Caterpillar Foundation’s Focus of Ridding Poverty Heard by President Obama

Caterpillar’s Director of Corporate Social Innovation, Michele Sullivan,recently had the chance to share Caterpillar’s views on the future of the global workforce with a one-of-a-kind audience: President Barack Obama.

President Obama invited Caterpillar and Rick Stengel, former managing editor of Time Magazine and Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy & Cultural Affairs, the head of CSR at UPS, Ambassadors from Mexico and Peru and other leaders in this space to discuss the strong need for talent, Latin America’s critical importance and the global economy. Caterpillar, being a major worldwide employer, was invited to discuss workforce needs.

Sullivan discussed the Foundation’s focus on fixing the root cause of problems: poverty. Supporting Our Values in Action by contributing time and resources to promote the common good in our communities, Sullivan is working with the Foundation team to move Caterpillar’s position as an operational leader in philanthropy to one with stronger focus on helping solve significant problems in energy, education, poverty and sustainable progress with our partners around the globe so we can grow the global economy.

The Caterpillar Foundation’s mission is simple: To turn the spiral of poverty in impoverished communities into a path to prosperity by investing in those proven to yield the best results—girls and women. We work  with organizations that provide platforms for global advocacy and policy such as the UN Foundation and ONE Campaign. President Obama commented on how important this is to the world, and how he wishes more companies were thinking about these issues like Caterpillar.