M&I Center for Business Ethics

The M&I Center for Business Ethics supports an educational framework that engages Lubar students in serious thought about issues of ethics and ethical ideals that they can apply as business leaders and professionals.

Fostering enhancement of the business ethics curriculum, experiential student learning, and recognition of individuals who manage with integrity, the M&I Center is committed to the promotion of business ethics as critical to the success of the market-driven economy.

2024-25 M&I Center for Business Ethics Annual Report

2023-24 M&I Center for Business Ethics Annual Report

Business Ethics Week

The M&I Center for Business Ethics hosts Business Ethics Week during the spring semester to provide a special focus on the many facets of ethical behavior and integrity in the business organization.

Business Ethics Case Competition

The Lubar College’s Business Ethics Case Competition offers Lubar College of Business students an interactive opportunity to challenge your moral reasoning, develop an understanding of the importance of business ethics, and compete for tuition support awards. Student teams collaboratively analyze a thought-provoking case and then present your recommendations to a panel of experienced business educators and professionals.

Workshops and Webinars

Business Ethics Week provides the perfect opportunity to learn from scholars and leaders from other organizations. Through workshops and webinars, the M&I Center seeks to expand the knowledge of students and members of the community on current issues associated with business ethics, and further develop our faculty’s toolbox for incorporating business ethics in their classroom discussions.

Stakeholder Capitalism:  What It Is and What It Is Not
Featuring: Ed Freeman, University Professor, Distinguished Chair in Business Administration Professor, Olsson Professor, and Academic Director of the Institute for Business in Society at the University of Virginia Darden School of Business
Friday, April 10, 2026
12:00pm – 1:30pm, Wisconsin Room, UMW Union
Lunch will be provided.

R. Edward Freeman is best known for his award-winning book, Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach (Pitman, 1984; and reprinted by Cambridge University Press in 2010). His latest books are R. Edward Freeman’s Selected Works on Stakeholder Theory and Ethics with Sergiy Dmytriyev(Springer Nature, 2023), Defeating Dengue with Andrew Sell (Columbia University Press, 2024), Models of Leadership in Plato and Beyond with Dominic Scott (Oxford, 2021); Humanizing Business with Michel Dion and Sergiy Dmytriyev (Springer Nature, 2022); The Power of And: Responsible Business Without Trade-offs, with Bidhan Parmar and Kirsten Martin (Columbia 2020); The Cambridge Handbook of Stakeholder Theory with Jeffrey Harrison, Jay Barney and Robert Phillips (Cambridge 2019); and, Research Approaches to Business Ethics and Corporate Responsibility with Patricia Werhane and Sergiy Dmytriyev, (Cambridge, 2017). He has received seven honorary doctorates (Doctor Honoris Causa) from: HEC Paris in France; Radboud University in the Netherlands; Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Spain; the Hanken School of Economics, and Tampere University in Finland; Sherbrooke University in Canada; and, Leuphana University in Germany, for his work on stakeholder theory and business ethics. In 2022 he received the University of Virginia’s most prestigious award, The Thomas Jefferson Award for Scholarship. Freeman served as Co-Editor-in-chief of the Journal of Business Ethics, one of the leading journals in business ethics, from 2016-2020. He is a lifelong student of philosophy, martial arts and the blues. Freeman is a founding member of Red Goat Records (redgoatrecords.com) bringing the joy of original soul and rhythm and blues music into the 21st Century. He is the host of The Stakeholder Podcast, sponsored by Stakeholder Media, LLC.

---

2025 Programming included:

Contemporary Ownership: Promises and Challenges Webinar

During the last four decades, corporate governance regulations sought to enhance corporate accountability by empowering shareholders and aligning the interests of corporate executives to those of corporate shareholders. The number of US publicly traded corporations, however, has shrunk by half since its 1996 peak, while the number of firms backed by private equity increased nearly six-fold, paving the way for recent initiatives to ‘democratize access to alternative assets.’ While these developments may be unsurprising in the face of a $130T global asset management industry, they raise the question whether investors’ interests can be protected if the underlying resilience and well-being of American companies is ignored, and organizational interests are reduced to the dynamically changing interests of their investors.

The distinguished panel will address three key points: (i) pivotal regulatory changes with respect to contemporary ownership, (ii) shareholder empowerment in the context of heterogeneous investor interests and concentration of diversified asset managers, and (iii) systemic consequences for American companies, investment fund beneficiaries, and stakeholders.

Leo E. Strine, Jr., is Of Counsel in the Corporate Department at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz and serves as the Michael L. Wachter Distinguished Fellow in Law and Policy at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and a Senior Fellow of the Harvard Program on Corporate Governance.  Prior to joining the firm, he was the Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court from early 2014 through late 2019.  Before becoming the Chief Justice, he served on the Delaware Court of Chancery as Chancellor since June 22, 2011, and as a Vice Chancellor since November 9, 1998.

Keith Johnson is CEO of Global Investor Collaboration Services, a consulting firm that provides governance and educational services to institutional investors on a global basis. He previously co-headed the Institutional Investor Legal Services Group at Reinhart Boerner Van Deuren, where he was selected by national peers to be included in Best Lawyers in America for corporate governance expertise. Prior to Reinhart, he served as Chief Legal Officer for the State of Wisconsin Investment Board and President of the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys (NAPPA). Keith also co-edited the Cambridge University Handbook of Institutional Investment and Fiduciary Duty and taught corporate governance as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Wisconsin Law School.

