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Annual Reports

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Each year, the Institute completes many objectives. Our staff publishes academic research, speaks at events, hosts events, sponsors fellows and works with student organizations. Click below to look at some of our many accomplishments.

Download: Year-End Summary 2019-2020

 

·      Continued our Ethics Series Partnership with the Union League Club of Chicago

     o   “Elections, Privacy and Analytics” – March 2019 (in collaboration with the ULCC Public Affairs Committee and DePaul Center for Journalism Integrity and Excellence) (We had over 110 registrants for the event)

                    ▪     Carol Marin, NBC 5

                    ▪     Dan Sinker, communications technology expert and political analytics expert

                    ▪     Professor Jason Martin, director, DePaul Center for Journalism Integrity and Excellence

 

·      DePaul Minicases Site

     o   Conducted a search for proposals from marketing companies to assist us in building a marketing campaign launch for the DePaul Minicases site

     o   Targeted template emails sent to specific audiences (i.e. DePaul faculty, business/community, broader academic contacts)

     o   Bundled Case Marketing around themes in conjunction with our other events (i.e. cannabis use at work; automation and privacy)

     o   Created lists of academics, research organizations, businesses/organizations and journalists to target market our case site

     o   Developed a media press kit with unique graphics and messaging for DePaul Minicases

     o   Partnered with the Office of Teaching and Learning to create a specific web page (as part of their online resources for faculty) on how to effectively use case studies for teaching and included DePaul Minicases

     o   Over 70 faculty now use these cases

 

·      Benefit Corporations

     o   Summer Brown attended Fourth Annual B Academics Roundtable in Los Angeles - September 2019 and presented on the legal developments in the US in the benefit corporation space.

     o   Summer was elected to the founding Board of Directors in the role as Corporate Secretary and helped to legally establish the non-profit for B Academics.

     o   DePaul University/Institute for Business and Professional Ethics is a Founding Institutional Member for the B Academics, and B Academics will feature DePaul and IBPE logos and marketing materials on its website, conference materials and direct traffic to the Benefit Corporation Gateway site.

     o   B Academics received the Collective Action Award at the 2019 B Labs Champions Retreat for our excellence in creating and growing an academic space for the study of benefit corporations.

     o   Summer was selected to represent B Academics and DePaul in the B Lab Policy Roundtable featuring academics, corporate executives and other think tank analysts to develop a new policy agenda for growing social entrepreneurship and adjusting investment markets/financing for benefit corporations.

     o   Summer presented to the Illinois Bar Association - Business and Securities Law Section on updates in the benefit corporation law across the United States and how the legislation can be more effective in Illinois.

 

·      Hosted Annual DECA Business Ethics Case Competition - February 2020

     o   We coordinated with DePaul Admissions to market the event to high school DECA teams to compete and take a tour of DePaul as part of an initiative for student recruitment.

     o   Forty-two students participated in the competition and two IBPE Board Members (Flynn McRoberts, Bloomberg and Anne Gross, KPMG) judged students and provided real-time feedback to the ethical problem presented.

     o   Sponsored two DePaul students to attend the National DECA Collegiate Competition and compete in the business ethics category.

 

·      Hosted famed architect Geoff Goldberg (G. Goldberg and Associates) to provide a talk to our Board of Directors on the topic of architecture and ethics. 

·      Published three new issues of the academic journal, Business and Professional Ethics Journal in conjunction with the Philosophy Documentation Center.

     o   We began a partnership with the University of Illinois-Chicago and DePaul Emeritus Professor Patricia Werhane to help publish a series of interviews with original pioneers in the academic business ethics space. Some of these interviews will appear in two special issues of BPEJ in 2021-2022.

