Q&A with Maritz President & CEO: David Peckinpaugh

We were excited to sit down with 2025 Freedom Awards honoree, David Peckinpaugh, on behalf of Maritz, to learn more about their commitment and history of implementing trafficking prevention into their business practices and support for organizations like PACT, on the frontline of their work.

Q: Maritz has been a longtime member of The Tourism Child-Protection Code of Conduct (The Code), and this began under your leadership. What motivated you to make the decision to join The Code and what benefit do you believe it brings to the travel, tourism, and events industry?

A: Sure, it's a little involved. I started my tenure at Maritz in June of 2011, and in the fall of 2011, I received an invitation from Sabre, our GDS system that we use for all our airline uses; and they invited me to a ceremony to celebrate Delta Airlines signing The Code. And honestly, at that point I thought human trafficking was an issue that only occurred outside of the United States.

So that got my attention, and the first thing that I asked was, what is The Code? And at that point, what is ECPAT USA? And why would we be invited to a ceremony to welcome Delta Airlines?

I started to investigate, and I did a Google search for human trafficking and found a picture of a young girl, probably 10-12 years old, sitting on the edge of a bed and you could see the St. Louis Arch in the background. It hit me right between the eyes that this was something that's very different from what my general understanding was and needed some further investigation. So, I brought our head of Human Resources, a woman by the name of Marianne Zoldak, into the conversation and we started to investigate. And what we found was horrendous, heartbreaking and very alarming, because of the implications with our industry. We are in the hospitality industry, so we deal with venues, hotels, convention centers, airlines and all kinds of intermodal transportation; and obviously, that is front and center with the human trafficking issue. 

As we investigated further, we found out that St. Louis, (where we are based), is unfortunately a hotbed for trafficking because of its physical location. The city has many interstate highways that come together, and there are numerous railways and bus routes. This initial research brought more of this reality to the forefront. And as we investigated The Code, it became our commitment to start building awareness around the issue. We thought that it was certainly something that we could do and embrace. It wasn't a huge financial commitment, but that wasn’t our main motivation for joining. It was more of a moral commitment to say, “hey, as a company that is based on human values and people and performance should look at this as an issue that should be front and center for us.”

I believe that Maritz was one of the first 2-3 companies to join The Code. There was of course Delta Airlines, and I believe that Hilton Hotels may have been involved at that point. 

What we decided upon as a first action, was to show a video and have a discussion at a town hall with our people [internal staff], and the reaction was quite shocking. That video, back in 2011, just talked about the numbers. It brought the issue front and center. What made it truly shocking was an initial reaction as to why in a corporate environment we’re we talking about an issue around sex trafficking, particularly with children?

But, as the discussion continued, the decision was made that our next steps and actions on this would be “left up to our people”. We asked those that were interested in being part of the steering committee that we formed to help guide what we were going to do - to raise their hand or send an e-mail to Marianne. We were able to gauge interest from there, and there was lots of interest. I think we had somewhere between 125-150 people raise their hands to say “I get it. This is an important issue, and Maritz getting involved makes sense to us.” That was really the start of our commitment. 

I would like to add, I am accepting the award and getting recognized, but it really should be the company that’s being recognized; because all of our efforts since 2011 have been driven by our Anti-Human Trafficking Steering Committee (which was renamed Human Trafficking Awareness Committee). They are the ones that put together a program every year, request budgetary support and really drive our efforts forward. While I was the initial instigator of this, it has been a grassroots employe-led initiative since 2012, so over 12 years. And it's still going strong. We've had multiple leaders of that steering group and I am really proud of their work.

Q: Can you elaborate a little bit more on how the Human Trafficking Awareness Committee works, and share examples of how Maritz has helped to build awareness about child trafficking and commercial exploitation? 

A: The Human Trafficking Awareness Committee remains very active. Ben Goedegebuure, Maritz’ Chief Global Strategy Officer, heads our global strategy and oversees those efforts. The committee reports to Ben, and he oversees their activities. The committee is very self-sufficient and does great work.

Additionally, we do a lot of what we call brand events. They are Maritz sponsored and organized events; and they may be held for customers, industry partners or supplies. And we use every one of these events as an opportunity to bring up the issue of human trafficking. What we typically do when hosting these events, is find a local organization to engage with. Sometimes we engage with a volunteer activity, but there is always a fundraising activity. A lot of times we're gathering gift cards or supplies or putting packages together. We just did one at our “Activate” event in National Harbor, Maryland last September. We worked with a local organization to put hundreds of packages together with personal hygiene supplies for the victims that they serve. 

This is something that we do at every one of our events. It is our number one commitment, and we are never going to let up on that. We are going to use every one of those opportunities to talk about the issue, and I think if you talk to any of those audiences, they will say Maritz has been consistent about that and we've been dedicated and committed to that. And we've never wavered. 

