Month: April 2023

CLARENDON, S.C., April 12, 2023 /3BL Media/ – Georgia-Pacific believes in being a good steward in the community. Its Clarendon OSB facility is committed to making a positive difference in the community with recent donations to the Clarendon County Fire Rescue and Sumter Fire departments through Georgia-Pacific’s Bucket Brigade grant program. Georgia-Pacific’s Bucket Brigade program has awarded $3 million in grants, educational materials, and other in-kind donations since the program began in 2006 to help support firefighters and keep our communities safe.

Clarendon County Fire Rescue and Sumter Fire departments received training material after requesting assistance from Georgia-Pacific’s Clarendon OSB facility. The first responders use OSB as props to cover multiple skills and techniques needed for fire suppression and medical responses. The donation will allow firefighters to receive realistic training to develop lifesaving skills.

Georgia-Pacific donations provided through Bucket Brigade help the Clarendon County Fire Rescue and Sumter Fire departments protect our facility communities.

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Originally published by Gilead Sciences

Dr. Jeffrey Lazarus was studying at New York University in the late 1980s when he saw first-hand the devastation of the HIV epidemic. Today, as a professor at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy and head of the health systems team at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) in Spain, he’s encouraged by the fact that many people with HIV are living longer because of treatment advances that make it possible to reduce the virus to an undetectable level.

Still, he knows that much work needs to be done to meet the United Nations’ (U.N.) goal of ending the HIV epidemic by 2030 and to fully meet the needs of people living with HIV around the world. Social and structural barriers prevent many people from accessing HIV treatment or prevention and care, and individuals living with HIV face complex medical needs as they age.

Gilead helped transform HIV care by developing the first HIV single-tablet regimen and has long been committed to addressing the unmet needs of diverse communities and to removing barriers to care. As part of this work, Dan Murphy, Gilead’s Global Therapeutic Policy Lead in HIV, and his colleagues recently convened a panel of experts, including thought leaders, legislators and HIV advocates, to examine these challenges of the epidemic. Chaired by Jeffrey, the panel made a series of recommendations that are included in a global policy paper on long-term success in HIV. We sat down with Dan and Jeffrey to discuss some of the highlights.

Q. What does long-term success look like, and what are some of the factors that will make it possible?
Dan: Long-term success involves meeting more than the U.N. goals of ending the epidemic. For those living with HIV, success must include both good health and quality of life, free of barriers to treatment and free of stigma and discrimination. There are three core ingredients to long-term success. First, social determinants of health such as racism, housing and transportation must be addressed to ensure access to innovative treatments. The second is designing health systems to provide greater integrated care. And finally, the challenges of living with HIV in aging individuals need to be addressed, including the development and early onset of co-morbidities. About 50% of people living with HIV in Western Europe and North America are older than 50 – a number that will grow to 75-80% by 2030. We need more treatment options and health care systems that meet these growing needs.

Q. What are some of the barriers that stand in the way of achieving long-term success?
Jeffrey: Huge progress has been made, but that progress isn’t equally felt around the world. There needs to be greater access to treatment for people in every corner of the world, or we are at risk of leaving behind many people in key populations. Additionally, there is a lack of attention to and a lack of understanding about health-related quality of life. The health system is very rigid because it focuses on one aspect of health – the physical – and often neglects the social and mental well-being of an individual. We need to re-engineer the system to reduce these barriers and have a more holistic view of how we think about health. There are so many important issues outside the health system, like housing problems or food insecurity, that the health system could seek to address. The health system needs to think much broader than whether someone is taking their meds and controlling their viral loads. For example, why not partner health services with social welfare?

Q. What can governments do to address these issues?
Dan: Governments need to have national and sub-national HIV plans in place that incorporate some of the principles that we’ve mentioned, such as developing health systems that reflect a holistic integration and health-related quality of life. There also needs to be a commitment to funding for HIV strategies, and while many nations have pledged to the U.N.’s Sustainable Development goals of ending the epidemic by 2030, most have yet to clearly identify how they plan to achieve those goals.

