Time International - 11 April 2022

DOUBLE ISSUE APRIL 11 / APRIL 18, 2022

100 Most Influential Companies
APPLE, RIVIAN, PFIZER, DISNEY, TIKTOK, BALENCIAGA, OPENSEA, UNITED, SPOTIF Y & 91 MORE

AMAZON
LAUNCHES
INTO A
NEW ERA

CEO Andy Jassy





CONTENTS
2 Time April 11/April 18, 2022

VOL. 199, NOS. 13–14 | 2022

9

The Brief

27

The View

36

Ukraine’s
Quartermasters

On the road with the largest ever
transfer of U.S. arms to another
country—and the foreign volunteers

showing up to fight
By Simon Shuster
Plus: Ukrainian women battle behind
the lines By Amie Ferris-Rotman

44

Capitol Hill Local 535

Congressional staffers trying to
unionize are also testing the sincerity

of Democratic lawmakers
By Abby Vesoulis

50

On the Trail

A retired insurance-claims
investigator is determined to figure
out who’s shooting wild horses in an

Arizona forest
By Marisa Agha

56

A Quest for Justice

Lawyer Karuna Nundy’s crusade to
outlaw marital rape in India
By Astha Rajvanshi

61

Most Influential
Companies 2022

TIME’s annual list of 100 businesses
charting the future

91

Time Off

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3

FROM THE EDITOR

Business Companies that
is a force not shape the world
only in our
economic ONE YEAR AGO, WE LAUNCHED TIME BUSINESS, A NEW FRAN-
lives, but chise devoted to exploring the growing influence of business not
also in our only on our economic lives but also as a force shaping society and
collective our collective future. Led by executive editor John Simons, we’ve
future chronicled everything from the future of work to how American
shoppers broke the supply chain. We’ve brought you inside the
C-suites with interviews of major figures in the business world
through our weekly Leadership Brief, and inside the rise of crypto
and NFTs through staff writer Andrew R. Chow’s Into the Meta-
verse newsletter.

Along the way, business has grown from a very small portion of
our coverage to about one-fifth of all the content we publish. That’s
as it should be. From the vaccines that are pulling the world out of
the worst depths of the pandemic to the unprecedented withdrawal
of Western companies from Russia as a tool of war, business has
never had a greater impact. And certainly not always for the good, as
reflected in Billy Perrigo’s ongoing reporting on the all-too-frequent
prioritization of profits over people in the tech world.

YOU CAN SEE all that on display in our second annual TIME100
Companies list, included in this issue and featuring the world’s
most influential businesses. Some, like pharmaceutical upstart
Moderna and space-junk removal firm Astroscale, are pushing the
boundaries of technology in new and potentially world-changing
ways. Moderna is developing new mRNA vaccines for a host of
pathogens, while Astroscale is developing technology to safely de-
orbit satellites after their useful lives are over.

Others, like United Airlines and Capital One, took bold steps
and dared their rivals to follow: United was the first major U.S.
airline to issue an employee vaccine mandate, while Capital One
recently became the first of its peers to eradicate overdraft and
insufficient-fund fees, which so often punish those with the least
ability to pay them. Disrupters like Engine No. 1 and AMC, mean-
while, are changing the rules. As Vivienne Walt reports in this
issue, Engine No. 1 is quickly becoming the premier activist firm of
the climate-capitalism movement, while AMC’s Adam Aron wrote
the book—in real time—on how to respond to becoming a “meme
stock,” by courting younger, digitally savvy investors to keep the
company afloat. Still others, like Alphabet and Ford, are titans
whose sheer size and scope make them influential by nature.

“Taken together, these 100 companies—and the executives who
run them—represent the firms and leaders who are charting an
essential path forward,” says senior editor Alex Fitzpatrick, who
oversaw the list. As TIME’s business coverage continues through-
out the year, these are the companies we’ll be watching most
closely—and we suggest you do the same.

Edward Felsenthal,
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF & CEO
@EFELSENTHAL

4 TIME April 11/April 18, 2022

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CONVERSATION

TIME in Dubai

At the first ever TIME100
Impact Awards and Gala,
TIME honored individuals
who have done extraordinary
work to shape the future of
their industries and the
world at large. The awards
ceremony, attended by 200
guests, was held on March 28
at Dubai’s Museum of the
Future—the venue’s first
marquee event. Read and
watch full coverage of the
event at time.com/impact

Right: Guests gather for
an evening of dinner,
speeches, and music

TIME100 Impact Award recipients ALIN RAZVAN—PAUSE FILMS (2); IGOR MOSKALENKO—PAUSE FILMS (2); CHARISMA ANDREA DULO CASINO—PAUSE FILMS
include Bollywood star Deepika
Padukone, above left; singer Ellie
Goulding, left; philanthropist Tony
Elumelu, top right; and artist and
entrepreneur will.i.am, above, with
actor and advocate Kat Graham

▽ TALK TO US ▽

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beforehand

6 Time April 11/April 18, 2022

CONTENT FROM THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR

UNIFIEDPOST –
Blue Sky Thinking

Small businesses are the lifeblood of the global economy. In fact, Hans Leybaert,
small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) were responsible for Founder and CEO of Unifedpost
44% of economic activity in the United States in 2019, according
to the Small Business Administration, while the European Union
calculates that they are responsible for most of the new job creation
across its member states. SMEs operate in every single industrial
segment, but it is this very diversity that makes it almost impossible
for anyone to sell to them as a homogenous group.

Perhaps it takes one to know one, but that is paper-based to automated digital processes, with IN THE TRUE SPIRIT OF THE
exactly what the Belgium-based Unifiedpost a particular focus on documents, identity, and FINTECH AGE, LEYBAERT
has managed to do. Founded by CEO Hans payments. He was in the right place at the time, as HAS ALWAYS BEEN AWARE
Leybaert in 2001 to capitalize on advances in a combination of technological innovation, regulatory ENOUGH TO RECOGNIZE THAT
document-processing technology and originally change and an increasingly ferocious competitive OTHER DEVELOPERS AND
focused on the Benelux market, it has grown into environment forced companies to accelerate the ENTREPRENEURS WILL HAVE
a highly reputable pan-European digital services digitalization of their business processes. COMPLEMENTARY SKILLS TO
specialist with annual sales of over $160 million BRING TO THE UNIFIEDPOST
mainly focused on the SME market. One of Unifiedpost’s biggest challenges has been OFFERING, AND SINCE 2012
to stay ahead of the curve. Its ability to do so, most HAS PURSUED A BUY AND
Unifiedpost’s 100% cloud-based communication notably through the launch of its consolidated BUILD STRATEGY. THIS HAS
platform is populated with an ever-expanding payment service, has played a significant role in BEEN SUCH A SUCCESS THAT
range of administrative and financial services that the company’s success. The platform has been LAST YEAR HE FELT CONFIDENT
allow for real-time and seamless connections in operation since 2016 and is regulated and ENOUGH TO GO PUBLIC AND
between users, their suppliers, their customers and supervised by the National Bank of Belgium. Now PROCEEDED TO RAISE MORE
other parties along the financial value chain. At branded as Banqup, the system is specifically THAN $200 MILLION.
last count, it was being used by at least 980,000 designed to meet the challenges inherent in the
SMEs and accessed by more than five million EU’s Payment Services Directive 2, the aim of “An IPO is unique in the lifetime of a company,
online users in 30 countries. which is to make payments more secure, to boost
innovation and to encourage the financial services and it should be a cause for celebration, but our
THE COMPANY WAS CREATED AT industry to more readily adopt new technology.
THE TAIL END OF THE DOT.COM listing took place just before the second wave
BOOM, AND LEYBAERT WAS “Banqup licences us to provide SMEs with just
ONE OF A WAVE OF TECH-SAVVY about any payment service you can imagine,” of COVID-19 hit, so the reaction was slightly
YOUNG ENTREPRENEURS WHO says Leybaert. “We can process card payments
REALIZED THAT THE INTERNET’S and bank transfers and give our customers access muted,” says Leybaert. “The next day it was
COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL to their existing bank accounts. It allows us to
LAY AS MUCH IN ITS ABILITY provide them with the equivalent of a multi- business as usual, and we then went on to
TO STREAMLINE MUNDANE bank environment. The implementation of the
BUSINESS PRACTICES AS TO regulations still varies from country to country, complete six acquistions in as many months.”
SELL ANYTHING FROM BBQS TO so we’ve put a layer on top. If, say, a French
AIRLINE TICKETS. company wants to invoice a Polish company over The acquisition spree strengthened and deepened
our network, then the transaction is transparent to
“I come from what I call a hybrid generation,” both parties.” Unifiedpost’s presence in its three core service
he says. “Our parents worked in a fully paper
environment and our children will be fully digital, Banqup is fully certified and compliant with areas of documents, identity, and payments,
but we are somewhere in between.” all required privacy and security regulations.
Its proprietary Multi Identity Broker approach while extending its geographical footprint into the
For the past 20 years Leybaert has been on a guarantees Banqup customers the delivery
mission to help SMEs make the transition from of secure, easy to use online services to their Scandinavian countries, Italy, Spain, Poland and,
customers.
very importantly, Germany.

There are an estimated 400 million SMEs in the

world today. Even if just 5% of these turn out to

be potential clients, the opportunities for further

growth are vast.

time.com/specialsections

FOR THE RECORD

‘PUT 47,000 ‘I just no longer
SIMPLY, felt comfortable
PEOPLE The number of grocery-
CANNOT store workers in with the
AFFORD California who voted programming at Fox’
FOOD from March 21 onward
OF THE to authorize their union CHRIS WALLACE, in an interview with the New
QUALITY OR to call a strike York Times published March 27, on his decision
QUANTITY
THAT THEY to leave the network
NEED ’
$850
LAMA FAKIH, Middle
East and North Africa MILLION

director at Human The largest ever
taxpayer contribution
Rights Watch, on how for a pro football
facility, announced
trade disruptions March 28 as part of
a deal to help the
exacerbated by the Buffalo Bills build a
$1.4 billion stadium
war in Ukraine are

affecting people in

the region

460 WILL SMITH,

The width, in sq. ‘I can’t be
mi., of a massive confident
ice shelf that it is
collapsed in East imminent ’
Antarctica in an area
previously thought ROBERT MALLEY,
to be stable in the
face of climate U.S. special envoy
change, scientists for Iran, on the
said March 25 prospect that world
powers would reach
‘There was no doubt to me a nuclear deal with ILLUSTRATIONS BY BROWN BIRD DESIGN FOR TIME
that my dogs sitting Iran, on March 27

unprotected in these conditions
could lead to death.’

MILLE PORSILD, one of three mushers demoted in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race for having
sheltered their dogs during a windstorm, the AP reported on March 27

8 Time April 11/April 18, 2022 S O U R C E L I N E : A P, N E W YO R K T I M E S , R E U T E R S

TheBrief

GROWING CALLS IN THE CARIBBEAN COVID FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL
TO CUT TIES WITH THE U.K. BLAME MACRON FACES RE-ELECTION
GAME
9
BY BRIAN BENNETT

Joe Biden’s White House
is pointing fingers at

Republicans in Congress
for holding up additional

COVID-19 aid

REMEMBERING SECRETARY OF
STATE MADELEINE ALBRIGHT

PHOTOGRAPH BY DOUG MILLS

THE BRIEF OPENER

T he Biden AdministrAtion is prepAring to beat predictions and keep control of the House in
for a possible new surge in COVID-19 cases and November’s midterm races. Political operatives are
has already started the political blame game in watching closely to see where the country is on the
case the response falls short. pandemic when the next school year begins. “Where we

The White House has called out Republicans in are when kids go back to school is probably how things are

Congress for not authorizing new funds to make a fourth going to be judged politically,” says an adviser close to the

round of booster shots free and pay for therapeutics and Biden White House.

other ways to reduce the impact of another surge in cases. The White House published a document in early March

“Our primary concern right now is that we’re about to called the “National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan.” It in-

run out of funding,” White House press secretary Jen cludes efforts to boost U.S. vaccine production to 1 billion

Psaki said on March 21, warning Americans that they doses per year, fund the development of a single COVID-19

may have to pay for their next booster shots if more vaccine shot, distribute vaccines for children under 5 after

funding isn’t passed. Two days later, White House corona- the FDA approval, and increase U.S. production of test kits.

virus response coordinator Jeff Zients echoed: “The “If we fail on this, we leave ourselves vulnerable if another

consequences of congressional inaction are severe, and wave of the virus hits,” Biden said on March 30. “Congress

they are immediate.” needs to act now, please.”

