Bill Shore is a Durham native, a Jordan High School graduate and is director of Community Partnerships at GlaxoSmithKline. The affable 60-year-old jokes about how much chicken he eats over the years because part of his job involves attending any number of luncheons and banquets, from Chamber of Commerce events to charity galas.

Of course, the reason he does all this is to build relationships with key players to find the ways his company can do the most good in Durham and, indeed, throughout the country.

The company donated $4 million to various education, health & human services, arts, civic and environmental initiatives throughout the state last year. In addition, GSK employees donated $590,534 to United Way agencies in N.C., including $348,129 to the United Way of the Greater Triangle. The company matched these employee donations dollar for dollar, for a total amount of about $1.2 million in N.C. This earned the company the first annual President's Award from United Way.

That's to say nothing of the thousands of volunteer hours GSK employees log every year, with the support and encouragement of the global drug company. The primary focus of the company's philanthropic efforts is K-12 education. Shore is active on a national level with several high profile efforts to reduce the dropout rate. He and GSK are trying to do the same right here in Durham.

In an interview last week, Shore talked about his role both on the local and national level, and why GSK is so committed to changing things for the better.

On his unique job:

"Joe Ruvane was the first CEO in the Park to actually live in Durham. Everyone else had gone to Wake County. We became quite Durham-centric right off the bat because of that. Every now and then he’d get me to fill in for him at Durham Chamber board meetings. He asked me to start a community relations program for the company. I didn’t really know what that was, to be honest with you. But I knew I liked to eat chicken.

"I got involved on the local level representing the company. We are sometimes thought of as a company that writes checks to charitable organizations. But it’s actually more than that. It’s all about relationships. Somebody has to know the mayor, has to have relationships with city council members, county commissioners. Growing up here I already knew some people. But I just got the chance to meet some really great folks. About 10 years ago, I got asked to be on the board at NCCU. I grew up here in Durham, but I had never really been involved on their campus. That’s the best thing that’s ever happened to me. I served 8 years on the board of directors at Central, and I developed a love and appreciation for a new culture. It was just amazing to be exposed to and get to know folks who were running a major university like that.

"Then we merged with Burroughs Wellcome in 1995. Our US headquarters were here for both companies, a mile apart. Our cultures were somewhat the same. Both companies were extremely involved in local communities. And if you look at Burroughs Wellcome’s heritage, they had two Nobel Prize winners, one of whom was George Hitchings. He started the Triangle Community Foundation.

"When you undergo a merger, you become a lot more strategic about how you’re going to be involved in local communities. We tried to and still do focus on the things that are important to the company, and that’s support for K-12 education. I got on the Durham Chamber board and was asked to the chair education committee that they had. I was involved  to some degree from a business standpoint to help support school merger. It was really important to do that. There were a lot of bumps along the way, but we’re doing great right now."

On why GSK supports education:

"It takes $1 billion and about 15 years to get one drug on the market, and it’s getting tougher and tougher to do it.. Well, we’re going to have a lot of scientists retiring who are working on these research programs.

"Now in the US, about 30 percent of our kids drop out of high school. 50 percent of minority kids drop out of high school. They are never going to come work for our company. They’re not going to go work for IBM. They’re not going to go work for Cisco. Their future is going to be much dimmer than kids who go to and graduate from college. So we got very much behind organizations like Communities in Schools, which has a 96 percent success rate for keeping kids in schools.  I got on their local board then chaired their state board for a couple of years. We’re involved with helping to create the Business Advisory Council in Durham Public Schools, which Carl Harris launched."

On working closely with DPS:

"It’s always been a tricky thing for the business community to support public schools. Unless the superintendent kind of opens up and invites you to the table, it’s really hard. Carl patterned the BAC after the way Governor Hunt ran the state. (Hunt) had a business management council he met with: 25 CEOs from around the state. I was fortunate enough to represent the company every now and then. That’s where the Communities in Schools program and the North Carolina Business Committee for Education were started statewide. So the legacy of that organization has been really good. 

