The magazine’s editors announce finalists and winners for the Responsible CEOs of the Year.

By the Editors  

THE WINNERS:

Gale E. Klappa, Chairman, President and Chief Executive, Wisconsin Energy
After taking the helm in 2004, Klappa cut upward pressure on customer rates while also executing a major plan to improve state energy infrastructure, including a focus on renewables.

Jeffrey Ettinger, Chairman of the Board, President and Chief Executive Officer, Hormel Foods Corporation
As Hormel Foods CEO, Ettinger was instrumental in helping set a new standard of transparency and sustainability through robust employee engagement and LEED-certified facility expansion.

Hikmet Ersek, CEO, Western Union 
Financial Services
Hikmet Ersek has inaugurated a sea change in the way Western Union does business, focusing particularly on the rights of migrants and immigrants worldwide.

Robert Moritz, Chairman and Senior Partner, PwC
PwC’s diversity officer reports directly to Moritz, the company gave $1 million to launch the Bentley Center for Women in Business, and it has commited $160 million commitment to youth financial literacy.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD:

Stanley Bergman, CEO, Henry Schein Inc.
Running the world’s largest provider of healthcare products and services to dental and medical practitioners, Bergman has advanced a supply chain promoting access for the at-risk worldwide.

NOMINEES:

Rami Khalid Alturki , CEO & President, Khalid Ali Alturki & Sons
Among various CR initiatives, Alturki offers approved pro bono projects for employees to join, a non-profit for emerging countries’ entrepreneurs, and a campaign of free surgery for cleft lip victims.

Bruce Bodaken, Chairman, President and CEO, Blue Shield of California
Bodaken’s Blue Shield of California in 2002 became the first U.S. health plan to push universal coverage; its proposal became the basis for state legislation and has helped lead the charge nationally.

Catherine Connelly, CEO, Merida Meridian
Connelly’s team doesn’t certify suppliers—using a nonhierarchical model, they travel to personally ensure that members of the chain are healthy and supporting communities beyond their site.

Dina Dwyer-Owens, CEO/Chairwoman, The Dwyer Group
In 2012, Dwyer-Owens started a Women in the Trades committee to educate franchisees, and she has revived a program that counts more than 2,500 veterans who own franchises through the effort.

Thomas Falk, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Kimberly-Clark Corp.
Falk has led his company’s most historically comprehensive sustainability initiative, setting global goals on energy, waste, and water reduction and tying it to competitive advantage.

John Foraker, CEO, Annie’s, Inc.
Foraker has led Annie’s from its early days, supporting organic offerings and maintaining socially responsible efforts through community, employee and supply chain programs.

Kim Jeffery, CEO, Nestle Waters NA
Jeffery’s passion is packaging, and he is pressing his peers to match global standards via the website for Recycling Reinvented, a new NGO he helped establish.

Joseph Jimenez, Chief Executive Officer, Novartis
Under Jimenez, Novartis has joined the World Economic Forum fight against non-communicable diseases and launched its own Be Healthy program to help company associates stay fit and healthy.

David Jones, Global CEO, Havas, Co‐Founder, One Young World
In Who Cares Wins, emerging thought leader Jones argues that we are entering an age of radical transparency, in which social media-empowered consumers, employees and stakeholders will drive a green‐blooded capitalism that thrives on social value.

Muhtar Kent, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer, Coca-Cola
In 2010, Kent committed to 5 BY 20 to empower 5 million women entrepreneurs in Coca-Cola’s value chain by 2020. Additional efforts: entrepreneurship training in Brazil and mobile retail training in India.

Robert Laikin, Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and Director , BrightPoint
Laikin’s sustainability program reports BrightPoint’s key facility-level consumption and recycling—with unrecyclables converted into steam that is used to power the downtown Indianapolis heating loop.

Kenneth W. Lowe, Chairman of the Board, President and CEO, Scripps Networks Interactive Inc
Lowe has focused the Food Network and other brands on improved health through the Good Food Gardens initiative and its partnership with Share Our Strength’s “No Kid Hungry” campaign.

Gretchen McClain, President and CEO, Xylem Inc.
McClain has long been a champion of corporate citizenship and social investment programs at this ITT spinoff, focusing on safe water resources in communities around the world.

Chip McClure, Chairman, CEO and President, Meritor
Meritor’s McClure spearheaded new CR initiatives on multiple fronts—including social responsibility (a 40,000-hour community service goal), environmental awareness, and employee safety.

Bob McDonnell, Governor, Virginia
McDonnell has championed jobs and conservation. He partnered with companies, NGOs, and agencies to combat hunger and helped orchestrate a rebound of the Chesapeake Bay’s blue crab population.

James J. Murren, Chairman & CEO, MGM Resorts International
CEO since 2008, Murren leads a CR policy forged in the downturn, with aggressive diversity inclusion and, perhaps counter-intuitively, development of the world’s largest LEED-certified hotel.

Duncan Niederauer, Chief Executive Officer, NYSE Euronext
Niederauer has confronted the downturn via The NYSE Big StartUp, a nationwide initiative to address market challenges by mobilizing big business to collaborate with small businesses and start-ups.

Thomas R. Nides, Deputy Secretary of State, U.S. State Department
A former COO at Morgan Stanley, Nides serves the same role at State, as overall supervisor of resource allocation and management activities of the department.

Mr. C. Larry Pope, President and CEO, Smithfield Foods
Responding to environmental mishaps in the 1990s that made his company a target of agencies and activists, Pope revamped oversight via a compliance review program to identify and fix key gaps.

Kendall J. Powell, Chairman of the Board, CEO, General Mills
General Mills’ Powell has pioneered Partners in Food Solutions, a nonprofit bringing expertise to food processors in Africa via work with the U.S. Agency for International Development, Cargill, and DSM.

Patrick Prevost, President and Chief Executive Officer, Cabot Corporation
Since taking the helm of Cabot 2008, Prevost has accelerated the chemical company’s sustainability efforts, committing to a $400 million investment to reduce GHC emissions by 20 percent by 2020.

James (Jim) P. Rogers, CEO, Eastman
Chemical Company
After becoming CEO in May 2009, Rogers formalized Eastman’s sustainability strategy to include specific guidelines for reducing energy, air, water, waste. and land usage.

Glen Tullman, CEO, Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc.
Tullman instituted Giving Back as an accountable leadership behavior for all managers in Allscripts, tracking it through the performance management system and tying a part of the bonus to it.

Ben Verwaayen, CEO, Alcatel-Lucent
Under Verwaayen, Alcatel-Lucent has strengthened its focus on sustainability, committing to development and deployment of innovation in eco-sustainable communications technologies.