Republicans in Congress have Periods after cases have

refused President Joe Biden’s dropped are when health

request for $15.6 billion more officials should be able to

funding to make additional ‘Our primary increase vaccinations and buy
booster shots free and fund up therapeutics and masks for

treatments, saying Congress has concern right the next surge. When Omicron
allocated enough to cover those now is that cases led to record-setting deaths
expenses, and it’s incumbent and hospitalizations in January,

on states and agencies to spend the Biden Administration was
what’s already been passed. blamed for not doing enough

Kristen Hawn, a Democratic we’re about to to prepare, and for being late in
strategist consulting in run out of making a sufficient quantity of
competitive House races, says free tests and high-quality masks
that the politics around the available. If there are similar
pandemic have put the Biden failures before a new surge, the

White House in a tough spot. funding.’ Administration is making a case
Polling shows that Americans for the public to blame Congress.

are tired of the pandemic, There’s reason to believe

but it’s still up to the Biden —JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY the U.S. could soon see another

Administration to be ready to spike. Coronavirus cases in

provide help if there’s another Britain, the Netherlands, and

spike in infections. “It’s a Germany are rising as a more

predicament,” Hawn says. To get funding from Congress, easily spread subvariant of Omicron, BA.2, takes hold.

White House officials feel the need to build public Epidemiologists in the U.S. have seen signs of the new

pressure. “If another variant comes along, people are version of the virus in Northeastern states. PREVIOUS PAGE: THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX; THESE PAGES: CHRIS SZAGOLA—AP

going to expect shots in arms; they’re going to expect The number of new reported COVID-19 cases in

testing. Those things don’t just happen,” Hawn says. the U.S. has dropped by 97% from its daily average

peak of 800,000 in mid-January. Restaurants, offices,

The WhiTe house knoWs that Biden’s performance on and schools are open, and mask mandates have lifted

COVID-19 is one of the few bright spots in the public’s across the country. More than 800 Americans are

sagging perception of his presidency. And they want to still dying from coronavirus infections every day. But

keep it that way: 53% of Americans approve of Biden’s Democrats have politically moved away from lockdowns

handling of the pandemic, according to polling conducted and widespread mask mandates, and they likely aren’t

in mid-March by the Associated Press/NORC Center for going back. Last June, Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer

Public Affairs Research—well above the 43% who approved was one of the first Democratic governors to say that

of Biden’s job performance overall. “Biden’s job rating on her state wasn’t going back to lockdowns or sweeping

COVID is his strongest job rating,” says John Anzalone, a mask mandates. That posture has since been adopted by

Democratic pollster who has worked closely with Biden. many other Democratic leaders, including Biden, and is

“It’s well above his overall job rating, and it shows people unlikely to change. The adviser close to the Biden White

have a lot of confidence in him on that issue.” House says: “Democrats will be incredibly resistant to go

How voters see Biden’s handling of future case surges back to anything other than, ‘We have the tools to deal

could have an impact on whether Democrats are able with this.’” □

The Brief is reported by Eloise Barry, Madeleine Carlisle, Mariah Espada, Tara Law, Sanya Mansoor, Billy Perrigo, Nik Popli, Simmone Shah, and Olivia B. Waxman

NEWS TICKER

suspended
operations on
March 28.

Courting victory

North Carolina’s Armando Bacot goes up for a dunk during the Elite Eight round of March
Madness in Philadelphia on March 27. UNC’s victory knocked fan-favorite underdog St. Peter’s
out of the NCAA tournament, but not before St. Peter’s made history by being the first ever
No. 15 seed to advance that far. “I got a bunch of guys that just play basketball and have fun,”
St. Peter’s coach Shaheen Holloway said in an interview. “That’s all we do.”

THE BULLETIN issued 20 fines
to individuals for
Caribbean tour raises questions on monarchy’s role breaking restrictions

Protests disruPted a tour of former TREND In November, Barbados became the reportedly suffered
British colonies in the Caribbean by the first country to remove the Queen as head symptoms consistent
Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince of state since Mauritius in 1992. Dame San- with poisoning
William and Kate Middleton. The tour dra Mason, the island’s Governor-General
began March 19 amid growing calls to cut since 2018, was named as President-elect 11
formal ties with the Queen and a reckoning of the nation. “The time has come to fully
with the region’s colonial past that includes leave our colonial past behind,” she said.
calls for slavery reparations. Queen Eliza- Debates about abolishing the monarchy
beth II is the monarch of 14 countries out- have rumbled on for decades in other Com-
side the U.K., including Canada, Australia, monwealth realms.
and Papua New Guinea, that are known as
the Commonwealth realms. LEGACY Although the Queen’s role in Com-
monwealth realms is largely symbolic, at-
TIMING Officially, the trip was meant titudes toward the royal family are varied
to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II’s and complex. Some believe that keeping
Platinum Jubilee, celebrating 70 years on the Queen as head of state undermines in-
the throne. But many observers say the dependence, and only serves to perpetu-
trip was to persuade Belize, Jamaica, and ate colonial subservience. “Imagine being
the Bahamas to keep the Queen as head given independence, and then to be told as
of state. On the second stop of their trip, an adult nation that the Queen still had a
Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness stake in Jamaica and that the island is not
told the royals, “We intend to attain in really free, it is still an infant colony,” ex-
short order . . . our true ambitions as an plains Jamaican-born British writer and
independent, developed, prosperous academic Velma McClymont.
country.”
—eloise Barry

THE BRIEF NEWS

NEWS TICKER GOOD QUESTION

How many planets have been found,
and how many more are out there?

Time was, There were only nine short time it’s been operating,

known planets in the entire universe—the it has confrmed the existence of 203

gaggle of worlds that orbit our sun. That more exoplanets and has spotted another

number was reduced to eight in 2006, possible 5,459 that astronomers are now

President Donald Trump when the International Astronomical investigating.
“more likely than not”
committed felonies in Union busted Pluto down to a dwarf The transit method is not the only
his efforts
planet. But even before Pluto was way to go looking for exoplanets. Other
banning
classroom instruction pink-slipped, the planetary census far telescopes—both space-based and

about sexual deeper in space began to grow, with the Earth-based—use what’s known as the
orientation or gender
identity discovery, in 1992, of a planet orbiting radial-velocity method. They study a star

authorized a fourth a rapidly spinning pulsar; and later, in looking for the slight wobble caused by the
dose of Pfizer or
1995, of a Jupiter-like planet orbiting a gravity of a planet—or multiple planets—
Moderna vaccine
sunlike star. Since then tugging on it as they orbit.

the planetary population The most celebrated

has exploded, and, as HOW EXOPLANETS multiplanet system to
NASA’s Jet Propulsion ARE DETECTED date is located just 39
Laboratory recently light-years from Earth,

reported, the official total where seven planets orbit

of known worlds beyond the red dwarf known as

our own has now topped Trappist-1.

5,000. Star The planets that
The majority of the Orbit have been discovered

discoveries were made Planet in so far range in size and
by the Kepler space front of star composition. There are
telescope. Launched so-called hot Jupiters—

in 2009, it hunted for TRANSIT which, as their name

planets using the so- Stars are slightly dimmed suggests, are gaseous

called transit method— as orbiting planets block worlds that orbit close to

looking for the slight their light the fres of their parent

dimming in light that planet. Others are smaller

occurs when an orbiting gas worlds, similar in size

planet briefly blocks the to Neptune. Still others—

light from the star. The Star the most promising ones—

dimming is fantastically are compact, rocky planets

subtle. Former Kepler Planet like Earth, some orbiting
mission director Natalie in the habitable zone of
Batalha described it to WOBBLE their star, a place where
TIME as the equivalent As a planet orbits, temperatures are not too
of removing a single its gravity tugs its hot and not too cold for
light bulb from a board parent star slightly water, the sine qua non of

of 10,000 of them. And life as we know it, to exist

Kepler studied only a in a liquid state.

tiny portion of the sky, encompassing The mere fact that astronomers fnd

just 150,000 stars. Still, in the 11 years planets pretty much everywhere they look

it operated, it confrmed the existence has led them to conclude that virtually

of 2,709 exoplanets and has returned every star in the universe is orbited by

data still being studied about a possible at least one planet—making for trillions

2,057 more. upon trillions of potential worlds. “Each STEPHEN VOSS—REDUX

The newer Transiting Exoplanet Survey one of them is a brand-new planet,” said

Satellite (TESS), launched in 2018, also NASA astronomer Jessie Christiansen in a

uses the transit method, but is equipped statement. “I get excited about every one

with multiple telescopic eyes, allowing it to because we don’t know anything about

scan the entire bowl of the sky. In just the them.” —Jeffrey Kluger

12 Time April 11/April 18, 2022

DIED

‘It had not -
occurred to
me, frankly,
that I would
ever be in
a position

to break
a glass
ceiling.’

DIED BROKEN STEPPING AWAY BARRED AWARDED WON

THE BRIEF NEWS

◁

A campaign poster
showing President
Macron, on March 22

has assailed Putin and used his fre-
quent talks with the Russian leader
to cement his stature as statesman.
That has also helped bolster his key
argument: that Europe needs to reduce
its dependence on Washington and cut
its own path to power.

But Macron’s wartiMe role

can take him only so far. Even as vot-

ers look set to give him another term,

many can barely conceal their distaste

for a man they see as a know-it-all dis-

connected from hardship. After he

raised fuel prices in 2018, hundreds

of thousands of “yellow vest” activ-

ists protested for months. Emmanuel

Rivière, head of international polling

for Kantar Public in Paris, believes the

WORLD pandemic saved Macron: the French

Macron positions himself leader committed billions of euros to
as the statesman of Europe
supporting businesses, and rolled out
BY VIVIENNE WALT/PARIS
a mammoth vaccine program. France
For a leader given To dramaTic Flourishes,
French President Emmanuel Macron announced his run bounced back, and now has its lowest
for re-election with uncharacteristic humility. In a simple
letter published in French newspapers in early March, he unemployment rate in years.
addressed his citizens: “I am seeking your trust again.”
But tough times could be coming.
So began an odd campaign—if you can call it that. Ma-
cron’s 11 rivals in the frst-round vote on April 10 spent “There is a high level of detestation of
months sniping while Macron glided above the fray. The
runof on April 24 looks likely to be a rematch of 2017, with Macron, which is unprecedented in
Macron against the far-right Marine Le Pen, and he seems set
to hand her another defeat. “It seems over before it has even France,” says Marc Lazar, professor of
begun,” Le Monde declared of the “phantom campaign.”
political history at Sciences Po Univer-
His rocket ride to power fve years ago stunned Europe
and crushed France’s mainstream Republican and Social- sity in Paris. Those feelings could boil
ist parties. This time around, he’s playing the President, not
the candidate. Macron, 44, has appeared to watch the elec- over as prices rise and a €171 billion
tion from afar, too busy with crises like the war in Ukraine
to focus on politics. He was even photographed unshaven defcit begins afecting daily lives. Ma-
in his ornate office, in jeans and a hoodie—widely seen as a
nod to Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose viral cron quietly announced March 10 that
appearances get plenty of French airtime.
he intended to raise the public-pension
While Macron’s popularity is up since Russia’s inva-
sion began, his far-right rivals have scrambled to explain ‘It seems age from 62 to 65. Voters say inflation
their long support for Russian President Vladimir Putin; over before
Le Pen, 53, pulped more than a million pamphlets showing it has even is their top concern, and many struggle
her shaking Putin’s hand. By contrast, Macron—who has the
luck of France being the E.U.’s current rotating President— begun.’ to make ends meet. About 30% of vot-

14 Time April 11/April 18, 2022 SOLENN DE ROYER, ers intend to pick far-right names on

JOURNALIST, IN April 10, while the far-left Jean-Luc

LE MONDE ON MARCH 8 Mélenchon grabs 14% for an outside

shot at the runof. All that portends

trouble. “You have a big risk of a new

social revolt,” Lazar says.

Observers warn that Macron’s

phantom campaign could come back

to haunt him. “The anger among the

French has not been expressed in this JEREMIAS GONZALEZ—AP

election,” says Antoine Bristielle, a

public-opinion expert at the Fonda-

tion Jean-Jaurès in Paris. Instead, he

says, “it will be expressed in the street

in his next fve years in office.” 



