Month: January 2024

Originally published by Northwestern Mutual on June 20, 2023

Despite gains in education and earnings, the racial wealth gap remains a deep issue in America. According to the Federal Reserve Board, Black Americans’ net worth is 70% below that of non-Black households. In Milwaukee, homeownership is less attainable for Black residents, which is due in part to this gap. As part of Northwestern Mutual’s efforts to build healthier and stronger neighborhoods, the company is working to lessen this gap. To help progress towards this goal, the company is dedicating $3 million through its Sustained Action for Racial Equity initiative and its Foundation to provide Milwaukee residents with the resources and tools to achieve financial stability through homeownership.

“As a financial services company, we recognize our responsibility to support and add economic value to our communities,” said Grady Crosby, vice president, chief sustainability and impact officer at Northwestern Mutual. “By leveraging our expertise and working directly with local residents and partners, we’re helping to create a pipeline to homeownership that makes housing more affordable and gives residents a stake in their properties for generations to come.”

Northwestern Mutual is investing $2.5 million in the Milwaukee Community Land Trust (MCLT) to help drive affordable housing and ensure homeownership affordability over time. The investment comes from the company’s $100 million impact investment fund, which is working to deliver on the company’s commitment to addressing inequality and the racial wealth gap in the U.S. Funds from this initiative are dedicated to Black, African American and other underserved communities on local and national scales, specifically focusing on building physical and social infrastructure, increasing access to capital and creating healthy, sustainable neighborhoods and communities.

In addition, through its Foundation, the company is donating $500,000 to Acts Housing’s Homeownership Acquisition Fund. This fund was formed with the support of the Community Development Alliance and is a key strategy of Milwaukee’s collective affordable housing plan. The funds will address the shortage of quality affordable homes available for purchase by low-income Black and Latino residents by purchasing houses to rehab and sell to new homeowners. The combined funds will support up to 20 homes.

“Homeownership is strongly tied to economic empowerment, financial security and community development,” said Steve Radke, president of the Northwestern Mutual Foundation. “Research has found that stable housing can improve education dropout rates, economic vitality and health, as well as reduce crime. As a company, we firmly believe that helping residents access fair and sustained homeownership opportunities is an important means to helping close the racial wealth gap, and we are grateful to our partners for helping us tackle this generational issue.”

For more than a decade, the company has partnered with Milwaukee’s Amani, Metcalfe Park and Muskego Way neighborhoods to create long-term sustainable impact, with more than $15 million already invested toward revitalization efforts and economic empowerment. Those investments have paved the way for the establishment of thriving neighborhood associations, resident driven revitalization plans, deeper collaboration between non-profit partners and the development of a citywide shared housing strategy. 

“Milwaukee is unique compared to other cities with a stark racial inequity in homeownership,” said Lamont Davis, executive director for the Milwaukee Community Land Trust. “At MCLT, we are focused on a long-term strategy investment. Together with our partners, like Northwestern Mutual, we’ve already been able to invest in 10 affordable homes throughout the city and are working to add more than 30 more by 2025.”

“In Milwaukee, families of low-to-moderate income are increasingly rent burdened and forced to make decisions that limit their ability for upward mobility,” said Dorothy York, vice president, real estate at Acts Housing. “We are working to acquire at least 100 properties per year beginning this year and convert these properties into owner-occupied homes. This strategy works through a combination of program investments from philanthropies and long-term patient capital from financial institutions like Northwestern Mutual.”

On average, the median income for a Black household in Wisconsin is $31,351, which is less than half the state’s and nation’s median household income. Through these investments and partnerships, Northwestern Mutual is providing a sustainable pipeline to homeownership which will enable Milwaukee residents to invest in their future in a tangible and meaningful way.

About Milwaukee Community Land Trust (MCLT)
The Milwaukee Community Land Trust (MCLT) transforms houses into pillars of strong families and safe neighborhoods by making homes permanently affordable to low-income buyers through a proven community land trust model. There are 270 community land trust across the country all dedicated to providing affordable homes and wealth creation opportunities to those who otherwise would not have those chances.

Using public and private subsidies, MCLT purchases land and home and either rehabs the existing homes or builds new ones, keeping prices well below market for homebuyers. In return, they agree to sell their home for below market value, ensuring subsidies are passed onto future generations. And homeowners can build wealth from market appreciation and equity growth.

