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Bill Novelli is CEO of AARP, a membership organization of 40 million people age 50 and older, half of whom remain actively employed. AARP’s mission is to enhance the quality[…]

Novelli tries to solve major social problems.

Question: What impact does your work have on the world?

Transcript: Well from a personal standpoint, I like to think that . . . that I am making a contribution. And however big or however small it is, what I’m . . . what I’m trying to do is to help solve major social problems. That’s what I wanna do. That’s sort of my life’s work, if you will. And I’ve worked very hard at this. I’ve done it now for a long, long time. And I’ve worked on everything from seatbelt safety, to third world development, to the things that we do at AARP. And a couple examples of successes – not me personally, but that we’ve been able to have at AARP – is that we got prescription drugs into Medicare. And you cannot practice modern medicine without prescription drugs. So long term that’s gonna have a huge payoff for our country and for our older citizens. A few years ago we fought the good fight, and we were able to prevent Social Security from being privatized. That, for us, was a big win, and I think a big win for the country. So I like to look at these, and there are plenty of losses as well as wins. I like to look at these as steps forward and hope that I made a contribution to them.

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