Champions of Change
Rose Marcario is President and CEO of Patagonia, the outdoor clothing company based in Ventura, Calif. A certified B-Corporation, Patagonia’s mission is to build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm and use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis. The company contributes 1 percent of net sales annually to grassroots environmental organizations around the world – totaling more than $61 million to date. For 31 years, Patagonia has supported working families by providing an in-house, on-site child development center for those based in Ventura – fostering generations of employee offspring Patagonia’s founder Yvon Chouinard has called his company’s “best products.” The Great Pacific Child Development Center, which will soon expand to Patagonia’s facility in Reno, Nev., provides traveling caregiver support for working parents with a child less than one year old. Patagonia also offers full company-paid health care and paid sick time for all employees, paid maternity and paternity leave and financial support to those employees who do not have access to on-site childcare. Marcario came to Patagonia in 2008 with 15 years’ experience in corporate finance and global operations; since joining the company, she has worked to improve operations and financial performance, recruit and retain a world-class global workforce, and created a venture fund to make supply chain and strategic investments to benefit the planet.