Women in CSR: Cathy Benko, Deloitte LLP

Oct 31, 2013 4:25 PM ET
Cathy Benko, Vice chairman and managing principal, Deloitte LLP

Women in CSR series on TriplePundit

TriplePundit: Briefly describe your role and responsibilities, and how many years you have been in the business.

Cathy Benko: Vice chairman and managing principal, Deloitte LLP. I hold dual roles, leading Deloitte LLP’s citizenship efforts and as a talent marketplace game-changer for Deloitte Consulting LLP. These positions tap into skills honed in prior roles including chief talent officer, lead client service partner, high technology industry sector leader, and national managing director of Deloitte’s award-winning Women’s Initiative.

“Making a difference, by doing what we do best, to make America stronger and the world a better place,” is our Citizenship mantra. We deliver on this mantra every day through a multitude of ways: from our pro bono program to advising our clients on sustainable water strategies, serving on nonprofit boards, delivering Impact Day scope-a-thons, and working with leading NGOs on innovative solutions to the world’s toughest societal issues – among many others. We’re proud of our contributions – valued at more than a half-billion dollars in cash and in-kind services over the past five years—and even more proud of the sustainable, positive impact these investments have resulted in.

3p: How has the sustainability program evolved at your company?

Sustainability, starting with Impact Day—a day where all of our people are out serving the communities in which they live and work—began fourteen years ago at Deloitte. It, and our office greening initiative that began a decade ago, are signature components of our culture.

Today, we’ve expanded sustainability into a broader frame, what we call “citizenship,” that reflects our collective societal impact driven by affecting measurable change in our communities, inspiring our actions as a societal impact innovator, and instilling great pride in knowing that what we do accelerates positive, societal impact

3p: Tell us about someone (mentor, sponsor, friend, hero) who affected your sustainability journey, and how.

While I have been a sustainability champion for some time, it was Michael Porter and Mark Kramer’s article,Creating Shared Value, in the January 2011 edition of HBR that really put it all into focus for me. I was a judge for the HBR/McKinsey award that year, so I paid very close attention to each periodical. The article was groundbreaking (it was ultimately recognized as article of the year) and has strongly influenced my perspective ever since.

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