CAHRO CEO Mentoring Project with TEC
by Ken Innouye, CAHRO Board Chari
Rusty Kennedy, CAHRO Board Member and Executive Director of OCHRC

The business community is viewed as the enemy by many in the civil rights movement, and there is some historical basis for these feelings.  Yet in Orange County we have found some business people who not only believe as we do in justice for all people, but who are willing to give their time, talents and resources to support those beliefs.

Keith Swayne, CEO of International Food Solutions, (and former CAHRO Awardee) was one of a handful of business executives that stepped to the plate in 1993 to create the Community Partners to raise resources for the Orange County Human Relations Council.  Keith not only gave money to our fledgling non-profit, he gave time and energy.  He became mentor to OC Human Relations Executive Director, Rusty Kennedy, and helped teach business principles to a county bureaucrat with a social service orientation.  This relationship helped OC Human Relations chart a new course that was entrepreneurial and partnership based.

Keith has long participated in a professional development network for CEO's of multi-million dollar companies, and felt that his experience with OC Human Relations was a positive one that many CEO's would enjoy and many human relations organizations could benefit from.  Keith approached CAHRO Executive Director Fred Persily, Ken Inouye and Rusty Kennedy to sit down and develop a presentation that could be made  to encourage CEO's to serve as mentors and advisors to various human relations organizations.

We will be piloting this CAHRO CEO Mentoring Project in Orange County in the Fall to see if we are able to partner business CEO's with human relations organizations and other non-profits.  If successful, we will be looking for human relations organizations and Executive Directors who would like to emulate such a presentation in their communities.