Q&A: Paul Pellizzari with Hard Rock and Seminole Gaming
We have the great honor of partnering with Hard Rock and Seminole Gaming, the Presenting Sponsor of the 2025 Freedom Awards. Their generous support helps make this powerful celebration possible. Hard Rock and Seminole Gaming is deeply committed to preventing human trafficking and advancing social responsibility across the globe. In the interview below, we speak with Paul Pellizzari, Vice President, Global Social Responsibility, and Vice Chair of PACT’s Board of Directors.
Can you share more about your role at Hard Rock? How does Hard Rock define social responsibility?
Social purpose has propelled Hard Rock since 1971, when it was founded on the mottos Love All-Serve All, All Is One, Save The Planet and Take Time To Be Kind. We work to improve lives, help communities and sustain the Earth, infusing the power of music into all we do.
The businesses owned by the Seminole Tribe are founded on improving life for its people, which includes the social impact of expanded and diversified Indigenous-owned businesses. Our primary programs include philanthropy, people & inclusion, responsible gambling, anti-human trafficking, and environmental sustainability.
Using the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDG), Hard Rock and Seminole Gaming sets goals, measures, while tracking progress, and setting forward-looking plans. Our target UNSDGs include: Zero Hunger, Good Health and Well-being, Gender Equality, Clean Water and Sanitation, Affordable and Clean Energy, Reduced Inequalities, Responsible Consumption and Production, and Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions.
In addition to your role at Hard Rock, you serve on the Board of Directors at PACT. What compelled you to serve in an advisory role at PACT?
PACT’s mission means a lot to me personally and professionally. Hard Rock and Seminole Gaming enjoy a deep, multi-faceted relationship with PACT. While PACT leads the work to combat trafficking in the USA, it is also connected to the global network of ECPAT affiliates. That leadership position and international reach are important. Joining the board was a logical step for me. I knew the organization, its leaders and team very well, and those strengths made it easy to become a board director.
How has your experience been attending the Freedom Awards?
I look forward to the Freedom Awards every year! Being able to mingle with the PACT community is always fun and stimulating. And hearing the Award recipients’ stories is always inspiring and poignant.
How do you envision the future of social responsibility in the corporate space, particularly in the light of our common mission to eliminate child sex trafficking?
For companies, social responsibility is always an evolving set of challenges and opportunities. To meet those, we need to avoid the trap of “tick-the-box compliance” where we rest satisfied after taking bare minimum actions, such as training employees on signs of trafficking, and displaying posters advertising 1-800 numbers. Investing in great partnerships, like the one Hard Rock and Seminole Gaming enjoys with PACT, is the way to drive collective innovation. My view is that tackling society’s greatest problems, like trafficking, requires dynamic multi-sectoral collaboration.
Hard Rock has supported and co-created several of PACT’s initiatives to prevent the sexual exploitation and trafficking of children, including launching an expanded version of the Social Identity Quest earlier this year. Can you share more about its significance and the impact of the Social Identity Quest?
This program has made a difference in the lives of more than a million students in the USA and Mexico. The Social Identity Quest joins the expertise, skill and knowledge of PACT’s education team with the purpose-driven marketing strategies and reach that Hard Rock and Seminole Gaming apply to our social responsibility programs around the world.
Expanding the program to younger students in primary and middle school, and efforts to create culturally tailored versions for Mexico and Latin America demonstrate how private companies and non-profits can innovate. We expanded and evolved our initial success, based on evidence and learnings from specific cultures. It is an honor to have the Social Identity Quest acknowledged as a leading global practice by both the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and the US Chamber of Commerce.
We are excited to be engaging indigenous communities in North American, to assess and plan for a version of the program that can is relevant to indigenous youth.