 

·      Awarded two Wicklander Fellowships for the 2019-2020 Academic Year

     o   Joseph Mello, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

                    ▪      “Pot for Profit: In Search of a Recipe for Responsible Reform”

     o   Dr. Grace Lemmon, Associate Professor, Department of Management & Entrepreneurship, Driehaus College of Business

                    ▪     “Weight-based Stigma at Work”

 

·      Awarded the Patricia Werhane Business Ethics Scholarship to Riley O’Neil, a graduating Senior at DePaul, majoring in Finance and minoring in Philosophy. Applicants must be students either majoring in philosophy and minoring in a business field, or majoring in a business field and minoring in philosophy.

 

·      “Cannabis Reform: Criminal Expungement and Racial Disparity” - The Institute, in partnership with the Center for Public Interest Law in the DePaul University College of Law, held a forum to explore issues around how cannabis reform can impact the community, particularly the minority community, through the expungement process, and open avenues for entry into the now legalized cannabis economy. – January 2020

     o   We were honored to host the following speakers:

                    ▪     Majority Deputy Leader Representative Jehan Gordon-Booth (Illinois State Representative, 92nd District)

                    ▪     Cook County State’s Attorney Kimberly M. Foxx

                    ▪     Esther Franco-Payne, executive director of the Cabrini Green Legal Aid Clinic

                    ▪     Courtney Kelledes, Attorney at Law, Rights and Restoration Law Group (moderator)

     o   We had over 150 registrants, including students, faculty and Chicago community members.

     o   This event also generated national press, as we were featured in a syndicated news clip through Scripps that was featured on WTMJ-Milwaukee and ABC 7-Denver, among many other local news stations.

  

·      Summer Brown and Daryl Koehn attended and served on the organizing committee for the 26th International Vincentian Business Ethics Conference (IVBEC) in Dublin, Ireland, hosted by Dublin City University - October 2019

 

·      Organized a two-day Ethics Across the Curricula Workshop for DePaul faculty to learn how to better integrate ethics into their courses, regardless of discipline. (Scheduled for April, 2020, canceled due to the pandemic)

 

·      IBPE Board of Directors

     o   Sterling Sullivan, an IBPE Board Member, passed away this past year and was memorialized at a Board meeting.

     o   Michael Flynn, an IBPE Board Member, retired after over 20 years of service on the Board.

     o   Flynn McRoberts, Bloomberg News, was elected as the new Board Chair for the 2019-2021 term.

 

·      Professor Daryl Koehn gave multiple presentations:

     o   “A Virtue Ethics Critique of Behavioral Ethics,” European Academy of Management, Lisbon, Portugal, June 28, 2019.

     o   “A Virtue Ethics Critique of Behavioral Ethics,” Society for Business Ethics, August 11, 2019.

     o   “Virtue and the Self,” Society for Business Ethics, August 11, 2019.

     o   “Virtue and the Self,” Academy of Management, August 12, 2019.

     o   “Toward a New (Old) Theory of Responsibility: Moving beyond Accountability,” Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) International Conference – Atlanta, GA, February 2020.

     o   Chosen as the Bentley College Verizon Professor of Business Ethics and gave the Verizon Lecture in November 2019: “What's Ethically Wrong with Behavioral Economics?”

                    ▪     “Ethical Challenges Associated with Culture Type,” Bentley College class, November 20, Bentley College.

                    ▪     “Do Business Ethics Exist? The Challenge Posed by Milton Friedman,” Bentley College class, November 21, Bentley College.

     o   “Groundhog Day and the Nature of Evil (via Zoom, in partnership with the DePaul Philosophy Circle) - May 20, 2020

     o   Feature in The DePaulia on Daryl’s teleworking experience during the pandemic

  

·      Prof. Koehn continues to have an active research agenda. 

     o   In recognition of her research contributions to business ethics, she was appointed Visiting Verizon Business Ethics Professor, Bentley College, 2019-2020.

     o   Koehn, D.  2019. “How Would Confucian Virtue Ethics for Business Differ from Aristotelian Virtue Ethics?” Journal of Business Ethics 39(1),  https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04303-8 .

