For this month’s CSR Profile, we’re shining the spotlight on Credit Suisse, hearing from Caroline Courtois, Vice President, EMEA Corporate Citizenship.

Please provide a short outline of your current role and a brief description of any other relevant career experience
Caroline Courtois, Vice President, EMEA Corporate Citizenship, Credit Suisse

I work for Corporate Citizenship, which, within our broader Corporate Social Responsibility work, supports our engagement towards the communities where we operate.

One of my primary responsibilities is to support the Credit Suisse EMEA Foundation from an administrative, financial and governance point of view. I support the preparation of the Foundation Board meetings, including the process, thereby our Trustees will review grant proposals and select partner charities. This requires a constant engagement with charities to prepare a solid pipeline of potential partners.

As a natural follow up, I play a lead role across this grant portfolio of organisations that fall under our ‘Future Skills’ strategic theme. Concretely this means monitoring and evaluating the funded programmes. It also requires developing deep partnerships, where we identify assets in the Bank that can be leveraged to support further these charity partners.

I also contribute to a number of our global initiatives, particularly in terms of skills-based volunteering. I support, for example, the Global Citizen Programme, thereby we second employees to EMEA grant partners for up to 2 weeks to support the organisations on a specific assignment. I also manage in EMEA our global Board Connect programme that trains employees to serve on the board of charities and help them identify trusteeship.

As a member of a small team, I get involved in so many other aspects of our work, from developing pieces of internal or external communication, engaging with our offices across the region, or representing the charitable activity. I also support my colleagues on critical initiatives such as our Charity of the Year relationships or seasonal appeals such the recent global Covid-19 appeal, that raised 25millionCHF for causes across the world.

As a Deputy of the Head of Corporate Citizenship EMEA, I have an opportunity as well to get involved in operational planning and in developing our strategy.

Why is CSR important to your organisation?
Credit Suisse’s responsibilities go beyond our core business: we want to contribute to addressing social challenges in the communities in which we operate. Our vision is for a more inclusive future where all people can access the resources and develop the financial, entrepreneurial and other skills to thrive in the economy and society. We believe that education and access to financial services are key drivers of growth and an effective means of empowering people to help themselves.

Under our Future Skills strategic priority, Credit Suisse has been working with education partners globally to support organisations that address barriers to education or employment and/or equip young people with the knowledge, skills, attitudes and values required to respond to the demands of evolving employment markets or create opportunities through their own entrepreneurial initiative.

Our employees are essential to our commitment to society. As part of the bank’s Human Capital Strategy, we allow each employee to devote up to four days per year to support social projects run by our partners in the communities where they live and work. We continue to place an emphasis on volunteering programs that promote the transfer of skills and knowledge between employees and partners. This enables our employees to use their expertise to make a difference and gives them the opportunity to enhance their own skills and professional development. In 2019 in EMEA alone, 4,839 employees from across 17 offices volunteered 55,467 hours and engaged with over 180 charities.

Which topics, themes or initiatives are your organisation currently focused on?
Credit Suisse focuses on the three following themes:
• Financial Inclusion: Expanding access to high-quality, affordable financial products and services
• Financial Education: Improving the financial education and skills of young people
• Future Skills: Equipping young people (under 25) with skills and education for a productive future and to close the educational/employment gap as they enter adulthood. Future skills are often defined as competencies that relate to technology and digitalisation. While these are undoubtedly important in the job market, the requirements of the future are much broader and are bound to change over time. Our goal therefore is to focus on skills that enable young people to be life-long learners. This means, for example, developing critical and creative thinking skills and instilling an entrepreneurial mindset.

The Credit Suisse EMEA Foundation focusses on Future Skills and aspires to provide disadvantaged young people in EMEA with the opportunity to fulfil their potential in their adult lives. By supporting access to education and skills, the Foundation strives to ensure that a young person’s success is not determined by their socio-economic status. The Credit Suisse EMEA Foundation is currently working with 24 organisations in EMEA.

What is the best part of your job?
My immediate response is: doing good. This is such a privilege to be working with a mission to support our communities and employees.

I also particularly like how diverse the role is. In the same day, I may be evaluating a programme, preparing a budget, having an introduction call with a new charity, drafting a memo to our employees, reviewing the impact of our strategy and organising the logistic of an event. No two days are the same.

Corporate social responsibility, and within it Corporate Citizenship, is embedded within the business, it means that we work with many functions at the Bank. We constantly search for new opportunities to support the Business but also to carry our mission across other functions. We also get to engage with many of our employees through the volunteering initiatives. Finally, we work with our Employees Networks (Parent Network, LGBT+ Network, BAME Network, Health and Wellbeing Network), which engage and drive the culture of the Business.