Author-Scholars Stuart Hart and Dani Rodrik Among Speakers

DePaul University’s Institute for Business & Professional Ethics Institute for Business & Professional Ethics (IBPE) will host a speaker series beginning in October and three-day national conference in November that will bring together leading scholars and executives dedicated to identifying business solutions for alleviating poverty.

The initiatives support a three-year project launched by IBPE last spring, with a $45,000 grant from the Abbott Fund, to nurture the creation of for-profit models that reduce poverty and increase health care access worldwide.

Headlining the free, public lecture series are two renowned scholars and authors of recently published books that advocate innovative views of international economic development and poverty reduction.

Stuart Hart, author of the 2007 book “Capitalism at the Crossroads: The Unlimited Business Opportunities in Solving the World’s Most Difficult Problems,” will speak on DePaul’s Lincoln Park Campus on Oct. 8.

Hart, the S.C. Johnson Chair of Sustainable Global Enterprise at Cornell University’s Johnson School of Management, is one of the world’s leading authorities on the business strategy implications of sustainable development and environmentalism. Hart and C.K. Prahalad, the internationally recognized corporate strategy expert and professor from the University of Michigan, co-wrote the groundbreaking 2002 article, “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid,” which outlines how business could profitably serve the needs of the developing world’s four billion poor. Hart’s presentation begins at 3 p.m. in the DePaul Student Center, 2250 N. Sheffield Ave., Room 314 A&B.

The series continues March 6 with an address by global economic development expert Dani Rodrik, professor of international political economy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University.

In his 2007 book “One Economics, Many Recipes: Globalization, Institutions, and Economic Growth,” Rodrik argues that developing countries can achieve economic growth by following policies tailored to local economic and political realities rather than by obeying the dictates of the international globalization establishment. The time and location of Rodrik’s lecture are to be announced.

The theme of “Globalization and Poverty: Oxymoron or New Possibilities?” also will be explored by academic researchers and business leaders at the 14th Annual International Vincentian Business Ethics Conference, which DePaul will host from Nov. 1 to Nov. 3 at the Standard Club, 320 S. Plymouth Court, Chicago.

“We have encouraged conference participants to explore questions that include: How can companies market to the vast majority of the world that is in abject poverty? Can businesses address the issues of poverty and disease in developing countries while continuing to be fiscally responsible? And what are the roles of entrepreneurs in these markets?” said IBPE Executive Director Patricia Werhane, DePaul’s Wicklander Chair of Business Ethics.

The conference will feature a Corporate Leaders Session Nov. 2 from 9 a.m. to 11:15 a.m., where corporate commitment to human rights and social responsibility will be discussed by Klaus M. Leisinger, president and CEO of the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development, a nonprofit organization that supports innovative anti-poverty and disease-fighting programs in developing countries.

Leisinger, a professor of sociology at the University of Basel, Switzerland, served from 2005 to 2007 as special advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General on Global Compact, a coalition of for-profit and non-profit organizations created by the U.N. in 2000 to advance universal principles for human rights, fair labor practices, environmentalism and anti-corruption. Other Corporate Leaders Session speakers include: C. Richard Panico, president and CEO of Integrated Project Management Co. Inc. and past president of the IBPE, who will address socially responsible leadership; and Ellen Carnahan, co-partner of the private equity firm Seyen Capital Partners and past president of The Chicago Network, the premier organization for prominent Chicago professional women.

During the rest of the three-day conference, scholars will discuss a range of business ethics research and education issues.

The Annual Vincentian Business Ethics Conference rotates among DePaul, St. John and Niagara universities—three Catholic academic institutions, founded by the Vincentian order—which have strong commitments to teaching and fostering business ethics.

The fee for the full three-day conference is $300 and includes meals and conference publications. To attend only the Corporate Leaders Session and luncheon on Nov. 2, the fee is $80 per person. College students may attend the full conference for $50; DePaul students will be admitted free of charge.

For more information, contact Summer Brown at the IBPE: 312/362-8786 or sbrown15@depaul.edu., or visit the IBPE Web site.

Note to Editors: Journalists interested in covering the lectures or conference should make prior arrangements by calling Robin Florzak, DePaul Media Relations: 312/362-8592.