CONTENT FROM THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR

Norway

LEADING LIGHTS

Norway, situated on the northern flank of Europe and with a Norwegian petroleum sector. By the end of 2021, it had over $1.35 trillion
population of just 5.5 million, is one of the world’s wealthiest in assets and held investments in 1.4% of all the world’s listed companies.
nations. Two main contributors to its success are its vast Its total value was estimated to be worth about $250,000 per Norwegian
reserves of oil and timber and a seafaring tradition that has citizen.
given rise to a thriving shipping industry. But there is more to
the story than just that. Thanks to its skilled labor force and the Norwegian The government’s prudent stewardship of the country’s financial
flair for innovation, the country is emerging as the market leader in several resources is reflected in its rigorous regulation of the banking sector, though
new-generation sustainable, green, high-tech industries. this has not discouraged Norway’s banks from adopting digital technology
“As a people we have a lot of competences and depth of knowledge or exploring the potential of fintech. On the contrary, banks are now
that can be utilized in many good ways,” says Karl Johan Lier, CEO and enthusiastically using technology to promote financial inclusion. “There
president of cube storage pioneer AutoStore. “Our oil and gas companies will always be a need for banks to lend to people who have a financial
have been developing fantastic technologies for years, and now you’re need but not the collateral,” says Klara Lise-Aasen, who as CEO and CFO
seeing all these other companies popping up to address challenges in other of Bank Norwegian heads up one of Europe’s most cutting-edge digital
markets. These are very interesting times.” banks. “I think it’s so important to lend to such people, provided they have
Another key to Norway’s success has been its effective implementation the means to pay the loan back at a sensible interest rate.”
of the so-called Nordic model of governance, which relies on the public
provision of social services, education, childcare, and other services This sense of social responsibility also underpins Norway’s determination
associated with human capital. That environment has a huge bearing to combat climate change in any way possible. Apart from its current
on the Norwegian character, as noted by Sigmund Lunde, chairman of carbon-intensive oil and gas industries, the rest of Norwegian society is
management consultancy Omega 365. “Key for any business is creating already running on clean hydro power. On top of which the country is a
a place where people want to be -- creating an environment where people leader in pumped storage hydropower development, with ambitions to
can contribute,” says Lunde. “This is the DNA of Nordic thinking.” become Europe’s “battery.”
Oslo’s use of a social safety net to help workers and families adapt to
economic challenges from increased global competition for goods and At the same time, the government has singled out hydrogen as being
services has created a bond between Norwegians and their elected leaders key to its “green shift.” A growing number of companies have entered the
that encourages a healthy level of risk-taking. hydrogen business, and ammonia hydrogen may soon become the fuel of
“We enjoy a stable political environment, and we trust our government,” choice among shipowners. And in an initiative supported by the Research
says Simen Lieungh, CEO of Odfjell Drilling, whose Mobile Offshore Wind Council of Norway and several Norwegian industry partners, three large-
Units promise to decarbonize offshore oil and gas drilling and production scale so-called giga battery cell factories are in the pipeline, with the aim
within two years. “This paid dividends during the pandemic,” says of producing batteries for export. New green and sustainable technologies
Lieungh. “To their great credit, our leaders listened to the professionals and for next-generation agriculture are also being developed, again with
the health authorities.” government support. Meanwhile, exploring the possibility of developing
Sverre Flatby, the founder and CEO of specialist e-health solutions gas-fired power stations using Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) has long
provider CSAM, agrees. “A large part of being a Norwegian is the loyalty been a centerpiece of Norway’s energy policy.
that you have to the political system, the business culture and the way
they work together,” says Flatby. Norway’s private sector is actively spurring its government on. One
Norway’s business community also has the reassurance that the of its most vocal advocates is TOMRA, a leading provider of optical
economy is underwritten by the world’s largest sovereign wealth fund. sorting and processing technology for the fresh and processed food
Sometimes known as the Oil Fund, the Government Pension Fund industry, as well as Norway’s most established aluminum, glass
Global was established in 1990 to invest the surplus revenues of the and overall waste management recycling business. “Adopting more
assertive standards will lead to the creation of more scalable climate
management solutions,” says Tove Andersen, its president and CEO.
“We need to adopt policies that address the responsible handling of
resources on a worldwide basis.”

time.com/specialsections

CONTENT FROM THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR

ODFJELL DRILLING

At the Vanguard
of Change

Last June, in a move that promises to
revolutionize energy provision for the offshore
oil and gas industry, Odfjell Oceanwind
signed a memorandum of understanding with two
Si i th t h ld l i t i th

Simen Lieungh CEO of Odfjell Drilling

reported revenues of $860 million in 2021. competitors into bankruptcy. “It was a real shock Group’s ESG 100 report for 2021, which rates
Being a specialist in working in some of the to us all,” says Lieungh, “but we came through the sustainability reporting of the top 100
because we focused on contracts that were companies listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.
harshest environments on earth, its MODUs not necessarily the most lucrative, but good for
(Mobile Offshore Drilling Units) have been cashflow and helped to pay off our debts. It just Plans for the next leg of Odfjell Drilling’s journey
deployed as far afield as South Africa, Vietnam, proved how important it is to keep your capital are already well under way. This April the well
and Brazil, in addition to Norway and the UK. discipline.” services and energy businesses are scheduled to
“We are used to working in some really hostile be spun off to create a separate company. The new
environments,” says CEO Simen Lieungh, an Lieungh attributes the company’s longevity to the company will be listed as Odfjell Technology, and
industry veteran of more than 35 years and a stabilizing influence of the Odfjell family (who still will focus on innovation and development of new
passionate believer in the power of teamwork. holds a majority stake) and the solidity of Norway’s services, technologies and products required in the
“Our people must deal with up to 50-feet societal infrastructure and political system. This, energy transition.
waves, violently swirling currents and sub-zero along with that financial discipline, also helped
temperatures,” he says. “The only things they Lieungh steer the company through the pandemic. “All our heavy assets such as our drilling rigs and
don’t normally encounter are icebergs and sharks. the people operating these will belong to Odfjell
Otherwise, it’s hell.” As its MOWU initiative clearly demonstrates, Drilling. The technology and engineering function
Odfjell Drilling is proving itself more than capable and the people operating client assets will move to
Over the years, Odfjell has also proved itself of adapting to the demands of the global push Odfjell Technology” says Lieungh, who will be chair
adept at weathering storms of an altogether to address the adverse effects of climate change. of Odfjell Drilling and Odfjell Oceanwind, while
different type. The most severe of these lasted “We are obviously part of the oil and gas industry, assuming the role of CEO of Odfjell Technology.
from 2014 to 2016 when the price of crude oil but Odfjell Oceanwind is our first move into “It’s a perfect arrangement.”

time.com/specialsections

CONTENT FROM THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR

BANK NORWEGIAN – Photo by: CF-Wesenberg/Kolonihaven.no
The Face of Digital Banking

In the space of only 15 years, Bank Norwegian has
transformed itself from an airline support platform to a
cutting-edge digital bank with a customer base that stretches
throughout the Nordics and recently also as far south as Spain.

Bank Norwegian’s growth has been so A similar progressive ethos underlines Bank Klara Lise-Aasen
sustainable and successful that when Norwegian’s approach to both financial inclusion CEO and CFO of Bank Norwegian
it emerged last year that Nordax, the and its lending criteria. The bank has made a
responsible lending specialist bank, was set to name for itself with its ability to make a success secure compliance with privacy rules and
acquire it, the new owners opted to give Bank of extending unsecured personal loans, along identify money laundering issues. Only recently
Norwegian the necessary scale and resources to with offering credit cards. More than 70% of its launched, the bank’s Security ID service is a
become a leading force in shaping the future of lending takes the form of unsecured instalment case in point. By enabling customers to visually
consumer finance. loans. Nearly 40% of these are extended to its confirm their identity with their smartphones,
Norwegian customer base, meaning more than it gives the bank the ability to digitally confirm
NORDAX BELIEVED THAT BANK half of the remainder of these popular loans go or reject an application or a loan in a matter of
NORWEGIAN’S INNOVATIVE to consumers in neighboring Nordic countries. seconds. “It’s all about improving the simplicity
CULTURE AND COST-LEADING of the digital customer journey,” Aasen explains.
EFFICIENT OPERATING MODEL “We have become the digital bank of choice
MADE IT THE PERFECT for personal customers who need financing but Bank Norwegian’s digital roots give its
CANDIDATE TO BECOME THE don’t have something like a house to use as business model a scalability that frequently
LARGEST SPECIALIST BANK IN collateral,” says Aasen. “We offer unsecured eludes legacy banks, with their older tech
THE REGION. lending to people who need it for their financing systems. After a sustained eight-year campaign
needs at the right price at the right risk. To do of expansion across the Nordics, Bank
Much of Nordax’s confidence stemmed this responsibly we make absolutely sure that Norwegian is now actively seeking to extend the
from its faith in the people working in Bank our customers fully understand the burden they bank’s presence into Western Europe.
Norwegian. One of them is Klara Lise-Aasen are taking on.
who, after a successful stint as interim CEO and The huge concentration of potential digital
CFO at Bank Norwegian, took over both roles “Our aim is to offer transparent and simple customers in urban areas made Germany and
on a permanent basis last November. Like Bank products digitally to our customers,” says Spain Aasen’s top priority. “We want to show
Norwegian itself, whose roots are intrinsically Aasen. “From our side, it is also about really we can also succeed in these two new countries
digital rather than bricks-and-mortar, Aasen is understanding them as well and developing before embarking on further expansion,”
one of a new breed of financial professionals on good models predicting customer behavior.” says Aasen. “The timing was right for further
a mission to ensure that today’s banks reflect expansion,” she says when describing entry
changing customer behavior as well as larger BANK NORWEGIAN WAS “BORN to Germany and Spain in the middle of a
societal shifts. DIGITAL” AND IS NOW USING pandemic. “We’ve spent the past few years
ITS UNRIVALLED EXPERTISE improving our governance, operations, and risk
Aasen has been lauded as part of a new IN DIGITAL DATA MINING AND handling policy. We have a proven expansion
generation of modest CEOs whose accessible ANALYSIS TO CREATE IN-DEPTH model, with market-leading cost-income ratio
style is generating impressive results. “I hope PROFILES OF POTENTIAL AND with our efficient operating model, and we are in
to walk the talk and lead by example,” says CURRENT CUSTOMERS TO a strong capital position.”
Aasen, whose open approach and ability to MINIMIZE THE RISK OF ITS
uncomplicate things is greatly appreciated EXPOSURE TO UNSECURED Bank Norwegian’s digital horizon is expanding
by both her employees and customers. “We LOANS. by the day.
are on a journey with Bank Norwegian as we
move from being a specialist Nordic Bank to The bank develops its customer-facing
an international entity. We may be a digital applications in-house and has gained a
operation but it’s the people behind the systems competitive edge over many larger banks by
who are important, and we have a committed making its digital services as user friendly as
and excellent work force.” possible. Meanwhile, the bank gives its staff the
tools they require to make the right decisions,

time.com/specialsections

CONTENT FROM THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR

Tove Andersen

President and CEO of TOMRA

Recycling has long been regarded as an Collection has grown into the world’s “By significantly increasing effective
essential part of a circular economy. leading provider of reverse vending recycling systems and improving
Now with the United States and solutions. It each year facilitates the resource management practices globally,
European nations setting increasingly collection of more than 40 billion empty GHG emissions can be reduced by 2.76
ambitious emission-reduction targets, cans and bottles and provides retailers billion tonnes of CO equivalent per year
preventing excessive waste and reducing and other customers with an effective
the world’s dependency on new primary and efficient way of collecting, sorting 2
resources has become ever more and processing these containers.
important. compared to current waste disposal
TOMRA Collection contributes half of methods,” says Andersen. “That is the
TOMRA president and CEO Tove TOMRA’s annual revenues, with its other equivalent of removing more than 600
Andersen is positively relishing the business activities in food sorting, waste million passenger vehicles from the road
challenge. “Adopting more assertive and metals sorting, and ore and mineral annually.”
GHG [greenhouse gas] performance sorting, contributing the remainder.
standards, especially for carbon- Listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange, TOMRA is committed to an exponential
intensive materials like plastics and the company generated revenues improvement in post-consumer plastic
metal, supports more scalable climate of $1.2 billion in 2021 and employs packaging waste management. The
management solutions,” says Andersen. approximately 4,600 people and has company has pledged to enable 40%
“Policymakers should not waste this 100,000 installations across more than of all post-consumer plastic packaging
chance of expanding actions rapidly. 80 markets worldwide. Around 11,000 produced globally each year to be
Researchers and environmental groups of those installations belong to TOMRA collected for recycling by 2030. The
indicate that a green recovery is possible Food, a leading provider of optical company also intends to enable 30%
with existing technologies.” sorting and processing technology for of all post-consumer plastic packaging
the fresh and processed food industry. to be recycled in a closed-loop system,
Since its inception in 1972, TOMRA has which is critical to reducing the world’s
been at the vanguard of the circular Another 6,400 installations are operated reliance on fossil fuels.
economy, pioneering the development by TOMRA Recycling, pioneers in the
of reverse vending systems for the automation of waste sorting, while “TOMRA has a golden opportunity to
automated collection of used beverage TOMRA Mining provides a complete make a significant contribution to the
containers for recycling or reuse. product portfolio for efficient material green shift that our planet needs,”
separation in various minerals and ore Andersen says. “We are playing a leading
Today, with approximately 80,000 applications. role in developing solutions for the
installations in over 60 markets, TOMRA circular economy. Now we need people
who are passionate about sustainability
to join us in our vision of leading the
resource revolution.”

CONTENT FROM THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR

CSAM – A Diagnosis for Success

In today’s unpredictable world, one industry that seems
certain to increase its importance over the next five years is
eHealth. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic brought the use
of remote healthcare into the mainstream, the benefits of using
digital technology to diagnose and treat patients had driven
the sector to a global value estimated at $14.8 billion. This
is expected to reach $29.5 billion by 2026, representing a
CAGR of 14.8%.