Jeffrey: There needs to be an understanding that this isn’t just an HIV issue or a health systems issue. It’s a societal issue. During the COVID-19 pandemic, it has not been just about stopping viral transmission and treating COVID-19. It has also been a social issue filled with stigma and people’s perceptions about getting the virus or having long COVID. I serve as co-chair of the HIV Outcomes Beyond Viral Suppression Coalition, where we call upon policymakers and healthcare providers to address a new set of health outcomes that includes quality of life and to make HIV care more person-centered. We missed that during the pandemic. We missed the chance to engage with the person who is ill and help them in so many other ways. We know people living with HIV have a multitude of needs because of their condition – for example, they may face discrimination in obtaining life insurance, a mortgage or a job. We need governments to understand that this is about people and not just a virus.

Q. What role can Gilead play in the broader picture?
Jeffrey: Industry plays an incredibly important role in facilitating communication, sharing best practices and supporting research and the scholarly exchange of evidence at meetings and conferences. Oftentimes, some of the most innovative opportunities come from the private, rather than public sector. I would hope that industry continues to play such an important role, in addition to drug development. I appreciate the longer-term commitment to this population that continues to face many challenges, in spite of our efforts.

Dan: The biopharmaceutical industry has an ongoing commitment to innovate in HIV. Gilead works with others to ensure there’s a continued focus on HIV as a public health priority. Part of Gilead’s role is to help shape policy by working in partnership with clinicians, governments, thought leaders, people living with HIV and others, all of whom are critical to long-term success. There’s a real risk that HIV will be de-prioritized by governments. While we’ve made huge progress to get to where we are now, there is still much to do. We must prioritize HIV and long-term success in HIV in order to help end the HIV epidemic for everyone, everywhere.

The world population is continually growing*, and agriculture faces the challenge of growing enough food while using fewer natural resources. With this growth in population, coupled with the effects of climate change and extreme weather around the globe, maintaining the status quo in agriculture and the food value chain is not enough. Farmers are looking for innovative solutions to make the most of their land and use fewer natural resources while growing their crops in a safe and sustainable way.

Over the years, the way farmers have collected data has evolved from notebooks and spreadsheets to digital tools and satellites. Now, through the power of science, our cutting-edge data collection technology is helping evolve it once again, not just aiding farmers in surveying their land, but by identifying unprecedented opportunities for greater, more profitable, and more sustainable harvests. With Climate FieldView™, smart drones, and soil sensors, our digital tools inform farmers’ choices of the amount, type, speed, and depth of seeds planted, as well as measuring weather and fertiliser spray schedules. Overall, this contributes to the use of less fuel, fertilizer, water, and pesticide, making farming more energy-efficient and planet friendly. Today, farmers can help fight climate change and increase global food security in the future. It is just one of our many missions to help create a world with health for all and hunger is for none. 

Through science, we are working on making every day better: For farmers like Kurt, it means using less land, water, and energy to grow crops. 

We call this journey Science for Better. Learn more about our other missions below.

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*Growth reference: https://ourworldindata.org/world-population-growth

April 12, 2023 /3BL Media/ – Paychex, Inc., a leading provider of integrated human capital management software solutions for human resources, payroll, benefits, and insurance services, has been recognized on FORTUNE® magazine’s inaugural list of America’s Most Innovative Companies. The recognition as a 2023 innovator was awarded to Paychex for the company’s commitment to industry-leading HR solutions while fostering a culture of innovation. The list, presented by FORTUNE and Statista, Inc., features 300 top-scoring U.S.-based organizations.

“It is an honor to be considered one of America’s most innovative companies by FORTUNE,” said John Gibson, president and CEO of Paychex. “Innovation is one of the guiding values that each Paychex employee demonstrates every day that allows us to continually deliver solutions and customer experiences that meet the growing HR needs of our customers. We will continue to be relentless in understanding the needs of business owners and their employees that will result in solutions that improve business outcomes for our customers.” Gibson added, “Through the hard work and dedication of our 16,000 plus employees, Paychex is recognized as one of the most innovative, most admired, and most ethical companies.”

