Purpose Washing from the Business Roundtable: A Special Episode

Welcome to a special episode of This Human Business, a podcast dedicated to the movement to reform business culture, counterbalancing the drive for wealth through the machinery of industry by reasserting human values.

This morning, Americans woke up to a surprising headline from the Washington Post: “Group of top CEOs says maximizing shareholder profits no longer can be the primary goal of corporations”. The story referred to a document signed by 181 CEOs called the Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation. In a press release accompanying the statement, the Business Roundtable claims that the statement “redefines the purpose of a corporation”. 

This sounds promising. If these representations are accurate, the Business Roundtable document is a significant step forward in making business more human.

Are these depictions of the document really accurate, though? Is the Washington Post correct to say that the document makes shareholder profit no longer a primary goal of corporations?

Let’s not speculate. Let’s read the statement itself. It’s not long.

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Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation

Americans deserve an economy that allows each person to succeed through hard work and creativity and to lead a life of meaning and dignity. We believe the free-market system is the best means of generating good jobs, a strong and sustainable economy, innovation, a healthy environment and economic opportunity for all.

Businesses play a vital role in the economy by creating jobs, fostering innovation and providing essential goods and services. Businesses make and sell consumer products; manufacture equipment and vehicles; support the national defense; grow and produce food; provide health care; generate and deliver energy; and offer financial, communications and other services that underpin economic growth.

While each of our individual companies serves its own corporate purpose, we share a fundamental commitment to all of our stakeholders. We commit to:

Delivering value to our customers. We will further the tradition of American companies leading the way in meeting or exceeding customer expectations.

Investing in our employees. This starts with compensating them fairly and providing important benefits. It also includes supporting them through training and education that help develop new skills for a rapidly changing world. We foster diversity and inclusion, dignity and respect.

Dealing fairly and ethically with our suppliers. We are dedicated to serving as good partners to the other companies, large and small, that help us meet our missions.

Supporting the communities in which we work. We respect the people in our communities and protect the environment by embracing sustainable practices across our businesses.

Generating long-term value for shareholders, who provide the capital that allows companies to invest, grow and innovate. We are committed to transparency and effective engagement with shareholders.

Each of our stakeholders is essential. We commit to deliver value to all of them, for the future success of our companies, our communities and our country.

August 2019

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That’s all the statement says.

Let’s pay close attention to what it says, and what it does not say.

Did you hear anything about stockholder profit no longer being the primary goal of corporations? No. The document says nothing of the sort.

What this statement actually says is that the signatories recognize that there are other things that are important, in addition to stockholder profit. The document never says, or even implies, that these other things should be more important than shareholder profit. It never even addresses the scandal of outlandishly excessive CEO pay.

Let’s be crystal clear about this: There is nothing at all in the Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation that removes shareholder profit from its place of primary importance in corporate structure. 

What’s more, there are no specific commitments in the Business Roundtable document to do anything to promote the interests of anyone other than corporate stockholders. There are only vague suggestions of abstract ideas. It would be bad enough if the Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation had no enforcement mechanisms for proposed reforms, but the actual condition of the document is even worse than that. It contains no substance to be enforced. The document contains zero reforms.

The Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation reads like a public relations gimmick. This document from the Business Roundtable appears to be nothing more than just one more instance of purpose-washing: The use of empty statements of lofty business purpose in an effort to distract from profoundly unethical business practices.

The Washington Post headline is profoundly misleading, creating a false impression of corporate commitment to reform where none exists. However, a number of American news organizations are imitating the Washington Post’s misleading story, because the Post remains a leading journalistic company in the United States.

Is it a coincidence that the Washington Post is the personal property of one of the CEO signatories of the Business Roundtable document, Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Amazon empire? We can’t know for sure whether Bezos directed the puff piece to be written by the Washington Post, or whether staff at the Washington Post took it on their own initiative to write an article that creates a false positive impression of their boss and the business organization to which he belongs.

Unethical Practices Rife amongst the Companies of the Business Roundtable 

Amazon is a perfect example of a company that talks about high ideals even as it commits terrible abuses. The Business roundtable document talks about valuing employees as stakeholders, but Amazon has become infamous for the way it overworks its employees to the point of mental and physical illness, while providing ridiculously low pay to employees and contractors below the executive level. Amazon develops and implements employee tracking software that treats human beings like machines in the pursuit of maximum efficiency, regardless of the personal consequences, and deploys other software to conduct unauthorized surveillance against its customers, all in the pursuit of profit for stockholders and top executives.

