Features

Two events this fall bear witness to the growing importance of corporate social responsibility, or CSR, in business strategies. Studies show that formal CSR programs are on the rise, accompanied by the creation of lead CSR roles — as in the case of NBCUniversal, which last year created the position of senior vice president for corporate social responsibility.

From a Network Journal perspective, the country is awash in outstanding Black women leaders and influencers in every field, from public service, the corporate arena, industry and entrepreneurship to defense, academia and philanthropy.

This year’s “Attorneys at the Top” issue of TNJ profiles five Black lawyers who are partners at Black-owned law firms and at major corporate law firms.

At its annual roundtable with chief diversity officers, The Network Journal gets a close-up look at diversity efforts at leading public, for profit and non-profit organizations, and how the people who lead those efforts do their job.

Close friends describe Max L. Siegel as the type of leader who sees potential where others don’t. In his new role as CEO of USA Track & Field, a position he took three months before the London 2012 Olympics, Siegel faces an uphill task of turning around an organization that has suffered tremendous setbacks on and off the track, both at and since the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China.

In a recent interview with The Network Journal, Susan Taylor Batten, president and CEO of the Association of Black Foundation Executives (ABFE), discussed the importance of philanthropy in strengthening Black communities.

St. Louis, Mo., entrepreneurs and siblings Michael and Steven Roberts embrace the notion of keeping the family business in the family and say all African-American entrepreneurs should do the same.

To appreciate Michael Plater’s passion for the value of adult education is to understand how significantly continued education factored into his own experience.

Since the phenomenal growth of community colleges during the 1960s, continuing education programs and departments have become a mainstay on the American higher-education landscape. Referred to in a variety of ways — adult education, distance learning, self-directed learning —continuing education is a very broad term.

Halfway through the year, with clear signs of national economic growth, the economy of Black America is mired in recession. That assessment follows a recent report that the buying power of African-Americans will reach $1.1 trillion by 2015, based on current spending, media habits and consumer trends.