Ethisphere, in its many endeavors related to research, ranking and rating of everything from business leaders to entire global compliance programs, realized early on that projects as far-reaching an in-depth as these would benefit greatly by having individuals outside of Ethisphere weigh in. And so, for each of its ranking and rating projects, Ethisphere consults with these individuals on the methodology and/or actual construction of the lists. We’d like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to these individuals, all highly accomplished and respected in their own right, for their invaluable time, feedback and insight.

World’s Most Ethical Companies

Ethisphere’s World’s Most Ethical Companies ranking provides companies a chance to be recognized for their efforts in ethics and compliance. The winners of the World’s Most Ethical Companies are the standouts. Each of these companies will have materially higher scores versus their competitors. They are the companies who force other companies to follow their leadership or fall behind. These are the companies who use ethical leadership as a profit driver. And each of these companies embody the true spirit of Ethisphere’s credo, “Good. Smart. Business. Profit.”The World’s Most Ethical Companies Methodology Committee is comprised of leading attorneys and government officials, professors and organization leaders who care about ethical and honest business practices.

Esteemed members of the Committee include:

• Committee Chair: Alex Brigham , Executive Director, The Ethisphere Institute
• George W. Ash , Partner,Foley & Lardner, LLP
• Patrick Barwise, Professor, London Business School
• Steve Churchwell, Partner, DLA Piper US LLP
• Chris Deri , Head CSR/Sustainability practice, Edelman
• John Dienhart PhD, Director, Northwest Ethics Network, Seattle University
• Thomas Donaldson ,Professor, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
• Sean Gilbert, Technical Director, The Global Reporting Initiative
• Jenny Kim, Senior Associate, Miller & Chevalier Chartered
• Beverly Kracher, Professor, Creighton University
• Marc Le Menestrel, Professor, INSEAD
• David Logan, Co-founder and Executive Director, The Corporate Citizenship Company
• Chris MacDonald, PhD, President of the Canadian Society for the Study of Practical Ethics
• Traci Melvin, Deputy Dir. Ethics Bethesda, MD
• Brian Moriarty,Associate Director for Communications, Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics
• Dr. James O’Toole , Professor, Daniels College of Business University of Denver
• Karen Paul , Professor, Florida International University
• Rama Velamuri , Associate Professor, China Europe International Business School
• Martin Weinstein, Partner, Willkie Farr & Gallagher
• Andrew Weissmann, Partner, Jenner & Block LLP
• Alexandra Wrage, President, TRACE International

Note: The methodology committee is only involved in reviewing and commenting on WME’s Methodology and is not involved in selecting companies.

Government Contractor Rankings

The amount of government spending on outsourced contractors growing from $235 billion in 2001 to over $435 billion in 2007, there is more opportunity than ever to defraud the government and taxpayers alike. So is it any surprise that Congress, in response to high-profile and widely publicized government contractor scandals, has heightened the ethics program criteria for corporations that do business with the federal government? Of course not.Rather than tar all government contractors with a broad-tagging brush as “wasteful, deceitful and fraud-ridden,” the Ethisphere Institute decided to research the issue. Surely some government contractors care about ethics, and had implemented the controls, culture and programs to communicate such values and prevent unethical behavior.The Government Contracting Ethics and Compliance Methodology Committee (the “Committee”) is comprised of leading attorneys and government officials who care about ethical and honest government contracting. Many of the GCEC members are former federal prosecutors or in-house government procurement oversight personnel—which provides them with unique insight and experience in how contractors can (and unfortunately, don’t on occasion) make adequate and effective efforts to minimize fraud and inappropriate dealings in commercial and non-commercial government contracting alike.

Esteemed members of the Committee include:

• George W. Ash, Partner, Foley & Lardner LLP
• Steven G. Churchwell, Partner, Government Affairs, DLA Piper LLP
• Jeffery D. Clark, Partner, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
• Ronald Clark, Partner, Arent Fox LLP
• Lisa A. Estrada, Partner Government Contractor Services and Government Enforcement, Arent Fox LLP
• Kathleen M. Hamann,Vice-Chair, Anti-Corruption Initiatives & Compliance Issues Committee, American Bar Association (ABA)
• Jenny Kim, Senior Associate, Miller & Chevalier Chartered
• David Laufman, Partner, Kelley Drye Collier Shannon LLP
• Tim Lupfer, Director, Human Capital Organization and Change, Deloitte Consulting LLP
• Deneen J. Melander, Partner, Fried Frank LLP
• Paul Melendez, Professor, Eller College of Management, University of Arizona
• Traci Melvin, Deputy Director, National Institute of Health (NIH) Ethics Office
• Kevin Mullen, Partner Government Contracts practice, Cooley Godward Kronish LLP

Note: The methodology committee is only consulted to review and comment on the Government Contracting Ethics Program Methodology and is not involved in actually selecting companies.