Challenged by a combination of low CSAM acquired Carmenta Public Safety and Sverre Flatby
population densities and communities Optima. These acquisitions boosted Public CEO and Founder of CSAM Health Group
scattered across wide geographical Safety to CSAM’s largest business area in
areas, Nordic healthcare authorities were under a year, and the combination of solutions enhanced it. Not only did its software prove
among the first to turn to digital technologies acquired now covers the complete Public resistant to outside forces by accelerating the
to deliver an efficient service. The result is Safety value chain from A to Z. After joining introduction of automation, but it helped the
companies like Norway’s CSAM Health Group CSAM, both won new contracts in 2021. company post record revenues for 2020-21.
have established themselves as the leading
providers of specialist eHealth solutions, “THROUGH OUR BIB Anchored by a seemingly future-proofed
not just in Scandinavia but across Europe STRATEGY, WE HAVE technology platform and a business model
and beyond. CSAM’s product portfolio of SUCCESSFULLY ACQUIRED underpinned by regular subscription revenue
innovative solutions ranges from connected TEN BUSINESSES OVER THE streams (the churn on its recurring revenue
healthcare, medical imaging, women and PAST SIX YEARS AND EACH OF streams has historically been less than 2%),
children’s health, public safety and medication THEM HAS EITHER EXPANDED Flatby is focused on M&A and investors that
management to laboratory information OR STRENGTHENED OUR foster expansion of CSAM’s geographical
management systems and health analytics. PRODUCT OFFERING IN footprint outside its strong Nordic origins.
KEY PRODUCT DOMAINS OR “We have a fantastic mix of savvy investors
Listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange since MARKETS,” SAYS FLATBY. who come from the US and the UK, as well
2020 and with a series of judicious and highly as the Nordic countries, and who genuinely
successful acquisitions to its name, CSAM It is clearly a winning formula. CSAM grew understand our business model,” Flatby
started life as an in-house program designed at a yearly average of 40% between 2015 and says. “It is our impression that our investors
to facilitate data transfer for Norway’s 2020 and expects to do the same between appreciate and share our long-term thinking
National Hospital when it moved premises in 2021 and 2025, with 30% of that growth and vision.”
2000. It is the recurring software income from coming from acquisitions and 10% from
several public-sector contracts that grew out organic development. “This is our playbook,” Flatby has attracted a strong portfolio of
of the success of that integrative process that says Flatby. “We know it by heart and we are investors who clearly see what CSAM is really
remains the backbone of the business and ready to go.” all about. “I love people, healthcare and
guarantees its long-term stability. “What we eHealth in that order, and most of the very
do is develop and deliver highly specialized Given CSAM’s success in weathering the talented people who work here fundamentally
components that support complex processes, COVID-19 storm, Flatby’s confidence that the feel the same,” he says. “At the end of the
normally inside specialized hospitals,” says company will thrive whatever lies ahead looks day, it’s not only about cool software, but
Sverre Flatby, CEO and founder of CSAM. entirely justified. His financial predictions may also about how we can contribute to saving
even end up being on the conservative side. people’s lives.”
The company’s skill in the seamless “The pandemic affected the way we could
integration of new software programs into install the software and train people,” he says.
existing healthcare systems is key to CSAM’s “On the plus side, it demonstrated how many
success. By the same token, its ability to processes it was possible to automate and
integrate new companies into the CSAM how you could digitalize the delivery process.”
structure is of equal importance. So much so Far from depressing CSAM’s financial
that it is recognized as a process in its own performance, the pandemic seems to have
right as Buy, Integrate & Build (BIB). In 2021,

time.com/specialsections

CONTENT FROM THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR

Last October, robotics firm and cube storage demand for efficiency and speed,” says Lier. “Last
pioneer AutoStore became Norway’s most
valuable new listing in two decades when it year we opened a very advanced innovation hub
raised over $240 million through a share issue on
the Oslo Stock Exchange. The success of the listing where we are constantly trying out new ideas in
was the latest chapter in a remarkable story that
h l l TV i b i f i lf full-scale operations. We encourage our customers

to give us their feedback. I would say that

about 70% of our R&D effort goes into software

dl tb th t i h t ll d i

Bent Skisaker, Karl Johan Lier and Mats
Hovland Vikse, management team of AutoStore

much more efficient.” efficiency of delivery have also grown. that our customers are involved in, whether that is
And so the concept of cube storage was born. This in turn has presented suppliers with a whole grocery, retail, fashion, or sports,” Vikse says. “But
our client base also includes libraries and industrial
After several years of trial and error, AutoStore new set of logistical challenges that the AutoStore applications manufacturers. If their products fit into
perfected a modular, three-dimensional grid of system has evolved to meet. Continually optimizing the bins, we can provide a relevant solution.”
self-supporting bins that use robots to retrieve and delivery times by preparing bins throughout the
deliver items to pick-up stations. The AutoStore course of operations ensures that the time needed Lier sees no end to growth in their client base.
system can reduce the physical space required by to complete an order is kept to a minimum. “We believe that 80% of warehousing and logistics
as much as 75% when compared with traditional will be automated within 30 years,” he says. “We
storage solutions and offers the highest density Grocery retailers have their own particular issues calculate that the market could grow at a CAGR of
ratio cube storage of any goods-to-person system. due to the perishable nature of many of their 15% for years to come. AutoStore will benefit from
goods. Diversifying an existing business to allow secular megatrends like increasing e-commerce
“The efficiency of our system means we can keep for online shopping can also quickly translate penetration, automation penetration, enhanced
our customers’ costs down,” says AutoStore CRO into an uncomfortably busy shop floor as orders focus on sustainability, and changing consumer
Mats Hovland Vikse. “In addition, they can keep are gathered and prepared for delivery. AutoStore demands for rapid order fulfilment and delivery,
far more inventory in the same amount of space helps its grocery retail clients reduce their stock which our systems support.”
than with any alternative solution, so the return on storage footprint and the amount of labor required,
their investment is much greater.” thereby helping alleviate store congestion. This As the only scaled, IP-protected, and
in turn enables these big grocers to give in-store commercially available provider in the fast cubic
Maximizing space is only part of the secret of customers their full attention and services while storage market, the digital footprints of AutoStore
AutoStore’s success and would be meaningless if simultaneously serving those shopping online. will be there to lead the way.
it was not wedded to a highly efficient automated
selection and delivery system. This is regularly fine- AutoStore is also increasingly popular with the
tuned and updated. growing number of third-party logistics providers.
The system gathers large quantities of data that
“We have invested heavily in R&D and continue can be used for big data analysis and inform better
to innovate our system to meet our customers

time.com/specialsections

THE BRIEF TIME WITH

Russian businessman Privileged systems, prompting tags like “London-
Evgeny Chichvarkin upbringing grad” and, Chichvarkin’s personal fa-
on how London vorite, “Moscow on Thames.”
became Londongrad Young money
Liberal leanings According to a 2022 report from
BY CHARLIE CAMPBELL Transparency International, Russians
Global gourmand with Kremlin links or who have been
evgeny ChiChvarkin is looking agiTaTed. accused of corruption own at least
He’s just heard a whisper about some potential $1.9 billion of British real estate. The
stock going cheap and so politely declines my U.K. parliamentary intelligence com-
suggestion we leave his bustling wineshop in mittee has dubbed London a “laundro-
London’s tony Mayfair district in search of some- mat” for dirty Russian money.
where quieter to chat.
Following Russia’s invasion of
But Chichvarkin isn’t dashing off in pursuit of Ukraine, British Prime Minister Boris
another 1774 Jura vin jaune, which sells for a pre- Johnson declared, “We must go after
cise £72,553.80 ($95,308) at Hedonism Wines, the oligarchs.” His government has
the store he set up in 2012 to be “the world’s best sanctioned more than 1,000 individu-
wineshop.” Instead, he is preparing to inspect a als and businesses linked to Russia.
consignment of military fatigues and battle wear
at a warehouse in the nearby town of Slough— When it comes to support for
worth some $650,000, he tells me conspiratori- Ukraine, Chichvarkin goes further
ally. “It belongs to a rich Russian who had his as- than U.S. or E.U. leaders: he advocates
sets frozen and needs to sell. If it works out, I’ll for “immediately” sending NATO sol-
send it straight to the Ukrainian army.” diers and enforcing a no-fly zone, as
President Volodymyr Zelensky has
Chichvarkin isn’t your typical wine merchant. repeatedly requested. But he says the
With his Salvador Dalí mustache, billowing pan- punitive economic measures targeting
taloons, gold tooth earring, and pink leather win- supposed Kremlin allies are so broad as
kle pickers, the very idea of typical seems anath- to amount to “discrimination.”
ema to the 47-year-old entrepreneur, who has
lived in London since fleeing his native Russia “It’s a dirty game,” he says. “Javelin
face down in the back of a car in 2008. missiles and NATO troops can end the
war. Not seizing a yacht in Monaco.
Chichvarkin was born in St. Petersburg, That will only help a particular politi-
back when it was still Leningrad. He rose to be- cian get re-elected.”
come one of his nation’s youngest billionaires,
by founding cell-phone retailer Evroset in 1997, Britain’s prostitution of itself
which swelled to 5,000 stores by 2007. But he for Russian billions has deep roots.
fell afoul of local officials who accused Chichvar- Following World War II, the U.K.
kin of kidnapping and extortion—charges he has was verging on bankruptcy until the
always called bogus. Chichvarkin and his busi- City of London began cozying up to
ness partner sold Evroset for a reported cut-price the Soviet Union, which didn’t want
$400 million, and after successfully fighting ex- to keep dollar reserves in American
tradition proceedings, he now lives in exile. In banks so instead chose British. These
London, he has enjoyed a coda as businessman, banks, in turn, began lending those
restaurateur, and thorn in the side of Russian “eurodollars” to one another in an un-
President Vladimir Putin, supporting democratic regulated market, which eventually
causes in Russia and its periphery by funding op- spawned today’s opaque offshore fi-
position parties and issuing scathing critiques. nance system. London boomed.

“Russians are not Putin,” he says, fixing me More recently, rich kleptocrats—
with piercing blue eyes. “He doesn’t represent us. lured by top-notch schools, a
We didn’t elect him. We don’t support him.” plaintiff-friendly defamation sys-
tem, and so-called golden visas that
Chichvarkin is a flamboyant, iconoclastic ex- allow applicants who invest £2 million
ample of the Russian wealth that has flooded into in the U.K. to gain residency—have
Britain over the past two decades. The deluge of parked their private jets on British run-
illicit cash scrubbed clean in the City of London ways. Chichvarkin enjoys the luxuri-
has led to allegations that Putin’s cronies have ous fruits of London living as much
penetrated Britain’s political, economic, and legal as any of them, even crossing mallets
with princes William and Harry on the
22 Time April 11/April 18, 2022 polo circuit. He describes the Russian

Oliver Bullough, author of Butler

to the World: How Britain Helps the

World’s Worst People Launder Money,

Commit Crimes, and Get Away With

Anything, disagrees. “In general, if you

are wealthy and your business is in-

side Russia, you are only in that posi-

tion because you’ve come to an accom-

modation with the Kremlin,” he says.

“Otherwise, you would have had your

business taken away.”

Chichvarkin’s dramatic flight from

Russia is a case in point. He knows only

too well the brutal machinations of Pu-

tin’s “bulldogs,” as he calls them. He

maintains that his own mother, whose

bloodied and bruised body was discov-

ered in her Moscow apartment in April

2010, was murdered by state agents

in an attempt to lure him home for her

funeral. (The Kremlin denies involve-

ment, and the official verdict was that

she died of a heart attack.)

That has not cowed Chichvarkin.

In March 2018, in the weeks before

Putin’s widely disputed re-election

landslide, he stood outside the Rus-

sian embassy with a handful of fellow

dissidents, denouncing his regime

through a megaphone. Asked whether

he fears for his own life, he shrugs: “I’m

too tired to be afraid,” he says. “I drive

around with the sunroof open.”

It’s brio that chafes with an in-

creasingly bleak reality. On the day we

met, Russian opposition leader Alexei

Navalny—who narrowly escaped death

after poisoning by suspected Krem-

lin agents in August 2020—had the

sentence for his widely condemned

corruption conviction increased to 13

years at a maximum-security prison.

diaspora as “probably the best ever” to have set “When Putin dies he will be free,”
up in the capital. “They predominantly follow
the rules and laws,” he says. “The only problem is says Chichvarkin, who has funded Na-
Russian ex-wives lying in court!”
‘Russians are valny with over $100,000 of donations
British lawmakers are suddenly waking up to not Putin.
the possibility that they sold Putin the rope with He doesn’t since 2010. “Everybody’s waiting for
which to strangle their democracy. Since Johnson
became Prime Minister in 2019, his party has ac- represent us.’ Putin to die. The possibility of freedom
cepted £2 million in Russian funding. In 2020,
14 members of his government received Russia- —EVGENY CHICHVARKIN only comes after his death.”
linked donations.
Is that the only hope for Russia?
Chichvarkin argues that sanctioning oligarchs
will have little effect on Putin. “Sanctions must “Well, one of Putin’s friends could bind
target Putin’s wallet and his real friends,” he says,
“not people who made money and probably had him and bring him to the Hague,” he
to give half to Putin just to keep the other half.”
chuckles. “Russian history is quite dark

SOPHIE GREEN FOR TIME with a lot of very strange examples of

changing power.” It’s such a slim glim-

mer that Chichvarkin falls silent. He

twists his mustache contemplatively

and eventually looks up. “Ukraine win-

ning the war would help.” □

23

LIGHTBOX

Silent tribute

Emergency responders stand in silence to honor the
victims of the China Eastern Airlines plane that crashed
in Wuzhou, China, on March 27. All 132 passengers
and crew aboard were killed when the Bombardier
CRJ-200ER traveling from Kunming to Guangzhou
crashed into mountains at high speed on March 21,
authorities confirmed on March 26. It was the deadliest
air disaster in mainland China since 1994.

