Home / News & Events / Archive
New York, February 28, 2005 – Novartis, one of the first Global Compact
participants, was one of only three companies worldwide to be awarded this
year’s Excellence in Corporate Philanthropy Awards by The Committee to Encourage
Corporate Philanthropy (CECP). Since 2000, the awards have been presented
annually to companies demonstrating outstanding executive commitment, dedication
to measurement, and innovation in corporate philanthropy. GE and Novartis share
the top honor for companies with annual revenues in excess of $3
billion.
Prof. Dr. Klaus Leisinger, Executive Director of the
Novartis Foundation accepted the award on behalf of President and CEO Daniel
Vasella. In his remarks, he pointed out that “even under the best-case scenario
of achieving the Millennium Development Goals, hundreds of millions of people in
future generations will continue to live in misery. […]but the private sector
with an enlightened understanding of corporate responsibility and corporate
philanthropy has the potential to make a difference.”
“We
congratulate Novartis,” said Georg Kell, Executive Head of the Global Compact
Office. “As a founding participant of the Global Compact, Novartis has been a
leader in responsible corporate citizenship and corporate philanthropy alike. It
was one of the first businesses to integrate the ten Global Compact principles
throughout global its operations and has been a consistent champion of our
initiative.”
Excellence Awards winners are selected by a
twelve-person expert Jury Selection Committee comprised of judges from the
corporate, nonprofit, media, and academic communities. The Jury carefully
selected the winners based on defined criteria including: CEO and senior
executive engagement, a demonstrated strategic and focused approached to
conducting corporate philanthropy programs, a defined approach to measuring
philanthropic programs, and innovation in corporate giving and
partnerships.
Please visit http://www.corphilanthropy.org/ for more information.
