Pastoral Care for For-Profit and Not-For-Profit Boards and Executive Leaders

Having managed a number of different investment banking businesses, having chaired three very different not-for-profit boards, having vice-chaired the board of a large family-owned private company for more than a decade, and having advised many large companies on their most important strategic decisions, I have frequently observed or participated in decisions or processes which had serious ethical and spiritual implications. Is this a conflict of interest or not? How transparent do I need to be in entering into a transaction? How do I come to terms with necessary business decisions that have a lot of negative human consequences such as job redundancies? Do I have the same objective standards for workplace behavior for the biggest revenue producer as for the smallest? How do I balance issues like environmental and climate change implications of my decisions with the need to maximize profits? How do I make space for spiritual thinking and behavior in our workplace and our board room without offending non-religious people?

The convergence of my rabbinic education and ordination as a pluralistic rabbi with my prior career as a for-profit business leader and practitioner has grounded me with a unique perspective on these types of questions. If you are a business or not-for-profit leader or a company that is seeking to integrate spiritual values into your culture and decision-making, I would be happy to meet with you and discuss the possibilities of us having an intermediate-term relationship that could reorient the value system you've been operating with.

I will make a bold statement: the Torah presumes economic inequality and for-profit capitalism. If we all owned the same things, why would the last commandment of the Ten Commandments prohibit coveting what your neighbor has? And yet we are also commanded to love thy neighbor as thyself. I would seek to bring an awareness of those morally balancing values to the leadership of your organization even as you and your colleagues make day to day decisions.

Please contact me by phone or email to arrange a discussion to see if there is a fit with this aspect of my rabbinate identity.