2021 Global Business & Interfaith Peace Award Winners

2021 Gold Medalists

The Intel Corporation is the most religiously inclusive Fortune 100 company in America, according to the REDI Index. Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger and executive vice president Sandra Rivera have helped create a culture where people can bring their whole selves to work — faith and all — thanks to solidly incorporating religious diversity into their overall diversity and inclusion commitments. Intel’s embrace of religious inclusivity is seen in their willingness to officially sponsor a wide range of faith-based employee resource groups. These groups not only support members of their particular faiths, but also work together in an interfaith association to support all employees at Intel to succeed in work and life, indeed, a positive model for society at large.

In the Holy Lands, differing religious, cultural, and historical claims are connected to ongoing conflicts. In response, Medinol CEO Dr. Judith Richter founded the NIR School of the Heart to help high school students not only understand cardio-vascular career opportunities but also connect the hearts of people from different cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds. Dr. Richter helps students build bridges across cultures through the process of learning. As one graduate summed up the experience, The NIR School of the Heart “will make the whole Middle East a better place.” The program has become widely popular and currently has 826 graduates who are functioning as ambassadors for peace, out of which 225 are also pursuing careers in medical-related professions.

King Husein, Chairman and CEO of Span Construction & Engineering, has played a critical role addressing the rising global tide of restrictions on religious freedom. King’s efforts range from helping found the South Asian Consortium for Religion and Law Studies, to helping kick off the first-ever Business Roundtable to advance International Religious Freedom during the 2019 UN General Assembly in New York City. In diverse venues such as the Horasis Global Conference in Portugal and the IRF Summit in Washington DC, King shares how religious ethics benefit business. His advocacy also looks toward the next generation by his helping launch an initiative at BYU Hawaii to equip students from across Asia to know how to advance religious freedom when they return home.

2021 Silver Medalists

John Tyson, Chairman of Tyson Foods, was an early pioneer of building a faith-friendly workplace by recognizing the spiritual needs of team members. John was instrumental in the program that today has about 100 chaplains of various faiths on staff, providing compassionate pastoral care and ministry to Tyson’s team members and their families regardless of their religious affiliations or beliefs. Chaplains offer counsel, assist in managing crises, celebrate milestones, and help employees work through a variety of personal and professional experiences. The program is implemented in over 150 facilities and has allowed many of Tyson’s 141,000 employees to feel more supported. The Tyson Foods Chaplain Services has been providing compassionate care to team members and their families since 2000.

Maurice Ostro, Chair of Ostro Fayre Share Foundation, has been an interfaith champion for decades, serving as Vice Chair of the Council of Christians and Jews — the UK’s oldest interfaith organization — and as the Founding Patron of the Faiths Forum for London. Maurice has been involved in advising the UK Governmental, most recently on the Prime Minister’s Holocaust Commission. He has promoted religious inclusion in the businesses he has started and grown, providing workplace prayer rooms for all faiths represented by his employees to ensure that all feel comfortable practicing their faiths during the workday. Maurice has also established a social enterprise making jewellery in Burma, providing dignified, well-paid jobs to Buddhist and Muslim women and building bridges between these communities.

Peter Mousaferiadis, founder of Cultural Infusion, is a pioneer in using cultural and artistic expression as a means of promoting social cohesion and interfaith understanding. Cultural Infusion has developed award winning and world leading platforms that can transform diversity and inclusion in organizations and communities and people’s understanding of cultural diversity. Beyond art, Peter led the development of Cultural Infusion’s Diversity Atlas, an online survey tool to assess and monitor diversity within companies and organizations across the four interconnected diversity pillars: Religion and Worldview; Country of Birth; Language; and Ethnicity and Race. Diversity Atlas allows teams and organizations to measure and understand its diversity stories. This enables better inclusion and allows teams to value their cultural identity.

2021 Bronze Medalists

Following the sectarian conflicts in Iraq, many families were forced to flee the country in hopes of seeking a safe place to openly practice their faith and beliefs. In response, Khalid Khowshnaw founded the Hemn Group which combats any form of discrimination — in his construction company — including that of race, religion, ethnicity, or sectarian groups. The Hemn Group promotes inclusion of differing nationalities working alongside one another, oftentimes sharing in each other’s celebrations and feasts. They are also credited for providing jobs for countless Christians, Muslims, and Yezidi in areas that are safe to practice their faith and beliefs free of discrimination and facilitates the free practice of worship. This also creates an inclusive, sustainable economy, an antidote to sectarian conflict.

People with differing physical or emotional abilities often feel like outsiders in life. Dr. John Gathright believes principles of kindness, love, peace, understanding, diversity, and a sense of global family can bring different groups together. Dr. Gathright founded Tree Climbing Japan, helping children of differing faiths, abilities, and challenges come together to find an increased self-confidence through embracing the challenge of climbing trees. The program’s goal is to help all children grow up like magnificent trees, standing tall and strong, kind and unique, and helping each other. Tree Climbing Japan has helped thousands of people feel included through tree climbing activities all over the country. This has produced a better awareness and appreciation for all people, despite their differences.

To provide rights and freedoms for all religions and beliefs in the workplace, Candice Corby, CEO of Cobra Legal Solutions, promotes the celebration of religion and belief, encouraging employees to be their full selves including bringing their faith and beliefs to work. Cobra Legal Solutions accomplishes the goal of being a religiously inclusive workplace by observing every festival and religious holiday world-wide, and also by hosting a commemoration for religions in a week known as “Cobra Life Week”. Candice is actively involved with many prominent organizations including the World Economic Forum, Women’s Indian Chamber of Commerce & Industry, and the U.S. State Department, working for greater gender empowerment and interfaith understanding within Cobra and the global community they serve.

Awards presented Aug. 24 at Dare to Overcome.