The kick-off event for this series — a panel Why Do Leaders Act Unethically? – will be held on Tuesday, November 27, from 12:30-2 pm at Garrett Great Hall.

The panel features University Professor and Academic Director of IBiS and the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics, R. Edward Freeman and Harvard Business School’s Max H. Bazerman on a panel moderated by Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Psychology Benjamin Converse.

Please join what promises to be a stimulating lunch conversation. Lunch will be provided (see the event flier for Why do Leaders Act Unethically? attached).

Teams of 3-5 students participate in a variety of competitions (20-to-30 minute presentation followed by Q&A; 10-minute presentation; 90-second presentation), all of which are judged by practicing ethics and compliance professionals. Each team selects a topic from any area of business ethics and describes both the problem and a proposed solution. Approximately $12,000 in prize money will be awarded to overall winners, runners-up, and divisional winners.

The 2013 IBECC will be limited to 30 teams. Undergraduate and graduate teams compete in separate divisions. We have a special interest in encouraging international teams.

Students will have the opportunity to learn about organizational ethics by attending ECOA conference sessions and by interacting informally with the world’s leading ethics and compliance officers.

Please note that the deadline for the Team Registration and Admission Application is Jan. 1, 2013. Please contact Kirsten Nordblom (Knordblom@lmu.edu or 310.338.2321) or Thomas White (twhite@lmu.edu or 310.338.4523) to reserve a spot in the event as soon as possible.

Further information about IBECC will be posted at http://ethicsandbusiness.lmu.edu as it becomes available.

IBECC Executive Committee

• Kenneth E. Goodpaster, Koch Endowed Chair in Business Ethics, Opus College of Business, University of St. Thomas (MN)
• Tim C. Mazur, Chief Operating Officer, Ethics & Compliance Officer Association
• Thomas I. White, Conrad N. Hilton Chair in Business Ethics and Director, Center for Ethics and Business, Loyola Marymount University

Thomas W. Dunfee
June 2, 2008

Thomas W. Dunfee, a giant in the field of business ethics and an Academic Advisor and Advisory Council member for the Institute since its founding, died of prostate cancer on June 2, 2008.

Mr. Dunfee, the Joseph Kolodny Chair of Social Responsibility in Business at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, was widely regarded as one of the world’s foremost experts in the field of business ethics. He was the author or editor of 12 books and authored more that 50 articles for academic journals. He served on the faculty of The Wharton School for 34 years  and he was a visiting professor at The University of Michigan, Georgetown University, the University of Florida, the University of Newcastle (Australia) and Indiana University. During his career he lectured at many European and Asian universities.

His many achievements include: receiving the Distinguished Senior Faculty Award for Excellence from the American Business Law Journal in 1991; serving as president of the Society for Business Ethics (1995-6); chairing the Wharton School’s Legal Studies Department (1979-85) and (1987-91); and serving as president of the Academy of Legal Studies in Business (1989-90).

He is remembered fondly by those who knew him. Longtime friends and colleague,
R. Edward Freeman said, “Tom was an institution builder. He, almost singlehandedly, brought ethics to the Wharton curriculum. He worked tirelessly with faculty from every discipline and simply never gave up. He was instrumental in the formation and early success of our Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics. More importantly, Tom was always available to talk to colleagues, doctoral students, and others. Some of my most important memories are of Tom taking time to help me with thinking about what I really wanted to do in life.”

The Wharton School has created a Memorial Website for Thomas Dunfee in his honor. The site includes messages from colleagues and friends, photos of Mr. Dunfee and an obituary.

Robert C. (Bob) Solomon 
(September 14, 1942 -January 2, 2007)

Academic Advisor Robert C. (Bob) Solomon died on Tuesday, January 2 in Zurich, Switzerland at the age of 64 while traveling with his wife, Kathleen Higgins, a philosophy professor at the University of Texas. Solomon collapsed while transferring to a flight to Rome and died within minutes from a congenital heart defect.

Solomon, a world-renowned scholar in the study of emotions and business ethics, was the Quincy Lee Centennial Professor and a member of the Academy of Distinguished Teachers at the University of Texas at Austin where he had taught since 1972. He had previously taught at Princeton University, the University of California-Los Angeles, the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Pittsburgh. He served as a consultant for corporations on issues of business ethics and was a frequent visitor at universities and business schools overseas. In 2004 he was selected to be part of the inaugural class of Academic Advisors for the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics.

Solomon was a prodigious author, penning more than 40 books and 150 articles during his career. His books on business ethics, include: Above the Bottom Line: Ethics and Excellence; It’s Good Business: A Better Way to Think about Business; and Building Trust(with Fernando Flores). His books on philosophy and the emotions include: The Passions,A Passion for Justice, About Love and The Joy of Philosophy.