Photograph by CNS/AFP/Getty Images
▶ For more of our best photography, visit time.com/lightbox



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NATION

JUDGE JACKSON’S
PRACTICED POISE

BY MIKKI KENDALL

THE HEAVY ECONOMIC TOLL INSIDE ▶
OF “ZERO COVID” IN CHINA
HOW BIG TECH COMPANIES WHAT I WISH MORE PEOPLE HAD
CAPITALIZE ON VIRAL SHAME TOLD ME ABOUT PARENTING

27

THE VIEW OPENER

The exchange was extraordinary in Jackson takes questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 23
its circumstances—Jackson is the first
Black woman to be nominated to the credentials and hard work won’t matter. there will be no consequences. Many SUSAN WALSH—AP
Supreme Court—but to Black women Too many Americans have been of their constituents will laud this be-
across the country, it was also famil- havior, and even those who don’t are
iar. An occasion that should have been conditioned to expect Black women to likely to celebrate Jackson’s strength
a celebration of how far America has be less than them. This includes poli- and never consider what these hear-
come since slavery ended was instead ticians who are supposed to represent ings have cost her emotionally.
a reminder of how far we have to go. everyone. They expect Black women
to work hard, but not be too success- There is a saying in the Black Amer-
Jackson is in many ways a perfect ful or to acknowledge what they’ve ican community that we must work
Supreme Court candidate. She’s well overcome in their pursuit of success. twice as hard to get half as far. What
educated with a stellar record both It’s a view that harks back to Mammy, we do not often say out loud is that for
as an attorney and as a judge. There’s the stereotype of a happily disenfran- those of us who reach great heights,
nothing questionable in her personal chised Black woman devoted to car- we have not only worked twice as
life, no indications of ethical flaws. In ing for the family that enslaved her, hard, but we have also been hurt twice
fact, Senator Lindsey Graham, one of no matter the personal cost, and to as much, and probably more. For Jack-
her most aggressive questioners, voted Jim Crow–era etiquette, which pre- son to reach this place, she has had to
to confirm her to her current seat on the scribed that Black people refrain from weather a lifetime of this treatment
D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. Jackson showing much emotion in public, and and not let it stop her.
has spent more time on the bench than it’s still present in workplaces today.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett had when Pundits will continue to try to de-
she was nominated, and unlike Justice Black women are effectively ex- humanize her, despite having no idea
Clarence Thomas or Justice Brett Ka- pected to fill two roles at work: the what it feels like to walk this singular
vanaugh, she has never been accused one they were hired to do, and making path to the highest court in the land
of sexual harassment or assault. (Both their co-workers comfortable, at their as a Black woman. She is the first, she
men have denied the allegations.) own expense. It’s not enough to be will not be the last, and as with all
educated, accomplished, and profes- trailblazers, her impact will be seen
Yet despite her résumé, Jackson has sional. To navigate the obstacles cre- in the Black girls and women who too
faced an onslaught of microaggres- ated by racist stereotypes, they must will learn to share their feelings in pri-
sions, falsehoods, and demands for also hide their emotions. They cannot vate and present a calm, composed
irrelevant information. From Tucker be too talented or assertive, lest they face in public. Senator Cory Booker
Carlson’s obsession with her LSAT be seen as a threat. Like Jackson, they told her, “It is so good to see you here.”
score to Cruz’s contention that she must persevere in a no-win situation. And it was. I just wish she were given
must answer questions about the work the welcome she deserves.
of another Black scholar because she’s Politics will be held up as an excuse
on the board of a school where his for the atrocious behaviors at these Kendall is the author of Hood
book is taught, the attacks have not hearings, but one of the reasons so Feminism: Notes From the Women
been your typical partisan fare. Sena- many Republican Senators turned to That a Movement Forgot
tor Marsha Blackburn, for instance, this toolbox of bigotry is they know
insisted that Jackson’s support of the
1619 Project, an effort to center our
national narrative around slavery and
its legacy, means she wants to teach
kids that America is a fundamentally
racist country. Meanwhile, other Sena-
tors pressed Jackson on her sentenc-
ing of sex offenders, suggesting this
Black woman would be soft on crime
and maybe even put children at risk.

It was maddenIng to watch, yet I
know that Jackson cannot express her
frustrations outwardly. She’s going to
be expected to eat this indignity with
a smile and never speak of it publicly.
She knows, as does any Black woman
in America, that if she gets upset or
displays anger, she will be labeled
an Angry Black Woman and all her

The View is reported by Chad de Guzman, Mariah Espada, and Julia Zorthian

THE RISK REPORT BY IAN BREMMER SOCIETY

COVID-19’s RETHINKING THE
disruption OFFICE FOR MOMS
of Chinese
Nobody wants to go back to the
life will office quite like white dudes. This
get worse doesn’t mean all white dudes
before it are pushing this return—or that
gets better everyone in this camp is white
or a dude—but just over 30% of
white men want to go back full
time, compared with around 22%
of women (Black and white) and
16% of Black men.

For working moms espe-
cially, remote work has brought
a new level of flexibility and
self-determination. And studies
show flexible work can increase
our sense of belonging—par-
ticularly for Black workers. But
for two years, the office advo-
cates have put us through the
same “When can we get back?”
conversation, ignoring the more
important one: Is there an
office that working moms would
be excited to go to? If so, why
aren’t men fighting for it?

In a word: comfort. The
office was designed for men
who made the money while
their wives took care of their
home and family. Not only
was the temperature set low
to optimize for the warmth of
their suits, the standard of
“professionalism” was based
on white-male sociality. It’s
no wonder I felt relieved to
work remotely early in the
pandemic.

Still, with two kids at home,
I soon began to understand
the urge to go back—but not
to the office as we know it. We
need a new kind of workplace
built with moms in mind, one
that gives workers control
over their time, lets them
work from home as needed,
offers childcare support, and
addresses biases.

Reimagining the workplace
isn’t about the end of comfort.
If all goes well, for many, it will
be the beginning.

—Reshma Saujani,
author of Pay Up: The Future

 of Women and Work (and Why
It’s Different Than You Think)

29

THE VIEW INBOX

◁

Vehicles wait to
refuel at a Costco in
Seattle on March 9

Climate Is Everything and contribute to global climate
By Justin Worland change. The average U.S. passenger
vehicle emits 4.6 metric tons of carbon
SENIOR CORRESPONDENT dioxide annually, and transportation
is responsible for nearly 30% of the
ACROSS THE GLOBE, POLITICIANS about all the variables. But one thing country’s greenhouse-gas emissions.
are fuming about record-high gas is definitely true: driving costs soci-
prices and proposing a range of pol- ety much more than you’re paying To find a precise estimate of the
icy mechanisms to bring down costs, to do it. externalities associated with driving,
including cutting gas taxes and of- I turned to a 2007 paper from Re-
fering drivers rebates. These policies These unpaid costs to society— sources for the Future. The research
make political sense as everyday peo- what economists call externalities— group found that if you add up all the
ple suffer at the pump, but they help are fairly easy to understand. Cars mileage-related externalities—namely
mask the true cost a gallon of gas cause gridlock, which reduces pro- congestion, accidents, and local air
imposes on society—from the risk ductivity. Accidents kill tens of thou- pollution—the cost comes to a whop-
of traffic accidents to the contribu- sands in the U.S. each year. Cars gen- ping $2.10 per gallon. Climate change
tion to climate change. Calculating erate air pollution and, as a result, contributes another 72¢ per gallon if
the damage is a fraught process, and contribute to health ailments like you look at the group’s estimates that
economists don’t necessarily agree asthma and heart disease. Impor- are in line with current understand-
tantly, cars also emit carbon dioxide ing of the effects of emissions. Add the
two up and it’s clear the cost of the ex-
ternalities can total $3 per gallon.

Of course, no politician is propos-
ing a gas tax to account for all the
damage driving causes. On average,
state taxes add 31¢ to the cost of a gal-
lon of gas while federal taxes add an-
other 18.4¢, according to federal data.
Nonetheless, the numbers offer an im-
portant dose of reality: without a radi-
cal policy change, drivers are getting
a free ride.

Sign up to learn how the week’s
news connects to the climate crisis
at time.com/climate-newsletter

By Philip Elliott

CHONA KASINGER—BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES

30 TIME April 11/April 18, 2022

THE LEADERSHIP BRIEF Healthy. Educated. Safe.
Let’s get there together.
New Seuss boss seeks
success in progress When we all connect,
we make things better
BY MEGAN MCCLUSKEY for millions of children
around the world.
AFTER A RECORD-HIGH REVENUE a museum, watching a television And their families.
And their communities.
year for Dr. Seuss Enterprises, the show, or entering the metaverse. And their countries.
And you.
privately held company that over- We take that very seriously. Together we can all get
to a better place.
sees children’s author Theodor
ChildFund.org
Seuss Geisel’s estate, Susan Brandt Can you explain how the com-

was promoted to president and pany ultimately decided to dis-

CEO in January. Brandt, who has continue six books?

been with the company for 24 years, This was not a decision that was

oversaw a surge in book sales after made in a short period of time.

the company announced in March We consulted with a panel of edu-

2021 that it would no longer pub- cators and experts on racial rela-

lish or license six of Seuss’s books, tions to make our decision about

including his first children’s book, the best move forward.

And to Think That I Saw It on Mul-

berry Street (1937), because of racist How do you preserve an au-

and offensive imagery. thor’s legacy while

More recently, she’s acknowledging that

credited with spear- aspects of their work

heading ventures that don’t align with cur-

fulfill Seuss’s wish to rent cultural values?

spread his work across How we conduct

“all media throughout our business did not

the world”—from an change from before

animated Netflix series our announcement

based on Green Eggs to after. We strive to

and Ham to a forth- ensure that our body

coming trio of movies of work reflects and

adapted from The Cat be published because includes our broad

in the Hat and Oh, the of offensive imagery and diverse commu-

Places You’ll Go! to a nity. We support chil-

Seuss-themed NFT marketplace. dren and families with messages

Her efforts have kept the brand not of hope, inspiration, inclusion,

only relevant, but also thriving. and friendship.

Brandt spoke with TIME about

the evolution of the Seuss brand. You worked with Seuss’s widow

Audrey Geisel for years. What

What do you feel is your respon- was the most valuable lesson she

sibility when it comes to manag- taught you?

ing such well-established and be- Audrey was the best. I miss her

loved intellectual property? dearly. She was a very, very savvy

We’re blessed with a property businesswoman. Ultimately, she

that has universal and timeless taught me that this is Dr. Seuss.

themes. As CEO or as any role in the It should be delightful. It should

company—it doesn’t just lay at my be fun. Everything we do should

feet—we’re stewards of the DNA of be good for families and kids in

this property. So while it’s extremely our communities. She also just

relevant and important to translate taught me to laugh.

the property into new and differ-

ent mediums, our ultimate goal is Sign up for weekly conversations

to ensure that it’s still a Dr. Seuss with the world’s most influential
experience, whether you’re going to leaders at time.com/leadership

