Social Impact Investors: How Grady Crosby of Northwestern Mutual Is Helping To Create Affordable Housing

Originally published by Authority Magazine

As a part of our series about “Social Impact Investors”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Grady Crosby, chief sustainability and impact officer at Northwestern Mutual. Grady Crosby is responsible for developing strategies and driving the overall execution of the company’s community impact and sustainability programs. He and his team collaborate with the enterprise sustainability and impact (ESI) leadership council to address the organization’s approach to sustainability and impact matters across a broad spectrum. Grady is passionate about Social Impact and seeks to mix industry best practices with fit-for-purpose creative solutioning to continually shape Northwestern Mutual’s community revitalization initiatives and work closing the ‘wealth gap’ in their hometown of Milwaukee. Personally, Grady is committed to community involvement and serves on the boards of: Marcus Performing Arts Center, Visit Milwaukee, Wisconsin Policy Forum, and the Wisconsin Center District.

Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dive in, our readers would love to learn a bit more about you. Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

Curiosity! In some cases, curiosity kills the cat. In my case, curiosity brought me to this career path.

In college, I spent a summer interning on the Senate side of Capitol Hill. I quickly learned some of the most fascinating positions require a JD degree, so I pursued a career in law. My legal career — which primarily focused on in-house corporate council — seemed to always involve issues related to people and the environment, whether it was striving to preserve community resources while building and operating textile sewing facilities in Vietnam or ensuring the manufacturing of lead-acid batteries in Asia, South America and Europe was done responsibly. Balancing community and development interests while being environmentally conscious provided the initial steppingstones toward my interest in sustainable development.

This ultimately led me to where I am today: a recovering attorney working on issues related to how sustainability and impact can help mitigate business risks and create opportunities for long-term sustainable growth and value creation.

In 2022, I retired after a very fulfilling career. Then just three months later, an opportunity to be Northwestern Mutual’s Chief Sustainability and Impact Officer was presented, and my retirement ended then and there. I was excited about the prospect of working at Northwestern Mutual, a values-driven company with a deep commitment to doing what’s right. In fact, one of the things that drew me in was Northwestern Mutual’s mission to free Americans from financial anxiety and strengthen financial security across generations.

Since starting here, I’ve seen how that commitment goes beyond our core financial services offering. Being here allows me to be part of an organization that is serious about investing in opportunities to drive positive change — not just for today, but for generations to come. That long-term perspective and deep sense of responsibility are what brought me to Northwestern Mutual, and it’s what continues to inspire me every day.

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