Ethisphere’s Business Ethics Leadership Alliance Welcomes 24 New Members

Deutsche Telekom, IBM, General Motors, Northern Trust, Lowe’s Company, Xerox, and Archer Daniels Midland Are Among the Latest to Join the Ranks of Leading Companies Committed to Best Practices in Company Integrity

New York, NY – October 24, 2018 – Ethisphere, a global leader in defining and advancing standards of ethical business practices, announced today that with the addition of the 24 new members, the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) community, which was founded by Ethisphere, is approaching +245 member organizations. These companies include well-known brands such as General Motors, Deutsche Telekom, USAA, IBM, and Xerox.

The Business Ethics Leadership Alliance is a globally recognized organization of leading companies collaborating together to share best practices in governance, risk management, compliance, and ethics. This growth in membership rewards the community with new shared insights that enable organizations to support and challenge one another as they innovate to address risks, improve performance, and place values and integrity at the center of all that they do.

The new BELA member companies include:

• Archer Daniels Midland
• Arconic, Inc.
• Bio-Rad
• Cigna
• Deutsche Telekom
• On
• Georgia-Pacific
• Hubbell Incorporated
• IBM
• Lowe’s Company
• Northern Trust
• Ricoh USA
• Robert Half International
• Ryder Systems, Inc.
• Sharp HealthCare
• Tenet Health Care
• The MetroHealth System
• The Scoular Company
• UCB, Inc.
• USAA
• VMWare, Inc.
• WestRock
• Xerox
• Yale New Haven Health System

“With too many headlines filled with corporate indiscretions, the rapid growth of BELA is a refreshing reminder of the business leaders across the globe who understand that fair, honest, and ethical business practices are a key component of sustained business success,” said Erica Salmon Byrne, Executive Vice President and Executive Director, BELA. “These companies join a growing community committed to ethical advancement. We are proud to nurture a collaborative effort among the member companies, who are driven by purpose and understand that profits and values go hand in hand.”

“Since our founding in 1948, Robert Half has been committed to the highest ethical standards,” said Evelyn Crane-Oliver, Senior Vice President, Secretary, and General Counsel for Robert Half, the world’s first and largest specialized staffing firm and a recognized leader in professional consulting and staffing services. “We look forward to joining the BELA community and partnering with like-minded organizations to share best practices and promote a culture of compliance based on corporate values.”

“Being part of BELA allows us to exchange ideas and information with global thought leaders in ethics and compliance. These discussions will enable us to share best practices and resources that will ultimately benefit our patients, each other, and our community,” said Cheryl Wahl, Senior Vice President and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer of MetroHealth. “MetroHealth aspires to be a national leader in ethical performance, and we believe being a member of BELA will help us reach that goal.”

Representing 30 industries headquartered in 15 different countries, the BELA community is approaching close to +245 enterprise member companies that have become a pivotal platform of connected leadership so vital to progressing company standards and practices across both global and regional business ecosystems. Driven by a global desire to advance integrity, BELA has also expanded to South Asia and includes a community of over 20 select multinationals who have taken on a leadership role in inspiring best practices in ethics, integrity, and anti-corruption efforts across India and South Asia.

Consistent research—including data gathered by Ethisphere—shows how organizations with a strong ethical culture regularly outperform their market peers. Each year, Ethisphere publishes data from its “Ethics Premium” study, which highlights the value of prioritizing a strong, innovative ethics program in an ever-changing business environment.

“In a world where diverse cultures impact attitudes and actions, one constant in companies looking to do business on the world stage is ethics. Trust is at a premium no matter where you are. The growth of BELA serves as the ultimate proof point that business decision-makers around the globe understand this. Our goal is to create standards that apply across the world to help them execute best practices in business ethics,” said Byrne.

In the spirit of collaboration, leading BELA companies use the member-only hub to share their strategies on issues such as third party risk management, board engagement and edification, audit committee engagement, cross border investigations, manager resources, and communications, with upcoming features on harassment policies including more on the Me Too Movement. Currently, the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance member hub showcases practices from Dell, Dun & Bradstreet, JLL, Allstate, Accenture, Johnson Controls, State Bank of India, Mahindra, Nokia and much more.

Member Benefits

BELA members receive enterprise-wide access to a special online resource center, featuring compliance and ethics program best practices, member-contributed content, Ethisphere surveys and research, presentations, and webinars. To enable executive decision-making and resource calibration, members also have the opportunity to measure their own programs through data-driven benchmarking as an independent evaluation of ethics and compliance programs and analysis of best practices relative to programs of other leading companies. Moreover, members have access to a monthly podcast series called Integrity Matters, hosted by Al Rosa, Chief Compliance Director, General Electric, which offers unique insight into the lessons learned and innovative approaches by some of the most experienced compliance and ethics leaders across the BELA community. More than 30 peer-to-peer roundtables, hosted by BELA member companies, are also held each year in major US cities and key international markets as a platform for shared ideas and practical conversations on the most pressing challenges impacting business and compliance leaders. Learn more about BELA by visiting http://bela.ethisphere.com. To nominate a company to join BELA, contact Director of Member Engagement Sarah Neumann at [email protected].

About Ethisphere

The Ethisphere® Institute is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust, and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World’s Most Ethical Companies® recognition program, provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA), and showcases trends and best practices in ethics with Ethisphere Magazine. Ethisphere is also the leading provider of independent verification of corporate ethics and compliance programs, including Ethics Inside® Certification and Compliance Leader Verification™. More information about Ethisphere can be found at http://etharchive.adesignfoundation.com.

###

Media Contact
Aarti Maharaj
646-480-9715
[email protected]