Jeff Bezos may have signed his name to a statement pledging to support human communities, but as anyone who lived in Seattle before, during, and after the Amazon invasion knows, the corporation Bezos runs extracts maximum value from the communities in which it works while providing little benefit in return. Amazon’s presence has made Seattle an unaffordable place to live. On a national level, Amazon has used public resources while paying extremely low levels of taxes, and sometimes no taxes at all.

The Business Roundtable uses pretty words to talk about environmental sustainability, but a large number of the signatories are chief executives at fossil fuels corporations: Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron, Marathon Oil, ConocoPhillips, NRG, Duke Energy, Bechtel, and on and on. Get the picture? These businesses are not “embracing sustainable practices”. They’re selling crude oil and other fossil fuels, pumping massive amounts of deadly pollutants into the atmosphere, and releasing greenhouse gases at a planet killing pace.

I think we should all agree that “supporting the communities in which we work” should begin with not killing people. Yet, among the signatories of the Business Roundtable statement are international weapons merchants: Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, and Lockheed Martin. They profit, and not just from sales to the American military, where they regularly cheat the American taxpayer by routinely providing weapons systems that don’t work at costs that are far above what was promised. No, these corporations make huge amounts of money selling weapons to governments who are committed opponents of human freedom. 

“Lockheed Martin has been a committed partner to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the corporation brags. Even as the kingdom wages war, brutally suppresses dissent, oppresses women, abuses workers, and murders journalists, Lockheed Martin profits by selling weapons to Saudi Arabia. That is not what being a good member of the global community looks like.

While we’re on the subject of guns, there are a few issues with Walmart, another signatory of the Business Roundtable statement. Walmart is one of the top sellers of guns in the United States. After a gunman entered a Walmart in El Paso and slaughtered a huge number of people there, Walmart took down some video game displays in its stores, claiming that this was somehow an adequate response. Walmart didn’t stop selling guns for even one day after the attack. How is running guns supporting the community?

Walmart’s ethical problems aren’t only a matter of deadly weapons, of course. WalMart pays its employees the lowest wages that are legally allowed. WalMart pioneered the race to the bottom among suppliers, too. The Business Roundtable document states that its signatories believe in treating suppliers fairly, but anyone who has worked as a supplier to WalMart knows that the corporation places one priority above everything else: Low prices. WalMart offers suppliers access to a huge number of stores, but at a terrible cost: Low prices by any means necessary, forcing its suppliers to take part in a long chain of abusive practices, placing extreme pressure on any company that touches WalMart’s business in any way to cut corners at human expense.

There are 181 CEO signatories to the Business Roundtable Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation, and I don’t have time to point out the unethical practices of all of the companies they represent. I could go on for hours, but I think you get the point. The actions of these corporations don’t match the words of their executives.

Business leaders love to come together in meetings where they talk about doing the right thing… before they head back to their offices and direct their corporations to continue with the same abuses as before.

I want to see businesses genuinely reform. That’s why I began this podcast, and it’s why I do the work I do. My job is to reconnect people in business to the opportunity to realize high ideals that lay dormant within their own work.

I have, however, been doing this work for long enough to know the difference between pretty words and action. I’ve been consulting for a quarter of a century, and I’ve learned to identify the turns of phrase that people in business use to create the appearance of a newly found moral compass while actually refraining from a commitment to go in any other direction than the path of easy profit.

Insincere statements such as the Business Roundtable’s Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation don’t merely fail to deliver the progress that we need. They make it more difficult for sincere reformers in business to succeed. The more business leaders adopt obviously false poses of benevolence, the less likely anyone is to believe that any genuine reformers in business exist.

True business reformers are rare, but they do exist. I have met a few in my time, hidden amongst the crowds of hucksters. Their work is undermined by the cynical maneuvers of groups like the Business Roundtable.

Maybe I’m wrong. Perhaps the corporations represented at the Business Roundtable really are going to change their ways, end their ruthless exploitation of vulnerable human beings, and stop turning our planet into an unlivable hot toxic dump. 

The records of the corporations whose CEOs signed the Business Roundtable document strongly indicates that they can’t be trusted. They don’t deserve the benefit of the doubt.

