Mission Responsibility Through Investment gets new name and new lead staff

Rob Fohr succeeds Bill Somplatsky-Jarman in new role

by Rick Jones | Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE – The office of Mission Responsibility Through Investment (MRTI) has a new name and lead staff person. Rob Fohr, who has been serving in an interim capacity, has accepted the call to take the permanent position, replacing Bill Somplatsky-Jarman, who retired earlier this year. The office of MRTI will be known as the Office of Faith-Based Investing and Corporate Engagement, and Fohr will direct and coordinate the work. While the committee on MRTI will retain its name, leaders felt the new office title best describes its ongoing work.

“I am deeply honored and humbled to have the chance to build upon the great foundational work that Bill did for more than 32 years,” said Fohr. “It is very exciting because I think the whole notion of corporate social responsibility and faith-based investing are now more familiar concepts and I am excited about the opportunity to engage and educate on those issues.”

Fohr joined MRTI last year in the newly-formed role of associate and had an opportunity learn from Somplatsky-Jarman before he retired.

“One of the most helpful things was to watch Bill’s style. When engaging corporations, I would describe him as diplomatic with an edge,” said Fohr. “It takes that style to bring Presbyterian ethics and values to corporate America and you have to be able to speak both the language of the business world and the church. Bill was very good at that.”

Prior to working with MRTI, Fohr served the Presbyterian Mission Agency for seven years in a variety of roles including seminary relations and as the chief staff person responsible for advancing the agency-wide goal of connecting more effectively with young adults. Academically, he holds a master’s of arts in religion from Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary and a bachelors’ in business administration from Abilene Christian University in Texas.

From 2005-06, Fohr served in the Presbyterian Church’s Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) program in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is a ruling elder and is married to the Rev. Christine Coy Fohr, who serves as the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Owensboro, Kentucky.

“Rob has done a fabulous job providing support to the committee in its preparations for General Assembly and capably assisted the committee as it navigated some very difficult issues during the Assembly,” said Sara Lisherness, director of the agency’s Compassion, Peace and Justice Ministry. “Rob has demonstrated a strong grasp of the work of MRTI and conveyed a real passion for the importance of faith-based investing and corporate responsibility.”

“It is exciting to be part of the new initiative and approaches Rob is developing that will enable us to build upon the tremendous legacy of MRTI work and address the ever more complex issues created by a global economy and technologically sophisticated society,” said MRTI Chair Terry Dunning.

MRTI is a three agency committee that implements the General Assembly’s policies on faith-based investing. The committee brings together representatives from the Presbyterian Mission Agency Board, investing agencies of the Board of Pension and Presbyterian Foundation/New Covenant Trust Company, the advocacy committee on women’s and racial ethnic concerns, the social witness policy committee and three at-large members elected by the General Assembly. It is jointly funded by the Presbyterian Mission Agency, Presbyterian Foundation and the Board of Pensions.

One of the immediate challenges, says Fohr, is to change the misperception about the committee’s work.

“Many people think that what we do is primarily divestment because that’s what grabs the headlines in the church as well as secular news,” he said. “Divestment is an important tool but it is the last tool. Corporate engagement with our ecumenical and other values-based partners is where we spend most of our time through dialoguing with corporations to encourage them to be more responsible corporate citizens. Communicating what we do and how we do it to a broader audience within the church will be both challenging and exciting.”

Fohr says the office will remain focused on its General Assembly mandated mission goals including: peacemaking; racial, social and economic justice; human rights, women’s rights and environmental responsibility. Per the directive of the 222^nd General Assembly, the office and committee on MRTI will be especially focused on the issues of climate change and the ongoing discussions with the fossil fuel industry. He says they will also continue engagement on human rights and human trafficking issues and hopes to eventually get involved in food justice issues in conjunction with the Presbyterian Hunger Program.

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