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OUR COMMITMENT
TO SOCIAL IMPACT
At the heart of Aon’s work is a mission to empower economic and human possibility. The “why” of what we do matters. It matters to our clients. It matters to our colleagues. And it matters to the communities we operate in.
By enabling organizations to take risks, we create positive social impact every day – driving innovation and economic growth, and helping millions of people recover and thrive in the face of adversity.
Our work fundamentally impacts people around the world. “It’s the difference between keeping and losing a job, the chance to live a longer, more dignified and healthier life, and the ability to see opportunity rather than antagonism in an interconnected world,” says Eric Andersen, Chief Executive Officer, Aon Benfield.
Aon’s Empower Results site gives just a few examples of how we create economic and human possibility every day.
Examples like our work in sustainable energy, where our renewable solutions are accelerating investment in offshore wind farms and making clean sources of power more cost-effective. Or our work in Cambodia, where Aon’s ImpactOnDemand software – originally designed to help businesses forecast weather risks – is enabling more effective deployment of humanitarian aid after natural disasters.
Neither of these projects were corporate social responsibility initiatives. They were an intrinsic part of the work we do every day. “The commercial impact of our innovation is significant, but the long-term social impact is even greater,” says Michael O’Connor, Chief Executive Officer, Aon Risk Solutions.
It starts with our commitment to diversity, inclusion and opportunity. Our apprenticeship program – a trailblazing initiative that established the UK gold standard for apprenticeships in our industry – has opened doors for those who might not have been able to afford the university degree that normally begins the path to a professional career.
Strong partnerships allow us to further broaden the potential of our impact. As a global sponsor of Manchester United, Aon realized it could play a unique leadership role in convening other organizations to stamp out homophobia – on and off the field. TeamPride, an award-winning campaign designed to promote LGBTQ inclusion in sport, reached nearly 9 million people in Great Britain and set an example of true sportsmanship and acceptance for future generations to come.
Around the world, Aon is helping to build the global workforce of the future through partnerships with organizations like the China Literacy Foundation, Create Foundation in Australia, and the OM Foundation in India – as well as helping communities prepare for and respond to disasters with the Red Cross, Habitat for Humanity and United Way.
“We have the ability to touch individual lives in a way that addresses the broader social issues of our time,” says Greg Case, President and Chief Executive Officer, Aon. “We are at a moment in history where the stakes are incredibly high. And at Aon, we’re proud to be in a position to influence the outcome.”
Helping Countries Recover from Devastating Earthquakes
Twenty seconds. That’s how long the ground shook just after lunchtime on September 19, 2017, 82 miles southeast of Mexico City. For 20 seconds, residents felt the force of a 7.1 magnitude earthquake.
But the earthquake itself was just the beginning.
There were 370 fatalities and more than 6,000 reported injuries. Thirty-eight buildings collapsed during the earthquake and another 360 needed to be demolished during recovery efforts. Nearly 5 million customers in the region lost power and there were widespread gas leaks and fires. Recovery efforts took months and, in some cases, those efforts are still ongoing.
As the disaster to hit Mexico, and the 8.0 magnitude quake to hit central Peru in 2019, show, this is an all-too common story for developing countries in high-risk earthquake regions: an earthquake causes significant structural damage to a densely populated area, an already delicate infrastructure starts to fail, and emergency funding is needed – fast.
The Peru quake, which hit in May 2019, was felt as far away as Venezuela, Ecuador, and Brazil. The region saw several key buildings, including six health centers and five schools, destroyed along with houses, roads and bridges. Although the magnitude of the Peru quake was 33 times larger than Mexico’s, its impact was diminished by the fact it happened so far underground – 70 miles beneath the surface of the earth – rather than on the surface.
Should an earthquake strike, countries without the funding in place have to add the complicated and time-consuming process of raising more money to the already daunting mix of recovery, rescue and emergency efforts.
In order to execute the vision they had for the bond, the World Bank knew it needed a trusted partner with a strong track record of innovative transactions – both in design and placement. Given the considerable size of the bond and the short four-month timeline to bring the bond to market, the World Bank turned to Aon.
“We saw Aon as a very innovative partner that could get large transactions done,” explained Bennett.
It was this approach, powered by data and analytics combined with a commitment to social impact, that Aon brought to the problem.
Catastrophe bonds like the one Aon worked on for the World Bank are a type of insurance-linked security that helps countries transfer risks such as natural disasters from a bond issuer to an investor. The investor accepts the risk of a catastrophe and the potential loss of money invested in exchange for a rate of return. For a country to receive an emergency payout, a set of pre-determined parameters would have to be met.
