“One thing that has been very powerful has been getting CEOs of the businesses in town to attend forums on poverty — people who before would never go on the record except to comment on the NASDAQ — and we get them to talk about how they are going to invest in the city,” Thompson said. “They come to the table because the institute has the collective wisdom of some of the most skilled and influential anti-poverty activists on our National Advisory Panel, but also because, as several of the industry captains have said during our forums, they grew up poor, they are children of immigrants, they have lived it and are saying that battling inequality and poverty is important.”