Posts Tagged “Bank of America”

BonoAfter last week’s retraction, the McDonough School of Business Communications Department finally established that Bono will be talking about social enterprise at Georgetown next Monday. In the new event description, Bono’s lecture is described as a talk about social enterprise and the “power of social movements to create change.”

CEO of Bank of America Brian Moynihan will introduce Bono with remarks, followed by President John J. DeGioia. 

The Atlantic will also be the media partner for this event. This means Georgetown will host the first event in this year’s Washington Ideas Forum, which lasts from November 13 to 15th. The forum is a partnership between The Atlantic, the Aspen Institute, and the Newseum to bring together top international leaders for a series of lectures.

Last year’s Washington Ideas Forum hosted speakers such as Vice President Joe Biden and House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan,  as well as the CEO of Starbucks and Katie Couric.

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BonoUpdated: Communications Director of MSB wrote to Vox yesterday that Bono will not necessarily be talking about social enterprise anymore. “We are still working to finalize the topic of Bono’s remarks,” read the email.

President John J. DeGioia will partner with the Bank of America CEO Brian T. Moynihan to host a lecture with singer and musician Bono on November 12 in Gaston Hall. An email was sent to the study body at 6:30 p.m. today announcing that tickets will be distributed through a lottery system.

Winners will be allowed an extra ticket for another Georgetown student, faculty or staff member. The lottery submissions close this Friday.

Bono plans to talk about “social enterprise initiatives and the power of innovative public-private partnerships to drive long-term social and economic change for the greater good,” according to University spokeswoman Stacy Kerr. Ain’t that a mouthful. [Editor's note: Scratch that. We still don't know yet, but announcement will be made next Wednesday.]

The event will be hosted by the Global Social Enterprise Initiative at Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business. Bank of America is a founding partner of GSEI. In April 2011, BOA donated $1 million to GSEI, a Georgetown initiative that advocates for current and future stakeholders in the corporate, nonprofit, and government sectors to engage in socially and economically responsible behavior.

Bono, lead singer of U2, recently became the world’s richest musician (though not exactly) earlier this year. He is a founding member of Elevation Partners, a private equity firm that invests in intellectual property, media, and entertainment companies. Elevation invested $210 million in Facebook, which eventually valued $1.5 billion. Bono’s actual share may amount to much less. CNN Money predicted his return would be approximately $216 million.

Besides his work as a musician, Bono is also well known for being a humanitarian activist. He frequently plays in benefit concerts on the issue of HIV and AIDs in Africa, and co-founded four organizations: DATAEDUN, the ONE Campaign and Product Red.

Blingee by Nick Childress

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DSC_0028This weekend proved that you only need a handful of protesters to close down Bank of America.

“Bank of America, bad for America!” shouted 14 protesters from Occupy Our Homes DC at the Bank of America on the corner of Wisconsin and Dumbarton last Saturday. The bank was forced to close operations for its entire business day. At about 8:45 a.m., the protesters struck, putting “foreclosed” signs on the bank’s doors and caution tape on the bank’s ATMs. The protest was one of eleven Bank of America Occupy protests, each targeting a different branch in the district.

“This has been a mobilization to shut down all the Banks of America that will be open today,” Ben Johnson, a sophomore at American University and a member of the Occupy Our Homes team, said. The protest is for Michael Vanzant, a reverend who formed Faith Temple, the first LGBTQ church in DC for people of color. Vanzant is allegedly being evicted.

Vanzant’s house served as more than just a house. It was a community center, a shelter for the homeless, and a hospice for HIV AIDS patients. Vanzant started having trouble with the Bank of America a year ago, when he fell behind in payments due to a disability.

“He tried to call ahead and was like, yo I’m going to on disability pay because I hurt myself, so I’d like to negotiate with you guys now before I fall behind,” Johnson said. “They were like nope, we can’t help you until you fall behind. After missing one or two payments and refusing to negotiate with him, despite the fact that he was good on all the money, they started to try to kick him out of his house.”

“It’s bullshit, get off it, our lives are not for profit.”

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Last Saturday, the name of Georgetown’s career center officially changed to the Charles M. Cawley Career Education Center. Who the franc is that, you ask? Well just you wait, dear readers, because you’re about to find out!

Cawley (COL ’62) is a longtime (50 years longtime) donor to the University who also funds and supports several scholarship programs, including the Baker Scholars Program. He co-founded MBNA, which provided the funds to create the career center in 1994 as well as Sellinger Lounge in the Leavey Center.

I know what you’re thinking, but MBNA is not the Monument Builders of North America.

MBNA Corporation is a bank holding company (acquired by Bank of America in 2006) that became the third largest independent issuer of credit cards as well as the number one issuer of affinity cards, which donate a small percentage of the money spent on a credit card to a charity organization. MBNA was also the largest political donor to the George W. Bush 2000 campaign, after Enron.

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We recently got our hands on a copy of a contract between Bank of America (by way of its subsidiary, FIA Card Services), the Alumni Association, and GUASFCU, which reveals a seven-year agreement that pays out up to $2.8 million in royalties to the Alumni Association and GUASFCU.

As per the agreement, the Alumni Association and GUASFCU provided customer lists to Bank of America, which were then used to market credit cards to students and alumni. According to GUASFCU CEO Arjun Mehta (SFS ’11), the credit union only passed along a list compiled by the University Registrar’s Office.

Want to know more? We’re got more details and the contracts after the jump.

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