With natural disasters, speed is of the essence. Faster access to funds means earlier action, which means the impact on people and infrastructure is reduced. Working with the other members of the structuring team, Aon built a solution that ensured the World Bank would receive funds, and therefore make loss payments, much faster.
The bond was put together so that Chile, Colombia, and Peru were provided with three years of earthquake catastrophe coverage, while Mexico got two years. The U.S. Geological Survey would provide the data that would determine whether the emergency funds would be distributed – all within a few weeks.
But it’s the added benefits from the way the World Bank and Aon structured the bond that makes this transaction so innovative.
“Contrary to customary catastrophe bond structure, the proceeds of the bonds are not held as collateral but are rather lent to member countries in order to fund sustainable development projects,” said Schultz. “In this way, not only is the bond providing protection against natural disaster, but also helping to fund economic progress.”
Much of this economic progress comes from the World Bank’s sustainable development projects, which include initiatives aimed at eliminating poverty and hunger, providing access to clean water and education, and promoting gender equality and climate action.
“In addition to helping Mexico, Chile, Colombia, and Peru obtain capital following a natural disaster, the World Bank catastrophe bond also helps investors diversify their risks and support sustainable development initiatives,” Shultz said. “Such disaster risk transfer is critical to protect the development aims of the Pacific Alliance nations.”
To successfully build this record-breaking bond, Aon worked with colleagues across Aon Securities, the investment banking team of Aon, and local teams in each Pacific Alliance country to bring insight to data and analytics in a collaborative, cross-team effort – in just four months.
Aon and the World Bank believe the collaborative effort has other applications to help countries all over the world in their de-risking efforts. Famine, drought, and other natural disasters are all possibilities for this kind of catastrophe bond structure.
“This is a great example of how Aon can bring differentiated value to sovereign nations and governments,” Shultz said. “It highlights the social impact Aon has created with communities at risk and our ability to bring innovative products to market that utilize a variety of forms of capital.”
Protecting Human Rights
Aon’s law department is providing pro bono counsel and ensuring access to justice for immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers.
When Leyla arrived in court on the morning of August 31, 2017, she felt uneasy. “I knew we had a strong case, but I was scared the judge wouldn’t see it that way,” she recounts. “For me, knowing the dangers I faced at home, this was a matter of life or death.”
Leyla was born and raised as a man in the Russian republic of Chechnya, a tiny Muslim-majority country in the North Caucasus, a thousand miles south of Moscow. Realizing her true gender identity at a young age, Leyla began to live as a woman when she left for college. But Chechnya is a dangerous place for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) people: In recent years, there have been reports of LGBTQ individuals being arrested, tortured and even murdered.
Chechnya wasn’t always unsafe for the LGBTQ community. When Leyla was growing up, the republic was still part of the Soviet Union and heavily influenced by its secular public culture. “I remember wearing dresses in public,” Leyla says. “The people were more tolerant.”
Many Chechens become more religious after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, adopting an ultraconservative form of Islam that discriminates against LGBTQ individuals.
“Chechen law enforcement officials regularly round up gay men as part of an apparent anti-gay purge,” says Tanya Lokshina, Russia Programs Director, Human Rights Watch. “Some of their victims are forcibly disappeared, and others are returned to their relatives. These relatives are shamed for having homosexuals in their families and effectively encouraged to carry out honor killings.”
After years of enduring threats and verbal abuse, Leyla moved to Moscow in 2008 to live freely as a transgender woman. She stopped visiting Chechnya and kept contact with her family to a minimum. For a period, she was safe among the city’s transgender community. But her persecutors in Chechnya eventually tracked her down and began harassing her. On October 10, 2014, while taking groceries from her car, she was stabbed in the back and suffered a collapsed lung. “We are tired of you and the shame you have brought upon our family,” the attacker said as Leyla fell to the ground and lost consciousness.
When she woke up in the hospital, Leyla knew she had to leave Russia. “They were after me,” she says. “I chose to leave everything and start a new life.”
Discouraged by slow responses from foreign consulates and afraid for her safety, Leyla booked a flight to Mexico City. She planned to take a second flight to Argentina, where she had friends, but soon realized she could not afford it. Within hours of her arrival in Mexico, she began receiving threatening text messages in Chechen detailing her location. “Don’t think you are safe there, we know where you are,” one message read. Leyla saw no choice but to flee to the United States.
A few days later, Leyla crossed the U.S.-Mexico border near Tijuana. Her memory of arriving in America is vivid: “I had no idea where I was until I received a text message from my service provider saying ‘Welcome to the U.S.A.’,” she recounts. “Right at that moment, a bright light started shining in our direction. It was the U.S. border patrol.”
Leyla said one of the few words she knew in English: “Asylum.”
