Talk: "The Responsibilities of Business Leadership"
Aaron Feuerstein, recently retired third generation owner and CEO of Malden Mills in Lawrence, Massachusetts, will speak at Utica College on Wednesday evening, September 17 in the Strebel Auditorium (within the Strebel Student Center) at 7 pm. His talk, "The Responsibilities of Business Leadership," is free and open to the public.
In late 1995, Feuerstein received national attention whe he decided to rebuild a factory that was destroyed by fire just two weeks before Christmas. He also paid the workers' salaries and benefits while the factory was being rebuilt. The decision contrasted sharply with the trend toward plant closings and offshoring, especially in a manufacturing industry such as textiles.
In a 2002 article on Feuerstein, Rabbi Avi Shafran wrote that "the ideals of his religious heritage played a major role in his decision" to support his workers and rebuild in Massachusetts.
"I have a responsibility to the worker... I have an equal responsibility to the community," Feuerstein told an interviewer with Parade Magazine in 1996.
Since then, the company -- know widely for its Polartec fabric -- has had both successes and challenges. Feuerstein will address those and other challenges and responsibilities facing today's business leaders.
The event is part of both the Utica College Campus Theme series for 2008-2009 and the Visiting Professionals Program of the Utica College School of Business and Justice Studies, the latter of which is sponsored by the Credit Bureau of Utica Fund of The Community Foundation of Herkimer and Oneida Counties, Inc.
For more information, please contact Jo Ann Hayward at Utica College at 315-792-3055 or by e-mail at johaywar@utica.edu.