How Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Can Serve a Company’s Reputation in a Downturn and Beyond

By all accounts, we are in the first economic crisis since CSR has become a core business strategy. To take a closer look at how it’s holding up and what value it brings, several distinguished speakers will take part in a panel to discuss and gauge how well CSR strategies are serving companies as they seek to uphold corporate reputation. Panelists will share how their respective companies are engaging in this important issue, as well as provide a candid debate on what’s paying off and what’s not.

Registration and payment by credit card or check is available from the FWA website. Visit https://www.fwa.org/and link to the Event Calendar to view upcoming events. Select the Online Registration button from the event description page to register.

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Don’t Wait for Recognition: Take Credit

Do you feel like you don’t always receive the recognition you deserve in your job? Join trainer and career coach Christina Ioannidis on Wednesday, March 25th to learn how to gain confidence and take credit for your achievements, to ensure you get the acknowledgement you deserve.

Working twice as hard as your male colleagues, yet not getting the credit you deserve? Join this true myth-busting and confidence-boosting session to enable you to take credit that is rightfully yours.

The session will provide you with practical tips to:

  • Become visible through strategies that will place you on your main stakeholders’ radar screen
  • Grow to be your own public relations agent, offering techniques to ensure you are remembered for the RIGHT reasons
  • Overcome modesty and claim ownership in a natural and authentic manner
  • Enable risk-taking and making sure learning is shared * Avoid sabotaging your hard work and professionalism in a male-dominated culture

If you are interested in attending this training session or would like more information please contact Sarah Lilley at slilley@womenin.co.uk or on 020 7422 9213 – many thanks!

Register Here.

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100 Women in Hedge Funds: The Search for Uncorrelated Returns — Alternatives to Alternatives

The recent financial market turmoil has left many investors eager to diversify their investment portfolios away from traditional asset classes into potentially more rewarding and non-correlated alternative investments. Our speakers will introduce us to “alternative alternative” investments in entertainment / film finance, timberland and photography among others, and will share insights on the risks and opportunities associated with them, their risk-reward profile as a stand alone investment and how they could be implemented within a portfolio.

Sona Blessing, Moderator, Editor and Director Research, A SQUARE Opalesque
Simon Fawcett, Chief Executive, Aramid Capital Partners LLP
Friedrich Kiradi, Managing Director, ART Photography Fund & Managing Partner of the Merit Group
Dr. Christian Roeckemann, Managing Director, First Forest GmbH
F. Graham Thouret, President, Diversified Global Asset Management – DGAM

Click here to RSVP

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Shattering the Glass Ceiling (Presented by CWC Calgary)

Canadian Women in Communications presents a lively panel discussion on the corporate world’s proverbial glass ceiling.

Our panelists include Barb Higgins from CTV, Paddy Meade from Alberta Health Care Services and Eva Friesen from The Calgary Foundation, who will speak about their experiences with the so-called glass ceiling, giving examples from their careers and offering recommendations regarding gender equality in the workplace. The event will be moderated by business consultant, Kevin Blanchette.

Continental breakfast included. Event wraps up promptly at 11 a.m.

This event has been made possible by our generous sponsors CNW Group and the Calgary TELUS Convention Centre.

Click here to register

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Leading Women MASS: Financial Strategies for Women in Transition

Presented by Kerri Aleksiewicz Melley, MBA of Strategic Financial Partners

Join Kerri as she presents an interactive, educational workshop ideal for professional women who have recently become unemployed or considering career changes. This workshop will answer your questions and share strategies that you can implement TODAY to address financial concerns. The following key points will be the focus of the workshop:

  • How do I address short-term cash flow needs?
  • What can I do with my retirement plan?
  • What happens to my goup life insurance and disability benefits?
  • What financial strategies should I consider as I look into new job opportunities?
  • And much more!

2 convenient dates and locations:

Worcester Workstop: Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 10am – 11am Register

Waltham Workshop: Thursday, April 2, 2009, 10am – 11am Register

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Anatomy of a Deal

Lawyers and accountants are like neighbors that live in the same building called “The Deal” but have only a vague idea of what the other does or how the other contributes to community living. When does one come in and when does the other exit? How do they relate?

Come and learn about what exactly lawyers and accountants do on a given deal and how they relate to each other. Make all pieces of the puzzles come together and understand where you are best suited to add value.

The panel: Caren Austin, Senior Manager at Deloitte & Touche LLP; Barbara Collins, Partner at LangMichener LLP; Calle Johnson, Director at Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP; Sandra Knowler,

Partner, Lang Michener LLP; Joanna Pearson, Audit Partner, Deloitte & Touche LLP.

RSVP to 604-662-4401 or fax this form to 604-681-4545 before noon on Thursday, March 19, 2009.

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Fifth IP Counsel Forum

Attend IP Law & Business’ official event, The 5th Annual IP Counsel Forum in San Jose where you will join distinguished Senior Counsel from Cisco, Dell, EBay, Sun Microsystems, Oracle, Yahoo!, AT&T, Boeing and more, to discuss the latest updates on case law, technology patents, and changes to the unpredictable IP landscape.

