-standing York connection. Alumnus Paul Tsaparis joined the company in 1984, the same year he graduated from York's MBA program. As HP Canada president and CEO since 1998, he was instrumental in forging a technology partnership between Schulich School of Business and Hewlitt-Packard (Canada) Co. Tsaparis became president and CEO of what the company calls the "new" HP Canada in 2002 after Fiorina merged the company with rival Compaq Computer Corporation.
According to Tsaparis, "Schulich’s longstanding commitment to advocating and teaching the principles of transparency, sustainability and overall corporate responsibility, when combined with its ability to attract a diverse population of students from more than 50 countries, enables it to act as a powerful global force for the right kind of corporate citizenship."
Schulich School of Business is internationally recognized for its commitment to CSR. It was recently honoured by the World Resources Institute and the Aspen Institute jointly as one of only six "cutting-edge" business schools from around the world preparing future executives with a solid training in environmental and social impact management.
Recently, Schulich was ranked one of the world’s top 25 MBA programs and the number one school in Canada, by the Economist Intelligence Unit, the research and intelligence arm of Britain’s Economist magazine. As well, the business school was ranked 22nd overall among the world’s top 100 MBA programs and was the highest ranked Canadian business school for the second year in a row. It ranked 16th overall among North American business schools and 7th in the world among non-US schools.
Right: Dezsö J. Horváth
"HP has demonstrated real vision and commitment in its approach to bringing corporate social responsibility to life," said Dezsö J. Horváth, dean of Schulich. "This endowment is further evidence of HP’s desire to celebrate its success as a company by helping to enrich the communities in which it operates."
HP strives to be an exemplary corporate global citizen by operating all aspects of its business with uncompromising integrity, by designing environmentally sound products, and by making technology accessible to all people as a means to learn, work and thrive, according to Tsaparis.
Several examples of these principles at work in Canada include HP’s Planet Partners environmental stewardship program and its sponsorship of Taking Pulse, a leading forum that addresses career development and training initiatives for Canada’s Aboriginal youth.