THE VIEW ESSAY

NATION We first made to feel so very comfortable, sur- ILLUSTRATIONS BY GIULIA NERI FOR TIME
need to rounded by like-minded friends, per-
How Big Tech share haps thousands of them. It’s big enough
weaponizes shame norms to feel like we’re “in society,” but of
and even course it’s actually quite small, a min-
BY CATHY O’NEIL a sense ute corner of the world. The ways we
of trust disagree with others outside our group
Shame iS a viSceral, inSTincTual reSponSe. We are filtered straight to us, via algo-
react violently to shaming by others, either by feeling rithms, and the ways we agree with one
shame or by feeling outraged at the attempt. This human another are likewise filtered away from
hard wiring, which historically salvaged our reputations us, making them essentially invisible.
and preserved our lives, is being hijacked and perverted
by the big tech companies for profit. In the process, we are That automated boosting of shame-
needlessly pitted against one another. It doesn’t have to based outrage triggers us, and we get
be like this. What I’ve learned—in part from very personal habituated to performing acts of virtue
experience—is that shame comes in a number of forms, and signaling. We jump on the shame train
the better we understand it, the better we can fight back. to get our tiny little dopamine boosts
for being outraged and for our righ-
Whereas shame is primarily a useful social mechanism teousness. That we get accolades from
that coerces its target into conforming with a shared norm, our inner circle only serves to convince
the kind of shaming that often goes viral on social media is us once again that we’re in the right
a punching-down type of shame where the target cannot and that people outside our circles are
choose to conform even if they tried. That obese woman living in sick cults. This turns what
who fell over in her scooter at Walmart? Viral. That over- should be a socially cohesive act into a
dose victim? Shamed. mere performance, as we get stuck for
hours on the platforms, tearing each
Shame’s secondary goal is arguably more effective on so-
cial media, namely to broadcast the norm for other down for the
everyone to see. When we see yet another sake of increasing the
phone video of an outrageous public “Karen” profits of Big Tech.
situation, it can conceivably be seen as a
learning situation for everyone else. What’s particularly
tragic about all of this is
But what exactly are we learning? The that the shame doesn’t
ensuing viral shame is swift and overly sim- work at all; it is inher-
plistic, often leaving little context or right ently misdirected. For
to due process. When we do hear further shame to work, in the
from the target, the shame tends to have sense of persuading
backfired, leaving the alleged Karen defi- someone to behave,
ant, finding community with equally defi- we first need to share
ant others. Finally, the underlying societal norms and even a sense
problem exposed by a Karen episode is left of trust, and second,
unaddressed: that white women hold out- the target of the shame
size power over others, especially Black needs to have the ex-
men, because of a historical bias in policing. pectation that their
better behavior will be
As poorly as shame plays out, it is exactly noticed. Those precon-
how the big tech companies have designed ditions are rarely met online.
it. I should know—I used to work as a data scientist in the We have had differences of opin-
world of online ads. I would decide who deserved an op- ions for a long time; that’s nothing
portunity and who did not, based on who had spent money new. By pitting us against one an-
in the past and who hadn’t. other in these endless shame spirals,
Big Tech has successfully prevented
Most online algorithms quantify and profile you, putting us from building solidarity. The first
a number on how much you’re worth, whether it’s to sell step is for us to critically observe their
you a luxury item or to prey upon you if they deem you vul- manipulations and call them what
nerable to gambling, predatory loans, or cryptocurrencies. they are: shame machines.
In turn, the advertisers who find you figure out your weak-
nesses and deftly exploit them. When I realized I was help- O’Neil is the author of The Shame
ing build a terrible system, I got out. Machine: Who Profits in the New
Age of Humiliation
For social media, the data scientists are interested in
only one thing: sustained attention. That’s why online we are

32 Time April 11/April 18, 2022

parenthood, we overcorrected. We for-
got to keep sharing the good stuff, in
addition to the bad.

SOCIETY I HAD MY SON in May 2020, probably
one of the worst times in history to
We should talk more about have a baby. It could have been worse,
the good parts of parenting of course—it wasn’t on the Oregon
Trail—but it wasn’t great. For the first
BY LUCY HUBER few months of his life, we couldn’t see
anyone. We showed him to friends and
FROM THE MOMENT I ANNOUNCED I WAS PREGNANT, Sometimes family by Zoom or by holding him up
the comments started rolling in: after my to a window. I wish they could have
son goes held him. I wish they could have held
Hope you’re ready to never sleep again. to sleep, me. One night when he wouldn’t stop
All your hair is going to fall out. crying, I drove to a parking lot and
Just wait until he’s a toddler. I revisit the sobbed. I thought, This is exactly what
Just wait until he’s a teenager! feeling of everyone told me it would be like.
Do you know what an episiotomy is? being with
They came from friends, from co-workers, from strang- him like But even as a first-time parent of a
ers who saw my belly. (OK, the last one was my doctor.) pandemic baby, I’ve found there is so
At first they didn’t bother me. But as the months went on, it’s a drug much good. Why didn’t anyone warn
the comments did too. I’ve always liked kids, but from what me about the good? I don’t mean good
I was hearing, the second you have your own, you find out in the sense that my toddler is easy
“the truth”: they drain you, demanding snacks at all hours, (he’s not) or my parenting is perfect
crying all night, breastfeeding too much, not breastfeeding (last night, my son ate 30 tater tots and
enough, breaking heirlooms, forcing you to become an ex- nothing else for dinner). But good un-
hausted heap of a person who can’t even drink a cup of cof- like anything I knew before becoming a
fee without a tiny human insisting on watching Blippi while parent. Sometimes after my son goes to
picking their nose and wiping it on your unused diploma. sleep, I revisit the feeling of being with
Was this what was going to happen to me? him like it’s a drug. I can release endor-
For a long time, motherhood was glorified. When my phins just by looking at a photo of him
mom was pregnant in the ’80s, it never occurred to her that playing with a dump truck.
it would be hard because nobody talked about the chal-
lenges. She was surprised when we weren’t the perfect chil- Maybe that’s why it’s hard to tell
dren she’d imagined, children who slept through the night people about the good. The best mo-
and were happy to sit quietly in a playpen until we were 5. ments of parenting sound mundane
Instead, when my mom took my brother for a preschool in- but feel otherworldly: The first time
terview, he turned on all the outdoor spigots he could find my son heard “Jump in the Line” and
and flooded the playground. I danced around the room while he
Now people try to avoid making it seem like it’s all snug- laughed. Cuddling while watching
gly babies and well-behaved toddlers who would never Cars 3 (again), stroking his hair. Kick-
purposely flood a Montessori vegetable garden. We finally ing a soccer ball as the sun sets and the
started speaking up about issues that were being ignored, whole world is me and him.
like postpartum depression. We allowed TV fathers to be
emotional and stopped depicting mothers as rosy-cheeked A few nights ago, my toddler went
June Cleavers. But maybe when it came to talking about around and said, “Good night, I love
you!” to all his trucks, our cats, his
dad, and me. He’d never said “I love
you” to me before. My heart felt like
someone had grabbed it inside my rib
cage and squeezed so hard the ven-
tricles were about to burst. I’m glad
we’ve become more honest about par-
enting. But now when my friends are
about to become parents, I try to ex-
plain this: some moments you’ll be
so happy, you’ll practically combust.

Huber is a freelance writer and an editor
at McSweeney’s

33

HUVEPHARMA – A Pioneering Outlook

Huvepharma, a global leader specializing Huvepharma’s move into sustainable algal
in livestock animal health, launched a
joint venture in November dedicated oil production is just the latest in a long line of
to the large-scale production of plant-based
Omega 3. While output will principally be farsighted projects that Kiril Domuschiev and
targeted for use in livestock nutrition, the new
range of algal oils from Huve Nutraceuticals his brother Georgi have initiated in the livestock
JV will also be suitable for use in food for pets
and people alike. It is a major step forward in health sector since 2000, when they bought
the trend for the substitution of plant-based oils
for the fish equivalents traditionally used in the a 54% stake in the partially state-owned
production of the Omega 3 fatty acids that are
considered so essential to the health of both animal health firm Biovet. The manufacturing
animals and people.
subsidiary is still in operation, although the
When production starts at Huvepharma’s new
fermentation plant in the southern Bulgarian company was renamed Huvepharma five years
town of Peshtera, the manufacturing process
will eliminate the health risks associated with later (the “Hu” stands for human and the
the heavy metals, nanoplastics and other toxins
found in the fish oils commonly used in Omega “ve” for veterinary). Through a combination of
3 extraction. In a concerted effort to reduce the
environmental impact of the production process organic growth and acquisition, it has grown
itself, a significant proportion of the energy
used to manufacture these algal oils will be into a truly global operation, with 11 plants in
generated from waste and renewable sources.
four countries, revenues of more than $672
With demand for plant-derived marine oils
on an exponential growth curve, it is a win-win million and a 2020 EBITDA of $191 million.
initiative, as Kiril Domuschiev, president of
Huvepharma, explains: “You need to catch Although he is proud of his Bulgarian
millions of tons of fish to meet demand for
Omega 3, so the environmental advantage roots, Domuschiev’s perspective is resolutely
of using algal oils is self-evident. It is also
healthier as these don’t contain the heavy Kiril Domuschiev international. “We are operating in a global
metals like mercury or nano plastics that are President of Huvepharma market,” he says. “Not only do we sell our
endemic in fish, now that our oceans are so
polluted.” products in more than 100 countries, but our

KIRIL DOMUSCHIEV’S DRIVE facilities are spread widely as well. We have

IS AN EXAMPLE OF A MODERN two production sites in France, a chemical

BUSINESSMAN DETERMINED synthesis plant in Italy, three production

TO LEAVE A POSITIVE LEGACY. facilities for biotechnology and vaccines in

HE IS INTERESTED NOT ONLY Bulgaria, and six sites in the U.S. for vaccines

IN OPERATING A PROFITABLE and veterinary medicines.”

BUSINESS BUT ALSO IN This geographical diversification partly

REINVESTING EARNINGS explains why Huvepharma has joined the

INTO BETTER, MORE MODERN select band of companies whose financial

TECHNOLOGIES TO IMPROVE performance improved during the COVID

PRODUCTION METHODS. THESE 19 pandemic, with year-on-year revenue

INVESTMENTS WILL ALSO increasing by 11.2% during the first quarter

PROMOTE A HEALTHIER AND MORE of 2021. All segments enjoyed growth, and

SUSTAINABLE ENVIRONMENT, the sale of feed additive products was boosted

BENEFITTING EMPLOYEES AND by the U.S. and European launches of drugs

LOCAL RESIDENTS ALIKE. specifically designed to control the coccidiosis

time.com/specialsections

CONTENT FROM THE INTELLIGENT INVESTOR

intestinal tract infection. At the same time, “IN ADDITION TO OUR it has invested $170 million in its European
revenue generated from sales to the rest of the R&D AND PRODUCTION OF production facilities, all of which have been
world also increased by over 30% as customers PHARMACEUTICAL PRODUCTS, approved by the EU’s regulatory authorities.
turned from companies in Asia to Huvepharma, WE ARE USED TO WORKING “We operate under European GMP guidelines
as it came to be viewed as a more reliable WITH LIVING ORGANISMS. WE and have FDA approval, which makes us
supplier during the pandemic. TAKE FUNGI, YEASTS, AND an attractive and internationally competitive
OTHER STRAINS TO PRODUCE production partner,” says Domuschiev. Because
But there is more to Huvepharma’s success ACTIVE SUBSTANCES THROUGH its products form part of the food chain,
than that. “We are very focused on livestock BIOTECHNOLOGY. THIS Huvepharma is committed to following GMP
as opposed to the companion animal [pet] FERMENTATION TECHNOLOGY IS (Good Manufacturing Practice) and HACCP
segment,” says Domuschiev. “One of our THE NATURAL WAY OF PRODUCING (Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points)
great competitive advantages is that we have PHARMACEUTICALS, AS OPPOSED principles to ensure the delivery of safe and
assembled a series of very talented teams who TO CHEMICAL INDUSTRIAL effective products to its customers.
give us dedicated in-house expertise at every PRODUCTION.”
stage of the manufacturing process, from R&D The company’s commitment to
and test production to industrial upscaling THE PRODUCTION SITES OF environmental protection and increased
and registration. On top of that, our sales, HUVEPHARMA ARE AMONG THE sustainability is also a source of motivation
marketing, and customer service departments BIGGEST FERMENTATION SITES for the staff at Huvepharma, who take
work very closely with our technical staff, IN THE EUROPEAN UNION THAT great pride in being part of a company that
and this means that we can guarantee the USE BIOTECHNOLOGY IN THE takes environmental issues seriously. Its
supply of quality products around the world, PRODUCTION PROCESS -- AND modern incinerator plants use the waste and
from Western Europe to the U.S., Taiwan and ALL IN ACCORDANCE WITH EU biomass to generate energy, which is used
China.” RULES AND REGULATIONS. THESE for production processes in the company’s
FACILITIES ARE KEY ASSETS OF fermentation plants. Meanwhile, waste-
Huvepharma operates predominantly in HUVEPHARMA, HELPING MAKE water treatment and exhaust air filtration
the subsector of the overall livestock industry IT ONE OF THE BIGGEST GLOBAL installations are also integrated into the
that includes poultry, swine, cattle, sheep SUPPLIERS OF LIVESTOCK company’s manufacturing facilities. As energy
and aqua, which, according to the specialist ANIMAL HEALTH PRODUCTS. is essential to keeping production ongoing,
research company Vetnosis, is growing at a the current co-generation plants guarantee
CAGR of 6%. This is making the recruitment an unbroken supply of energy and steam. In
and retention of top-quality staff a fiercely order to utilize natural energy sources, solar
competitive endeavor and one in which power installations with a total capacity of 25
Huvepharma is excelling. megawatts are in use. Additional solar plants
with a capacity of 300 megawatts are under
“We are always looking to offer our people construction and scheduled to be operational
competitive remuneration packages, but that in 2030, which will make Huvepharma
is only half the equation,” says Domuschiev. completely self-reliant in terms of energy
“We are also continually striving to give them use. Upon completion, operational efficiency
the appropriate training and education, as will make the company’s production carbon
well as attractive incentive schemes. On top neutral.
of that, they can see that we regularly reinvest Domuschiev’s efforts to ensure that the
our profits back into the company through our company will always have enough energy to
intensive annual investment program. Working operate go back years, pre-dating the current
in a company that is growing and developing supply crisis that threatens to push the cost of
and where you can see the results of your work power up steeply this year. In this context, his
is motivational. And that motivation is very policy seems not only prudent but positively
important.” inspired. “We intend to build a series of
solar power installations with a combined
Huvepharma’s employees have had plenty capacity of 300 MW,” he says. “Our strict ESG
to motivate them recently, most notably the [environmental, social and governance] policy
new fermentation plant in Peshtera where and the current high electricity prices make this
Huve Nutraceuticals operations will be based. a financial obligation, and it is one of our most
Operational since September 2019, the new important investments for the near future.”
plant has a total fermentation capacity of Huvepharma is more than ready for future
3,500 cubic meters, which increased the challenges and opportunities.
company’s production capacity by 30% and
enabled it to ferment its entire current product
portfolio in one place. Over the past few years,

time.com/specialsections

The Lifeline

INSIDE THE HISTORIC MISSION TO
PROVIDE ARMS AND AID TO UKRAINE

By Simon Shuster/Lviv

A U.S. military cargo
plane transporting
supplies bound for
Ukraine is unloaded in
February at an airfield in
Rzeszow, Poland