     o   Koehn, D.  2019. Crucial Differences among Three Types of Apologies and Their Shared Ethical Grounding in Integrity,” In Joanne Ciulla and Tobey Sharding (eds.), Ethical Business Leadership in Troubling Times, Edward Elgar Publishing:  117-135.

     o   Koehn, D.  2020. “Ancient Views of Practical Wisdom,” coauthors German Scalzo and Manuel Cruz Ortíz de Landázuri, accepted for publication in Handbook of Practical Wisdom in Business and Management, in series International Handbooks in Business Ethics, eds. Luc van Liederkercke, Christoph Luetge, Alejo J.G. Sison, Springer, ISBN: 978-3-030-00140-7, forthcoming.

     o   In addition, Prof. Koehn has been editing (along with David Bevan) two special issues of Business and Professional Ethics featuring reflective interviews with the founders of the discipline of business ethics.  

 

·      Prof. Koehn actively serves on a number of boards:

     o   Member of Board and Acquisition Co-Editor for Springer Series "Issues in Business Ethics" 2008-present.

     o   Member of Board for Emerald Insight Series Research in Ethical Issues in Organizations, 2009-present.

     o   Member of the Board for International Society for Business, Economics and Ethics (ISBEE), 2012-present.

     o   Member of the Advisory Board for Ethics at the top-ranked European Business School IESE 2020-present.

 

 

 

Download: Year-End Summary 2018-2019

• Ethics Series Partnership with the Union League Club of Chicago

        o Artificial Intelligence and Human Resources- November 2018 (co-hosted with the Kellstadt Masters in Human Resources Program)

             ▪ Claudia Saran- National Practice Leader for People and Change, KPMG

             ▪ Erich Dierdorff, PhD- Management Department, DePaul University

        o Author John Havens- Heartificial Intelligence: Embracing Our Humanity to Maximize Machines-  May 2019

             ▪ In partnership with the Union League Author’s Group

• Finalized the DePaul MiniCases online store to offer short undergraduate case studies on day to day ethics issues in the workplace for an entry level or intermediate level employee. We also uniquely offer business law related questions and teacher’s notes for each case. The site is currently live and we will begin a large marketing push this summer.

        o KPMG has used our cases in their NAF Future Ready Lab for the past two years.

• Hosted a two day Ethics Across the Curricula Workshop (Basics) for 25 DePaul faculty across all disciplines to aid them in integrating ethics into their own classrooms.

        o Featured training from: Daryl Koehn (IBPE), Scott Paeth (Religious Studies), Bill Kavanaugh (Catholic Studies), Scott Kelley (University Ministry)

        o Began a partnership with the Office of Teaching and Learning to use the EAC workshop as part of their OTL Faculty Certificate Program and featured a booth at the Annual Office of Teaching and Learning Faculty Resource Fair

• Continued to grow our Benefit Corporation Gateway (benefitcorporationgateway.org), an online resource for researchers and entrepreneurs interested in learning more about benefit corporations and other forms of social enterprise.

        o Summer Brown is on the organizing committee for the B Academics, an academic professional organization that provides resources to academics interested in benefit corporations. We built a website for B Academics (www.bacademics.org) that connects to our Gateway and maximizes traffic to our site.

             ▪ IBPE Staff attended the Third Annual B Academic Roundtable in New Orleans, LA in September 2019.

• Hosted our Third Annual DECA Business Ethics Case Competition in February 2019 with DePaul students. IBPE Board Members brought their “real world” expertise and experience to the judging table for the event as well.

        o We also sponsored a two person DePaul student team to compete in the Business Ethics category of the International DECA Championship Competition in April 2019.

• Published three new issues of the academic journal, Business and Professional Ethics Journal in conjunction with the Philosophy Documentation Center.

