ArcelorMittal and the Ebola Outbreak in Liberia

During the summer of 2014, Alan Knight, general manager of corporate responsibility at the integrated steel and mining company ArcelorMittal, observed the unfolding of an Ebola epidemic in Liberia and other countries in West Africa with great concern. On the one hand was the sheer tragedy of the calamity that struck the poverty-stricken country, recently emerged from a long and painful civil war; on the other, the fact that ArcelorMittal’s mining concession in Liberia was a crucial part of the company’s business going forward. How was ArcelorMittal to face the mounting crisis? What response did it owe its employees? Its shareholders? Its stakeholders? Given the low state capacity in Liberia, ArcelorMittal helped organize a private sector response to the crisis, and, as a pandemic finally was averted, he wondered what lessons to draw from the experience.