Indiana State University Newsroom

"Buddy or Business," "How Close is Too Close" and "Winning at All Costs" are just some of the ethical and social responsibility sessions taking place during the fifh annual Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility Conference at Indiana State University on March 29.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the ISU Hulman Memorial Student Union, the conference will feature a variety of keynote speakers and sessions discussing ethical and social responsibility issues that individuals may face in their careers.

The event, hosted by the junior class of the Networks Professional Development Program, is free for students and faculty from colleges and universities, industry professionals and community members.

The featured keynote speakers include Paul Lo, president of Paulink Co. in Taiwan, executive director of Taurus International Corp. in Shanghai and chairman of Cosmos Bank in Taiwan; Patrick Kuhse, international speaker, trainer and consultant on business ethics; and James Bixler, vice president of ethics and compliance at WellPoint, Inc.

Lo will begin the conference with a discussion of the importance of ethical behavior in international business and how acting ethically and socially responsible helped him achieve international banking success.

During the lunch session, Kuhse's speech entitled, "Prominence to Prison: Why Smart People Do Dumb Things," will include the lessons and observations he took from his journey from prominence as a successful stockbroker to his involvement in a fraudulent financial scheme.

Bixler will conclude the conference at 2 p.m. with a discussion on establishing and maintaining an ethical focus and developing relationships that support an internal ethical culture.

A full week dedicated to business ethics will start with Monday's conference. More speakers and special presentations will take place during the week, along with an ethics in politics debate night.

Kelsey Powell, co-executive director of the conference and an accounting and management information systems major from Effingham, Ill., said conference topics will examine unethical practices among leadership in corporate America.

"The answer to these problems clearly lies in the lack of ethics," Powell said. "We want to prevent situations like these from occurring again by educating our current and future leaders about the importance of ethics."

A complete conference schedule is available online at http://www.indstate.edu/ethics/. Online registration is open now until March 22. Participants may also register the day of the conference.

Contact: Rachel Wedding McClelland, Indiana State University, Communications and Marketing, assistant director of media relations, at 812-237-3790 or rachel.mcclelland@indstate.edu.

Writer: Bailee Souder, Indiana State University, Communications and Marketing, media relations intern, at 812-237-3773 or bsouder1@indstate.edu.