Good morning.
Last night, I attended the Committee for Economic Development’s Distinguished Leadership Awards, where six extraordinary CEOs were honored for their efforts to improve society as well as boost their bottom lines. (Full disclosure: My wife, Dr. Lori Esposito Murray, is president of CED). It was another reminder of the power of business to do good in the world. A few excerpts from the six honorees:
“We are on the cusp of another major computing revolution…AI is going to change the way we work, live, change every enterprise, every operation. And I like to believe what we are working on is something that will totally make the world a better place.”
—Dr. Lisa Su, CEO, AMD
“Our global community faces an urgent need to decarbonize. Metals will be part of the solution…While metals are a finite resource, they are also infinitely recyclable.”
—Tamara Lundgren, CEO, Radius Recycling
“I will tell you straight up that some of the more fantastical pronouncements [about AI] out there are fully that—fantastical. AI is not going to take over from humanity around the world…at least for the next few decades.”
—Arvind Krishna, CEO, IBM
“We are facing a retirement crisis…The truth is over 40% of Americans do not have enough savings to retire. The truth is even more pronounced for women—women retire with 30% less. The truth is Black Americans—54% do not have enough savings for retirement. The truth is 64% of Latinos do not have access to a workplace retirement plan. So how are we going to close the income gap when we are transferring debt in an intergenerational way, where children are taking care of their parents?”
—Thasunda Brown Duckett, CEO, TIAA
“We’ve got two major projects…One is to put four small nuclear reactors at a plant in Texas that will take that entire site to almost zero carbon emissions….And we are building the largest ethylene complex in the world that will be zero scope one and two emissions….I think it’s important for us to be upfront and show people that this can be done. And not just that it can be done, but that it can be done cost effectively. We can afford to make this (energy) transition.”
—Jim Fitterling, CEO, Dow
“Health is more than what happens in hospitals and clinics…Health is how we work together. Health is building a sense of community. Health is bringing back a sense of respectability in our public discourse. It’s about promoting the values of honesty, decency, truth, integrity…It is our responsibility to change it.”
—Michael Dowling, CEO, Northwell Health
An inspiring night. More news below.
Alan Murray
@alansmurray
alan.murray@fortune.com
