News Release

For Immediate Release

For Additional Information contact:

Barbara Kimmel

Executive Director

Trust Across America

908-879-6625

Trust in Business Essential for 2013:

Global Experts Join Forces to Combat Trust Crisis

Chester, N.J.  January 3, 2013—After a well-documented 10+ years of declining trust in government, business and the media, Trust Across America (TAA) (www.trustacrossamerica.com) and its ambassadors are launching the Campaign for Trust™, a two-year initiative to reverse this cycle.  “As the leaders in information, standards, data and the Who’s Who of trustworthy business, this is the next step in our initiative that began in 2009,” said Barbara Brooks Kimmel, a Co-founder and the Executive Director.

In the fourth quarter of 2012 TAA created The Alliance of Trustworthy Business Experts (ATBE) to collaborate in advancing the cause of trustworthy business through the creation of trust tools and communications outreach. Over 100 global thought leaders from Fortune 500 companies; leading academic institutions; global media and consulting have joined since the mid-October launch.

Much of the work of the alliance will be via strategic partnerships with our Founding Members listed alphabetically: Patricia Aburdene (Co-author of Megatrends 2000); William Benner (WW Consulting); Randy Conley (The Ken Blanchard Companies); Stephen M.R. Covey (Franklin Covey-Speed of Trust); Linda Fisher Thornton (Leading in Context); Bahar Gidwani (CSRHub); Charles Green (Trusted Advisor Associates); Nadine Hack (beCause Global Consulting); Michael Hopkins (MHC International); Gary Judd (Franklin Covey-Speed of Trust); Barbara Kimmel (Trust Across America); Jim Kouzes (The Leadership Challenge); Deb Krizmanich (Powernoodle); Mike Krzus (Co-author of One Report); Greg Link (Franklin Covey-Speed of Trust); Linda Locke (Reputare Consulting); Edward Marshall (Author Building Trust at the Speed of Change); Jon Mertz (Thin Difference); Deb Mills-Scofield (Innovanomics™); Robert Vanourek (Triple Crown Leadership); and Bob Whipple (Leadergrow Inc.).

According to Kimmel, “We will be assembling a Trust Toolbox™ in 2013 to assist businesses in building trust with their stakeholders. Collaborative projects in development include the publication of a book- Trust Inc.: Strategies for Building Your Company’s Most Valuable Asset, a collection of short essays from our global thought leaders; the Trust Directory™ designed for companies who seek advice and counsel; the creation of trust assessments; the development of a Trust Index™; educational Trust Talks™; a monthly publication called the Trust Sheet ™, announcing trust alliance member news from around the world; and the opening of our online Trust Store™, a virtual one-stop shop for trust products.”

Kicking off the campaign will be the January 14 announcement of Trust Across America’s 3rd annual Top Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business. Our 2013 recognition list will honor the late Dr. Stephen R. Covey, whose professional accomplishments in the field of trust were instrumental to the founding of the Trust Across America initiative four years ago.

According to Amy Lyman co-founder of Great Place to Work Institute and author of The Trustworthy Leader, “The evidence is irrefutable. Cultures of trust, created by leaders who are credible, respectful and fair bring with them significant economic, social, community and environmental benefits. It is what every employee wants and what every business leader should strive for.” Trust Across America, through its new trust alliance, hopes to develop the requisite tools to enhance cultures of trust, and encourages those interested in furthering the cause of trustworthy business to join the alliance. trustacrossamerica.com/cgi-bin/alliance.cgi

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As the leading source of information, standards and data on trustworthy business, in mid- October, Trust Across America formed the Alliance of Trustworthy Business Experts. Its mission is to spearhead a global movement of recognized thought leaders who can advance the cause of trustworthy business behavior through collaborative, high impact programs and initiatives.

trustacrossamerica.com/cgi-bin/alliance.cgi

In less than six weeks, Alliance membership has grown to almost fifty international professionals hailing from corporations, nonprofits, academia, consulting and the media. Members run the professional gamut from Chief Ethics Officers of Fortune 200 companies to million+ bestselling book authors and well-known leadership experts.

We are thrilled to see institutions like the University of Virginia, Great Places to Work Institute, Federal Express and Triple Pundit, to name just a few, lending their collaborative support.

The Alliance offers both free and premium membership. All are welcome to join in furthering the cause of trustworthy business. Funds raised from premium members will be used to support the creation of collaborative tools to advance organizational trust.

We have begun work on a book project scheduled for publication in late 2013, and drawing on the expertise of many members who will be contributing solution-based essays on advancing trust in business.

Our first press release will be issued in early January 2013 when we will officially announce our founding members and further plans for the Alliance.

For more information, please contact Barbara Kimmel, Executive Director at the following email address: Barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Good Business New York Leading Women for 2012 has named Trust Across America’s Founder, Barbara Kimmel, among its honorees.

The accomplished women listed below inspire us, surprise us, and give us hope that the world can be a better place. Each of these determined women honored this year is working diligently to solve critical social and economic problems.

