The companies combining profit and purpose on Fortune’s Change the World list

If a company can generate revenue and produce creative solutions to solve societal problems, it can have a lasting impact.

This morning, Fortune‘s annual Change the World list honors companies—from global corporations to startups (some with less than $1 billion in revenue)—meeting this challenge. “The endemic planetary problems that Change the World companies are taking on—climate change, public health crises, gender, and racial inequities, and lack of economic opportunity—require the strengths of big and small companies alike,” Fortune‘s Executive Features Editor Matt Heimer writes in the October/November issue of Fortune magazine

PayPal earned the No. 1 spot on the list. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the payments giant based in San Jose, California, steered nearly $1 billion to displaced Ukrainians. As of late September, using PayPal’s platform, customers raised more than $600 million for relief efforts in Ukraine. The company has also helped Ukrainian citizens receive and send another $330 million in person-to-person payments and money transfers.

Since launching CFO Daily in 2021, I’ve had the opportunity to talk with finance chiefs at some of the companies changing the world. Brewing giant Anheuser-Busch (AB) InBev, headquartered in Leuven, Belgium, is No. 21 on the list.

“In 2022, part of my compensation, part of my bonus is linked to ESG,” Fernando Tennenbaum, CFO at AB InBev, recently told me. “And that should tell you how important [ESG] is for us as a company.” Tennenbaum and I talked this past summer about the world’s largest beer brewer opening a $100 million plant protein production facility at the Anheuser-Busch St. Louis Brewery Campus.

The company is also working to protect the world’s water. AB InBev uses over 42 billion gallons of water each year and is deploying leading-edge conservation tactics in the communities where it operates. How? By developing a seven-step watershed management process for its breweries to implement, and it’s collaborating on water protection projects in 17 countries.

“When I started in my career, the CFO role was about creating shareholder value,” Harmit Singh, EVP and CFO of Levi Strauss & Co. told me earlier this year. “Today, it’s about broader stakeholder value creation.”

The San Francisco-based apparel maker and retailer, No. 27 on the list, is rallying business leaders behind gun-safety legislation. When the company circulated a letter urging Congress to pass gun-safety legislation in February 2019, four CEOs signed it. However, when Levi’s tried again this past June, nearly 550 signed on. The letter assisted in persuading lawmakers to break a decades-old impasse and vote for the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, Fortune reported. CEO Chip Bergh told Fortune: “We know that this is a complex issue, but doing nothing is not an option.”

A major part of the CFO role requires being “the strategic right hand of the leader of the business,” at Karen Parkhill, EVP, and CFO Medtronic, once told me. The global medical device company headquartered in Dublin is strategically working hard to allow for the early detection of colorectal cancer that kills nearly 900,000 people a year. The company’s GI Genius module uses AI, built around 13 million images of colorectal polyps, to detect tiny polyps not easily seen by the human eye.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. CFO Jack Hartung once told me that he visits the sustainable farms where food for Chipotle is sourced. “I would say the biggest thing that I have learned over the years that has helped me, is to think broader than just finance,” Hartung said.

The company (No. 37), which has more than 3,000 restaurants worldwide, is based in Newport Beach, California. Last year, Chipotle bought more than 35 million pounds of locally-grown produce. And, over the past two years, it has spent an extra $400 million to purchase responsibly sourced and humanely raised ingredients.

Fortune staff teamed up again with Shared Value Initiative, a consultancy that helps companies apply business skills to social problems, to select this year’s honorees. It takes an ongoing commitment that’s embedded in the business strategy to make impactful changes. And the companies on the Change the World list are making great strides.

You can read all about them here.

See you tomorrow.

Sheryl Estrada
sheryl.estrada@fortune.com

Big deal

Morgan Stanley at Work’s “The State of the Workplace Financial Benefits Study” finds employees are paying even greater attention to their financial benefits. A key insight: 84% of US employees surveyed agreed that employers should be more involved in helping their employees through specific financial troubles due to the current economic instability. However, employees report that their needs are not often fully addressed. Eighty-nine percent said their companies need to improve on helping them understand how to maximize their financial benefits. Another key finding of the report is employer perceptions of equity compensation are shifting.

Courtesy of Morgan Stanley

Going deeper

“ESG and cybersecurity compliance are every employee’s concern,” is a new opinion piece in Wharton’s business journal by legal studies and business ethics lecturer Leeza Garber, and Allison Jegla, global director of impact at 100 Women in Finance. To meet the emerging challenges that companies face, everyone from the C-suite to entry-level hires must be trained in ESG and cybersecurity, according to the authors.

Leaderboard

Kathleen P. BlochCFO at CytoSorbents Corporation (Nasdaq: CTSO), which produces therapeutic devices, plans to retire on March 31, 2023, following a decade-long career at the company. A search has been initiated for Bloch’s replacement. After her retirement next year, she will continue as a consultant of the company to provide, among other services, continuity during the transition of her successor. Bloch joined CytoSorbents as CFO in May 2013. Before joining the company, she was CFO at Laureate Biopharmaceutical Services.

Steve QuinlanCFO at Neogen Corporation (Nasdaq: NEOG) has announced its intention to retire effective May 31, 2023, after the company’s fiscal year. Quinlan has served as Neogen’s CFO since 2011, leading the company through more than 30 acquisitions, including the company’s recent acquisition of 3M’s Food Safety business. David Naemura will succeed Quinlan as CFO, effective Jan. 2, 2023. During the five-month overlapping period, Naemura and Quinlan will work together on the transition of responsibilities. Naemura was previously CFO at Vontier Corporation. Before his time at Vontier, Naemura was the CFO at Gates Industrial Corporation and also served as a group CFO for Danaher Corporation.

Overheard

“I don’t know him, but he’s a smart guy. It’s a great platform and although it didn’t look that way, he wanted it. I think he’ll be successful running it. It’s a great deal for him.”

—Billionaire investor Carl Icahn on Tesla CEO Elon Musk agreeing to buy Twitter, as told to Fortune. Ichan scored a big win when Musk ended his campaign to scrap his agreement to buy Twitter, now agreeing to pay the full price of $54.20 a share.