To help address modern workforce trends and the marketplace challenges facing American businesses and workers, Paychex has delivered highly impactful service and technology offerings and enhancements to Paychex Flex®, the company’s SaaS-based HR technology software solution.

The Paychex Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) Service was introduced to help eligible businesses retroactively identify the tax credits and file amended returns based on wages and health plan expenses paid on behalf of employees in 2020 and 2021. The service leverages Paychex Flex technology to streamline and automate the process. To date, Paychex has helped over 50,000 customers apply for billions in total tax credits.Paychex Retention Insights is a proprietary predictive analytics model built by Paychex data scientists based on millions of records of anonymized employment data. The predictive model is available to Paychex Flex customers as a live and interactive report that helps identify risk factors that may help predict if an employee has the potential to resign.Paychex Flex Hiring and Paychex Flex Onboarding automate tasks and actions for a streamlined and fully digital hiring and onboarding process. Enhancements include the ability to post a position digitally to popular job boards and digital offer letters, to advancements allowing new hires to complete critical documentation, including direct deposit authorization, W4, state withholding forms, and Form I-9s from the device of choice for a paperless onboarding experience.

Evaluation criteria for the 2023 list prioritized the four dimensions of innovation: product, process, culture, and revenue growth, with FORTUNE and Statista selecting America’s Most Innovative Companies 2023 based on product innovation, process innovation, and innovation culture. Statista deployed online surveys where employees could score their own company on a scale system. Additionally, Statista surveyed experts in various fields – from recruiters to management consultants and patent attorneys, while also looking at IP portfolios to analyze the quantity and value of company patents.

To see a full list of FORTUNE’s 2023 list of America’s Most Innovative Companies, visit https://fortune.com/ranking/americas-most-innovative-companies/2023/.

About Paychex
Paychex, Inc. (Nasdaq: PAYX) is a leading provider of integrated human capital management solutions for human resources, payroll, benefits, and insurance services. By combining innovative software-as-a-service technology and mobility platform with dedicated, personal service, Paychex empowers business owners to focus on the growth and management of their business. Backed by 50 years of industry expertise, Paychex serves more than 730,000 payroll clients as of May 31, 2022, in the U.S. and Europe, and pays one out of every 12 American private sector employees. Learn more about Paychex by visiting www.paychex.com and stay connected on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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Alison Lewis, Kimberly-Clark’s chief growth officer, recently participated in a keynote presentation moderated by Pree Rao from Egon Zehnder at Northwestern University’s 12th annual Kellogg Marketing Leadership Summit. During her remarks, she discussed the value of leading with resiliency and authenticity in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world.

“The successful leader of tomorrow is one who can cope with disruptive changes and adapt. This, combined with a growth mindset and intellectual humility, allows leaders to accomplish milestones they never dreamed possible,” she said.

Alison also shared how Kimberly-Clark emerged stronger from the pandemic through purposeful brand building, the power of saying “I don’t know” as a way to expand learning, and the importance of staying close to the consumer while pivoting quickly to stay ahead.

About the Kellogg Marketing Leadership Summit 
Last month, The Kellogg School of Management’s Center for Marketing Leadership at Northwestern University, in partnership with Egon Zehnder and McKinsey & Company, convened senior marketing leaders at the Evanston campus of Northwestern University for the 12th annual Kellogg Marketing Leadership Summit.

By invitation only, the summit was an interactive and intimate discussion among renowned faculty and marketers who lead some of the world’s most important organizations. The event featured C-suite keynotes, engaging panel sessions and cutting-edge research.

This year’s theme was ‘R2 – Radical Shifts x Resilient Leadership.’ We are facing so many dramatic shifts, including digitization, evolving customer needs, new hybrid working models, the rethinking of supply chains…the list goes on and on. How can marketing leaders respond to these changes? 

At this year’s summit, speakers and attendees explored resiliency amid these shifts – for brands, for teams, and for themselves. Together, they explored the ability to bounce back from this complex interplay of challenges, and how they could ultimately grow as leaders.