Another example that I can share is work that we do here in St. Louis with two organizations. One is called Monarch. Among other fundraising activities, they make new jewelry out of old, new and even broken jewelry and our team members often donate coins that Monarch makes into jewelry. Our people travel the globe and always come back with loose change. In January, we hosted an anti-human trafficking awareness program at our headquarters, which had a live and virtual audience, and Monarch was there selling their jewelry. Their products are always incredibly well received.  

The other organization I’d like to mention is the Covering House. The Covering House is a St. Louis-based organization that has a facility that houses victims of human trafficking and serve as a transition gateway to get out of a trafficking situation and back to a normal life. We’ve supported the Covering House through fundraising. Also, they were donated land for a new campus a number of years ago, and they have broken ground and are in the process of building the new campus, where they will be able to double their capacity and the number of victims that they can support. In the interim, we have been providing the Covering House with complimentary office spaces for their staff, for the past four years. This allows them to remove that critical expense as they focus on their capital campaign to build out the new campus. We’ve been proud to be able to support them in this manner. It’s a big commitment on the part of our company, and they've been incredibly appreciative of having that space and eliminating that expense out of their operations so they can really focus on fundraising.

I would also say that we are committed to raising awareness about human trafficking and commercial exploitation with our suppliers, so we have language that we use and socialize with our suppliers through our procurement teams and our sourcing teams. We make sure that our suppliers are aware of our commitment, and we asked them to be similarly committed. And then we also have in our own company code of conduct an entire section on protection of children from sexual exploitation, and it’s included in our annual training, our employee handbook, etc. We do this to make sure this is not an issue we just talk about, but to make sure it is one we really engage in.

Q: What would you say to another leader in your industry or any leader in the private sector who is thinking “We agree child trafficking is an issue, but we are still feeling uncertain about what we can implement in our business practices to help.”?

A: First and foremost, I would say it's got to be true and authentic to your culture. If not, it's just not going to work. Doing something made so much sense to our people because it is who we are. It's what we live and breathe. So, while uncomfortable culturally, it has always made sense. It's not out of alignment. So that would be the first advice.

Second is, can you make a difference? That's the question I get asked a lot. Have we made a difference? I can only share a few anecdotal stories, but at the end of the day we have to have the belief that we've made a difference. Since 2011, many hospitality companies have signed on to The Code. While we don't take credit for their decision to join, we were definitely part of the awareness campaign. We highlight The Code and the issue at all of our events, and I know specifically this hotel chain and that hotel chain became aware of the issue because of exposure from Maritz. To make a difference, you have to believe in the impact that you are having, because sometimes it's not front and center. There is no hard proof. Although we've had stories of “I did see something. I did report it”. And yes, it was a trafficking situation”. But those are far and few between. 

My own wife and daughter saw an issue going on at a gas station on a road trip, and sure enough called the police, and they were able to intervene; so there's some proof in that. But other than that, I think you've got to have faith. 

You have to see if it's aligned with your culture, that you feel like you can make a difference, and then you have to make a commitment to it. For me, I think the key was having it driven by our employees, not leadership, because if it's leadership it is just another thing that we're pushing down on them. But here, it's the steering committee. It's the steering committee that really dictates the activities, and they just let us [leadership] know what we can do to support, and we are there for them. Keep it simple, rule of three. That would be my advice.

Q: Do you care to share more on the impact of awareness-raising efforts, as this is a question that we always ask ourselves at PACT?

A: Certainly. Recently, I flew through Atlanta and Jacksonville, Florida and I noticed the big billboards and signs throughout the airport stating “see something, say something” in regard to human trafficking. Ten years ago, you never would have seen that. You also see this around big sporting events now. You never would have seen that before. I think that PACT is making a difference. You are building that awareness, and you're getting corporate America to wake up and to recognize this issue. It is making a difference whether we see it every day or not in hard proof.

Q: Outside of being presented a Freedom Award on June 10th, what else do you look forward to the most about attending the benefit this year?

A: I have been unable to attend before. Other members of our team have been able to attend, but this really is my first time. So, for me, it’s attending. That is what I am looking forward to the most. And I’m excited to learn more about the community. I don't know the broader world of PACT. So, to me, it's that exposure and networking. Maritz is doing what we think is right, but I am sure we can learn and find new things we have not thought of or tried. We can bring some knowledge back to our steering committee to say “hey, here's some additional ideas that you should consider as you're building out your plan of attack for next year”. We have a new fiscal year starting April 1, so we are in those final planning stages for our activities for next year. And I think that's going to be a huge benefit of attending.

Q: Do you have any final thoughts to share on the topic or anything I may have not touched on?

A: I'm getting or accepting the award, but it really should be the honor really goes to Maritz, our team, and all the partners and everyone that's been involved in this. They're the ones that have done the lion's share of the work.