These courageous women tackle our most challenging modern issues including environmental sustainability, human rights, business trust, equitable capital allocation, social enterprise, women’s economic empowerment, and ethical leadership with indefatigable energy and dedication.

The “Good Business New York™ Leading Women of 2012” includes economists, lawyers, thought leaders, journalists, policy makers, activists, investors, corporate executives, entrepreneurs, philanthropists, scientists, quants, and academics. Some are known to us personally at Good-b; others are not. All of these women have been selected for their impact and effectiveness in the world of business and finance.

We live in times of crises. Critical social and economic challenges are more important than ever to address, and even more importantly to resolve. These women are among the champions and change makers who are creating real and positive change. Most of these women are well known in their circles, but none are household names. Some operate behind-the-scenes; others take center stage. Our goal atGood Business New York™ is to celebrate the important work that each of these remarkable women do everyday with committment, personal sacrifice,  passion, purpose, and sheer determination – work that might sometimes go unnoticed by the general population, but is never-the-less shaping the positive changes taking place in business and society.  At Good Business New York™, we honor the triumphs and accomplishments of these 25 Leading Women in the face of real challenges.

After eight months of deliberation and research at Good Business New York™, we have selected 25 amazing women to represent the power that one person has to make a big difference. We believe they deserve even greater recognition for the socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable work they do every day. They serve as role models for women and girls everywhere.

We celebrate these 25 dynamic women who inspire and empower us to create a better world for all. The“Good Business New York™ Leading Women for 2012” offer us hope that a more equitable and sustainable economy is possible, one that serves all levels of society fairly and responsibly and doesn’t leave millions of the world’s inhabitants out. We congratulate and applaud all of them for what they do every day for our communities and our world.

To review the complete list, please click on the link below.

good-b.com/?p=10329

“I am honored to be included among this list of outstanding women,” said Barbara Kimmel. “This recognition reconfirms that the work I am doing at Trust Across America is not only helping to restore trust in the business community, but is also being more widely acknowledged by prestigious organizations like Good Business New York”.

Trust Across America™, a think tank and communications program dedicated to unraveling the complexities of trustworthy business behavior, today announced its participation as a founding member of BEST! Business Excellence through Sustainable Trust. Barbara Kimmel, Executive Director states:

“We are living through a crisis of trust in organizations and many of today’s news channels are stuck on one channel . . . what is wrong in corporate America. BEST! – a collaborative media-based program showcasing best practices in building and maintaining trust ‑ will draw public attention to what is right –– with the goal of restoring trust in business, and combating the often misplaced perception of systemic corporate greed.”

BEST! is a “by invitation” program that leverages a voluntary fraternity of well-respected media organizations to collaboratively disseminate articles about corporate leadership, innovation and success ‑ to a guaranteed audience. We want to showcase role models for other companies to emulate.

The founding members of BEST! reach an audience of millions through their websites, media outreach and social networking. Companies selected to participate as BEST! members will be guaranteed coverage to this wide audience. Additional media are expected to join as the program expands in scope and awareness.

Accountability-Central

CSRWire

Ethical Markets Media

Forbes.com

Good-B

Marketwire

Trust Across America

Trusted Advsior Associates

Triple Pundit

Voice America Radio

Trust Across America (TAA) is a program of Next Decade, Inc., an award-winning firm that has been unraveling and simplifying complex subjects for over 20 years. TAA provides a framework for public companies to improve trustworthy business practices through detailed individual company reports, industry and sector analyses, and an index of its data. TAA also provides a variety of media opportunities to highlight companies and leaders exhibiting high levels of trust and integrity.

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For more information on this topic please visit trustacrossamerica.com/best.shtml

To schedule an interview with Barbara Kimmel, please call (908) 879-6625 or email barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

CHESTER, NEW JERSEY, January 11, 2012. Trust Across America, dedicated to unraveling the complexities of trustworthy business behavior, has selected 2012’s Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior. These people collectively represent a group that can genuinely transform and reverse the cycle of mistrust in business.

According to Barbara Kimmel, Executive Director, “This year’s recipients once again include leaders from the public and private sectors as well as authors, consultants, researchers and academics. Each recipient has made an extensive, positive contribution to building trust in business.”

The full list of honorees can be found here.

The Top 100 Thought Leaders represents the culmination of three years of research. Trust Across America sought the counsel of and requested nominations for this honor from over 150 professionals across the nation. The list was narrowed through an extensive vetting and independent judging process. As leaders of The Most Trustworthy Public Companies in America, these ten CEOs were included in the list.

According to Barbara Kimmel, “The honorees are inspiring organizations to look more closely at their higher purpose…to create greater value for, and trust from, all of their stakeholders. We congratulate all of these leaders whose work is shining a spotlight on the importance of trust and providing a roadmap for everyone to follow.”

Trust Across America™ (TAA) is a program of Next Decade, Inc., an award-winning communications firm that has been unraveling and simplifying complex subjects for over 20 years. TAA provides a framework for public companies to improve trustworthy business practices, as well as showcasing role models that are exhibiting high levels of trust and integrity.

