Behind the Impact

Sunya Norman, Senior Vice President of Impact at Salesforce, takes us inside Salesforce's approach to corporate impact. She shares how her team builds buy-in, aligns impact strategy with the business, embeds execution across functions, and uses AI to strengthen its work.

Sunya also discusses Salesforce's AI for Impact accelerator, the importance of listening before telling, how practitioners can think about business value, and the skills impact leaders will need as the field evolves.

Teresa Pelletier, Vice President of Community Relations at Fidelity Investments, shares lessons from more than two decades in corporate impact. She explores how Fidelity balances community need, employee interest, and business value, why impact strategies should build on a company's unique capabilities, and how employee volunteering can become a strategic business initiative. Teresa also discusses the skills practitioners will need in the years ahead, from relationship building and adaptability to data and business acumen.

In this episode of Behind the Impact, Aimee Gilbreath, President of PetSmart Charities, shares what she's learned about rebuilding an impact strategy, influencing without authority, and creating stronger integration between impact and the business. From transforming PetSmart Charities' strategy to spending years helping the American Red Cross integrate pets into disaster response, Aimee offers a practical look at what it takes to create meaningful change inside complex organizations.

In this episode of Behind the Impact, Jean Shia, Managing Director of the Autodesk Foundation, shares how the foundation approaches corporate philanthropy and impact investing, including building trust with partners, measuring impact with intention, connecting philanthropy to the business, and using catalytic capital to help promising solutions scale.

In this episode of Behind the Impact, Angie Ruddell, Social Impact Manager at Lockheed Martin, shares lessons from her journey from the nonprofit sector to corporate social impact, including how practitioners can build influence across the organization, connect their work to business priorities, communicate impact more effectively, and develop the curiosity and entrepreneurial mindset needed to navigate an evolving field.

In this episode of Behind the Impact, Sirene Abou-Chakra draws on her experience at Google, the City of Detroit, Dataminr, and Airbnb to unpack what it takes to build a durable corporate impact function -- from aligning impact directly with business goals and earning internal buy-in to building the human skills practitioners will need in an AI-powered world.

In episode 63 of Behind the Impact, Miles Anderson, Head of MaintainX.org, shares how he turned an unexpected opportunity in sales into a career building corporate impact functions, and what he's learned about earning executive buy-in, connecting impact to business outcomes, and building programs that companies continue to invest in.

In this episode of Behind the Impact, Hilary Meyer, Chief Impact & Athlete Engagement Officer at Athletes Unlimited, shares how the professional sports organization puts athletes at the center of its impact strategy, embeds social impact into the business, and connects community engagement and philanthropy to long-term growth.

In this episode of Behind the Impact, Carlos Cuyas, Social Impact Lead at o9 Solutions, shares what it takes to build a corporate impact function from scratch, why strategy must be rooted in company purpose, and how practitioners can create more durable impact by earning trust, aligning with the business, and thinking like strategic operators.

In this episode of Behind the Impact, Leela Stake, Senior Partner and Global Responsible Business Lead at FleishmanHillard, shares why the future of corporate impact belongs to leaders who can align strategy with business value, communicate their work effectively, and adapt to an increasingly complex landscape.