Month: March 2025

Contact:

Valerie Bennett, 770.317.5858

March 11, 2025 /3BL/ – The Ray C. Anderson Foundation today announced that it will sunset by the end of 2030.

John Lanier, executive director of the Foundation and grandson of Ray C. Anderson (1934-2011), noted that much care and thought went into the family-led decision.

“After an in-depth and rewarding strategic planning process, united in love for each other and for this planet we call home, the trustees have decided that this is the way to make the biggest difference in the shortest amount of time,” Lanier said.

Nearly 14 years ago, Ray Anderson bestowed approximately $50 million of his estate to the Foundation. Since 2012, the Foundation has awarded more than $36 million in grants, primarily focused on:

Sustainable business through the Ray C. Anderson Center for Sustainable Business at Georgia Tech;Seeding and scaling the growth of nature-inspired startups through the Ray of Hope Accelerator, an initiative of the Biomimicry Institute;Funding the research and providing staff support for Drawdown Georgia, a statewide movement to accelerate progress toward net zero greenhouse gas emissions in Georgia; andFunding for The Ray, a living laboratory and resource to more than 30 state departments of transportation and 55 strategic partnerships across the country for research and innovation related to sustainable highways.

“The consequences of our decisions affect generations into the indefinite future.” Ray C. Anderson

Foundation Will Continue Funding Key Projects Through 2030

“Although Daddy didn’t give us any instructions for creating the Foundation, many of his speeches provided hints of what he thought the future should look like,” said Harriet Langford, Foundation Trustee and Ray’s younger daughter. “He talked about the importance of educational institutions, NGOs, faith-based organizations, and business and government at all levels. For the past 13 years, we’ve been successful using those hints as our roadmap. Most importantly, we know he valued the importance of engaging the next generation. That’s what we are doing now, as we turn the page for the next chapter in the story of Ray’s legacy.”

“I could be off by a decade, but along about 2030 or 2040 a new generation of managers is going to take the reins… a generation that already ‘gets it’ and is chomping at the bit to get into the game.”
Ray C. Anderson

Next Generation of Ray Anderson Family Leadership Joins Foundation

“Ray’s legacy continues with our funding up through 2030, with added input and guidance from the next generation,” said Mary Anne Lanier, President of the Foundation and Ray’s oldest daughter. “My sister Harriet and I decided early on that we wanted our children to have the chance to practice philanthropy with us, so we created the NextGen Committee in 2012.” From 2012 to 2023, the NextGen Committee (Ray’s grandchildren and their spouses) awarded approximately $1 million in grants focused on environmental and equity initiatives around the world. That next generation has joined the Board of Trustees, elevating their involvement over the next five years.

Chantel Lanier, McCall Filipovich Langford, Samantha Filipovich Langford, Jay Lanier and Whitney Lanier became Foundation Trustees last month and will play a role in shaping the next five years for the Foundation and the family.

“The next generation of Ray’s family has undoubtedly been inspired by his monumental efforts,“ said Foundation Trustee, McCall Filipovich Langford. “We are extremely proud of our grandfather’s work, and we are just as proud of the work our parents have done to carry on his legacy. While we are sunsetting the foundation, we are planning to do so in a way that ensures our family’s positive impact is felt for generations to come.”

“The challenges we are working on are only growing more acute,” John Lanier noted. “In the years between now and our planned sunset by the end of 2030, our generation is committed to helping the sun ‘rise’ on new initiatives that are unfolding to match the urgency of climate change and climate justice.”

Originally published on Aflac Newsroom

COLUMBUS, Ga., March 11, 2025 /3BL/ — Aflac Incorporated, a leading provider of health supplemental insurance in the U.S. and the leading provider of cancer and medical insurance in terms of policies in force in Japan, was once again named by Ethisphere as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies, marking 2025 as the 19th consecutive year on this esteemed list. This year, 136 honorees were recognized spanning 19 countries and 44 industries, and Aflac is the only insurance company in the world to appear on this list since the award’s inception in 2007.

