Over 225 Companies Gathered to Discuss Corporate Ethics, Company Culture and Global Impact at the 7th Annual Global Ethics Summit
Ethisphere releases Best Practices and Key Takeaways report highlighting key themes and conversations that took place at the Summit including building and sustaining an ethical culture, operating in global and emerging markets and social media and communications for ethics and compliance.
NEW YORK – May 19, 2015 – Ethisphere, the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices and host of the Global Ethics Summit released the Best Practices and Key Takeaways from the 7th Annual Summit.
During the Summit, “culture” was cited as the 2014 “Word of the Year” by Merriam-Webster and was a key topic throughout both days of the event. Keynotes from “The CEO Panel” discussed ways to foster corporate culture based on values versus rules and established that tone from the top and middle management would drive home the message.
“The thing that’s unique about the Global Ethics Summit is you get a mix of the nuts and bolts from the panels that are led by compliance officers and chief ethics officers but you also get the big picture from CEOs, private equity leaders and business leaders telling us what they need from our legal departments,” said Liquidity Services’ General Counsel, James Williams. “I can take all of that, synthesize it and say, ‘here’s the big picture and here is how it translates into what I need to do on a daily basis,’ and I think that is unique amongst the conferences.”
Extending the dialogue of ethics and culture on a global scale was also a major discussion topic with speakers sharing their successes and missteps. Speakers and participants agreed that global communications and policies must be tailored for their employees in various markets and should be reviewed taking into account local customs, language and culture.
“It was a very productive and enriching conference with very high-level speakers that shared their experience and views on the topics of ethics, compliance and leadership based on values,” explained Panama Canal’s, Ethics Program Manager, May Jane Coulson. “I had the opportunity to share what we do at the Panama Canal to ensure the highest standard in transparency, ethical values, and responsibility and take a lot of ideas so I can strengthen and reinforce our ethics program.”
Always a hot topic, the issue of social media risks and rewards were discussed and the consensus was that preparation is crucial to enable swift response as is working across departments to ensure policies are well communicated and understood.
Finally, compliance was discussed as a “hot job” of the future with the career ladder reinventing itself and significance of the role being heightened.
Get insights from key speakers at the 7th Annual Summit including:
- Brackett Denniston, Senior Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel, General Electric Company
- Andy Hinton, Vice President, Global Ethics & Compliance, Google Inc.
- Andrea Illy, Chairman and CEO, illycaffè S.p.A.
- Jack London, Executive Chairman and Chairman of the Board, CACI
- Rodney O. Martin Jr., Chairman and CEO, Voya Financial, Inc.
- Cindy Moehring, Global Chief Ethics Officer, Walmart
- Korin Neff, Senior Vice President and Corporate Compliance Officer, Wyndham Worldwide
- James Roberts, CEO, Granite Construction
- Mark Roellig, Executive Vice President and General Counsel, MassMutual Financial Group
- Melvin Stith, Board Member, Aflac
- Tony West, Executive Vice President, Government Affairs, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, PepsiCo
- James M. Zappa, Vice President, Associate General Counsel and Chief Compliance Officer, 3M
To download the “Best Practices and Key Takeaways” from the Summit visit: https://globalethicssummit2015.com/download-2015-best-practices-key-takeaways/.
The day before the Summit, Ethisphere announced the 2015 World’s Most Ethical Companies and hosted the Honoree Gala Dinner in celebration of what it means to be an ethical company. Response on a global scale was immense with the hashtag #WorldsMostEthicalCompanies and Ethisphere’s twitter handle @ethisphere garnering over 10.1 million Twitter impressions. The press release was released in 136 countries and received nearly 250,000 headline impressions. Ethisphere and Aflac participated in a satellite media tour, which also garnered 5.8 million viewers around the U.S.
The Global Ethics Summit took place at the Grand Hyatt New York and offered participants the opportunity to hear from CEOs of leading multinational companies sharing insight on leadership and reputation; listen in as board members share their views on governance, ethics and leadership; and network with executives and in-house counsel.
Save the Date
The 8th Annual Summit will take place in New York on March 9-10, 2016. Pre-registrants can save 25% by registering here: https://globalethicssummit2015.com/#registration.
To see the full list of 2015 speakers and the agenda, visit: https://globalethicssummit2015.com.
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The Ethisphere® Institute
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 the Ethisphere Magazine. Ethisphere is also the leading provider of independent verification of corporate ethics and compliance programs that include: Ethics Inside® Certification, Compliance Leader Verification™ and Anti-Corruption Program Verification™. More information about Ethisphere can be found at: https://ethisphere.com.
Ethisphere Media Contact:
Clea Nabozny
clea.nabozny(at)ethisphere.com
tel 480 397 2658
