Smeal College Management Professor Joins Business Roundtable For Corporate Ethics

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA (January 14, 2004) -- Linda Klebe Treviño, professor of organizational behavior and the Franklin H. Cook Fellow in Business Ethics at Penn State's Smeal College of Business, has agreed to serve as a core faculty member for the newly founded Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics, joining other leading business ethics experts from several of the nation's top business schools.

Housed at the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia, the Institute will conduct research, create a cutting-edge business ethics curriculum, lead executive seminars on business ethics, develop best practices in the area of corporate and business ethics, and provide hands-on training to current and emerging business leaders.

"My colleagues and I have been hoping for this type of leadership from the American business establishment for some time now," Treviño said. "Our mission of measurably changing the corporate landscape is certainly bold, but the enthusiasm and expertise represented within the Institute offer tremendous promise for what can be achieved. It's a great honor to be a part of this initiative and I look forward to being able to contribute to it."

The advisory council for the Institute will be co-chaired by Franklin Raines, CEO of Fannie Mae, and R. Edward Freeman, the Elis and Signe Olsson Professor of Business Administration and director of the Olsson Center for Applied Ethics at the Darden Graduate School. Faculty from schools such as Harvard, Michigan, Minnesota, Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management, Notre Dame, the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, and Texas will also take part.

In addition, the Institute has the direct backing and participation of the 150 CEOs of the Business Roundtable, an association of chief executives of America's leading corporations, and will be headed by an executive director, with a nine-member advisory council overseeing all activities. Members of the advisory council will include Hank McKinnell, chairman and CEO of Pfizer; Anne Mulcahy, chairman and CEO of Xerox; Steve Odland, chairman, president and CEO of AutoZone; John J. Castellani, president of the Business Roundtable; Thomas Dunfee of The Wharton School; Laura Nash of Harvard Business School; and William H. Gray, III, former congressman and current president and CEO of the United Negro College Fund.

Treviño has been a leader in business ethics education, and in 2003 she was named to the Ethics Education Task Force for the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). The task force was charged with identifying potential enhancements for business education and with reviewing accreditation standards for ethics education in business.

Treviño, who also directs the Smeal College's Shoemaker Program in Business Ethics, conducts research in the areas of ethical leadership, the management of ethical conduct in organizations; the management of organizational climate and culture to support and encourage ethical behavior; and organizations' varied approaches to ethics management. She co-authored the textbook "Managing Business Ethics; Straight Talk About How to Do it Right," which is being used to teach undergraduates, MBAs, and executives, and is in its third edition. Another book, "Managing Ethics in Business Organizations; Social Scientific Perspectives," was published in 2003 by Stanford University Press.

Frequently quoted in the media on ethics-related issues, Treviño is a member of the editorial review boards of Business Ethics Quarterly , Academy of Management Review , and Academy of Management Journal .