Or perhaps it is just too soon to see meaningful improvement. It’s possible that good work is being done, but the public just doesn’t know about it. “Many Americans also think corporations aren’t doing nearly enough, so big companies clearly face an expectations problem. That might account for why a lot of Americans seem to believe the business community “is just throwing money at the problem, without assessing where it is most needed,” Himle says. She cites a Washington Post analysis that determined that only a small fraction of the dollars raised after Floyd’s murder has gone to organizations focused on criminal justice reform. And despite the billions of dollars pledged in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, we also know that only 22% of Americans believe that the business community is having a positive impact on the problem.” That survey found that 40% of the country thinks racism in this country is getting worse. There is so much work to be done, as we know from the Council’s own Public Affairs Pulse survey. She is married to John Himle, who was Council chair in 2011.Īs a Minneapolis-area resident, Himle “was at ground zero for the re-awakened push for racial justice, because it was here that George Floyd was murdered. She has been executive vice president and president of the foundation at Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota and served as vice president for university relations at the University of Minnesota. as senior vice president for corporate and government affairs. Himle, who has been with Thrivent since 2014, was formerly executive vice president of the Minneapolis office of the executive search firm DHR International. Together we can get a better understanding of the possibilities and prepare for the future.” “For example, we know the power of social media has increased the pace of change in public affairs, but none of us can predict what the impact of the next generation of social media will be. The Committee for the Future will be our own accelerator, a think tank that will help us prepare for the next decade,” she says. This is our acceleration point, where the pace of change will quicken. Himle finds it “exciting that the work we do is never static. We’re now beginning to develop our expertise in ESG - or environmental, social and governance reporting - which is part of a larger effort to define environmental and societal impact and how it can be measured.” In a few short years, corporations have moved from corporate philanthropy through cause-related marketing to corporate social responsibility. “We’ve seen a lot of changes in the way we define our mission in the work we do.
“This committee won’t just be an executive committee where everyone looks like me, but a global and multi-generational group - a pipeline to figure out our role in the future,” she says. Himle plans to create a Committee for the Future to identify the unique challenges the profession will face in coming years “and consider how the Council staff and leadership can most effectively respond,” as she said in her inaugural speech to the Council board in mid-October. Himle, senior vice president of corporate and government affairs for Thrivent Financial, sees the public affairs profession as dynamic and ever-changing too, entering a new and exciting phase of its history. The first time the Stones were here was in 1964 – 57 years ago – and they are still drawing new audiences!”
There were a lot of gray heads in that crowd, but a lot of younger people, too. “The Stones are amazing because they keep their concerts fresh.