If they are really changing their ways, these powerful businesses need prove it through sustained, significant, concrete action.

These corporations have the power to make the world a better place. 

Let’s pay attention to what they actually do, rather than to their flowery promises.

This has been a special episode of the podcast This Human Business, and it’s taken the place of the episode that I intended to release today. That episode, which is about the ethics of emotion in the practice of business, will instead be released two days from now, on Wednesday, August 21. 

The music you’re listening to was created by Meydan. The song is called Underwater, and it’s from the album For Creators.

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The signatories of the Business Roundtable’s Statement on the Purpose of a Corporation are listed below:

Kevin J. Wheeler
PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
A. O. SMITH CORPORATION

Miles D. White
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
ABBOTT

Julie Sweet
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER DESIGNATE
ACCENTURE

Carlos Rodriguez
PRESIDENT AND CEO
ADP

Mike Burke
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
AECOM

Andrés Gluski
PRESIDENT AND CEO
THE AES CORPORATION

Daniel P. Amos
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
AFLAC

Roger K. Newport
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
AK STEEL CORPORATION

Brent Saunders
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
ALLERGAN PLC

John O. Larsen
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT & CEO
ALLIANT ENERGY

Lee Styslinger, III
CHAIRMAN & CEO
ALTEC, INC.

Jeffrey P. Bezos
FOUNDER AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
AMAZON

Doug Parker
CHAIRMAN & CEO
AMERICAN AIRLINES

Nicholas K. Akins
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO
AMERICAN ELECTRIC POWER

Stephen J. Squeri
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
AMERICAN EXPRESS

James D. Taiclet
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO
AMERICAN TOWER CORPORATION

James Cracchiolo
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
AMERIPRISE FINANCIAL

Gail Koziara Boudreaux
PRESIDENT AND CEO
ANTHEM, INC.

Greg Case
CEO
AON

Tim Cook
CEO
APPLE

Eric Foss
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT & CEO
ARAMARK

Alan B. Colberg
PRESIDENT AND CEO
ASSURANT

Randall Stephenson
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
AT&T INC. 

John A. Hayes
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO
BALL CORPORATION

Brian Moynihan
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
BANK OF AMERICA

José (Joe) E. Almeida
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
BAXTER INTERNATIONAL INC. 

Philip Blake
PRESIDENT
BAYER USA

Joe Davis
MANAGING DIRECTOR & SENIOR PARTNER; CHAIRMAN, NORTH AMERICA
BCG

Brendan P. Bechtel
CHAIRMAN & CEO
BECHTEL GROUP, INC.

Corie Barry
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
BEST BUY CO., INC.

Laurence D. Fink
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
BLACKROCK, INC. 

Charles W. Scharf
CHAIRMAN & CEO
BNY MELLON

Dennis A. Muilenburg
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT & CEO
THE BOEING COMPANY

Frédéric B. Lissalde
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
BORGWARNER INC.

Robert Dudley
GROUP CEO
BP PLC

Giovanni Caforio
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB

Maurice R. Greenberg
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
C.V. STARR & CO., INC.

Kewsong Lee
CO-CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
THE CARLYLE GROUP

D. James Umpleby III
CHAIRMAN & CEO
CATERPILLAR, INC. 

Robert E. Sulentic
PRESIDENT & CEO
CBRE GROUP, INC.

W. Anthony Will
PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
CF INDUSTRIES

Michael K. Wirth
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
CHEVRON CORPORATION

Evan G. Greenberg
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
CHUBB

David M. Cordani
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
CIGNA

Chuck Robbins
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.

Michael L. Corbat
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
CITIGROUP, INC. 

Hubertus M. Mühlhäuser
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
CNH INDUSTRIAL

James Quincey
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
THE COCA-COLA COMPANY

Brian Humphries
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
COGNIZANT

Brian L. Roberts
CHAIRMAN & CEO
COMCAST CORPORATION

Ryan M. Lance
CHAIRMAN & CEO
CONOCOPHILLIPS COMPANY

Wendell P. Weeks
CHAIRMAN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, & PRESIDENT
CORNING INCORPORATED

Tom Linebarger
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
CUMMINS INC.