Later this year the philosophy department at the University of Texas will hold a conference in honor of Solomon’s work. The Daily Texan quotes department chair David Sosa as claiming that Solomon “was one of the University’s treasures.”

While Solomon’s exceptional academic achievements and talents were widely admired—especially his renowned lecturing skills—friends and colleagues also deeply cherished his personal qualities. Some of their reflections celebrating his life follow below:

A Tribute to Robert C. (Bob) Solomon
Friends and Colleagues Reflect on a Life Well-Lived

When you are 48 years old, I guess you can’t say who you want to be like when you grow up. That’s pretty well happened. But many times in my career I have said that Bob Solomon was one of those people I wanted to grow up to be like and the little boy in me still wants to emulate Bob Solomon and people like him.

The first time I met Bob was in Tom Donaldson’s office. Tom was then at Georgetown and Bob was giving a talk for him. I happened to be in Washington and Tom invited me to join he and Bob for coffee. Talking to either would have been a nervous experience for a second year assistant professor, but when both looked at me to hear my answer to one of their questions, I didn’t think words were ever going to come out of my mouth. I have no idea what I actually croaked out, but these gracious guys made me feel like they were interested in what I had to say, which amazed me.

What continued to amaze me over the time I worked with Bob was how this incredibly gifted giant of a scholar was so human, so kind, and so down-to-earth. I remember bringing him to Michigan, his Ph.D. alma mater, for a talk. He didn’t want his old professors invited though because he was still a student and they were still his professors. He thought he might be too nervous. How, I thought, could Bob Solomon be nervous of anyone? Yet, when I went through a debacle in “almost” getting hired at Texas, Bob was fierce in his fight for me. He read and commented on nearly everything I sent to him – how could someone as busy as him possibly have the time to do that? How could someone as busy as him generate so much brilliant work year after year? How could someone that intellectually powerful have such a warm giggle? I still laugh at his gentle reprimand for my “rosy portrayal of Camus’ Sisyphus” at the Ruffin Lectures. He could have ripped me – I should have been – but he knew how to make a serious point without harming the person making the point.

Last fall, my doctoral students commented on how passionate I was in making sure that Bob’s points were understood when we read his book. They could tell – and said so – that it was obvious how much affection I had not just for his work, but for him. I will miss him.

Timothy L. Fort, PhD, JD
Exec. Director, Institute for Corporate Responsibility
Lindner-Gambal Professor of Business Ethics
George Washington University School of Business
Professorial Lecturer, George Washington Law School
Academic Director, Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics

Bob gave the very first philosophy talk I ever heard. I was an undergraduate at Duke and he was giving a job talk at Carolina on Hegel. He handled some very difficult (arrogant and rude) people with intellectual toughness, confidence, and humility.When I got to know him some 15 years later, I found that those traits were just part of Bob Solomon. He always had time for our students, and he went out of his way to go to doctoral student presentations, always with an encouraging word for them. We spent a lot of evenings (but not enough) over good food talking about philosophy and friends. My most poignant memory was watching him treat my children with respect. He talked to them as if they mattered and this meant more to me than any book or article or class. Bob was a friend who cared enough to try and make us all better. We will miss him a great deal.

R. Edward Freeman
Academic Director, Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics
Elis and Signe Olsson Professor of Business Administration
Darden School Graduate School of Business Administration

Patricia H. Werhane is the Wicklander Chair in Business Ethics and Director of the Institute for Business and Professional Ethics at DePaul University. She is a Senior Fellow of the Olsson Center for Applied Ethics at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business Adminstration, where she was formerly the Ruffin Professor of Business Ethics, teaching from 1993 – 2009. She is an Academic Advisor with the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics.

She is a prolific author, an acclaimed authority on employee rights in the workplace, one of the leading scholars on Adam Smith, and founder and former editor-in-chief ofBusiness Ethics Quarterly, the leading journal of business ethics. She was a founding member and past president of the Society for Business Ethics and, in 2001, was elected to the Executive Committee of the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics. Before joining the Darden faculty in 1993 Werhane served on the faculties of Loyola University Chicago and Dartmouth College. She was a visiting scholar at Cambridge University and the University of Canterbury in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Linda Klebe Treviño is Professor of Organizational Behavior and Chair of the Department of Management and Organization. She has been on the faculty since 1987. She holds a Ph.D. in management from Texas A&M University. Treviño is an Academic Advisor with the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics. Her research and writing on the management of ethical conduct in organizations is widely published and well-known internationally.