"Leadership at the school site level is a big, big deal. American companies have done a pretty good job of leadership training. We have developed a program to be able to recognize top leaders at the school sites. We raised a little money and there’s an annual event where we recognize those who are doing a really good job of leadership. To get recognized as a key principal or assistant principal in Durham Public Schools is well deserved. The head of the Washington Duke Inn provided a weekend for a principal and his or her guest. Three winners. It’s amazing what things like that mean for people who are in the trenches. We also provide them with a check for a few thousand dollars. That’s something that we’re really proud of."

On national education efforts:

"I got involved in the U.S. Chamber of Commerce a few years ago. A guy named Stephen Jordan and I started the Business Education Network at the U.S. Chamber. I chair their board on the national level now. 

"Colin Powell and his wife are now leading America's Promise. Their one goal is to reduce the dropout rate in America by 50 percent over the next 10 years. If we can do that, we’ll save hundreds of billions of dollars, literally, in the cost of subsidizing the dropouts. We’re paying I think around $50,000 a year to keep one person in prison, and 75 percent of prison inmates are high school dropouts. They’re not paying taxes. They’re not paying Social Security. So America’s Promise is making a big deal about that."

On health education programs:

"We’re a health care company, so childhood health issues are very important to us. Childhood obesity is an epidemic in this country. It might sound strange to say this, but we sure would prefer for no kids to have to take our diabetes drugs. We want them to be healthy. We are doing everything we can even on a national level for kids and families to understand how to take better care of themselves. We're working with NC Prevention Partners, which goes into schools and works with staff to change menus and try to get rid of snack machines and get kids drinking water instead of Cokes."

On the importance of private sector involvement in social issues:

"There’s no getting around the fact that what’s happened for the good in this area and across the state has been the public-private partnerships. The Durham Public Schools, Wake County Schools have to know what kind of job skills are going to be required. And if you don’t have that partnership built -- so that we can bring teachers and students out here to go to Cisco and walk around the labs, and go to IBM -- then it jus won’t get done. This is what you’re getting these kids ready for.

On GSK's volunteer programs:

"We have something called the GIVE program. Glaxo Investment in Volunteer Excellence. Any employee who donates 50 hours or more to a nonprofit, a Little League team, a PTA, we will donate $500 in that employees name, and if their spouse, partner or significant other is involved, we’ll donate another $500.

We’ve also got Orange Day, which is something that (relatively new CEO) Andrew (Witty) has really encouraged on a global basis. All 100,000 employees are strongly encouraged to pick a volunteer project and maybe as a team go out and do it. These things are like mushrooms. They’re springing up all over the place. You’re allowed to take a day off from work to do this without taking a vacation day. Ronald McDonald House, Habitat for Humanity, all kinds of organizations have benefitted from this.

"Then the other thing Andrew added is something called the PULSE program. You’ve got nonprofits saying I need a GSK employee with this skill set – like an accountant. We will match an employee up with that need at that nonprofit, even if they have to move. It’s a six-month assignment, with full salary and their job when they come back.

"Andrew’s position on this is this will change the lives of our employees. They’ll come back with a much better appreciation for what goes on in the nonprofit side. There are some incredible stories these employees are coming back with. It’s just part of who we are.

"We don’t want to be known as the company that just writes a check. We want to be much deeper and much more involved in helping to make a difference. We find ourselves on boards of nonprofits, pulling folks together. Sometimes we can fund a breakfast for $300 and bring about five nonprofits together and all of a sudden they’re forming a consortium. That’s a pretty good use of our $300 breakfast."

On why this matters to the company:

"This might sound a little hokey, but this has been part of our culture. When Joe Ruvane asked me to start a community relations department, he called me in his office. I was a little nervous. He said, 'Bill we owe back to any community that allows us to operate there. We have to be leaders. It’s about leadership, it’s about doing the right things.' I remember sitting on his little couch, and he was kind of lecturing me a little bit. He said, ‘We have to be a top-notch corporate citizen. Our employees live here. We’re going to grow. We’re going to have to address the issues that affect our employees, the social issues. And it’s just the right thing to do.’"