Larry Merlo
PRESIDENT & CEO
CVS HEALTH

Hal Yoh
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
DAY & ZIMMERMANN

Michael S. Dell
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
DELL TECHNOLOGIES

Punit Renjen
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
DELOITTE

Jim Fitterling
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
DOW

Lynn Good
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT & CEO
DUKE ENERGY

JM Lawrie
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO
DXC TECHNOLOGY

Mark J. Costa
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
EASTMAN CHEMICAL COMPANY

Craig Arnold
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
EATON

Pedro J. Pizarro
PRESIDENT & CEO
EDISON INTERNATIONAL

Darren W. Woods
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
EXXON MOBIL CORPORATION

Carmine Di Sibio
GLOBAL CHAIRMAN & CEO
EY

Frederick W. Smith
CHAIRMAN & CEO
FEDEX CORPORATION

Gary Norcross
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT & CEO
FIS

Revathi Advaithi
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
FLEX

Carlos M. Hernandez
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
FLUOR CORPORATION

James P. Hackett
PRESIDENT AND CEO
FORD MOTOR COMPANY

Lachlan K. Murdoch
EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN & CEO
FOX CORPORATION

Richard C. Adkerson
VICE CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
FREEPORT-MCMORAN INC.

Phebe Novakovic
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
GENERAL DYNAMICS CORPORATION

Mary Barra
CHAIRMAN & CEO
GENERAL MOTORS COMPANY

David M. Solomon
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
THE GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP, INC. 

Deanna M. Mulligan
PRESIDENT AND CEO
GUARDIAN LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY OF AMERICA

Gerald W. Evans
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
HANESBRANDS INC.

Dinesh C. Paliwal
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
HARMAN INTERNATIONAL

Steven R. Swartz
PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
HEARST CORPORATION

Craig Menear
CHAIRMAN, CEO AND PRESIDENT
THE HOME DEPOT

Darius Adamczyk
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
HONEYWELL

Mike Petters
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
HUNTINGTON INGALLS INDUSTRIES

Ginni Rometty
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO
IBM CORPORATION

Charles Phillips
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
INFOR

Mark S. Sutton
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
INTERNATIONAL PAPER CO.

Michael I. Roth
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
INTERPUBLIC GROUP

Linda H. Apsey
PRESIDENT & CEO
ITC HOLDINGS CORP.

Steve Demetriou
CHAIR AND CEO
JACOBS

Samuel R. Allen
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
JOHN DEERE

Alex Gorsky
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
JOHNSON & JOHNSON

George R. Oliver
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
JOHNSON CONTROLS

Jamie Dimon
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.

Beth E. Mooney
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
KEYCORP

Bruce E. Grewcock
CEO AND CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD
KIEWIT CORPORATION

Lynne M. Doughtie
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
KPMG LLP

William M. Brown
CHAIRMAN & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
L3HARRIS TECHNOLOGIES, INC. 

Beth E. Ford
PRESIDENT AND CEO
LAND O’LAKES, INC.

Roger A. Krone
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
LEIDOS

Stuart Miller
EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN
LENNAR CORPORATION

Marillyn A. Hewson
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION

Bhavesh V. (Bob) Patel
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
LYONDELLBASELL INDUSTRIES

Jeff Gennette
CHAIRMAN & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
MACY’S, INC.

Mark Trudeau
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
MALLINCKRODT PHARMACEUTICALS

Lee M. Tillman
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO
MARATHON OIL CORPORATION

Gary R. Heminger
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
MARATHON PETROLEUM CORPORATION

Arne M. Sorenson
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL, INC.

Roger W. Crandall
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT & CEO
MASSMUTUAL

Ajay Banga
PRESIDENT & CEO
MASTERCARD

Lawrence E. Kurzius
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO
MCCORMICK AND COMPANY, INC. 

Brian Tyler
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
MCKESSON CORPORATION

Omar Ishrak
CHAIRMAN & CEO
MEDTRONIC PLC

Michel Khalaf
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
METLIFE

Sanjay Mehrotra
PRESIDENT & CEO
MICRON TECHNOLOGY

Ken Moelis
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
MOELIS & COMPANY

James P. Gorman
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
MORGAN STANLEY

Greg Brown
CHAIRMAN & CEO
MOTOROLA SOLUTIONS

Adena T. Friedman
PRESIDENT AND CEO
NASDAQ

Thomas C. Nelson
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT & CEO
NATIONAL GYPSUM COMPANY

Ted Mathas
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO
NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE CO.

David L. Stover
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
NOBLE ENERGY, INC. 

