Corporate Social Responsibility as a Strategy for Regional Growth

For the 2025 and 2026 academic year, I have had the privilege of serving as Executive in Residence at the Fowler College of Business at San Diego State University alongside Scott Drury. It has been an energizing experience—sharing insights with exceptional graduate students while learning alongside them. I continue to be struck by their candor, introspection, and determination to grow as leaders.

Our most recent session stood out.

I invited my friend Carlos Cristiani, Director of Corporate Social Responsibility and Government Affairs at the Fleet Science Center, to join me for a fireside chat and team competition. Together, we challenged the students to think bigger about the role corporations can—and must—play in shaping the future of San Diego.

Corporate social responsibility is too often framed as philanthropy or a line item in a budget. In reality, it is strategy.

When companies engage meaningfully with community leaders, policymakers, and nonprofit partners, they build stronger talent pipelines, more resilient supply chains, deeper customer trust, and long-term economic vitality. CSR is not peripheral to performance—it is foundational to it.

Carlos offered compelling insights into the opportunity before us in San Diego. We have world-class companies, innovative nonprofits, and top-tier universities. Yet too often, these systems operate in parallel rather than in partnership. The future belongs to regions that integrate these forces—where corporations are not bystanders in community building, but architects of shared progress.

The students leaned into this challenge with seriousness and creativity. They recognized that leadership today requires fluency across sectors. It demands an understanding that economic growth and community vitality are not competing priorities—they are interdependent.

For board members and executives, the question is not whether to invest in corporate social responsibility. The question is how intentionally we design it.

When done well, CSR becomes a flywheel: companies strengthen communities, communities strengthen companies, and both become more competitive, innovative, and inclusive.

San Diego has the ingredients. The opportunity now is alignment—and courage.