PHOTOGRAPH BY DAREK DELMANOWICZ



WORLD

T the brim with weapons. According to The frst stop along the way was the
the Pentagon, it’s the largest autho- hotel in Rzeszow, an unlikely nerve
The wine was Too warm for Kris- rized transfer of arms in history from center for the U.S. mission. Kvien, an
tina Kvien, the top U.S. envoy to the U.S. military to any foreign coun- alumnus of the U.S. Army War Col-
Ukraine, so she stood up to get some try. Huge convoys of humanitarian aid lege, ended up here in early February,
ice cubes from a waiter at the bar. It have also poured across the border, soon after U.S. intelligence concluded
was close to midnight in eastern Po- ferrying everything from diapers to that a Russian invasion was immi-
land, the 11th night of the Russian in- bulletproof vests in eclectic modes of nent. Her priority at the time was to
vasion of Ukraine, and for Kvien it was transport: a Belgian ambulance on loan convince the Ukrainian government
the end of a long day of meetings with to a playwright from Berlin; a minivan that the invasion was coming, and to
U.S. military brass, members of Con- helmed by a Ukrainian commando; help them get ready. That mission ran
gress, and senior Biden Administration the jeep of a British car salesman, who into a wall of denial from President
officials. Her boss, Secretary of State had driven for days to join the fght as Volodymyr Zelensky and virtually all
Antony Blinken, had left the city of a volunteer, one of thousands coming
Rzeszow a few hours earlier after vis- on their own accord from the U.S. and
iting the U.S. supply lines to Ukraine. Europe to help Ukraine defend itself.
Kvien had gone to see him off.
My travels through this corridor
“It’s been crazy here,” she told me made one thing clear: the U.S. is a part
that night in the restaurant of a hotel in of this war, even if its troops are not
the city center, which has served as her pulling the triggers. There are no plans
team’s headquarters since U.S. diplo- to send any American forces for com-
mats evacuated Ukraine. “A couple of bat operations in Ukraine, a red line
days ago, I was sitting at this table with that President Joe Biden drew again
Sean Penn.” The American actor, who during his trip to Poland on March 25.
was working on a flm in Ukraine when But just about anything short of that
the invasion started, had been forced line seems to be fair game for Biden,
to flee over the border, abandoning his and that leaves the U.S. with plenty of
car at the side of the road and walking options for making sure the costs of
into Poland with a flood of refugees. this war in blood and money become
Kvien ran into him when he fnally unbearable for Russia, its military, and
made it to the hotel. “It feels a bit like its President.
Casablanca,” she says.
As the humanitarian toll of the Rus-
Spend a few days driving back and sian onslaught intensifes, Biden has
forth across this border, and the plot ratcheted up his rhetoric in ways that
of that wartime classic comes read- risk drawing the U.S. even deeper
ily to mind. The flm premiered in into a conflict with a nuclear power.
1942, less than a year after the attack After meeting with U.S. troops in east-
on Pearl Harbor forced the U.S. to join ern Poland on March 25, Biden called
World War II. Eighty years later, the Vladimir Putin a “war criminal.” In
U.S. again fnds itself drawn into a a speech the next day, he questioned
major European war, and there is no whether the Russian leader can remain
better place to witness its involvement in power after all the suffering he has
than on the plains of eastern Poland, caused in Ukraine. Biden’s primary
where a flood of assistance from the focus throughout the trip, however,
U.S. and its allies has given Ukraine was on the aid the U.S. is providing
its best chance of surviving this war, to Ukraine to alleviate that suffering.
and maybe even winning it. “All of us “They need it now,” he told officials
are deeply, deeply committed to this coordinating that aid at the airport in
cause,” says Kvien, who has been the Rzeszow. “They need it as rapidly as
top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine since we can get it there.”
the start of 2020. “We’re here to help.
We’re part of it.” ThaT airporT, about an hour’s drive
from the border with Ukraine, was
Since the end of February, dozens of also the spot where my journey began
U.S. military cargo planes have landed a few weeks earlier, following the river
on airfelds near the border, packed to of aid toward supply hubs in western
Ukraine for distribution to the war
38 Time April 11/April 18, 2022 zone farther east.

PREVIOUS PAGES: EPA-EFE/SHUTTERSTOCK; his aides. Their government did little △ targets.” Such threats did not stop the
ANGEL GARCIA—BLOOMBERG/GETTY IMAGES to prepare. Ukraine did not call up re- U.S. from rushing aid across the bor-
servists, warn civilians, stockpile food, A convoy of unmarked trucks der. In the first three weeks of the in-
or move weapons into position. That carrying supplies for Ukraine vasion, President Biden approved
made the supply lines from Poland $1 billion worth of military hardware
even more critical once the invasion passes through Korczowa, for Ukraine, including five attack he-
began on Feb. 24. Poland, on March 17 licopters, 100 combat drones, thou-
sands of antitank and antiaircraft mis-
In his declaration of war early that escalation. A senior Russian diplomat siles, and around 60 million rounds of
morning, Putin warned that any coun- later made the warning more explicit. ammunition.
try interfering in the invasion would “By pumping Ukraine with weapons,”
face a Russian response “unlike any said the diplomat, Sergei Ryabkov, U.S. troops from the 82nd Airborne
you have seen in your history.” Many the U.S. is making “not just a danger- have been deployed to eastern Poland,
analysts took this as a threat of nuclear ous move, but an action that turns the in part to ensure that Russia thinks
corresponding convoys into legitimate
39

WORLD

twice about threatening these supply △ charity organizations. Truckloads of
lines. “You are sitting at the forward supplies soon began arriving at an-
edge of freedom,” General Mark Mil- President Biden with members other friend’s mechanic shop in a Pol-
ley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of of the 82nd Airborne Division ish village near the border. By the
Staff, told the troops during a stop in time Tyra got there on March 6—his
eastern Poland in early March. in Poland on March 25 wife, their daughter, and a suitcase
full of their holiday clothes in tow—
It was one of many visits that Kvien and actor. Beginning in 2014, when the shop was piled high with boxes.
and her team have helped to manage Russia launched its annexation of the From Finland, For Ukraine, read
from their new base in Rzeszow. Con- Crimean peninsula, they have made a one of them. Another label, written in
gressional delegations have cycled tradition of visiting soldiers on New German, offered a meticulous list of
through town. Republican Mike Pence, Year’s Eve, delivering treats and gear the contents: 48 juice boxes, 10 bags
the former Vice President, paid a visit to raise morale. of muesli, 40 pairs of socks.
to see the U.S. support for Ukraine in
action. “We haven’t taken a day off The start of the broader war in late More than a dozen volunteers had
in about a month,” Kvien told me at February caught Tyra in his bathing driven for days to bring it all to the bor-
the hotel restaurant. “The days have suit, relaxing with his family in Brazil. der. One of them, Gennady Kurkin,
started to run together.” He had been so sure that the buildup was about to begin producing his play
of Russian troops at the border was a at a theater in New York City when the
The humaniTarian aid convoy bluff that he had decided to go on va- invasion started. When I asked about
began to gather the next morning in a cation. When Tyra heard the news, his motives for coming all the way from
small Polish town near the border with he sent a text message to Zelensky: his home in Berlin, he countered with
Ukraine. Its organizer was Yuri Tyra, a “Coming to help.” a question of his own: “How can any-
longtime adviser to President Zelen- one just carry on as normal when this
sky. The two have been friends since With that began a mad dash to is happening?” A few of the convoy
Zelensky’s early days as a comedian gather supplies from all over Eu- runners had laid out a lunch of pickles,
rope. A network of friends helped
40 Time April 11/April 18, 2022 Tyra drum up support from commu-
nity groups, churches, schools, and

DOUG MILLS—THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX; ANASTASIA TAYLOR-LIND FOR TIME bread, cookies, and coffee in the back △ Ukraine. One of Tyra’s convoy runners
of the shop. Kurkin scarfed down cold saw me staring at the vehicles, which
meatballs from a can. A former U.S. Army medic, had no identifying markers. “Zbroi,” he
David Plaster, trains civilians at a said in Ukrainian. Weapons.
Before long the trucks were fully
loaded, about a dozen in all, and we set school gym in Lviv It was well past midnight when we
off in a line behind Tyra’s car. He had reached the border crossing, a system
given Kurkin and me an ambulance to Many of them were aid convoys. of tents and cordons where refugees
drive, an old Belgian model that had Others carried Ukrainians who had were waiting in the cold to get inside. At
been purchased and donated by vol- been abroad when the invasion started the customs booth, a Ukrainian official
unteers in the Netherlands. They had and were rushing to find their fami- looked at my U.S. passport and asked in
stuffed the vehicle so full of medical lies. At one point, a line of more than a tired voice, “Foreign fighter?”
supplies that we had trouble squeezing a dozen identical green trucks eased
our backpacks inside. around the traffic on their way into By the time we got across, the
nightly curfew was in effect, prohibit-
The border with Ukraine was less ‘How can anyone ing the convoy from carrying on until
than 15 miles away, but it took us morning. But a group of Ukrainian spe-
seven hours to reach it. Coming out just carry on as cial forces troops had come to the bor-
of Ukraine into Poland, the crossing der to receive the aid, and they offered
was backed up with refugees, a vast normal when this to drive me the rest of the way to Lviv
column of women and children pull- that night. They were all in their 20s,
ing roller suitcases and carrying pets is happening?’ dressed in camouflage, and had been
under their arms. That was expected: making runs back and forth to the bor-
more than a million of them had al- —Gennady Kurkin, der since the invasion started. “It’s
ready fled the fighting. What surprised a volunteer from Berlin keeping us alive,” said a 27-year-old
me was the traffic going in, a fleet of named Viktor as we cruised through
cars pushing into a war zone.
41

WORLD

the first Ukrainian checkpoint. deodorant, and hygiene wipes to dis- I never got the chance. A few days
Since 2014, Viktor’s unit has taken tribute among the new arrivals from
abroad. With him were a group of the later, a barrage of Russian cruise mis-
part in joint military exercises with foreign fighters. Three of them had just
NATO troops. The training has come arrived, and in their rush to join the siles struck that base, killing dozens.
in handy, he says, as have the weapons war they had neglected to bring some
shipments from the U.S., especially the basics. An Australian sniper searched A Ukrainian soldier I had met sent me
shoulder-mounted rockets capable of the aisles for nail clippers; they were
downing a plane or piercing the armor sold out. On his way to the register, photos from the scene, showing a col-
of a tank. Plaster overheard two strangers with
American accents and a shopping cart. lapsed building and massive craters in
But their own vehicles, Viktor “You here to join up?” he asked them.
noted, had no armor. We were driv- They looked us over, smiled, and con- the ground. One foreign fighter who
ing in a dented minivan, its back seat firmed that they had just arrived in
loaded with boxes of aid: a power gen- Ukraine with plans to fight the Rus- survived, a British citizen named Jer-
erator, some clothes, and food. “We’ve sians. Plaster gave them his number.
lost a lot of our men already,” he told emy, told me that he had helped pull
me. “We’re fighting well. But we’re Some European leaders have tried
undersupplied. If you could get a mes- to stop their citizens from going to the the bodies of his dead and wounded
sage out there to the world, tell them war zone to fight, especially if they are
we need a lot more armor.” already actively serving in the mili- comrades from the rubble. The clear
tary at home. “You should not go to
For about eight years, David Plas- Ukraine,” U.K. Prime Minister Boris message was that no one was off-limits.
ter, a former medic in the U.S. Army, Johnson said in response to reports
has worked as a coordinator for for- that dozens of elite British troops and The town closest to the base was full
eign fighters in Ukraine. Local veter- veterans, including the son of a British
ans’ groups took a liking to his first- parliamentarian, were taking up Zel- of checkpoints when I passed through
aid seminars, usually delivered with ensky’s call to arms.
a stream of off-color jokes. He made on the way back to Poland. They were
friends in Kyiv, learned the language, But most of the volunteers are or-
and started helping foreigners find dinary civilians moved to help. Igor manned by local volunteers, young men
suitable units to join. Those with- Gavrylko, who was working at a car
out combat training, he says, are bet- dealership in western London when the in civilian clothes standing among piles
ter off heading home. “Nobody needs invasion started, drove his Mitsubishi
Americans roaming around in the war from there to Ukraine, linking up with of sandbags, fying Ukrainian fags. One
zone unsupervised,” he told me. “But if Plaster on arrival. “I’ll go wherever I’m
they’re capable, if they have the skills, needed here,” Gavrylko told me. of them stepped forward with a red and
they’re welcome to help.”
We were at a well-appointed dormi- white baton and signaled for me to stop.
The tide of fighters from abroad has tory of a university near the city center.
swelled considerably in the weeks since Plaster had arranged for a few dozen A few of his friends, unarmed, stood
the Russian onslaught began. Within beds to be made available to new ar-
a week of the invasion, President rivals. His own room was already lit- behind him with nervous smiles. He
Zelensky announced that 16,000 tered with pizza boxes, the minifridge
foreigners had volunteered to join stocked with beer. Many of the for- asked where I was from and where I was
what he called the new International eign fighters, he said, were being sent
Legion. Zelensky’s office launched a to a base in western Ukraine, about 10 headed. The U.S., I said, going to Po-
website with step-by-step instructions miles from the border with Poland, for
for enlistment, starting with an orientation. From there they would be land. The young man pondered this for
interview at a local Ukrainian embassy deployed to the front. “You should go
or consulate anywhere in the world. check it out,” Plaster told me. a long moment. “Carry on,” he said in