• Awarded two Wicklander Fellowships for the 2018-2019 Academic Year:

        o Kathryn Grant, Psychology, College of Science and Health

             ▪ “Integrating Research and Teaching in Service of Social Justice"

        o Joseph Schlichtman, Sociology, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

             ▪ “The 'De-'s and the 'Re-'s of Community Justice”

• Hosted a lecture event as part of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences’ “DePaul Night” at the Art Institute of Chicago titled, “Reimagining Evil.”

• Hosted Wicklander symposium and dinner

• Prof. Daryl Koehn presented at the Society for Business Ethics (August 2018), Transatlantic Business Ethics Conference (September 2018), Association for Practical and Professional Ethics Conference (February 2019), European Academy of Management Annual Conference (June 2019)

• Awarded the inaugural Patricia Werhane Business Ethics Scholarship to Grace Baffoe, a graduating Senior at DePaul, majoring in Philosophy and minoring in Hospitality. We limited applicants to students either majoring in philosophy and minoring in a business field or majoring in a business field and minoring in philosophy.

• Co-organized the International Vincentian Business Ethics Conference in New York with St. John’s University in October 2018.

• Completed an IBPE Strategic Plan in conjunction with the Driehaus Business School’s 2024 Strategic Plan.

• Welcomed three new members to the IBPE Board of Directors:

        o Sterling Sullivan- Vice President and Senior Wealth Advisor, Calamos Wealth Management

        o Shibu Howlader- Senior Manager- Infrastructure and Operations, Amtrust Financial

        o Christopher Gumprecht - Vice President of Guest Technology, Leettuce Entertain You Restaurants

• Professor Koehn published a book Toward a New (Old) Theory of Responsibility

(Springer 2019) and several academic papers.  She also gave multiple presentations:

         o “Defined Benefit Plans, Public Unions, and Ethics,” Keynote Panel, Society for Business Ethics, Chicago, IL, August 10, 2018.

         o “The Ecology of Publishing Today,” Panel of editors, Society for Business Ethics, Chicago, IL, August 11, 2018.

         o “Distinctive Features of Corporate Apologies,”  Society for Business Ethics, Chicago, IL, August 12, 2018.

         o “Contrasting an Arendtian and Socratic Self,”  Society for Business Ethics, Chicago, IL, August 12, 2018.

         o “Preliminary Thoughts on a Typology of Corporate, Personal and Collective Apologies,” IVBEC, St. John’s University, NYC, October 27, 2018.

         o “Preliminary Thoughts on a Typology of Corporate, Personal and Collective Apologies,”  TABEC, Rutgers University, Newark, NJ, November 3, 2018.

         o “A Critique of the Intentional Agency Theory of Responsibility,” University of Dayton, April 5, 2019.

         o “Master Class:  MiniCase on Public vs. Private Realms in Business,” University of Dayton, April 4, 2019.

         o “Can Ethics Be Taught?” Ethics Across the Curriculum, DePaul University, April 25, 2019.

         o “Case Studies Using the Empathy-Enhanced Approach,” Ethics Across the Curriculum, DePaul University, April 25, 2019.

         o “Reimagining Evil,” DePaul University Night at the Art Institute, May 2, 2019.

         o “A Virtue Ethics Critique of Behavioral Ethics,” EURAM, Lisbon, Portugal, June 28, 2019.

