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Angus Russell
Chief Executive Officer
Changing chairs Angus Russell talks about his time with the CR committee, and his new role as CEO
A lot can happen in five years. My time as chairman of the CR committee has not only seen huge growth and change at Shire, but a complete transformation of the scope and profile of ‘corporate responsibility’. Issues like climate change now make the front pages almost every day, but when I first took on this role CR was still seen by many as little more than corporate philanthropy – nice to have but pretty irrelevant to what business was really about. There were plenty of cynics who saw the whole thing as little more than a PR exercise.
That was one reason why we spent so much of the first year of the CR committee deciding what we wanted to achieve: what did CR mean for Shire? How could we do it in such a way that we added value to the business, and captured the special spirit of this special company? Some of these questions still apply - in a different way - today. The emerging shift from CR to sustainability has profound implications for the corporate sector as a whole, and as Matt says in his section of the CR report, this is something that all companies will have to address. The difference now is that these ideas are increasingly integral to the way we do our everyday business, and nowhere is that more evident than in the attitude of the members of the CR committee itself.
These enthusiastic people are leaders and decision-makers drawn from across the company, with direct responsibility for how we manage crucial issues like our people, our production processes, our supply chain, and our environmental performance. As committee members they’re energetic, committed and actively involved. I remember some early meetings when I ended up doing most of the talking – these days I often struggle to get a word in, which is a good measure of the degree of engagement around the committee table, and the momentum and credibility these issues now have throughout the whole business.
Turning to the last twelve months, it’s been the usual combination of new projects and steady progress on a whole range of issues. For example, we’ve continued to raise our internal standards in relation to marketing, and made a commitment to be even more transparent about how we work with patient groups. We’re looking again at the question of work-life balance inside Shire, and whether we should be formalising this more, or giving individual managers the flexibility to apply these concepts in a way that works best for their team. Other new initiatives have included the SAVE programme and Good Corporation stakeholder survey covered later in this report, and valuable new projects like the [European] Health & Safety awareness week we ran with schools, and with our own employees.
We’re also into our second year of a five-year partnership with the Royal Society of Chemistry in the UK. They’re not alone in realising that many schoolchildren are turning away from the study of science, and we’re trying to help them turn the tide by sponsoring new teaching materials for schools and special prizes for the top performers at chemistry ‘A’ level. The winners will get the chance to visit our HGT offices in Boston, as well as the world-famous campuses at Harvard and MIT.
I’m now handing over the day-to-day chairmanship of the committee to our General Counsel Tatjana May, but I don’t see that as diminishing my personal interest in CR – in fact I see my new role as CEO as a new way to give added leadership momentum to these issues. Unlike many CEOs of comparable sized companies, I can apply the practical experience of the last five years to my new role, and the further embedding of responsible, sustainable business practices will be one of my priorities going forward. I’m particularly keen to get our Board more involved – there’s no lack of willingness on their part, but we need to find ways to do this effectively, and as CEO, together with Tatjana, it will be much easier for me to harness their enthusiasm.
I’m proud to say that integrity has always been a genuine and fundamental ethos at Shire, and it’s wonderful to see that recognised in the Gold status we’ve just been awarded by Business in the Community. I see this award as a testament to the hard work and commitment of all my colleagues on the CR committee, supported by many employees across the company. I would like to thank you all for this tremendous effort, which has lead to this important recognition for Shire. There’s still more we have to do, but I’m confident we’ll continue to make significant progress both in this year and future years.
Shire: Silver Award
