The Honnold Foundation, a multi-year recipient of ORIX USA Group’s annual giving grants, visited our offices in New York City in October to meet members of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Committee and senior management. The Honnold Foundation was founded by professional rock climber Alex Honnold and has provided grants to organizations advancing solar energy access all over the world since 2012.
Jacqui Wu, Senior Director, ORIX Strategic Solutions, organized the meeting, which included fellow CSR Committee members Rohini Pragasam, Head of Communications & Marketing and Chair, CSR Committee, Dan Ronnen, Chief Compliance Officer and Deputy General Counsel, along with Jeff Abrams, Senior Managing Director, ORIX USA Group Head of Private Credit.
Alex and senior members of his team met with the group and described their work providing equitable solar energy access to disadvantaged communities globally, which touches on two focus areas for our CSR work – assistance to disadvantaged communities and sustainability/environmental work. ORIX USA most recently and made a $50,000 grant to the Honnold Foundation as part of our annual giving for fiscal year 2023.
Along with his work at the Honnold Foundation, Alex is well known for his free-solo ascents of the world’s biggest cliffs and as the subject of the 2018 biographical documentary Free Solo, which follows his quest to perform the first-ever free solo climb of a route on El Capitan in Yosemite National Park. The film won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Visit the Honnold Foundation website to learn more about their projects and work around the world and check out the trailer for Free Solo on Alex’s most famous solo climb.