“For the last 19 years Ethisphere has shone a bright light on the positive impact of being an ethical company, and I am honored that Aflac’s contributions have once again earned us a spot on their prestigious World’s Most Ethical Companies list,” said Aflac Chairman and CEO Dan Amos. “As a company that values purpose-driven profits, we know that being an industry leader is not enough. We must adhere to core values that build the trust of consumers, investors, our employees and our valued sales teams, which we have done for nearly 70 years.”

Care is at Aflac’s core, and this long-standing, companywide dedication to purpose is shown through initiatives like its commitment to the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta with more than $187 million donated since 1995. Additionally, through its award-winning My Special Aflac Duck® program, Aflac has given more than 35,000 robotic duck companions to children with cancer and sickle cell disease in the United States, Japan and Northern Ireland. The company also places a high priority on issues related to regulatory compliance and maintaining a well-trained workforce, with a strong commitment to its code of conduct to ensure employees work within the highest ethical standards.

“Congratulations to Aflac for achieving recognition as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies®. Behind this honor is a true dedication and a commitment to advancing business integrity. This approach is good for business — employees and other stakeholders value companies that prioritize the kinds of practices we measure with our process,” said Erica Salmon Byrne, Ethisphere’s Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Chair.

ETHICS AND PERFORMANCE: THE ETHICS PREMIUM 
The listed 2025 World’s Most Ethical Companies® Honorees outperformed a comparable index of global companies by 7.8 percentage points from January 2020 to January 2025.

METHODOLOGY AND SCORING 
The World’s Most Ethical Companies assessment is grounded in Ethisphere’s proprietary Ethics Quotient®, which requires companies to provide 240-plus different proof points on practices that support robust ethics and compliance; governance; a culture of ethics; environmental and social impact; and initiatives that support a strong value chain. That data undergoes further qualitative analysis by our panel of experts who spend thousands of hours vetting and evaluating each year’s group of applicants. This process serves as an operating framework to capture and codify best-in-class ethics and compliance practices from organizations across industries and from around the world.

HONOREES 
To view the full list of this year’s honorees, please visit the World’s Most Ethical Companies website, at https://worldsmostethicalcompanies.com/honorees.

ABOUT ETHISPHERE 
Ethisphere is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that strengthen corporate brands, build trust in the marketplace, and deliver business success. Companies turn ethics, compliance, and culture into a business advantage by leveraging Ethisphere’s data-driven program and culture assessments featuring the latest guidance and the practices of hundreds of global organizations across the 8 pillars of an ethical culture, and 240+ ethics, compliance, social, and governance data points delivered through a proprietary software platform. Ethisphere also honors superior integrity programs through World’s Most Ethical Companies® recognition, brings together a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA), and advances ethical business practices through the Global Ethics Summit, Ethisphere Magazine and the Ethicast podcast. For more information, visit https://ethisphere.com.

ABOUT AFLAC INCORPORATED 
Aflac Incorporated (NYSE: AFL), a Fortune 500 company, has helped provide financial protection and peace of mind for nearly seven decades to millions of policyholders and customers through its subsidiaries in the U.S. and Japan. In the U.S., Aflac is the No. 1 provider of supplemental health insurance products.1 In Japan, Aflac Life Insurance Japan is the leading provider of cancer and medical insurance in terms of policies in force. The company takes pride in being there for its policyholders when they need us most, as well as being included in the World’s Most Ethical Companies by Ethisphere for 19 consecutive years (2025) and Fortune’s World’s Most Admired Companies for 24 years (2025). In addition, the company became a signatory of the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) in 2021 and has been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index (2024) for 11 years. To find out how to get help with expenses health insurance doesn’t cover, get to know us at aflac.com or aflac.com/español. Investors may learn more about Aflac Incorporated and its commitment to corporate social responsibility and sustainability at investors.aflac.com under “Sustainability.”

1 LIMRA 2023 U.S. Supplemental Health Insurance Total Market Report

Media contact: Jon Sullivan, 706-763-4813 or jsullivan@aflac.com 
Analyst and investor contact: David A. Young, 706-596-3264, 800-235-2667 or dyoung@aflac.com

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SOURCE Aflac