It was at the immigrant detention center in Santa Ana, California where she met a representative of the National Immigrant Justice Center (NIJC), a nonprofit dedicated to protecting human rights and providing access to legal counsel for immigrants and refugees.
“People face real hurdles accessing legal counsel,” says Mary Meg McCarthy, Executive Director, NIJC. “Immigrants – and refugees in particular – who are fleeing dangerous situations often don’t come with their checkbook.”
The NIJC relies on corporate partners for volunteer legal services and immediately reached out to Sherene Awad Jodrey, Assistant General Counsel, Aon and leader of the law department’s pro bono efforts. “Leyla had clearly experienced severe abuse in her home country and faced grave risk if she were forced to return,” Jodrey says. “I knew that we could help.”
Aon’s Global Pro Bono Initiative, launched in 2014, is part of the firm’s commitment to make an impact around the world using the skills and experience of its people. Attorneys regularly volunteer with community organizations like Equip for Equality in the US, Islington Law Centre in UK, and Pro Bono Ontario in Canada, donating their skills to help people in need. “As an attorney, there’s nothing more empowering than using your skills to help people navigate the system,” says Peter Lieb, General Counsel, Aon.
Since 2015, Aon’s pro bono legal team has taken on nine asylum cases with the NIJC, helping people like Leyla facing persecution and violence in their home countries find a safe haven in the United States. “While many large law firms pursue pro bono work, it’s less common for an in-house legal team like ours to have the talent and commitment to do so much for the community,” says Lieb. “Asylum cases are complicated and can take years to resolve.”
“Human rights abuses against transgender women in Chechnya are well-documented,” says McCarthy. “But we knew we had to work hard to demonstrate that to the court and secure justice for Leyla.” With the help of Aon and NIJC, Leyla was paroled after a few months in detention and moved to Chicago, where she applied for asylum.
On August 31, 2017, due to the grave risk of persecution she faced in her home country, a federal judge granted Leyla asylum in the U.S. “The judge had tears in her eyes when she told me I was given asylum,” Leyla says. “For me, after everything I had been through, it was a magical and surreal moment.”
Leyla stresses the close friendship she formed with Jodrey over the course of the case. “Sherene was like a mother, guiding me through the process and holding my hand through every step along the way,” she says. “She defended me and gave me a new start in life.”
Jodrey also recalls feeling elated the moment the verdict was read: “Leyla was crying, I was crying, I think most of the people in the room were crying. It was the light at the end of the tunnel for Leyla after all the hardship she faced.”
Leyla is now able to live the rest of her life in the U.S., free from being persecuted for who she is. In addition to Aon’s work for Leyla, the firm recently secured asylum for a woman fleeing gang violence and sexual assault in Honduras.
“I couldn’t be more proud to be making a difference in people’s lives through our pro bono efforts,” says Jodrey. “We are living our values as a firm, and I know that because I see it everyday.”
Powering the Winds of Change
Aon’s renewable solutions are accelerating investment in offshore wind farms, making them one of the fastest-growing sources of clean energy.
In the UK, 2.3 million families struggled to afford their energy bills in 2016. In some parts of the US, the poorest households have to spend more than 50 percent of their income on heating and lighting their homes. The cost of energy can be so high, homes are forced to turn the heating off in winter, causing potentially fatal health problems like pneumonia and flu. “Cold homes are a bigger killer across the UK than road accidents, drug abuse or alcohol abuse,” according to Maria Wardrobe, director of National Energy Action.
This isn’t just a question of improving household finances and health among society’s poorest – it’s a challenge for the entire planet. The cheapest fuels have long been the most polluting, with sources of renewable energy such as wind and solar so expensive that they have not been considered a viable energy alternative. What the planet – and its poorest people – need is a way to reduce the cost of energy to make renewable energy more affordable and accessible.
Wind power is increasingly being recognized as a cost-effective clean energy solution. Once viewed as an ambitious — if not audacious — investment, offshore wind power generation is a rapidly expanding part of the global energy mix – an increasingly economical and sustainable source of renewable power that may help combat climate risk.
Since 2012, the cost of building and operating offshore wind farms has fallen by 32 percent. On top of advances in technology, a critical component of reducing the cost and encouraging the growth of offshore wind as a sustainable energy solution is risk management.
“The number of offshore wind farms across the world has grown dramatically over the last decade. Effectively managing the risks associated with these projects is a big reason for falling costs and the growth of this market,” says Greg Lowe, Global Head of Sustainability and Resilience, Aon. As the industry’s leading risk advisor, Aon has helped reduce risks and deliver cost-savings for 75 percent of all offshore wind farms in operation or under construction, strengthening their viability as a source of renewable energy for millions of people all over the world.