About Acts Housing 
Acts Housing provides one on one and online, HUD approved homebuyer and financial counseling for individuals and families to help them become ready to buy. As a real estate brokerage, Acts represents families in the purchase of homes for owner occupancy, in Milwaukee and Beloit, Wisconsin. Acts then helps families plan and execute home rehabilitation, with a focus on reclaiming vacant foreclosures. Affiliated nonprofit partner, Acts Lending, Inc., provides mortgage loans for rehabilitation projects.

About Community Development Alliance (CDA)
The Community Development Alliance believes that homeownership is a catalyst for dismantling systemic racism and building strong communities. That’s why their work as accomplices with the community is centered on change for and with people and policy. By working collaboratively, they invest in neighborhoods, providing access to quality homes for Milwaukee families and nurturing capacity for Black and brown families to build generational wealth.

About SARE
Sustained Action for Racial Equity (SARE) is Northwestern Mutual’s dedicated task force, led by Chairman, President and CEO John Schlifske, which takes a holistic look at actions that will have the greatest impact to drive sustainable change. 

About Northwestern Mutual Foundation 
The mission of the Northwestern Mutual Foundation is to improve the lives of children and families in need. The Foundation has given more than $400 million since its inception in 1992 and is designed to create lasting impact in the communities where the company’s employees and financial representatives live and work. We accomplish this by combining financial support, volunteerism, thought leadership and convening community partners to deliver the best outcomes. Our efforts are focused nationally on curing childhood cancer, and locally on education, neighborhoods and making our hometown of Milwaukee a great destination. Visit Northwestern Mutual Foundation to learn more.

About Northwestern Mutual
Northwestern Mutual has been helping people and businesses achieve financial security for more than 165 years. Through a comprehensive planning approach, Northwestern Mutual combines the expertise of its financial professionals with a personalized digital experience and industry-leading products to help its clients plan for what’s most important. With more than $558 billion of total assets being managed across the company’s institutional portfolio as well as retail investment client portfolios, nearly $35 billion in revenues, and $2.2 trillion worth of life insurance protection in force, Northwestern Mutual delivers financial security to more than five million people with life, disability income and long-term care insurance, annuities, and brokerage and advisory services. Northwestern Mutual ranked 111 on the 2023 FORTUNE 500.

Northwestern Mutual is the marketing name for The Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company (NM), Milwaukee, WI (life and disability insurance, annuities, and life insurance with long-term care benefits) and its subsidiaries. Subsidiaries include Northwestern Mutual Investment Services, LLC (NMIS) (investment brokerage services), broker-dealer, registered investment adviser, member FINRA and SIPC; the Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Company® (NMWMC) (investment advisory and services), federal savings bank; and Northwestern Long Term Care Insurance Company (NLTC) (long-term care insurance). Not all Northwestern Mutual representatives are advisors. Only those representatives with “Advisor” in their title or who otherwise disclose their status as an advisor of NMWMC are credentialed as NMWMC representatives to provide investment advisory services.

Originally published on HARMAN Newsroom

This January, HARMAN returned to Las Vegas to unveil our latest products and technologies designed to enable more connected and personalized experiences in two expansive showcases at CES and HARMAN EXPLORE. Once again, cutting-edge audio solutions from our legendary brands transformed the Virgin Hotel into a dazzling display of audio innovation for our HARMAN EXPLORE showcase. But this year, our Automotive team presented our newest products that deliver the most advanced in-car experiences straight from the CES show floor for the first time, alongside our parent company, Samsung.

For a closer look at our exciting week full of experience-led innovation, take a look back at key news and events across automotive, lifestyle audio, luxury, and Digital Transformation Solutions:

Transforming the In-Vehicle Experience, Boosted by Samsung Synergies

Our joint showcase with Samsung at CES demonstrated how the companies together are bringing relevant consumer technology innovations to the automotive environment for impactful in-cabin experiences, including:

The expansion of our award-winning Ready product portfolio, and a brand new Ready Connect product, that combines the power of HARMAN and Samsung to enhance safety, personalization and sustainability for automakers and consumers.Our new HARMAN Ignite Store payments solution that unlocks future-proof app monetization for OEMs and app-based in-cabin experiences for consumers, powered by close collaboration with Samsung and other industry-leading companies.Our HARMAN SeatSonic audio solution integrates speakers into the seats to enhance in-vehicle entertainment with premium sound that completely surrounds drivers and passengers for an individualized listening experience.

