IBM’s Corporate Social Responsibility

A live virtual discussion with

Justina Nixon-Saintil

Global Head, Corporate Social Responsibility

This event took place on October 6th, 2021

Read the highlights on Linkedin here.

Watch it on YouTube here

Want to change the world? Learn how to persuade others to invest responsibly? IBM is one of the largest companies in the world, ranked 40th by Fortune. It employs over 350,000 people in over 175 countries. Revenue exceeds $73 Billion. In 2020, more than 30,000 people from 75 countries joined IBM. This is a unique chance to chat with IBM’s Global Head of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), Justina Nixon-Saintil.

Justina drives strategic, socially responsible programmatic investments that enable IBM’s technology and talent to address some of society’s biggest challenges worldwide.

The CSR programs Justina manages enable IBM and its employees to transform their altruism into reality.

Some of these resources, such as IBM Service Corps, rely on skilled employee volunteerism to foster community success and wellbeing; they demonstrate the power of technology when combined with humanity. Other initiatives she leads, such as SkillsBuild and P-TECH, use multisector partnerships to help create more inclusive and innovative schools and workforces. She also spearheads corporate practices that underpin the company’s tradition of uncompromising ethics and transparency in its operations and environmental footprint.

As IBM’s Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) focal point, Justina communicates these ideals by spearheading the company’s annual Corporate Responsibility and environmental reporting, as well as articulating the company’s “Good Tech” narrative to stakeholders, including investors.

Previously, as director of CSR at Verizon, Justina created and led programs to make education more inclusive. She brokered partnerships with community organizations to help bring innovative resources and experiences to under-resourced students in hundreds of schools.

Justina was also Verizon’s liaison to President Obama’s White House Office of Science and Technology, U.S. Departments of the Interior and US Department of Education.

Earlier in her career, she was an Engineer for the U.S. Department of Energy. Justina, who is an Aspen Institute First Mover Fellow, earned her Master of Business Administration from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business and her bachelor’s degree in Mechanical Engineering from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Questions Ms. Nixon-Saintil responded

Why is IBM so good at CSR? What can we learn from IBM? (George Benaroya)/ Watch full response
When seeing the IBM report for CSR, I saw that IBM provides opportunities for people to develop their digital skills to empower their career paths. Especially for ‘SkillsBuild,’ I see learners with no IT experience can participate in hands-on projects. Among those projects, were there any inspiring project results you remember? (Melody Na. Asked by Vanessa Ye)/ Watch full response
As technology continues to improve, how does IBM help older people adjust to new technologies? (Cleonly Mahendra-from Indonesia)/ Watch full response
How does CSR benefit a brand? How can we measure the effectiveness of a CSR event? (Sanjana Lakshmi-from Singapore)/ Watch full response
From a marketing perspective, how do you think having CSRs for IBM can make a difference from other competitors? What do you think is the most essential CSR program for IBM so far? (Tian Qiu)/ Watch full response
I noticed the Annual Report only mentions ESG. Is there a reason why we don’t elaborate more on CSR activities? (Regina Lu)/ Watch full response
IBM provides services mainly to corporate customers, which are generally profit-orientated. CSR supporters are younger people like me. Who is your target group when developing and communicating about CSR programs? Is it corporations or young consumers? (Julia in ‘t Hof-from Singapore)/ Watch full response
How do you select the CSR initiatives when there are so many options? Is there a particular set of criteria while selecting and launching a new initiative? What is your evaluation process like? (Swetha Vasu. Asked by Rekhia Adams)/ Watch full response
How can a small business evaluate whether they need to do a CSR program? (Warren Zhou. Asked by Anisha Maheshwari)/ Watch full response
How did you start working at IBM? What is the most valuable lesson you have learned working for the company? (Dana Sahrai)/ Watch full response
Can you elaborate on IBM Service Corps? (from the live audience)/ Watch full response
How should a company respond to politically sensitive issues? (Michael Diamond)/ Watch full response
What would you recommend to students who might want to have a career in CSR? Are there any skillsets that we need to have? (Grace Zeng)/ Watch full response

The discussion was moderated by George Benaroya, VP Finance, Global Controller, and CFO.

This session is open to students at NYU. Slots have also been reserved for the public. Please reserve your slot here.

About the series

These talks are offered as part of the Leading Global Growth series from NYU’s School of Professional Studies, and managed in coordination with NYU SPS Integrated Marketing & Communications, within the Division of Programs in Business.

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