Citizen Relations’ Nick Cowling would like the industry to think beyond one-time corporate charitable donations and ad hoc cause campaigns.

“If I was a retailer,” he says, “I would want to put food banks out of business.” The agency president acknowledges the crassness of his statement, “but, in my opinion, there’s still too much ‘marketing’ and not enough ‘purpose’ being done in purpose marketing.”

Recent times have shown that humanity can do anything when the stakes are high enough. “If the world can come up with a vaccine faster than ever before, why can’t it do the same for climate change? For world hunger?” The question posed by Cowling may be too big for Citizen Relations to address on its own – but perhaps someone with a handful of degrees in environmental science and social anthropology can help?

Enter Dr. Shilpa Tiwari.

In June 2021, Citizen appointed Tiwari as its first global EVP responsible for counseling clients when ti comes to social impact, sustainability and DEI. A tall order, but one that she’s thoroughly equipped for: Tiwari arrived at Citizen with education and experience from places like the U.K., Asia and Africa, having held senior ESG positions at companies like Manulife and SNC-Lavalin. She’s also the founder of Her Climb whose mission is to fill company ranks with women who look more like her.

“I needed someone who actually understands ESG, because it’s quite complex,” says Cowling. “I can dumb it down to a bunch of spreadsheets but it takes someone like Shilpa to understand the [totality of ESG] and how to build it up.”