Trust Across America (TAA)  has set a standard for measuring trustworthy business behavior through our FACTS analysis, combining financial and non-financial metrics. TAA has been tracking the performance of the top companies based on our five FACTS drivers- Financial stability, Accounting conservativeness, Corporate integrity,Transparency and Sustainability.

Our proprietary research and external back-test of our universe of almost 3000 public companies confirm that the most trustworthy companies provide long-term benefits to all stakeholders, including shareholders. In November, 2010, our data selected 59 companies that met our “Gold Standard” of trustworthy business behavior.  The chart (link) below is a graphic representation of the performance of this group of companies since 1999 vs. the S&P 500.

Gold Company Performance

These Gold Standard companies are outperforming the S&P 500 by over 500% since 1999, and by approximately 35% since we began tracking them in November 2010.

This group contains many “household” names like Aflac, Fed Ex, Lexmark and Cigna. Others are not so well known- Albemarle, Praxair, Teco Energy and Lubrizol, which was recently acquired by Berkshire Hathaway.

But whether well known or unknown, they all share a common characteristic. They have adopted a culture of trustworthy business that benefits all stakeholders, including shareholders.

So while the news continues to be filled with stories about the lack of trust in business, companies actually can do good and be profitable at the same time.

Who Are the Tri –State’s Most Trustworthy Public Companies?

Even though trust in corporations is dropping nationwide,  many companies in the Tri-State area exhibit high levels of trustworthy behavior and many are surging ahead of the S&P as America recovers from its most recent recession. According to Trust Across America (TAA), the Tri-State area’s most trustworthy companies are:

New York:       

Gold- Hess Corporation                    

Silver- Transatlantic Holdings Inc.  

Bronze- Avon Products, Inc.            

For more details: tinyurl.com/4bn6zn3

New Jersey:          

Gold- Prudential Financial, Inc.

Silver- Cytec Industries Inc.

Bronze- Sealed Air Corporation

For more details: tinyurl.com/5t5cxlw

Connecticut:        

Gold- Praxair

Silver- Rockville Financial

Bronze- United Technologies

For more details: tinyurl.com/65ekk43

Trust Across America shines the spotlight on world-class companies exhibiting high levels of trustworthy business behavior, while providing a roadmap for other organizations to follow. Although trust was difficult to accurately measure in the past, TAA has compiled a composite set of trust metrics and worked closely with organizations that measure them.  The result is a new model called FACTS™, an acronym that stands for Financial stability and strength, Accounting conservativeness, Corporate integrity, Transparency, and Sustainability, with each factor evenly weighted. The power of this model is that it is objective, quantitative, and rich in independent metrics. 

Barbara Kimmel, Executive Director of Trust Across America states: “There are no perfect companies.  However, many companies have touted themselves as trustworthy and have been given a free ride because corporate America has lacked a definition of trust and tools to measure it. Our data can see through the smoke and mirrors.”

So while the news continues to be filled with surveys showing that consumer and investor mistrust of business is rising, we can now focus on the companies that are working hard to earn the public’s trust. As a result, consumers can now choose to do business with these trustworthy companies, while investors have an added level of protection from the next corporate scandal. 

 Trust Across America is a program of Next Decade, Inc., an award-winning firm that has been unraveling and simplifying complex business subjects for over 20 years. TAA provides a framework for public companies to improve trustworthy business practices, as well as showcasing role models that are exhibiting high levels of trust and integrity.

CHESTER, NEW JERSEY, January 13, 2011.  Trust Across America, dedicated to unraveling the complexities of trustworthy business behavior, has selected 2010’s Top 100 Thought Leaders in Trustworthy Business Behavior. These people collectively represent a group that can genuinely transform and reverse the cycle of mistrust in business.

 According to Barbara Kimmel, Executive Director, “This year’s recipients include leaders from the public and private sectors as well as authors, consultants, researchers and academics. Each recipient has made an extensive, positive contribution to building trust in business.”

 The full list of honorees can be found at www.trustacrossamerica.com/offerings-thought-leaders.shtml.

 The Top 100 Thought Leaders represents the culmination of two years of research. Trust Across America sought the counsel of and requested nominations for this honor from over 150 professionals across the nation. The list was narrowed through an extensive vetting process. As leaders of The Most Trustworthy Public Companies in America, ten CEOs were included in the list.

 According to Barbara Kimmel, “These individuals are inspiring organizations to look more closely at their higher purpose…to create greater value for, and trust from, all of their stakeholders. We congratulate all of the honorees whose work is shining a spotlight on the importance of trust and providing a roadmap for everyone to follow.”

 Trust Across America™ (TAA) www.trustacrossamerica.com is a program of Next Decade, Inc., an award-winning communications firm that has been unraveling and simplifying complex subjects for over 20 years. TAA provides a framework for public companies to improve trustworthy business practices, as well as showcasing role models that are exhibiting high levels of trust and integrity.