Capital One celebrated its 10th anniversary of opening the Plano campus and establishing community partnerships at an inspiration-filled event with a full lineup of engaging speakers on Friday, April 20.
The event kicked off with a nonprofit showcase with organizations from Dallas, Frisco and Plano including:
The nonprofits shared their mission with attendees and encouraged volunteerism to make the community where they live and work even stronger.
The 10th anniversary was also marked with Capital One awarding 2018 grants to 10 area nonprofits from Dallas, Frisco, Plano and Rockwall, including:
Sanjiv Yajnik, president of financial services at Capital One said, “Our nonprofit partners play an incredible role in making our communities thrive. We go all in to support them, not only with funds but through our time and engagement. We take care of each other like one big family.”
A panel of Plano mayors from the last 10 years kicked off the program with a past and future look at the economic development of the city. The past decade has been filled with steady growth, positive change, and community engagement. Since 2008:
- Plano has grown from approximately 257,000 residents to 277,000
- Collin County has grown in population from 763,438 to 970,945
- Capital One’s Plano campus has grown from 51 associates and one building to more than 5,000 associates on its eight-building campus
- Capital One associates have brought community commitment to life and have volunteered nearly 210,000 hours in DFW and continue this engagement.
The Mayoral Panel, Then & Now: A Decade in Our Community included Plano mayors Pat Evans (2002-2009), Phil Dyer (2009-2013), Mayor Harry LaRosiliere (2013 – present) and moderator, Mike Feeney, senior vice president-operations for Capital One Auto Finance. Each shared the changes that have taken place in Plano since 2008, and how Plano has grown to become an award-winning city.
Former Mayor Pat Evans said, “I’m very proud we’re on the cutting edge. We are out there trying new things, always. If the newest thing is clean air, we are out there, and we are leading it. If it’s recycling, we will be the ones leading the way in teaching other cities around us. I’m proud we go the extra step.”
Former Mayor Phil Dyer added, “When Plano has a win, it’s a win for the region. We have so much going on here. It’s a superb place to live no matter what age and a superb place to be successful in business.”
The panel also dove into the corporate relocations moving to Plano and what conversations with those companies have looked like.
“We tell corporations that it’s not about being in Plano, it’s about being a part of Plano, and we use Capital One as a benchmark,” said Plano Mayor Harry LaRosiliere. “It’s incredible the amount of people equity Capital One has put in the community.”
Next came the Future Edge Panel: Preparing our Communities for the Digital Future made up of Mike Simpson, CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Collin County, Jennifer Bartkowski, CEO of Girl Scouts (GSNETX), Mansoureh Tehrani, work based learning associate at NAF, Peter Claffey, executive director of Sci-Tech Discovery Center and moderator Tiffany Cason, Dallas market president, Capital One.
In 2015, Capital One launched Future Edge, an initiative that pledged $150 million over five years to help prepare more Americans with the skills, tools and resources they need to succeed in an ever-changing digitally-driven economy. As part of this initiative, Future Edge DFW symbolizes Capital One’s commitment to make Dallas-Fort Worth a destination for top talent, spur growth as a world-renowned technology hub, and nurture leaders of tomorrow. The panelists dove into the practicalities of what it looks like to build up a pipeline of STEM talent by collaborating with corporations like Capital One.
“It’s very important for students to see STEM is used everywhere,” said Tehrani. “We try to provide as much work-based learning as possible. Last year, we had a Monster Coding Jam, a coding event on Halloween, where more than 500 students partnered with Capital One associates and now have a Guinness World Records title for the largest programming lessons. Since then, many students have changed their track to IT.”
Claffey added, “Through partners like Capital One, we receive feedback on how we can build up the future workforce. Three years ago we had a shakeup in our organization’s model, and now, we are working directly with kids starting in elementary, providing exposure when they’re young. It’s had a huge impact.”
Continuing the conversation on innovation wasArjun Dugal, SVP Technology at Capital One, who spoke on the intersection of community and technology and how Capital One has used its associates to bring its expertise to help make nonprofits succeed.
Dugal said, “Our Capital One associates volunteered 49,000 hours last year in the DFW community. We’ve been able to partner with incredible organizations like Boys & Girls Clubs of Collin County and Girls Inc. where we’re able to work with the leaders to bring innovative technology solutions to propel their organizations into the future.”
On the subject of innovation and disruption in the future was a presentation by Dr. Peter Diamandis, Founder and Executive Chairman of XPRIZE whose mission is to open the space frontier for all. Diamandis is a New York Times best-selling author and an international pioneer in incentive competitions and commercial space. He highlighted the immense amount of innovation that has taken place over the past 100 years, and why that should make us excited and optimistic for the future.
“We are living in the most extraordinary time in human history. There is not a problem we cannot solve. It’s just a matter of whether we do what it takes to solve it,” said Diamandis.
He provided examples and quotes of leaders from companies that no longer exist because they weren’t willing to innovate.
“The world changes constantly,” he said. “If you’re not changing with it, you’re going to be extinct. In fact, if you think the world is moving fast now, hold on to your seats!”
In conclusion, Yajnik reflected on the past ten years of Capital One’s community engagement in North Texas and its commitment ahead to help communities thrive and support organizations that create a positive impact.
Yajnik said, “A company needs to be responsible to the community where it lives and works. The communities that are most vibrant in the world are those where everyone joins arms and takes care of one another.”
When addressing the future, he added “The next 10 years hold excitement, innovation, change and challenges. The only way to move forward is to make sure we don’t operate as disparate organizations. Together, we will make an amazing difference.”
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About Capital One
Capital One Financial Corporation, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, is a Fortune 500 company with branch locations primarily in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Louisiana, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. Its subsidiaries, which include Capital One, N.A., and Capital One Bank (USA), N.A., offer a broad spectrum of financial products and services to consumers, small businesses and commercial clients through a variety of channels. Capital One applies the same principles of innovation, collaboration and empowerment in its commitment to its communities across the country that it does in its business. Capital One recognizes that helping to build strong and healthy communities -- good places to work, good places to do business and good places to raise families -- benefits us all, and Capital One is proud to support this and other community initiatives.