100 Most Influential in Business Ethics

These days, sustainability and responsibility are no small matter. However, ethical action - whether performed by large corporations or small, local non-profits - is not something that just happens; it’s brought on by inspired individuals. At the end of each year, we bring together the forerunners of the business ethics world from that year, wrapped together in a tidy 1 to 100 ranking.You may not agree with the politics, methods or actions of all of the people on the 100 Most Influential in Business Ethics. In fact you probably don’t. However, the bottom line is that all of these people influence business ethics and resulting business behavior, whether that be influencing customers to demand ‘greener products’ from companies, to requiring greater disclosure by corporations about product safety, to forcing companies to look at their anti-bribery or anti-competitive compliance programs. All were influential somehow.

Advisory Panel:

The following individuals offered their knowledge and expertise on business ethics to lend a hand in constructing this list.

Ronald Berenbeim
Principal Researcher, Business Ethics
The Conference Board

John Dienhart
Frank Shrontz Chair for Business Ethics and Professor of Management
Seattle University

Cristián del Campo
Director, Business and Economics Ethics Program
Alberto Hurtado University

Charles Elson
Edgar S. Woolard, Jr., Chair in Corporate Governance
University of Delaware

Paul Fiorelli
Director, Williams College of Business Center for Business Ethics and Social Responsibility
Xavier University

Marianne Jennings
Professor of Legal and Ethical Studies, W.P. Carey School of Business
Arizona State University

Brian Moriarty
Associate Director for Communications
Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics

Paul Moxey
Head of Corporate Governance and Risk Management
Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA)

Hans Schöllhammer
Professor, Anderson School of Management
UCLA

Buie Seawell
Louis B. Beaumont Professor of Business Education, The Daniels College of Business
University of Denver

Jeffrey Seglin
Associate Professor of Writing, Literature & Publishing
Emerson College

Linda Trevino
Professor of Organizational Behavior, Cook Fellow in Business Ethics, Smeal College of Business
Pennsylvania State University

Global Anticorruption Rating

Bribery and corrupt practices have come under greater global scrutiny over the last few years. The number of government investigations of corporate offenders doubled in 2007, with nearly 50 such investigation pending in the U.S. alone.

Esteemed members of the Committee include:

• Committee Chair: Alex Brigham, Executive Director, The Ethisphere Institute
• Manny A Alas, Partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
• Margaret M. Ayres, Partner, Davis Polk & Wardwell
• Patrick Barwise, Professor, London Business School
• Nancy Boswell, President, Transparency International USA
• Constancia (Koni) P. De Guzman, Chairman of the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission, Philippines
• Gary DiBianco, Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP
• Timothy L. Dickenson, Partner, Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP
• Thomas Donaldson, Professor, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania
• Thomas W. Dunfee, Professor, Business Ethics University of Pennsylvania - in memoriam
• Christoph Frei, Senior Director World Economic Forum Partnering Against Corruption Initiative
• William Garcia, Partner, Howrey LLP
• Dr. Haluk F. Gursel, Chief Compliance, United Nations
• Kathleen M. Hamann, Vice-Chair, Anti-Corruption Iniatives & Compliance Issues Committee, American Bar Association
• David Hess, Assistant Professor of Business Law & Business Ethics, Ross School of Business University of Michigan
• Mike Huneke, Associate, White & Case
• Michael E. Horowitz, Esq., Partner, Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP
• Judith Lee, Partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
• Daniel Levin, Partner, White & Case LLP
• Brian Levy, Adviser, Public Sector Governance, World Bank
• Lucinda A. Low, Partner, Steptoe & Johnson LLP
• Marc Le Menestrel, Professor, INSEAD
• Abdul Hamid Mohamad, Chief Justice of Malaysia
• Nigel P. Morgan, Executive Vice President; Head Audit, Review & Compliance Group, Mashreq
• Brian Moriarty, Associate Director, Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics
• Sergej Muravjov, Programme Director, Transparency International Lithuania
• Dr. Anwar Nasution, Chairman, Audit Board of The Republic of Indonesia
• Danforth Newcomb, Partner, Shearman & Sterling LLP
• Kimberly A. Parker, Partner, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP
• Lisa Prager, Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati
• Erica Salmon Byrne, Assistant General Counsel, Corpedia
• Claudius O. Sokenu, Partner, Mayer Brown LLP
• Rama Velamuri, Associate Director, China Europe International Business School
• Martin Weinstein, Partner, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP
• Alexandra Wrage, Executive Director, Trace International
• Don Zarin, Partner, Holland & Knight