Best Practice Companies Honored at GBC Awards For Business Excellence Gala

The Sixth Annual Awards for Business Excellence Gala was held at the American Museum of Natural History in New York on June 13th. The Gala convened over 700 guests, including member company CEOs, political leaders, public health experts, and award-winning entertainers. The evening's winners--Abbott and Abbott Fund, Chevron, Coca-Cola China Beverages Limited, Eli Lilly & Company Ltd., Eskom Holdings Ltd., HBO, Marathon Oil Corporation, and Standard Chartered PLC--created and enacted exemplary HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria programs. GBC also honored former US President Bill Clinton for his outstanding leadership on HIV/AIDS and global health.

A Partnership to Test America

Deeply concerned that one out of four people in the United States with HIV does not know they are infected, GBC, HBO, the National Basketball Association (NBA), and Kaiser Family Foundation developed the Testing411 campaign, a multi-media strategy encouraging millions of Americans to get tested for HIV. Launched at the GBC Awards For Business Excellence Gala, the Public Service Announcements (PSAs) feature Academy Award Winner Jamie Foxx, Queen Latifah, and NBA players.

Senior GBC Members Meet with New UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to Urge Scale-Up

On June 13th, GBC and Global Fund leaders joined senior delegates from 15 GBC member companies to meet with new Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon. Citing successful business responses, the representatives offered a strong case for increased collective action. Seeking tangible results, the delegation urged Secretary-General Ban to appoint a UN Special Envoy on Malaria and to host a meeting of key stakeholders, including the business sector, during the next UN General Assembly Special Session (UNGASS) in mid-2008.

GBC Convenes Member Companies and Stakeholders for Key Policy and Technical Service Events

On June 13, in conjunction with the Awards for Business Excellence Gala, GBC presented the 2007 Technical Sessions, focusing on opportunities for awareness, education and access using supply chain strengths. Generously hosted by member HSBC, and co-sponsored by member Booz & Company, the technical sessions will soon yield an important package of useful tools for member companies to strengthen supply-chain strategies. On June 12-13, the GBC Policy Workshop focused on the increasing feminzation of AIDS, and facilitated deeper understanding of the wider context and policy issues shaping HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa. Developed as part of the Healthy Women Healthy Economies initiative, the workshop outlined important follow-up steps such as integrating gender into GBC's Business Action Methodology™.

Expert Interview: HBO Co-President Richard Plepler

"HBO is in the business of telling stories, and we're at our best when we explore those stories that are often ignored. The case of HIV/AIDS is a perfect example. When we began looking at this issue 1987 no one was giving real time and energy to explaining the implications of this plague. The movies and documentaries which we've made -- from And the Band Played On to Pandemic: Facing AIDS to Angels in America to our most recent Life Support -- are our small contributions to elevating the national conversation. The challenge, of course, is to do it in a way that is accessible. If we do our job well, that allows us to have a real impact."

Member in Action: Rio Tinto Presents Award-Winning Palabora Mine Project

Senior staff from Rio Tinto recently spent three days discussing key HIV/AIDS learnings at a workshop in Johannesburg facilitated by Aurum Healthcare and GBC and chaired by Rio Tinto's Head of Exploration, Eric Finlayson. Rio Tinto's Palabora Mine, located in the Limpopo province of South Africa, presented its award-winning community programme, which in partnership with other large employers, the South African government and NGOs, has successfully rolled out HIV/AIDS treatment, care and support. This programme has impacted positively on the lives of thousands of community members.

GBC 2007 Private Sector Portfolios Highlight Best Practices in the Fight Against HIV/AIDS, TB and Malaria

Since its inception in 2001, GBC has established a vast library of programmatic knowledge around HIV/AIDS. With the inclusion of tuberculosis and malaria to its mandate, GBC was compelled to collate this data in an appropriate format - cataloguing the business response across a variety of industries, types of interventions, regions of focus, and workforce size. This end product, GBC Private Sector Portfolios on HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, is accessible to both member companies and the public as a guiding tool in workplace interventions.