TMU CSR Institute zoom session: Corporate Responsibility in a Trump 2.0 world - In Conversation with Bennett Freeman

The Institute for the Study of Corporate Social Responsibility at Toronto Metropolitan University*(TMU) is pleased to present an online interactive zoom talk, Corporate Responsibility in a Trump 2.0 world: In Conversation with Bennett Freeman on Monday, November 18, 2024 from 11 am to 12 noon, Toronto time (details below).

To REGISTER (no cost, everyone welcome) click HERE (external link)  then press the "reserve a spot" button.

To ACCESS THE ZOOM on Monday, November 18 at 11 am (Toronto time), click HERE (external link)  to patch in for the live session. This session is exclusively a zoom event: there is no in-person component.

Information will be provided during the session re: how to submit questions.

About this talk

The November 5, 2024 American election results are in. The Trump 2.0 era is beginning. Around the world, businesses -- along with individuals, governments, civil society, and everyone else -- must now calibrate and respond to reflect the new reality. Given Trump/Republican pronouncements leading up to the election pertaining to democracy (external link) , human rights (external link) , the economy, taxes and tariffs (external link) , immigrants and immigration (external link) , unions/labour (external link) , diversity (external link) , the environment/climate change (external link) , the justice system (external link) , China (external link) , the Ukraine (external link) , and the Middle East (external link) , to name but a few, the question of how responsible businesses should optimally navigate through the changing landscape -- taking into account economic, social, environmental, political, legal and other perspectives -- will require careful thinking regarding best possible responses and the implications of those responses.

About Bennett Freeman

As a global thought-leader on corporate responsibility issues, Bennett Freeman is ideally positioned to provide insights on this topic. An innovator and standard-setter for responsible business and investment, Bennett Freeman has co-founded multi-stakeholder initiatives and coalitions focused on the extractives, technology and apparel sectors. Bennett holds degrees in History from the University of California at Berkeley (1979) and Oxford (1981; English-Speaking Union Scholar, Balliol). He served as a Clinton presidential appointee in three positions at the US Department of State, including as deputy assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labour from 1999-2001. He was senior VP for sustainability research and policy at Calvert Investments, 2006-15. As principal of Bennett Freeman Associates LLC, he currently advises multinational corporations, international institutions and NGOs on policy and strategy related to human rights and labour rights. He was the lead author of Shared Space Under Pressure: Business Support for Civic Freedoms and Human Rights Defenders (external link) (2018) and is an Associate Fellow of the International Law Programme at Chatham House. Bennett is a co-founder and Steering Committee member of Business for Ukraine (external link)  (B4Ukraine), a coalition that seeks to complete the exit of foreign companies from Russia and to set higher standards for human rights due on the part of companies and investors in conflict situations—and in turn to contribute to a new ethic of geopolitical corporate responsibility to support the international rules-based order.

Click here (external link)  to read Bennett's FT op-ed regarding the business and human rights stakes in the U.S. election.

Click here (external link)  to read Bennett's opinion piece posted on the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre website.

The talk is co-sponsored by the TMU Corporate Social Responsibility Student Society, and the TMU Law and Business Student Association.

About the Moderator, Prof Kernaghan Webb

Dr. Kernaghan Webb is an Associate Professor in the Toronto Metropolitan University Department of Law and Business, and is the Director of the TMU Institute for the Study of Corporate Social Responsibility.

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