Elevating the Listening Experience with Premium Audio

HARMAN’s consumer audio brands set the standard for audio quality, and continue to revolutionize sound and technology. At our HARMAN EXPLORE showcase, we revealed our latest portable speakers, headphones, earphones, and more through exciting, immersive demos including:

The latest evolution of our JBL PartyBox speaker series, featuring thrilling sound and immersive lighting effects that electrify gatheringsAn eco-friendly upgrade of our fan-favorite portables: new JBL Xtreme 4, JBL Clip 5 and JBL Go 4 speakers are all made with recycled materials.The expansion of JBL’s industry-leading Smart Charging Case to the JBL Live 3 earbuds.Our newly expanded JBL Quantum Stream line of microphones, empowering content creators to amplify the reach of their voices with JBL’s signature sound.

HARMAN’s Innovation on Display on the CES Stage and with Key Recognitions for Industry Leadership

HARMAN’s leaders shared their insights on some of the most pressing topics in the consumer technology industry from the CES stage:

For his leadership throughout the automotive industry’s transformation from hardware to software, HARMAN Automotive President, Christian Sobottka, was selected as a winner in the “Leader” category of MotorTrend’s Software-Defined Vehicle Innovator (SDVI) Awards.Daniel Lee took a closer look at the changing marketing landscape and how companies and brands can leverage research, analytics, and AI to reach customers.Nick Parrotta shared how HARMAN is harnessing AI technology for improved cybersecurity, productivity and outcomes.Lyle Smith explored how niche audio products have become more mainstream as listeners look to enhance their sound systems with affordable, high-end systems.Ruomu Hu joined a panel as part of the Female Quotient Equality Lounge at CES and discussed the opportunities for continuous learning that HARMAN offers our teams and how this benefits our company culture.HARMAN was recognized for excellence in design and audio performance with nine CES Innovation Awards honoring our connected audio products and one Best of Innovation Award for the JBL Authentics 500.

HARMAN EXPLORE+: Insights from the Show Floor

HARMAN’S President and CEO, Michael Mauser, shared a behind-the-scenes look at how HARMAN has expanded our footprint at CES this year. Oisin Lunny wore the hat of our onsite correspondent, exploring HARMAN’s progress in developing critical technologies for the “software-defined vehicle” and our strategy for creating the premium, quality sound HARMAN is known for. Discover an inside look at some of our biggest announcements and trends in 2024 by watching our HARMAN EXPLORE+ series here.

Digital Solutions that Make Life Easier

HARMAN Digital Transformation Solutions presented our new digital solutions designed to simplify and enrich everyday life – such as GearUP, HealthGPT, generative AI, and IoT in a Box – all built with a customer-first mindset to deliver a holistic and meaningful technology experience for global enterprises.

CES and HARMAN EXPLORE have successfully set the stage for an exciting year ahead – and we have much more innovation in store! To learn more, visit the CES and HARMAN EXPLORE media kit and stay up to date with HARMAN by following our Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and corporate newsroom for the latest announcements, as we reimagine a more connected, smart and personalized future.

International Olympic Committee news

IOC Athletes’ Commission member Oluseyi “Seyi” Smith, who competed in both summer and winter editions of the Olympic Games, explains how technology, travel and climate change affect bobsleigh, and how the wider sporting sector can become more sustainable.

The Olympic Winter Games are very different from the Olympic Games that take place in summer. London 2012 was an amazing Games and, in my opinion, the best of our modern era. It’s a massive global spectacle where nothing is held back.

The Winter Olympics, on the other hand, involve fewer countries, but there’s more intimacy among the competing athletes. You introduce yourself to new people and learn about a new country and culture, which does happen in the Olympic Games, but not as often. It’s been a deeper connection for me at the Winter Olympics because it’s a family affair.

At the Olympic Games in the summer, it’s easier to lose the sense of existential crisis that we’re in. Yes, there’s heat and inclement weather, but it’s a lot more pressing at the Winter Olympics because of snow and ice. When I speak to people about my IOC Young Leaders project, which has become a business called “Racing to Zero”, they say, “I get it. Snow is leaving and I may not be able to have the same season in 10 years as I do now.” That being said, if I was going to give bobsleigh a score on sustainability, it wouldn’t be in the top percentile. Like all sports, it involves lots of travel to competitions, which has a large carbon emissions impact. The fact that we go to the same venues over and over, though, means that bobsleigh has an advantage over other sports. We can find a more efficient way to move the sleds back and forth.

Maybe we can design the season so that we can take trains between events in one region. That limits the season to just Europe, though, because you can’t really get trains for the North American circuit or between Asian countries.