  • Hosted the International Vincentian Business Ethics Conference in conjunction with St. John’s University and Niagara University on the theme: Business and the Common Good
    • More than 150 participants from 11 different countries joined us over three days
    • Hosted our “Corporate Morning” event as part of the conference bringing together business practitioners and academics for a morning of speakers. 
  • Ethics Series Partnership with the Union League Club of Chicago 
    • Business and the Common Good (IVBEC Corporate Morning) - October 2017, featuring the following topics and speakers: 
    • “Reviving Professionalism in the Changing Context of Business, Technology and Society”- Interactive Workshop
      • Martin Martinoff- Programme Manager, AuditFutures, Institute of Chartered Accountants for England and Wales (ICAEW)
      • Plamena Pehlivanova- Education Consultant & Teaching Fellow, UCL Institute of Education 
    • “A Culture of Integrity” 
      • Steve Priest- CEO and Founder, Integrity Insight International 
    • “Fake News & News Ethics” 
      • Carol Marin- Political Editor, NBC5 Chicago Director, Center for Journalism Integrity and Excellence, DePaul University 
  • Will A.I. Take My Job or Save It?: The Ethics of AI in the Workplace, May 2018, featuring a panel with: 
    • Chip Delany, Strategy Associate, NexLP 
    • Prof. Robin Burke, DePaul's Jarvis College of Computing and Digital Media
    • Trista Bonds, VP Training & Manufacturing Operations, Building Self Determination Industries 
  • Finalized the DePaul MiniCases online store to offer short undergraduate case studies on day to day ethics issues in the workplace for an entry level or intermediate level employee. We also uniquely offer business law related questions and teacher’s notes for each case. The site is currently live and we will begin a large marketing push this summer. 
    • KPMG has used our cases in their NAF Future Ready Lab for the past year. 
  • Continued to grow our Benefit Corporation Gateway (benefitcorporationgateway.org), an online resource for researchers and entrepreneurs interested in learning more about benefit corporations and other forms of social enterprise.
    • Established a relationship with the Benefit Corporation Academic Roundtable and Summer Brown has taken a leadership role in developing an academic professional organization around BCs through the Roundtable. 
    • Added an “Education” section to the portal for collecting materials from educators in this field of research.
    • The site has served over 400 visitors more than 2000 page views since its launch in November 2015. 
  • Hosted Steve Priest, the world’s leading ethics and compliance consultant for major corporations, governments and NGOS as our Executive in Residence for a week in February 2018. As part of his residence, we hosted an event in conjunction with the Chicago Regional Business Ethics Network (CRBEN) featuring a conversation with Steve Priest. Additionally, he and Daryl are working on a research project on the concept of corporate culture to be published in the next year. 
  • Expanded our relationship with the DePaul business student case competition organization, DECA, and held our second DECA Business Ethics Case Competition in the fall 2017 with over 50 student participants. IBPE Board Members brought their “real world” expertise and experience to the judging table for the event as well. 
  • Published three new issues of the academic journal, Business and Professional Ethics Journal in conjunction with the Philosophy Documentation Center. 
    • An academic paper analyzing the impact and reputation of the various journals in the business ethics field listed the BPEJ as the 5th most prestigious business ethics journal in the world (we can likely knock out 3 and 4 too, since the writers were using some outdated info about BPEJ). This is great news and helps build our academic reputation and brand. 
  • Sponsored the Business Ethics Luncheon at the Association for Professional and Practical Ethics Annual Meeting held in Chicago this past February 2018. The theme was “Build Your Own Ethical Corporate Culture” and featured Richard Panico, President & CEO of Integrated Project Management Company, Inc., (AND former Chair and Member of the IBPE Board) and Tom Carmazzi, CEO Tuthill Corporation
  • Awarded two Wicklander Fellowship for the 2017-2018 Academic Year: 
    • John Berdell, Economics, Driehaus Business School 
    • Jason Martin, Journalism, College of Communication 
  • Produced a video update with former Wicklander Fellow, Maria Acosta 
  • Hosted two lecture events with Dr. Koehn for DePaul students and faculty: 
    • Ethics of 3-D Printing, hosted in conjunction with DePaul Library Services to feature the new Makerspace in the Richardson Library 
    • Evil in Groundhog’s Day, hosted in conjunction with the Philosophy Department 
  • Prof. Daryl Koehn presented at the Society for Business Ethics (August 2017), Transatlantic Business Ethics Conference (September 2017), Association for Practical and Professional Ethics Conference (February 2018), Society for Corporate Compliance and Ethics Conference (April 2018). 
  • Welcomed two new members to the IBPE Board of Directors: 
    • Lisa Portnoy, Partner (Technology/Media & Entertainment/Telecom Sector Leader), Ernst & Young 
    • Candice Kline, Commercial Litigation & Bankruptcy Partner, Carpenter, Lipps & Leland LLP 
  • Prof. Koehn published several academic pieces and spoke at several conferences including: 
    • “Preliminary Thoughts on Types of Apologies: Interpersonal, Corporate and Collective,” 2017 C4eJ 2 
    • Why We Need a New Theory of Responsibility (tentative title), book proposal accepted by Springer. 
    • Spoke at the Society for Business Ethics and at the International Vincentian Business Ethics Conference. 
    • Keynote talk at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee Business Ethics Luncheon on Two Views of Integrity.