Register Here

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Weathering the Economic Storm

Our inaugural Savvy Geek Chix event “Weathering the Economic Storm” will address how you can effectively manage your career in a tough economic climate.

Join us on March 24 in Palo Alto, CA for an evening of Networking, Job Hunting Strategies, and our Resume Clinic.

Please help us spread the word about this event to those who will benefit. We’ve kept the cost low ($25) to make it affordable for everyone. Special thanks to SAP for hosting this event! You’ll find full details at https://savvygeekchix.com/.

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Finance and Law Top California’s Best Places to Work

skyscrapers.JPGby Heather Cassell (San Francisco)

Finance and legal firms came out on top of Employers Group’s spot light on California’s Best Places to Work for the second year with video game’s rounding out the bottom in technology.

“These companies send the message that, despite the doom and gloom currently pervading the business world, there are companies that champion their workforce and exhibit a creative, caring, and dynamic culture,” says Mark Wilbur, president and CEO of Employers Group, about the second year ranking California companiesin a March 10 news release. “The 15 winners of 2008’s program are leading the way to a brighter future for all of us.”

Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management, a diversified global investment firm leaped up the survey’s ranks to first place in 2008 from fourth place in 2007.“We are actually really delighted with it,” says Susan Hunter, head of public relations of Nicholas-Applegate Capital Management, founded in San Diego, California more than 20 years ago. The finance company now has offices in New York, London, Melbourne and Sydney.

“For one thing, working in this program gave us some good ideas,” continues Hunter about incorporated ideas from other companies that participated in the survey with the Nicholas-Applegate’s existing strong employee benefits and programs. “We found it a great platform to improve our benefits program and respond to employee requests. We took it as an opportunity to make it better. We are absolutely delighted and honored.”

Read more

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In Case You Missed It: News Round-Up

martin.jpgContributed by Martin Mitchell of the Corporate Training Group

In case you were too busy to have kept up with all the news, contributor Martin Mitchell has gathered some Contributed by Martin Mitchell of the Corporate Training Group important market events from last week to help you start this week well informed:

Mergers and Acquisitions

  • Rio Tinto’s proposal to raise $19.5bn from Chinese company Chinalco is concerning Rio’s shareholders. The deal involves Chinalco buying stakes in Rio assets for $12.3bn and buying convertible bonds for $7.2bn and is currently being proposed to shareholders as an ordinary resolution, requiring a simple majority. The UK institutional shareholders believe it should be a special resolution requiring 75% to be passed. The concerns revolve around the principle of ‘pre-emptive rights’ that allow existing shareholders to retain their stakes in capital raising efforts, something that the Chinalco deal fails to accommodate. In Australia, one of Rio Tinto’s largest institutional investors, the Australian Foundation Investment Company (AFIC) that owns almost 1% of Rio’s Australian listed shares, also expressed concerns about the deal. AFIC argue that the investment will hand the Chinese state-owned company significant influence for no premium.The ongoing need to placate shareholders has led Rio Tinto to turn to a new chairman. Jan du Plessis will replace current chairman Paul Skinner at the AGM scheduled for April 20th.
  • After being caught out by the announcement that Porsche controlled 75% of the shares in Volkswagen last October, hedge funds are gathering under the auspices of the Alternative Investment Management Association to explore whether legal action is possible. An extraordinary spike in the price of Volkswagen shares – they increased 400 per cent in a few days and saw VW temporarily become the world’s biggest company by market value – led to billions of dollars of losses for a number of hedge funds.
  • It was revealed that in the weekend after Lehman Brothers collapsed last September, Goldman Sachs was involved in talks to buy regional lender Wachovia. The deal foundered on the amount of federal support available, and Wachovia ended up being taken over by Wells Fargo.
  • China’s largest securities company, Citic Securities is teaming up with Evercore Partners, the US investment bank, in a joint venture to make direct investments and advise clients on both sides of the Pacific.
  • Coca Cola’s $2.4bn takeover of China’s leading juice company, China Huiyan Juice was rejected by the Chinese ministry of commerce. The Huiyan Juice brand has 42% of the pure fruit juice market in China, and the rule against the proposed acquisition was on competition grounds. The ministry quoted limited choice and harm to smaller domestic companies as reasons for the rejection.
  • Hedge fund Paulson & Co is buying an 11.3% stake in South African gold miner AngloGold Ashanti for $1.28bn. The purchase from Anglo American, underlines Paulson’s view that gold will benefit as paper currencies suffer from the combination of the financial crisis and countries printing money.
  • IBM is in advanced talks to acquire rival Sun Microsystems for about $6.5bn in cash.
  • Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said he still thought there was a ‘good opportunity’ for a deal with Yahoo that would combine the two companies’ internet search operations. Last year Yahoo rebuffed a potential $47.5bn deal from Microsoft. However, since then Jerry Yang, Yahoo’s chief executive at the time has stood down.

Read more

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