Kathy Warden
CHAIRMAN, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER AND PRESIDENT
NORTHROP GRUMMAN CORPORATION

Steve Fisher
PRESIDENT AND CEO
NOVELIS

Mauricio Gutierrez
PRESIDENT AND CEO
NRG ENERGY, INC.

Safra Catz
CEO
ORACLE

Brian Chambers
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
OWENS CORNING

Ramon Laguarta
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
PEPSICO

Dr. Albert Bourla
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
PFIZER INC.

Greg C. Garland
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
PHILLIPS 66

Marc B. Lautenbach
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
PITNEY BOWES

Daniel J. Houston
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO
PRINCIPAL

David S. Taylor
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
THE PROCTER & GAMBLE COMPANY

Tricia Griffith
PRESIDENT & CEO
PROGRESSIVE CORPORATION

Bob Moritz
CHAIRMAN
PWC

Steve Mollenkopf
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
QUALCOMM INCORPORATED

Earl C. Austin, Jr.
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
QUANTA SERVICES

Thomas A. Kennedy
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
RAYTHEON COMPANY

Blake D. Moret
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
ROCKWELL AUTOMATION

Douglas L. Peterson
PRESIDENT AND CEO
S&P GLOBAL

Keith Block
CO-CEO
SALESFORCE

Bill McDermott
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
SAP

Jim Goodnight
CEO
SAS INSTITUTE

Tamara L. Lundgren
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
SCHNITZER STEEL INDUSTRIES, INC.

Jeffrey W. Martin
CHAIRMAN & CEO
SEMPRA ENERGY

Lisa Davis
CEO
SIEMENS CORPORATION USA

Egon Durban
MANAGING PARTNER AND MANAGING DIRECTOR
SILVER LAKE

Thomas A. Fanning
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO
SOUTHERN COMPANY

James M. Loree
PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
STANLEY BLACK & DECKER

James P. Keane
PRESIDENT AND CEO
STEELCASE INC.

Kevin Lobo
CHAIRMAN & CEO
STRYKER

John F. Fish
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
SUFFOLK

Brian Cornell
CHAIRMAN & CEO
TARGET

Russell K. Girling
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
TC ENERGY

LeRoy T. Carlson, Jr.
CEO
TELEPHONE & DATA SYSTEMS, INC.

Richard K. Templeton
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT & CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
TEXAS INSTRUMENTS INCORPORATED

Rob Speyer
PRESIDENT & CEO
TISHMAN SPEYER

Alan D. Schnitzer
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
THE TRAVELERS COMPANIES INC.

M. Troy Woods
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT & CEO
TSYS

Peter J. Davoren
PRESIDENT & CEO
TURNER CONSTRUCTION CO.

Lance M. Fritz
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT & CEO
UNION PACIFIC

Oscar Munoz
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
UNITED AIRLINES

Gregory J. Hayes
CHAIRMAN & CEO
UNITED TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION

David Abney
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
UPS

Stuart Parker
CEO
USAA

Mortimer J. Buckley
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
VANGUARD

Scott G. Stephenson
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
VERISK ANALYTICS

Alfred F. Kelly Jr.
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
VISA INC.

Robert F. Smith
FOUNDER, CHAIRMAN & CEO
VISTA EQUITY PARTNERS

Curt Morgan
PRESIDENT AND CEO
VISTRA ENERGY

Stefano Pessina
EXECUTIVE VICE CHAIRMAN AND CEO
WALGREENS BOOTS ALLIANCE

Doug McMillon
PRESIDENT AND CEO
WALMART, INC.

John J. Engel
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO
WESCO INTERNATIONAL, INC.

John F. Barrett
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT & CEO
WESTERN & SOUTHERN FINANCIAL GROUP

Hikmet Ersek
CEO
WESTERN UNION

Marc Bitzer
CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
WHIRLPOOL CORPORATION

Abidali Z. Neemuchwala
CEO & MANAGING DIRECTOR
WIPRO LIMITED

Michael J. Kasbar
CHAIRMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO
WORLD FUEL SERVICES CORPORATION

Jim Kavanaugh
CEO
WORLD WIDE TECHNOLOGY

John Visentin
VICE CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
XEROX CORPORATION

Patrick Decker
PRESIDENT AND CEO
XYLEM INC.

Anders Gustafsson
CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
ZEBRA TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION

Michael Roman
CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
3M