It is important that our senior leaders lead from the front. During the Reed Elsevier Management Conference in Charleston, South Carolina, nearly 200 Reed Elsevier senior managers, including CEO Sir Crispin Davis, helped make a difference to local young people on behalf of the Boys & Girls Club of the Trident Area. At the Club’s Robert Gould Shaw Unit, volunteers painted the outside of the building, assembled bicycles for the children, and rejuvenated the garden, transforming it into a play area. Another group of volunteers at Fraser Elementary School read to students, shared information about their countries in a cultural workshop, and built benches for the playground. Reed Elsevier also contributed $5,000 each to the Club and the school. In addition, participants decided to make personal donations, enough to purchase 144 bikes for every child aged 5–12. Walmart assembled the bikes at no cost and the project garnered local television coverage for the Club.
Our divisions make RE Cares activities a key part of leadership meetings. Exemplary in 2008, 120 LexisNexis senior executives representing 40 countries, including CEO Andy Prozes, gathered in South Africa for a strategic conference. Together they upgraded two schools in the town of Hawston and a children’s centre, Hou Moed, in Kwasa Kwasa, Zwelihle. Among other contributions, Hou Moed Centre received a newly tiled hall floor and Hawston Primary, a netball/basketball court, cricket nets, and new playground equipment.