Working in coordination with ‘I’ll go wherever Ukrainian. “And send them our thanks.”
Ukraine’s armed forces, Plaster ar-
ranges for some of these foreign vol- I’m needed.’ Two days later my fight out of Po-
unteers to teach locals the basic skills
they need to defend themselves and —Igor Gavrylko, land departed from the airport in
stay alive, whether it’s applying a tour- a British car salesman who traveled to
niquet or handling a weapon. One af- Ukraine to join the fight as a volunteer Rzeszow, taxiing near the U.S. military
ternoon in early March, he was at a
giant wholesale market in Lviv, loading planes that had come to deliver weap-
up a basket with bottles of shampoo,
ons for Ukraine. Even from the high-
42 time April 11/April 18, 2022
way, the planes were visible through

a barbed-wire fence, maneuver-

ing around the tarmac like big green

whales. On a field nearby stood a few

surface-to-air missile batteries, point-

ing toward the sky to defend against a

Russian attack.

The morning of my fight, several

friends and strangers had written to

me, asking whether we were on the

brink of war between the U.S. and

Russia. One asked via email for the

probability of World War III breaking

out within a month. I didn’t know

how to answer. If the U.S. is standing

on such a precipice, it would look a lot

like this airfield and the nearby border.

No one can predict how Russia will

respond to the lifeline the U.S. and its

allies have created for Ukraine. But

for the diplomats and convoy runners,

the soldiers and volunteers who have

kept the supplies fowing, the mission

appears to be worth the risk. —With

reporting by Simmone Shah and

Julia Zorthian/new York 



POLITICS

THE FIGHT TO TAKE

ILLUSTRATION BY JAMES STEINBERG FOR TIME

E THE HILL Congressional staffers
want to unionize—and
the moment may be ripe

By Abby Vesoulis

Congressional staffers spend late
nights and weekends helping broker deals
and write the laws that govern the U.S.
Many do so on salaries so scant they qual-
ify for the welfare benefits they help legis-
late. And they’re sick of putting up with it.

On a Thursday afternoon in February,
11 Democratic House staffers convened,
via Zoom, to discuss their plan to union-
ize both chambers of Congress for the first
time in history. The staffers, who repre-
sent the still aspirational Congressional
Workers Union (CWU), have two goals.
The first is to get both the House and Sen-
ate to pass resolutions granting them legal
protections to unionize. The second is to
leverage the power unionization would
provide to improve their lot. “It’s a privi-
lege to work here,” says one staffer, “but
it shouldn’t be a privilege to earn a living
wage here.”

A recent analysis of 2020 data by
Issue One, a nonprofit political-reform
group, showed that 13% of Washington-
based Congress staffers—roughly 1,200
people—earn less than $42,610 annually.
That’s the amount, according to a Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology living-
wage calculator, needed to cover bare-min-
imum essentials like rent and groceries in
Washington, D.C., the fifth most expensive
city in the nation. Young people who come
from working-class families often can’t af-
ford to take such low-paying jobs—which
hurts their own careers and exacerbates
the lack of low-income and minority rep-
resentation in Congress.

While a handful of Hill staffers have
been whispering about unionizing since
December 2020, the effort lacked momen-
tum. That changed in February, when top
Democratic leaders, including President
Joe Biden’s White House, announced they
would, in theory, back a unionized con-
gressional workforce. Within weeks, CWU
was flooded with interest from hundreds
of staffers. “It had been snowballing pretty
smoothly,” says one CWU member, “until
that week created an avalanche.”

45

POLITICS

$38,730 But the path forward is hardly easy. One prob- three young aides convened on a FaceTime call to
lem is that CWU members face legal risk. While talk about creating a formal union. One of them,
Median salary federal labor laws protect most U.S. employees’ a young woman who took the call in a Rayburn
of a Hill staff labor-organizing activities, Congress exempted House Office Building bathroom stall to avoid
assistant in itself from its own legislation, leaving Hill staff- eavesdroppers, remembers being so relieved to dis-
ers without formal legal protections until the reso- cover she was not alone that she cried after hang-
2020 lutions pass. Many fear being fired or blacklisted. ing up. “To be at a point today where we’ve come
(TIME has granted anonymity to these organizers.) from these dark moments is so exciting,” she says.
55%
Another issue is that the unionizing effort cre- A year later, in early 2022, an Instagram ac-
Increase in ates a problem of political optics, particularly for count, @dear_white_staffers, which originated as
House staff Democrats. So far, the CWU movement has been a meme account bringing levity to the challenges
attrition from dominated by Democratic staffers, and only Dem- of being a staffer of color in a predominantly white
2020 to 2021 ocratic lawmakers have expressed support for the space, transformed into a Capitol Hill Gossip Girl of
effort. In a recent House hearing, Republican mem- sorts: sharing anonymous, first-person accounts of
55 bers dismissed the unionizing effort as “impracti- lawmakers treating staff poorly to 80,000 follow-
cal” and a “solution in search of a problem.” Dem- ers and capturing the media spotlight. The posts,
Number ocrats, who generally fundraise and campaign on unaffiliated with the unionizing effort, were both
of House pro-worker platforms, are perhaps particularly hilarious and horrifying: multiple staffers claimed
Democrats who vulnerable to allegations of hypocrisy if they don’t that they were required to “sign out” in order to
voted for a bill support their own staff’s organizing. leave their desks to use the restroom; another
bolstering labor claimed their pay was docked for taking their child
protections to But there are legitimate reasons lawmakers to the doctor. On Feb. 3, a reporter, citing the ac-
private-sector might be skeptical of a unionized Congress. The count, asked Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi if
employees, but offices of Representatives and Senators don’t func- she’d support a congressional union. When Pelosi
have not publicly tion like normal businesses; each is provided a said yes, CWU organizers seized the moment.
supported the strict yearly allowance, which they use for most ex-
effort to unionize penses, including district travel and paying aides. Until then, their work had been underground,
Congress That model doesn’t leave much wiggle room to conducted via encrypted text and clandestine
boost salaries. Each lawmaker’s office also operates meetings, but on the night of Pelosi's remarks, orga-
independently, meaning that each must be union- nizers stayed up until 3 a.m. drafting press releases
ized independently. A “unionized Congress” is, in and creating social media accounts. Within days,
reality, hundreds of discrete bargaining units. both Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer and
White House press secretary Jen Psaki expressed
CWU organizers say they aren’t intimidated by support. “None of us thought that this would
the significant hurdles ahead. With public support happen at the pace that it is,” says one organizer.
for labor unions reaching a nearly 60-year high and
the Great Resignation reorganizing Americans’ There are few useful road maps for what lies
priorities, now is the time to act, they say. Since ahead. Starbucks workers’ successful push to
congressional Democrats have failed thus far to unionize seven individual cafés in the past year
pass any significant labor legislation—including offers some guidance on how staffers might go
Build Back Better, which included increased pen- about collectively organizing hundreds of inde-
alties for union busting—supporting the effort to pendent offices. And Bernie Sanders staffers’ suc-
unionize Congress offers lawmakers an opportu- cessful push, in 2019, to unionize the Senator’s
nity to make good on their pro-labor campaign 2020 presidential campaign is also instructive.
promises. If it can’t act to legislatively protect But neither is a perfect analogy. Unlike Starbucks
U.S. workers, says a member of the CWU, “then and campaign workers, even unionized Hill staff-
the next thing that Congress can do to help the ers are barred by federal law from work stoppages
labor movement is to look at their own workers.” and picketing.

It’s no bIg secret in Washington that Hill staff- But Congress’s uniqueness is also what makes
ers are underpaid and overworked. But the past the effort so critical, organizers say. Low pay and
two years have brought those conditions into grueling hours aren’t just dispiriting for individ-
even sharper focus. Grueling, COVID-19-related uals; they fuel the brain drain that has contrib-
working conditions, combined with the ter- uted to Congress’s crippling lack of institutional
ror of the Jan. 6 insurrection, galvanized a long- knowledge. Staffers are incentivized to “become
simmering desire for change. In the days after the the lobbyists that the next staffer who has no in-
attack, which forced hundreds of lawmakers and stitutional expertise has to rely on,” says a CWU
staffers to hide behind barricades or evacuate their member. This cements government’s “built-in re-
offices, aides began reaching out to one another to liance on lobbyists” to navigate complex policy
discuss how to make their offices safer. Eventually, issues. In 2021, House staffers left their jobs at
the highest rate in at least two decades, according
46 Time April 11/April 18, 2022

GalaI M P A C T

AW A R D S
AND DUBAI

ON MARCH 28, 2022, TIME REVEALED
THE RECIPIENTS OF ITS INAUGURAL TIME100
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POLITICS

to an analysis by data tracker LegiStorm. The at- headaches it might cause.” On Feb. 9, he intro- △
trition rate was 55% higher last year than in 2020. duced the resolution to codify protections for
House staffers to unionize; 165 of 222 House Dem- Representative
Demanding working conditions and meager ocrats have signed on. It needs 217 votes to pass, Andy Levin
wages also mean that staff jobs generally go to but has yet to come up for a vote. (D., Mich.)
“people who are privileged,” says James Jones, speaks during a
author of the forthcoming book The Last Planta- More frustrating than that delay, CWU staffers news conference
tion: Racism in the Halls of Congress. A 2020 re- say, are the 55 House Democrats who voted to pass on congressional
port from the Joint Center for Political and Eco- the Protecting the Right to Organize Act, a bill pro- staff unioniza-
nomic Studies, a Washington-based think tank, tecting private-sector union workers, but have yet tion efforts
found that 89% of top Senate aides—chiefs of staff, to sign on to Levin’s resolution. “I personally have on Feb. 9 in
policy chiefs, and communications directors—are experienced many times, people who say they are Washington
white. On the House side, 81% are white. for the idea of workers having unions,” says Levin,
“but then when their own workers want a union, TOM BRENNER—REUTERS
That lack of racial diversity is bad for Congress’s somehow, all of a sudden, it’s not appropriate.”
ability to create nuanced legislation, Jones says.
But it’s also bad for the rest of Washington, which In the Senate, things are even less rosy. Senator
relies on Congress “as a credentialing institution.” Sherrod Brown said he planned to introduce a Sen-
“You spend a few years on Capitol Hill, but that ex- ate resolution after Levin’s House version, but he
perience gives you a license to work in many other has not yet. It would have very little chance of pass-
elite workplaces, like the White House or the Su- ing the Senate’s 60-vote threshold. Democratic
preme Court,” Jones says. Early-career Hill roles Senator Joe Manchin has expressed skepticism
paved the way for top political leaders Senate mi- about the workability of a unionized Senate staff.
nority leader Mitch McConnell and Vice President
Kamala Harris. In other words, organizers argue, As the resolutions stall, the staffers’ ambitions
making Congress a more decent place to work have not. In March, Congress passed an appropri-
could pay dividends to American democracy. ations bill increasing House members’ office al-
lowances by 21%—the largest bump since 1996.
It’s an Idea that Representative Andy Levin, a CWU members have since advised several staffers
Michigan Democrat with a deep résumé of labor on how to advocate for salary increases tied to the
organizing, embraces. “The staff came to me be- boost—a small victory, but one that gives purpose.
cause they knew that I would understand that this “I feel proud to be a Hill staffer,” says one, “for the
isn’t about us,” he says, “and it isn’t about what first time in a long time. Potentially ever.” —With
reporting by mariah espada/WashingTon 
48 Time April 11/April 18, 2022