Corporate activists David Cooke and Laura McManus
“DAVID was the first leader in corporate Australia who proactively came to Walk Free for guidance. On the day of the meeting, my boss got called away and I stepped in. We talked about David’s background in transcendental meditation and his work supporting victims of human trafficking in Cambodia before we moved on to business and human rights in Australia. I’d spent my career in the NGO sector and was a bit sceptical of corporate Australia but I left our discussion energised. It really was a sliding-doors moment. I wouldn’t be here without that chance encounter.
About six months in to my job with Konica Minolta, David and I made a deal to have fortnightly meetings where I talk about human rights and he talks about business strategy. We have this learning trade-off – it’s neat. We even do it in the Twittersphere or on LinkedIn. He’s very active on social media – even more than I am!
Sometimes I come to the table with a radical idea and wonder how David’s going to react. He says, ‘When do we start? What do we do? Who can I meet?’ He out-activists me! For a while I was scratching my head. Why would someone in his position invest time and energy in this? But aside from it making business sense, he’s genuinely motivated to leave his footprint on the world.
Despite having different professional backgrounds, and differences in age and gender, we have the same moral compass and the same energy. We’re both introverts yet like to have an audience to tell the story to because we can see the impact it has.
It’s great that David wants to see quick outcomes but I have to rein him in occasionally and reset expectations. We’re trying to do something different, shifting from a compliance model to saying to suppliers: ‘This is what we expect of you.’ It takes time.
When I was at university seven years ago, business and human rights wasn’t something you studied [in tandem]. It’s exciting to shape what the role can look like, the new territory we can forge together. The journey is only beginning.”