Conscious Capitalism, Inc. (CCI) is excited to announce the election of new leadership to our Board of Directors effective January 1, 2022. We are welcoming Karen Sammon, CEO of Next7Gens, as our new Board Chair, along with four new Executive Committee members, and a new Governance Committee Chair.
New Board Chair in the New Year
Karen Sammon, the new Chair of CCI’s Board of Directors, is a committed Conscious Capitalist who has spent her career strategically cultivating and empowering collaborative, engaged, and high performing teams, through servant leadership and authenticity. As former CEO, President, and Board Member of PAR Technology Corporation (NYSE: PAR), Karen focused on culture and values and led the strategic turnaround of the company, a transformation that increased PAR’s valuation nearly 700% from $65M in 2013 to $500M in 2018.
Karen has been a member of CCI’s board since 2018 and an Executive Committee member since 2020. She is a frequent contributor and speaker on Conscious Capitalism topics and is actively building the Conscious Capitalism community at the Chapter level in New York State.
“As a longtime practitioner of Conscious Capitalism, I am humbled to take on the role of Conscious Capitalism, Inc.’s board chair,” Karen said. “I look forward to supporting the CCI team, board, Senior Leader Network members, and community in our tireless efforts to elevate humanity through business. It’s a very exciting time at CCI as we’re entering a period of growth that, if approached consciously, will secure a long-term future for the organization and our movement.”
New to Our Executive Committee
Four current board members have also joined CCI’s Executive Committee:
Alan Lazowski, Chairman, CEO & Founder, LAZ Parking
Alan co-founded LAZ Parking over forty years ago and has since grown the business into a national parking management, transportation, and mobility company with managed revenue in excess of $1.8 billion, over 15,000 employees, and the core values of commitment to people, respect, honesty and integrity, and trust.
JeVon McCormick, President & CEO, Scribe Media
JeVon was born the son of a Black pimp father and a white orphan mother. Today, he’s the CEO of a multi-million dollar publishing company that was recently ranked #1 Top Company Culture in America by Entrepreneur Magazine. Scribe Media recently committed to become one of CCI’s top supporters, leading the way for the next generation of leaders working to support the movement through both their time and treasure.
Carrie Freeman Parsons, Chair of the Board, The Freeman Company
Carrie grew up in the business, and as the third generation of Freeman leaders, she employs forward-thinking strategies that maintain this global events company’s reputation as an industry innovator while staying true to its core values of integrity, empathy, innovation, enthusiasm, performance excellence, and collaboration.
James Rhee, Founder, Red Helicopter & CEO, FirePine Group
James is an acclaimed impact investor, CEO, and educator. He transforms people, brands, and organizations by identifying and unleashing purpose through the union of mathematical and creative systems.
Alan, JeVon, Carrie, and James will be joining current Executive Committee members Cheryl Rosner, Founder & CEO of Stayful and a founding leader of the Conscious Capitalism movement, and Steve Hall, CEO of the Make it Matter Foundation. Like JeVon and Scribe Media, Steve recently increased his financial support of CCI through the Make it Matter Foundation to become one of our top supporters, providing both capital and counsel to accelerate the movement.
Welcome Our New Governance Chair
We are also pleased to welcome current board member Hattie Hill, President & CEO of the T.D. Jakes Foundation, to her new role as chair of CCI’s Governance Committee. Hattie brings more than 30 years of experience in diversity and inclusion strategy, board governance, profit and loss management, and risk mitigation for multinational industries to this important role.
Perspectives from New Leaders
Several of our new leaders offer perspectives on their new board roles:
Thank You to Long-Time Friends
Several long-time board members stepped down from board service at the end of 2021:
- R. Edward Freeman, Academic Director of the Institute for Business in Society, University of Virginia Darden School of Business
- Vidar Jorgensen, Co-Founder, Grameen America & Grameen PrimaCare
- Brian Mohr, Co-Founder & CEO. anthym
- Doug Rauch, Founder/President, Daily Table
- Ron Shaich, Managing Partner & CEO, Act III Holdings
The entire CCI team would like to express deep gratitude to these individuals for their servant leadership to the organization and the movement over the years. It is because of their commitment that CCI has been transformed over the last decade from a primarily volunteer-driven movement to a professionalized nonprofit with the unwavering purpose to elevate humanity through business.
John Mackey, CEO and Co-Founder of Whole Foods Market and Co-Founder of the Conscious Capitalism movement, will be stepping down as a member of CCI’s Executive Committee but will remain an active board member. John had this to say about the 2022 leadership transition:
“While I am stepping down from the Executive Committee, I am remaining on the Board and active in Conscious Capitalism. There’s a great importance in evolving the leadership of the Conscious Capitalism movement beyond its founders in the coming years. I want to ensure that our important work of elevating humanity through business continues and that the legacy of CCI’s founders is not that this was a good idea that thrived only during our active stewardship but that Conscious Capitalism has empowered and inspired the generations of leaders to come as a catalyst to change the way we do business and ultimately uplift our world.”
CCI plans to welcome several new board members next month as we continue to add new ideas, perspectives, and points of view to the Conscious Capitalism movement.