She has contributed to knowledge in the areas of: 1) the management of ethical conduct in organizations; 2) the management of organizational climate and culture, and ethical leadership to support and encourage ethical behavior; 3) organizations’ different approaches to ethics management. She co-authored a textbook with Katherine Nelson entitled Managing Business Ethics; Straight Talk About How to Do it Right. The fifth edition will be published in 2010. The book, which is being used to teach undergraduates, MBAs and executives, addresses how people can manage their own ethical conduct and the conduct of their employees in today’s business organizations. Another book, coauthored with Gary Weaver and entitled Managing Ethics in Business Organizations; Social Scientific Perspectives, was published by Stanford University Press in 2003.

Professor Treviño has consulted with for-profit and non-profit organizations and has led research projects for Arthur Andersen’s Ethics and Responsible Business Practices Consulting, and for the Ethics Resource Center Fellows Program. Her current research focuses on ethical leadership, moral awareness, voice, moral disengagement and academic integrity.

Professor Treviño received the Best Paper Award from the prestigious Academy of Management Review in 1993, was the Connelly Visiting Scholar in Business ethics at Georgetown University in 1995. She has received the Best Paper Award twice from the Social Issues in Management Division of the Academy of Management and, in 2000, was a finalist for the best paper award from the Academy of Management Journal. She has presented her research findings to business groups including the Conference Board, the Conference Board of Canada, the Ethics Officers Association, the Defense Industry Initiative, the Money Management Institute, and the Office of Government Ethics.

Diana C. Robertson is the Joseph Kolodny Professor of Social Responsibility in Business and a Professor of Legal Studies and Business Ethics at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She was previously on the faculty at the Goizueta Business School at Emory University and the London Business School. Robertson is an Academic Advisor with the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics.

Robertson’s specialty is business ethics, and her research interests center on organizational issues in business ethics, particularly the impact of the firm on employee decision-making about ethical issues.  Her work examines how organizations influence the ethical behavior of employees through formal ethics initiatives, such as codes of ethics, and via other organizational variables, including organizational structure, pressure to perform, and compensation and control systems.  At present she is conducting research using neuroimaging technology to identify neural activations in the brain associated with moral reasoning processes.

Thomas R. Piper, Baker Foundation Professor and Lawrence E. Fouraker Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, is a faculty member in the Finance and Accounting Units at the Graduate School of Business Administration. He has taught in the MBA Program, as well as in other Executive Education courses, including the “Advanced Management Program” and “The General Manager Program ä.” He is an Academic Advisor with the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics.

He served as chairman of the MBA Policy Committee and was senior associate dean for 13 years. Presently, he is studying ethics and corporate responsibility for future business leaders and shares responsibility for the School’s efforts in the area of values, leadership, and corporate responsibility. He also oversaw two Senior Executive Programs sited in the Middle East and South Africa and was instrumental in an initiative to help establish outstanding market-oriented business schools in Central and Eastern Europe.

Professor Piper is the author of The Economics of Bank Acquisitions and a coauthor of Case Problems in Finance, now in its eleventh edition (with W. Fruhan, W. Kester, and R. Ruback) and Can Ethics Be Taught? (with M. Gentile and S. Parks). He is a consultant in the field of corporate financial management and was a director of FleetBoston Corporation, Marriott Corporation, and GenRad.

Laura Nash, Ph.D., has been an author, educator and consultant in business ethics and leadership for the past twenty five years. She was on the faculty of Harvard Business School from October 2000 to July 2006, most recently as senior lecturer in the Entrepreneurial Management unit. Nash was Program Director on Business and Religion at Harvard Divinity School’s Center for the Study of Values in Public Life from 1997 to 2000 after ten years on the faculty at Boston University’s Institute for the Study of Economic Culture. In addition to other non-profit boards in business ethics, she served as President of the Society for Business Ethics from 1996-1997. Nash is also the founder and managing partner of Piper Cove Asset Management LLC, a hedge fund which has been in operation since June 2003. Among her books areJust Enough: Tools for Creating Success in Work and Life, with Professor Howard Stevenson (Wiley 2004), Church on Sunday, Work on Monday, with Reverend Scotty McLennan, (Jossey-Bass 2001); Good Intentions Aside: A Manager’s Guide to Resolving Ethical Dilemmas; and Believers in Business.

Nash currently serves on the Advisory Council for the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics and is an Academic Advisor for the Institute. She is also an Executive Fellow at the Center for Business Ethics at Bentley. A frequent author and contributor to journals and books on business ethics, corporate culture, and leadership, Nash also has been a regular commentator in the media, including CNBC, Fortune, Forbes’ CEO Conference, Marketplace, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, ABC Nightly News, and Nightline. Just Enough has been featured twice in the Sunday New York Times (Business and Money Sections) as well as in Fast Company, Child Magazine, Financial Planners Advisor, and other journals.

Nash received her B.A. at Connecticut College and has a Masters Degree and a Ph.D. in Classical Philology from Harvard University. She lives in Cambridge, MA, with her husband and two children.