But we could make a twist on competing regionally by flying the rest of the world to North America, for example, and only racing between Whistler and Lake Placid for the year. Maybe some regulations could make each race different, like competing in bobsleigh on a snowy day. And then the following year, we go to Europe and just do European events, then to Asia the year after. This way, we would avoid flying back and forth as much, even if we’re going home to see our families and friends every now and then.

You can’t completely avoid travel with sport because you need to compete against everybody. To avoid limiting where we can compete, maybe the bobsleigh federations could invest some money in projects like the Olympic Forest, which remove carbon from the air while providing tangible benefits to local communities in the form of food, income and strengthened resilience in the face of climate change. Tree planting and offsetting isn’t a perfect solution, but it isn’t an impossible solution.

Sustainability in sport will take sacrifices and fewer trips that may make athletes or administrators uncomfortable, but I think in the long term it’s worth it for the greater good of sport. And we may find something unique that we all love, a new way of doing sport that we would never have thought of, like how we’re all doing Zoom meetings now rather than flying across the globe. I don’t think sustainable innovations in bobsleigh are going to be gradual, but more like Formula 1 when the regulations change, and everybody has to go along with it.

The monobob, operated by a single person, is unique in the bobsleigh world because everyone drives the same sled. It’s not like the two-person or four-person where you have the technology element and gaps between countries in sled design. The sleds are made out of carbon fibre, which you can’t recycle either. So, if every discipline used the same sleds, we could create a level playing field with greener sleds and ancillary equipment.

We can also make big changes with energy. Some tracks use ammonia for cooling, which could be substituted for a greener energy source.

Many corporations and sectors are trying to achieve net zero, but sport is not as organised as them because we’re all doing our own thing.

Any change needs to be governance-led with different tiers of strategy pushed down to the national, regional and local levels so that everyone knows what their targets are and how to implement them. There’s the Olympic umbrella, and the IOC are doing a good job of leading sustainability in sport, but many professional sports are separate from that.

Without athletes, there is no sport, so we have to keep the administrators honest and keep pushing the conversation, whether in private or public discourse. We have to go in front of the media and say, “This is important to me and our sport. I have millions of followers, thousands of followers, or just hundreds of followers, but I’m going to use the platform that sport has given me to help it last.”

That’s where you see the top-bottom and bottom-up approach work together. That’s my perfect world solution.

IOC Athletes’ Commission member Oluseyi “Seyi” Smith is a retired summer and winter Olympian who competed in athletics and bobsleigh for Canada. He holds a Bachelor of Electronic and Electrical Engineering and Master of Science in Renewable Energy Technologies from Loughborough University in Great Britain.

Las Vegas Sands

On November 8, Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth (NPHY) and Sands co-presented the 2023 Nevada Youth Homelessness Summit at The Smith Center for Performing Arts, with support from the UNLV Greenspun College of Urban Affairs and the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The 2023 Nevada Youth Homelessness Summit marked a major turning point as the Summit convened experts and stakeholders from across Nevada for the first time, in preparation for development of the state’s first standalone plan to end youth homelessness.

“The energy, enthusiasm and knowledge from all who participated in Summit 2023 was an incredible accelerator for the Movement to End Youth Homelessness in Nevada,” said Arash Ghafoori, CEO of NPHY. “We’ve reached a point in which meaningful impact can only be achieved by evolving to a statewide approach with all resources and service providers aligned. I am inspired by the coalition we convened at Summit 2023, and we are well-positioned to successfully lead the work ahead.”

Randy Hyzak, executive vice president and chief financial officer at Sands and an NPHY board member, opened the Summit by recognizing the progress that has been made, commending the response from around the state and calling for continued commitment, especially from the private sector. Ghafoori followed with an update on the Movement to End Youth Homelessness, setting the stage for a series of rapid-fire presentations and a panel discussion outlining regional perspectives from representatives in northern, southern and rural Nevada and tribal communities.

Important points outlined in regional presentations and the panel discussion included the lack of any state-level funding for youth homelessness and the critical need for more housing and supportive services, particularly around mental health, to give youth experiencing homelessness the resources they need to recover from the trauma they have experienced and aim toward building a promising future.

Youth homelessness remains an urgent issue in Nevada. According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, roughly 12% of youth experiencing homelessness across the United States in 2022 were residing in Nevada. The state also is facing an estimated shortage of more than 80,000 affordable rentals for extremely low-income tenants, according to the National Low Income Housing Coalition.

