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A Day in the Life of a Corporate Idealist

Inside most large corporations, you’ll find mission-driven people focused on strengthening environmental practices, ensuring respect for human rights, and driving sustainable innovation. But the job is not always easy. How do these impact leaders meld their ideals with facts and figures? How do they work with skeptics both inside and outside their companies?

In this hangout, we’ll chat with former and current employees of BP, Yahoo!, and more on the ups and downs of their corporate career journeys. Whether you identify with these speakers’ experiences or are wondering if a career in the corporate world is right for you, bring your thoughts and questions to the conversation!

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Christine Bader
Author
The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil

Christine Bader is the author of The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil. She is a Visiting Scholar and Lecturer at Columbia University, where she co-teaches a course on Human Rights and Business, and a Human Rights Advisor to BSR.

After earning her MBA from Yale in 2000, Christine joined BP and proceeded to work in Indonesia, China, and the U.K., managing the social impacts of some of the company’s largest projects in the developing world.

In 2006 she created a part-time pro bono role as Advisor to the U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Representative for business and human rights, a role she took up full-time in 2008 until the U.N. mandate ended in 2011.

Christine is a lifetime member of Net Impact.

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Ebele Okobi
Global Head & Senior Legal Director, Human Rights
Yahoo!

Ebele Okobi is Global Head and Senior Legal Director of Yahoo!’s Business & Human Rights Program, where she leads Yahoo’s efforts to promote privacy and free expression on the Internet and works to identify innovative solutions to human rights challenges.

Before joining Yahoo, Ebele worked as a corporate lawyer at Davis Polk & Wardwell, an attorney fellow at Consumers Union, a director of Advisory Services at Catalyst, and more. Ms. Okobi earned a BA in Psychology from the University of Southern California, a JD from Columbia Law School and an MBA Certificat des Études from HEC-Paris.

She lives in California with her husband, Rich Harris III, as well as a teenager, a three year old and twin toddlers.

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Sierra
Dave Stangis
Vice President, Public Affairs & Corporate Responsibility
Campbell Soup Company

Dave Stangis is Vice President, Public Affairs and Corporate Responsibility for the Campbell Soup Company and President of the Campbell Soup Foundation. Dave is responsible for designing and leading Campbell’s overarching CSR, Sustainability and Community Affairs strategies. Prior to joining Campbell, Dave worked at Intel for 12 years where he created and led the Corporate Responsibility function.