Ethisphere Teams with Leaders from Top Companies to Drive Business Ethics

Announces New Stakeholder-Driven Committee for Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) Featuring Bayer AG, Eli Lilly, GE, HCA, Jones Lang LaSalle, Microsoft, Realogy and The Boeing Company

New York, NY – June 13, 2017 – Ethisphere, a global leader in defining and advancing standards of ethical business practices, announced today that it has created an Executive Steering Committee for its Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA). The team is comprised of key stakeholders from leading multinationals across the country, including representatives from The Boeing Company, Eli Lilly, Jones Lang LaSalle, Realogy Holdings Corp, GE, Hospital Corporation of America and Microsoft.

The overriding mission of this new committee is to develop strategy and elevate thought leadership around organizational justice, while highlighting the financial and brand-enhancing value of prioritizing ethics in business. The Executive Steering Committee will meet several times during the year to develop research topics, aligning key strategies in the ethics arena and developing best practices in measuring and improving ethics programs to create sustainable, long-term value.

“Research—including Ethisphere’s—shows how organizations with a strong ethical culture regularly outperform their peers. We refer to this as an ethics premium,” said Erica Salmon Byrne, Executive Vice President and Executive Director, BELA. “This underscores the value of prioritizing a strong, innovative ethics program in an ever-changing business ecosystem. To that end, we are proud to partner with each of these thought leaders, representing first class companies, to develop new platforms that will help raise the ethical standards at companies around the world.”

“It is an invaluable opportunity to serve as a member of the Executive Steering Committee for BELA and the broader community,” said Diana Sands, Senior Vice President, Office of Internal Governance and Administration, The Boeing Company. “What’s especially impactful for us is the rich dialogue among industry leaders who are active members in BELA and the willingness of those leaders to take a cross-industry approach to collaborating and sharing best practices.”

Representatives expected to join the BELA Executive Steering Committee and their areas of focus include:

• Diana Sands, Senior Vice President, Office of Internal Governance and Administration, The Boeing Company – Cross Functional Executive Leadership: Aligning with the Business;
• Melissa Stapleton Barnes, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Risk Management, and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer, Eli Lilly and Company – Career Development, Mentorship and Positioning Ethics and Compliance as a Launching Pad for Company Leadership;
• Mark Ohringer, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated (JLL) – Long-term Company Investment Value (Ethics as a Driver);
• Thomas Pfennig, Head of Compliance, Bayer AG – Globalization: Global Voices and Culture;
• Elisabeth Gehringer, Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer, Realogy Holdings Corp. – Stakeholder and Board Communications & Engagement;
• Al Rosa, Chief Compliance Director and Senior Executive Counsel, GE – Measurement and Data Analytics;
• Alan Yuspeh, Senior Vice President and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer, Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) – Program Structure and Industry Leadership;
• David Howard, Corporate Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, Litigation, Competition Law and Compliance, Microsoft Corporation – Leveraging Technology.

“JLL is excited to be represented on the BELA Steering Committee,” said Mark Ohringer, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Jones Lang LaSalle Incorporated. “We always want to be at the forefront of best practices in business ethics, and there is no better way to do that than to get the benefit of what the leading companies from a cross-section of industries are thinking about and doing as they confront the challenges of today’s complicated business environment.”

“Ethisphere is doing great work to further business ethics, and I am honored to be part of the BELA Executive Steering Committee to help elevate ethics, compliance and performance across BELA and the broader community,” said Melissa Stapleton Barnes, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Risk Management, and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer, Eli Lilly and Company. “Career development and mentorship are important components of a company’s ethics and compliance program and can help develop leaders who understand the value of business ethics and its impact on long-term success.”

“We appreciate the opportunity and value of being a part of BELA’s Executive Committee,” said Bayer AG‘s Head of Compliance Thomas Pfennig. “It is a great privilege to join and contribute to the conversation along with other leading experts in the field.”

The creation of the new steering committee comes on the heels of Ethisphere’s recent announcement that it will create new Centers of Excellence that will serve the BELA community as online reference sites for all things ethics. BELA expects to have up to a dozen contributing company centers by the end of 2017 available for the entire global BELA community of companies. Each Center contains practical insights relevant to an area of challenge for ethics and compliance professionals, with multiple modalities of downloadable information.

For complete bios of our steering committee members, please click here. For a recap of the community priorities and highlights from BELA activities, click here.

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 https://ethisphere.com.

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