The stories behind these numbers were brought to life during the Pull Up A Chair presentation by youth leaders with lived experience of homelessness. Presenters gave emotional accounts of their journeys using artfully decorated chairs that represented the hurdles they encountered, along with symbols of hope and inspiration. The challenges faced by homeless youth were further illustrated by keynote speaker Jimmy Santiago Baca, author of A Place to Stand and a former homeless youth, who captivated the audience with stories of his journey from a youth on the streets to award-winning writer and poet. Both of these sessions highlighted the power of self-expression in overcoming trauma.

Afternoon breakout sessions at the 2023 Nevada Youth Homelessness Summit were then dedicated to the work and beginning to align around a statewide plan to end youth homelessness, with topics including direct cash transfers for youth; the intersectionality between childhood trauma, sex trafficking and the unsheltered; a study on youth experiencing homelessness that will serve as the Movement’s statewide needs assessment and restful leadership.

Addressing youth homelessness is a primary focus of the Sands Cares community engagement program in Las Vegas. Sands’ work with NPHY spans nearly a decade and more than $2.3 million in contributions to provide immediate relief, lasting solutions, and advocacy and awareness for youth experiencing homelessness since 2014.

“Today marked a major milestone in the Movement to End Youth Homelessness,” Hyzak said. “We now have a united coalition of statewide leaders, ready to take measured and decisive action to help our most vulnerable youth. The stories we heard from the young leaders who have gone through these experiences underscore the critical work we must do and undoubtedly have motivated and inspired all who attended the Summit.”

To learn more about Sands’ youth homelessness efforts as part of its focus on hardship relief in communities around the world, read the company’s latest environmental, social and governance report: https://www.sands.com/2022-environmental-social-and-governance-report/

KeyBank’s Hamden, Connecticut branch recently had a very special guest visit its lobby. On December 16th, branch manager Alana Dina and her staff hosted a community Meet & Greet to introduce the public to Hamden Police Department’s newest K-9 patrol dog, Jet. A recent graduate of the Capital Region Training Group and trained in GSR (gunshot residue) and Patrol (tracking and apprehension), Jet is a 20-month-old male German Shepherd who has joined the department as its newest K-9 officer.

The Hometown Foundation, Inc. in conjunction with KeyBank, underwrote the cost to acquire Jet for the Hamden Police Department as an addition to the K-9 team. The sponsorship is part of Hometown’s Emergency Response Personnel pillar. KeyBank provided $5,000 toward the $15,000 sponsorship as part of the bank’s commitment to the Hamden community.

“As a community-minded bank, KeyBank is committed to being a good neighbor and caring corporate citizen,” said Dina. “We are thankful for the support we receive from the Town of Hamden and the Hamden Police department – and we are happy to show our appreciation by helping to provide K-9 Officer Jet to the town.”

Attending the event at KeyBank’s branch were Hamden Mayor Lauren Garrett, Hamden Deputy Police Chief, William Onofrio, and a variety of other members of the Hamden Police Department, Hometown Foundation and KeyBank.

Mayor Lauren Garrett was quoted as saying “K9 Jet is the newest addition to our Police Department, made possible by the generous contributions of the Hometown Foundation and KeyBank. I am so grateful for this partnership! Thank you, Officer Cugini, for taking on the responsibility to serve as Jet’s handler. I have been told that at the Academy, Jet was the best good boy in Connecticut!”

The Chief of Police, E. P. Reynolds had a previous commitment but was quoted as saying “This invaluable contribution will significantly enhance our ability to maintain public safety and provide enhanced crime prevention tools to our town. We would like to express our deepest gratitude to The Hometown Foundation and KeyBank for their unwavering support and commitment to our community. With K9 Jet –one of the newest additions to our team — we are confident in our continued efforts to serve and protect the residents of our town.”

The Hometown Foundation is committed to equipping law enforcement agencies with Police K-9 Units to ensure they are serving their communities positively and impartially. They understand the value of Police K-9s and it is their mission to educate others on the invaluable assets that they offer to law enforcement agencies. The Hometown Foundation thanks KeyBank for their partnership and support to the Hamden community.

KeyBank is one of the nation’s largest bank-based financial services companies, providing deposit, lending, cash management, and investment services to individuals and businesses in 15 states and through a network of approximately 1,000 branches and 1,300 ATMs. Through local sponsorships and charitable giving through KeyBank Foundation, KeyBank fulfills its purpose to help clients and communities thrive, and its mission is to support organizations and programs that prepare people for thriving futures.

Click here to watch the live coverage on News 8 WTNH