Ethisphere Magazine Names 100 Most Influential People In Business Ethics For 2007

Ethisphere Magazine, a global print publication dedicated to illuminating the important correlation between ethics and profit, will release its annual 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics. The list will be published in the Q4 issue, available in December.

A panelist of ethics experts from major universities including New York University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Delaware, and Arizona State University, among others, submitted nominations and ranked individuals who influenced ethical behavior in global business. Research was conducted in cooperation with analysts from the Ethisphere Institute. While hundreds of individuals were considered, ultimately only 100 made the list and are ranked in order from 1 to 100 based upon relative weightings provided by the panelists and analysts.

Some of the 100 most influential people include:

Gerald Grinstein, Retired CEO of Delta Airlines

Greg Farrell, USA Today Journalist and respected business author

Sir Terry Leahy, Chief Executive of Tesco

Al Gore, Nobel Laureate and Former Vice President of the United States

H. Lee Scott Jr., President and CEO of Wal-Mart

"When examining individuals for their contributions in 2007, it was important to us that we measured each person against the paradigm of impacting profitable ethical leadership. For example, some influencers made the list due to thought leadership and new ideas which contributed to helping business understand opportunities or risks associated with ethical business practices," said Ethisphere Editor Stefan Linssen.

"Others made the list because they changed corporate behavior through regulatory enforcement, investment practices or as a result of collaborative efforts to positively impact change," added Linssen, who oversaw the project.

The 100 Most Influential individuals were indexed against the following nine categories:

Government and Regulatory – Did the individual impact government rules or enforcement trends?

Business Leadership – Did the individual substantially transform a specific business’ operational practices consistent with profitable ethical leadership, forcing competitors to follow suit or fall behind?

Non-Government Organization (NGO) – Did the individual impact a company’s (or industry’s) practices through external, non-regulatory leadership either through positive collaboration or negative publicity for a positive end?

Design and Sustainability – Did the individual substantially contribute to or lead a product or service redesign, which resulted in less natural resource use, or increased consumer acceptance of sustainability without diminishing the quality of the original product or service?

Media and Whistleblowers – Did the individual raise awareness on a critical issue or expose corruption?

Thought Leadership – Did the individual conceive of new approaches or otherwise materially contribute to the field of business ethics theory in a way that could be easily applied by corporate leaders?

Corporate Culture – Did the individual show success to transforming the ethical culture and behavior of a corporation or institution, particularly if such corporation or institution previously had less than ethical culture and values system?

Investment and Research – Did the individual impact corporate behavior through influencing investor decisions and the deployment of investment capital due to this individual’s research or institutional fund management practices?

Legal and Governance – Did the individual impact any legal cases which set the precedents in corporate compliance, or influence trends or structure in effective corporate governance for public and/or private companies?

The complete list of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics will be available here.

The Q4 issue will also feature "Amnesty – The Rush to Self Report," which will detail the Department of Justice’s apparent leniency towards companies that admit guilt in price fixing scandals, as well as the magazine’s regular ‘Global Compliance’ section, which will focus on conducting business in Israel.

Thought-provoking, informative, and at times irreverent, Ethisphere Magazine offers insight to readers on gaining market share and creating sustainable competitive advantage through ethical business practices and corporate citizenship. With a circulation of 65,000 Board members, CEOs, General Counsel, Chief Ethics and Compliance Officers and senior executives, Ethisphere Magazine is the largest print publication in compliance, ethics and corporate social responsibility.

Via: (Ethisphere Magazine)