At our Annual Meeting of the Roundtable Board of Directors last month, we passed the virtual gavel from Bob Rivers to our new Chair, Jane Steinmetz. We are thrilled to welcome Jane and want to take a moment to extend our gratitude and thanks to Bob.

After serving an extended term in the midst of the pandemic, Bob’s tenure as Chair of the Roundtable’s Board of Directors has come to a close. It is hard to overstate Bob’s leadership and influence on the Roundtable. Over the past several years, Bob has guided the Roundtable to serve as a leading voice in the business community on issues of competitiveness–as is our mission. He has also elevated the importance of gender equity, racial justice, and social good throughout our policy agenda, our membership, our internal operations, and our value proposition. Bob demonstrates effective leadership with ease and authenticity–providing our members and the broader business community with graceful guidance to lead by example. Most importantly, he has taught me–and shown–that driving competitiveness and fulfilling moral obligations are not mutually exclusive but, in fact, they depend on one another. Competitiveness requires diversity; and equity and social good drives competitiveness. Because as a wise person once said, “it’s not only the right thing to do, it’s the smart thing to do!”

Bob, your impact on the organization–and on me personally–will be felt for a long time.