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American Business Ethics Awards
The David Berg Center for Ethics and Leadership, along with the Society of Financial Services Professionals, annually serves as a sponsor and host for the region's American Business Ethics Awards, which was recently recognized as the finest regional award for this honor in the country. The center provides the judging for this event, visiting the finalist companies and assembling the final judging committee.
Finalists for the American Business Ethics Awards are chosen through nomination and overall reputation and are evaluated on such criteria as demonstration of executive commitment to business ethics, clear communication of ethical standards to employees, consistently high quality of products and services, and a commitment to community and charitable involvement. Winners in each category locally go on to compete for national awards.
When academic schedules allow, Certificate Program in Leadership and Ethics (CPLE) students are encouraged to participate in the information-gathering portion of the competition by visiting the companies and speaking with chief executive officers and corporate ethics officers. CPLE students also are invited to the awards ceremony, which is held at the Duquesne Club and attended by approximately 250 businesspeople from around the Pittsburgh area.
About the Recent Awards
For the sixth year in a row, the David Berg Center for Ethics and Leadership co-chaired and sponsored the Pittsburgh Business Ethics Awards, held at the Duquesne Club on February 9. More than 250 people were in attendance to see awards bestowed upon Healthy Performance (small business category), Duquesne Light (medium category), and Kennametal (large category). In addition, the David Berg Center for Ethics and Leadership presented a new award for an individual—the Excellence in Leadership Award—to John T. Ryan III, CEO of MSA.
See details on John T. Ryan and a full transcript of his recipient speech. >
Berg Center staff and undergraduate students in the Certificate Program for Leadership and Ethics (CPLE) visited all of the finalist companies to collect information for the judging panel. Finalists this year included the following:
Large Companies (more than 2,500 employees):
Allegheny Technologies
Kennametal*
MSA
Medium Companies (250–2,500 employees):
Acusis
Duquesne Light Company*
Dynavox Systems
Renda Broadcasting
Small Companies (fewer than 250 employees):
Healthy Performance*
Metropolitan Window Company
Woodward Inc.
Finalists were chosen through nomination and overall reputation and were evaluated on such criteria as demonstration of executive commitment to business ethics, clear communication of ethical standards to employees, consistently provision of high-quality products and services, and a commitment to community and charitable involvement. Regional winners from each category may choose to enter the competition for the American Business Ethics Award. In fact, last year’'s Pittsburgh winner in the medium-size category, MEDRAD, Inc., went on to become a national winner, as well.
The Berg Center is also responsible for assembling the judging panel. This year's judges were United States Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan; Darrin Grove, president and CEO of TrueFit Solutions—a 2005 winner of the Pittsburgh Business Ethics Award, small companies category; Diane Hausman, manager of Mellon Financial Corporation's Ethics and Investigations Office; Dr. Peter Madsen, associate professor at Carnegie Mellon University; and Perry Minnis, director of ethics, compliance, and advisory services at Alcoa Inc.
Event Sponsors
The Pittsburgh Business Ethics Awards event at the Duquesne Club was jointly sponsored by the Society of Financial Service Professionals, the Berg Center, Allegheny Conference on Community Development, Innovative Benefits Consulting Inc., KDKA News Talk 1020, and Trib Total Media.
Next Year's Awards
Next year's awards will feature keynote speaker Sharon Allen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Deloitte & Touche USA LLP (D&T USA). For ticket information and nomination forms, visit www.pittsburghsfsp.org.