Aon is supporting the transition to clean power by helping clients, investors and insurers better evaluate and mitigate volatility. Grounded in an unmatched investment in data and analytics, Aon’s expertise ranges from giving investors greater certainty through detailed risk analysis, to helping to reduce weather volatility by insuring against periods of low wind intensity. “We see more data than anyone else in the industry, and we’re using that expertise to help make projects less expensive, less risky and less volatile,” says Kurt Cripps, Global Head of Weather Risk, Aon.
Through an exclusive agreement with Celsius Pro, a leading technology platform for weather risk management, Aon has assembled over 100 years of weather data to provide clients and investors with better insights into weather patterns and trends. These insights help reduce volatility caused by variations in wind volumes and energy output.
In 2002, DONG Energy commissioned the world’s first commercial offshore wind farm. Today, the firm has built more offshore wind farms than any company worldwide and powers more than one quarter of the total wind capacity in the market. Aon has played an important role in helping the company reduce costs and grow its global footprint. “As a strategic adviser, Aon helps us think about risk beyond insurance and ultimately brings down the cost of energy,” explains Hanne Aaboe, Director, DONG Energy. “If the cost of energy is not brought down to acceptable levels, consumers and businesses will never choose renewable energy over fossil fuels.” DONG Energy hopes to double its installed capacity by 2020, bringing clean power to 16 million Europeans.
Aon’s renewable solutions are encouraging the growth of offshore wind power. “The core of our mission as a firm is to create social impact every day,” says Sexton. “We believe we have a massive opportunity to use our insights and expertise to accelerate the growth of renewable energy worldwide.”
Creating Opportunities for Tomorrow’s Leaders
Aon’s industry-leading apprenticeship program is creating opportunities for a diverse group of young people that might not otherwise have a way into the workforce.
“I decided not to go to university purely due to the cost,” says Jonathan Catley, Client Services Apprentice, Aon. “Tuition fees are astronomical and I didn’t want to be saddled with debt without the right training to succeed in my job. I wanted a better way to prepare for the working world.”
Moreover, since the financial crisis, youth unemployment has been at an all-time high globally, making it harder than ever to find good jobs to pay off debts. At the same time, organizations are facing serious skills shortages around the world.
To address these issues, Aon applied a new approach to an old solution: on-the-job training through apprenticeships programs. Launched in 2012 in the UK and now available in the US, Aon’s apprenticeship program provides opportunities for young professionals to develop vital skills in the workplace and earn a competitive salary while they learn. Apprentices are offered permanent positions with competitive salaries and full support for professional study and qualifications.
“What attracted me to the apprenticeship program was that I could earn and learn at the same time,” says Zeenat Chady, an apprentice at Aon. “It’s so valuable to be able to work for Aon and still receive a highly-regarded qualification that, in the past, I would have to go to university for.”
The apprenticeship program has helped Aon build an alternative talent pipeline and a highly skilled and diverse workforce. “The jobs of the future will require us to rethink our training and recruitment practices,” says Julie Page, Chief Executive Officer, Aon Risk Solutions UK. “Apprenticeships are a way for us to attract the best and brightest while providing young professionals with the opportunity to earn the education and work experience needed to succeed.”
But this wasn’t just about boosting Aon’s own talent pool – the aim was to inspire action across the professional and financial services industries by changing perceptions of what apprenticeships could be, and attracting workers with diverse backgrounds.
“People tend to associate apprenticeships with traditional trade careers,” explains Julie Hyett, Head of Talent, Aon UK. “We want to demonstrate that apprenticeships are not only relevant, but can help create a more diverse and highly skilled workforce in the professional services space.”
When the UK government called on the financial services sector to double the number of apprenticeships in 2013, Aon led the way in establishing a systematic framework for skills development to ensure all apprentices can expect the same rigorous training across the industry. As Nick Boles, MP and Minister of State for Skills, puts it: “I’m delighted that the insurance industry, led by Aon, has developed a new apprenticeship standard for practitioners.”
Aon’s UK apprenticeship program has been so successful that the firm is introducing similar schemes in the US, starting at their regional headquarters for the Americas in Chicago, Illinois. “The apprenticeship program has widened our recruiting pool and enabled us to build a more diverse and motivated team,” explains Bridget Gainer, Vice President of Global Public Affairs, Aon. “We’re excited to invest in the generation of talent in Chicago.” Aon hopes to encourage the business community to develop similar programs and help jumpstart the careers of many more deserving individuals.
Sources:
1. The Student Room / AIA Worldwide, School Leaver Survey Research: The Results, 2014
2. The Student Room / AIA Worldwide, School Leaver Survey Research: The Results, 2014