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August 6, 2007
Vedomosti Interview with Meg McDonald
Vedomosti, August 6, 2007
Interview with Alcoa Foundation President Meg McDonald
Meg McDonald, President of Alcoa Foundation, came to Russia for the first time to attend the opening of the exhibition “New World: Three Hundred Years of Innovation” in Pushkin Museum. First, Meg McDonald shared her impressions from the Kremlin and the treasures of the Armoury: “The diamonds were gorgeous!” As the head of Alcoa Foundation, McDonald—a diplomat with 20 years of experience, including her work for the Australian government—has to establish connections between the aluminum corporation and the communities where Alcoa operates. How does her diplomatic past help in it? How are the relationships between the business, communities and government built? We spoke about this in a café on the hotel roof with a breath-taking view on the Kremlin and the Red Square.
Vedomosti (V): You had a brilliant diplomatic career. Why did you leave it?
McDonald (MM): For a number of reasons. When I visited the United States (US), I saw the interesting ways business and communities could operate. In Australia, we did not have anything similar. I decided to try to join diplomatic experience with business practice, build up new relations. It led to significant changes in my life. Thus, I found myself in Alcoa and lately I have been heading Alcoa Foundation. It is a separate entity independent of the company, but the mission of the Foundation is to invest charitable money in the needs of communities where the company has locations. This is done by consulting committees which include local authorities, heads of non-commercial and educational institutions. They jointly decide and recommend investment opportunities to the Foundation. Thus, the Foundation’s investments are tied to specific needs of communities. This way, we build long-term relationships between location managers and the people who need our support.
V: It means that the Foundation responds to the offers going “upwards” instead of simple realization of its own initiatives?
MM: Exactly. Alcoa does not insist on doing certain projects. Besides, according to US law, the Foundation can not invest in projects that bring advantage to the company. We promote the idea that we can help them complete projects. Representatives of local communities come to us with their projects, we review them and implement what we can.
V: What are the priorities of the Foundation worldwide and in Russia?
MM: It depends on the demands in the particular country: What we do in Brazil differs a lot from what we do in California. But there is always a need for education, health, occupational safety programs—the areas that traditionally lack financial support of the government. In Brazil, for example, we pay attention to agriculture. In California, the focus is advanced postgraduate technical education. One of the problems in New York is city schools—English language training can be so poor that young people cannot continue their education after leaving school, they can only speak Spanish. We organize groups of volunteers to work with those schools and teach English classes.
In Russia, we also support technical education because there are certain gaps in this area. We have partnerships with three leading technical universities: the Samara State Air and Space University, Don Technical University, and Moscow University of Steel and Alloys. We provide scholarships for the best students, support young teachers, help with technical equipment in auditoriums. In Belaya Kalitva (Rostov region) and Samara where Alcoa has presence, we launched an Environment and Sustainability Program for secondary schools—we organize ecological camps and competitions and provide grants to schools.
As a global company operating in many countries of the world, we have another advantage—we can implement a project, say, in Brazil, and use what we learn there on projects in other countries.
V: In Russia large business structures frequently fulfill various charitable tasks of the government. These tasks are not given in an open manner, but everyone knows about it. This way they teach the business to be socially responsible. You were working for the government, now you are working for the business. How productive is it to tell the business whom to help and how to help?
MM: The best thing the government can do under the circumstances is provide tax and other advantages for businesses investing in charitable projects. If the government builds up such a system, the business will have an opportunity to show the initiative. The US has many examples including the Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation. Joint efforts of the government and business are needed to define what areas require charitable investments, and create a certain cultural turn. The US has done this very well. Other countries attempt to duplicate their positive experience. In Australia, it happened in front of my eyes: when I worked in Alcoa’s office there, we worked with other companies to build up new relations with the government.
Expectations of today’s society from business have changed a lot. It is not enough to invest, it is necessary to take a certain responsibility in the community. There should be some foundations that structure such work and implement projects. The companies that try to improve their public image through investments in cultural projects should realize that it does not free them from necessity to spend money on real community needs. You have to work with the community requests—this is the basis of partnership—not just giving money for charity, but having both sides work to improve the situation.
V: Has the decision-making and management style changed since you came to Alcoa Foundation?
MM: I am a supporter of long-term relationships. The Foundation should have a community program for a few years; this way, the results will be more visible and sustainable. Alcoa plants frequently turn out to be city-forming. In this case it is especially important that the local people should be aware of our charitable activity in the region. This is what Alcoa’s policy is all about. Earlier it was mostly rhetoric, now it is practice.
V: How do you spend your free time?
MM: When I lived in Australia, I played tennis and rode my bicycle. But the life in New York is very different from that in Australia. Right now I live a life of a typical New Yorker—I go to concerts, visit galleries.
V: Don’t you miss diplomatic work?
MM: Right now I am busy with projects in different countries, so my new job is just a turn in an international career, like a continuation of diplomacy. Establishing contacts between various parts of the world, various communities is exactly what I have always wanted to do. Sometimes old relations help because the world is small...
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