A Europe-Canada Joint Effort
Launched in 2013, this Pan-European campaign was fuelled by the active participation of some of the world’s major corporations and by Canada’s top diplomats in Europe. Canadian Ambassadors personally convened business roundtables to help TARGET reach employers in Copenhagen, Rome, Madrid, Brussels and London.
TARGET was financed – on an arm’s length basis – by Lundbeck, PLC (which originated the campaign), Royal Mail, Unilever and Goldman Sachs Gives. Others provided invaluable support and services ‘in kind’ and individuals such as the great Dr. Paul Litchfield of British Telecom, devoted hours of time and travel. We are grateful to all.
Meanwhile, Mental Health International – Europe was created as an independent not-for-profit company. Its Co-Directors are John Duncan, Founding Vice-Chair of TARGET and Bill Wilkerson, TARGET Chairman.
I
European Business Leadership Forum
As a centerpiece for the campaign, TARGET created the European Business Leadership Forum for Mental Health in the Workplace. These were staged in:
London, England – October, 2014
Guests of both Barclays and Canada’s then High Commissioner to the UK, Gordon Campbell
Rotterdam, the Netherlands – November, 2015
Hosted by Unilever Europe CEO Jan Zijderveld
London, England – October, 2016
Sponsored by Royal Mail / Unilever and hosted by Canada’s current High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Janice Charette
We also took our message to conferences and business-employer meetings in Frankfurt, Berlin, Munich, Athens, Paris, Bruges, Belgium, Porto, Portugal and Kristiansand, Norway.
II
Among the Leaders & Advisors in Support of TARGET
Meetings of our Advisory Group was hosted in:
London, England
Royal Mail CEO Moya Greene
Geneva, Switzerland
Guy Ryder, Director-General, International Labor Organization
Brussels, Belgium
Brian Ager and the European Roundtable of Industrialists
London, England
TD Securities Chairman Brian Smith and his executive team
III
Some Advocates & Advisers for the TARGET Campaign
We enjoyed the expressed endorsement and participation of the following leaders and experts:
Moya Greene
CEO, Royal Mail Group Ltd.
Jan Zijderveld
President, Unilever Europe
Sir Philip Campbell
Editor-in-Chief, Nature Magazine
Professor Sir Cary Cooper
Manchester Business School
Dr. Shaun Davis
Director of Safety, Health & Well-being, Royal Mail Group Ltd.
Steve Evison
Chair, Federation of International Employers (FedEx Global)
Giordano Fatali
President, HRCommunity Academy of Italy
Lord Sandy Leitch
Chairman of the insurance giant, BUPA
Dr Paul Litchfield
Medical Director, British Telecom
Daniel McCarthy
Senior Director, Public Affairs, Lundbeck Canada
Mark Q. McLane
Managing Director, Global Head of Diversity Barclays PLC
Tim Munden
Head, Global Diversity, Unilever
Guy Ryder
Director-General, International Labour Organization
Jürgen Scheftlein
Directorate-General for Health and Consumer Protection, DG SANTE
Brian Smith
Senior Vice-President, Vice-Chair and Head, Europe & Asia-Pacific, TD Securities
Carmen Sorrentino
Human Resources Manager EMEA, BSI Group (British Standards Institute)
Dr Andreas Tautz
Chief Medical Officer/Head, Corporate Health Management, Deutsche Post DHL
Ulrik Tinggaard
Vice-President, Corporate Human Resources, H. Lundbeck A/S
Patrick Watt
Corporate Director, BUPA
IV
Highlights
From these campaign notes – we see and hear:
- Evidence of a global economy that puts a premium on brain skills converging with the advent of depression – a brain disorder, as the leading cause of disability.
- Evidence that in a brain economy, the minds of workers will do the heavy lifting for business in the years to come.
- Evidence that employers are increasingly recognizing workplace mental health as a bona fide business issue.
- Employees and executives living with mental illness telling their own story openly and safely to colleagues.
- CEOs learning and speaking out about the need for sustained commitments to the mental health of their people.