Download: Year-End Summary 2015-2016

• Prof. Daryl Koehn joined the Institute in July 2015 as the new Wicklander Chair in Business Ethics and brought with her an ambitious plan for the Institute.

• Built the Benefit Corporation Gateway (bc-gateway.org), an online resource for researchers and entrepreneurs interested in learning more about benefit corporations and other forms of social enterprise.

     o This included an extensive SEO assessment and paid social media advertising to encourage site traffic. We have seen an increase of 150% as a result of these efforts.

     o We also developed relationships with local social enterprise organizations in order to continue building our network and become a major source of information on the topic of benefit corporations.

     o We hosted an event with Chicago-based benefit corporation founders for DePaul students and faculty.

• The first season of Big Questions, aired on WTTW-Prime, won a regional EMMY award from the National Academy of Arts and Sciences in November 2015. Season two is currently airing on WTTW-Prime.

• Hosted an event on the topic of ethical issues in the field of 3-D printing at a local makerspace called Catalyze Chicago.

• Forged a relationship with the Union League Club of Chicago (through the help of Ray Wicklander) and began an ethics forum speaker series. Our first event was on the topic of CEO Apologies and featured Dr. Koehn discussing her research in this area.

     o We will be hosting 2-3 events per year at the Union League Club.

• Began writing a series of short undergraduate case studies on day to day ethics issues in the workplace for an entry level or intermediate level employee. We will begin selling these short case studies in late 2016/early 2017.

• Published three new issues of the academic journal, Business and Professional Ethics Journal in conjunction with the Philosophy Documentation Center. Dr. Koehn joined Bas van der Linden as Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Journal.

     o We are currently working on a special issue, with Prof. David Steingard from St. Joseph’s University, on the topic of benefit corporations.

     o We are also working on a special issue, with Prof. Wayne Eastman at Rutgers University, on the topic of “Do We Already Have Enough Business Ethics?”

• Awarded two Wicklander Fellowship for the 2015-2016 Academic Year:

     o Richard Farkas, Department of Political Science

     o Mark Robinson, School for New Learning

• Institute faculty and staff have written academic papers on the topic of benefit corporations and will be presenting them at the International Society of Business, Economics and Ethics’ World Congress in Shanghai, China in July 2016.

• Hosted an Ethics Across the Curricula Alumni Workshop to discuss future prospects for the Ethics Across the Curricula program.

• Welcomed one new member to the IBPE Board of Directors:

     o Ann Neal, Chas A. Neal & Company

• Voted for the new IBPE Board of Directors’ Chair for 2017-2019, Haydee Olinger.

• Prof. Koehn published an academic paper and was featured in two major newspapers for her research :

     o “Are the New Benefit Corporations Likely to Prove Truly Beneficial?” forthcoming in Business and Professional Ethics Journal.

     o Rigby, R. (2016, February 18). The delicate art of the workplace apology -FT.com. Retrieved June 07, 2016, from

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/f5726166-d004-11e5-831d-09f7778e7377.html#axzz4AvWKAhbm.

     o Robison, P. (2015, November 12). CEOs: Apologize, but Keep It Manly. Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved from

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-11-12/ceos-apologize-but-keep-it-manly.