Jessica Wirth Strine is managing partner and CEO at Jasper Street, which she co-founded in 2020 following nearly twenty years in investment management. Jessica advises clients on shareholder engagement, corporate governance practices, and contentious proxy voting matters including activism. Prior to founding Jasper Street, Jessica served as a senior director on the Investment Stewardship team at Vanguard where she oversaw proxy voting and led engagement with directors and executives at public companies across the U.S. and led the firm’s interdisciplinary ESG working group. Prior to Vanguard, Jessica worked in active equity portfolio management at BlackRock where she served as a director of research and an energy sector portfolio manager; at Putnam Investments where she managed natural resources sector funds and directed energy investments across the firm’s global, international and U.S. funds; and at Wellington Management Company where she conducted equity research across the consumer and telecommunications sectors. Jessica holds a BA from Dartmouth College and an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and five children and serves on the board of directors of T1 Energy (NYSE: TE).

Nick Zuiker is a shareholder with Reinhart’s Institutional Investor Services (RIIS) Team, where he represents institutional investors all aspects of the legal and economic issues related to institutional investors, including fiduciary responsibilities, plan governance, litigation and tax legal services, including development of investment beliefs and investment policy statements and establishment of policies and programs concerning corporate engagement and exercise of shareholder rights intended to reduce investor risk and increase long-term returns. Nick also represents institutional investors in negotiating favorable terms of investments in private equity funds and other alternative investment vehicles. Nick currently serves on the Markets Advisory Council for the Council of Institutional Investors (CII), as Secretariat for the Global Institutional Governance Network, a forum of approximately 22 global institutional investors that meets periodically to discuss investor concerns and ESG issues, and as a member of the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys (NAPPA) Investments Committee.

---

Business Ethics Awards Luncheon with Curt Culver

Curt S. Culver, a director since 1999, is Non-Executive Chairman of MGIC Investment Corporation. Mr. Culver’s career includes 49 years in the private mortgage insurance industry, with 43 years at MGIC. Mr. Culver joined MGIC in 1982, was named President and Chief Operating Officer in 1996, and on January 1, 2000 became Chief Executive Officer of MGIC Investment Corporation. He added the title of Chairman in 2005. Upon his retirement in 2015, he became Non-Executive Chairman. Besides serving on the Board of MGIC, he also serves on the Boards of Wisconsin Energy Group, Inc. and Culver’s Franchising Systems.

---

Corporate Boards in Challenging Times: Advisors, Supervisors, Gatekeepers?

The Board of Directors – a cornerstone of corporate governance responsible for management oversight, executive compensation, succession planning, crisis management, and
organizational direction – faces unprecedented challenges today. These include intensifying shareholder activism, global political and economic upheaval, technological disruption, cybersecurity threats, artificial intelligence, and an overall “sense of predictable future slipping away” (Zuboff, 2019). According to the Spencer Stuart Global Board Survey (2024), over 75% of directors report heightened business uncertainty, while fewer than one-third of CEOs believe they have the right board composition to address their
organizations’ needs. Our distinguished panel will discuss three critical questions for contemporary board of directors: (1) balancing shareholder activism and short-term pressures against long-term value creation, (2) navigating the board’s supervisory role versus its strategic advisory and gatekeeping functions, and (3) addressing cybersecurity challenges and AI implications for board governance.

Christina Ahmadjian has served as a non-executive director at major Japanese companies, including Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, the Japan Exchange Group (parent company of the Tokyo Stock Exchange), Asahi Group Holdings (parent company of Asahi Beer), and NEC. She advises Japanese companies and government on DEI, corporate governance, and innovation. Christina Ahmadjian is a professor at Hitotsubashi University in Tokyo. Her research interests include comparative corporate governance, interorganizational networks and business groups, the effect of global capital markets on local management practices, and the changing face of the Japanese firm. She received her BA from Harvard University, MBA from Stanford Business School, and PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. Her publications have appeared in journals including Administrative Science Quarterly, American Sociological Review, Organization Science, and the Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization.

William Foote is retired chairman and CEO of USG Corporation, which he led from 1996 to 2011. He also served as a member of the board of Walgreens, Kohler, and a trustee of Williams College. He began his career at USG as vice president of strategic planning and served in a variety of increasingly responsible operating roles culminating in being named CEO in 1996. Prior to joining USG, he was a senior engagement manager at McKinsey & Company in Chicago and assistant treasurer at Chase Manhattan Bank in New York. Mr. Foote is a member of The Business Council and The Greater Milwaukee Committee. Foote is former chairman of the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, a life trustee of Northwestern Memorial Hospital and a former trustee of the Museum of Science and Industry. He graduated cum laude from Williams College and holds a master’s degree from Harvard Business School. He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa and was a member of the Century Club at Harvard.

Nurit Nahum holds a Ph.D. in Strategy studies, from Tel Aviv University, Coller School of Management, as well as having graduated from Harvard Business School’s Executive Education program. She is also an affiliated researcher at MMTC, Jonkoping University, Sweden. Her research interests are strategic decisions, the long-term growth and prosperity of firms and corporate governance. Nurit serves as the chairperson of LOG Pharma Packaging, and as a board member in various publicly traded firms, and teaches strategic management at the MBA program, TA university. Nurit is the former CEO of Ronin Investments, a privately owned investment company, VP of Economic and Business Development at Packer Plada Ltd., the CEO of the Business Consulting Unit at PWC Israel, and has held other leadership roles in industrial and technology companies.

---

Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Strategic Management Webinar

View the recording here

AI and digital transformation have already transformed how we “live, work, and relate to one another” (Schwab, 2024:29), with changes expected to further accelerate in the future. On one hand these developments could facilitate evidence-based strategic management, boost innovation, and offer “society a vastly more efficient way to coordinate its activities” (Mayer-Schönberger & Ramge, 2018: 33). On the other hand, they could bring new uncertainties, such as “[w]hat’s left for firms when the traditional work of firms is either done through market transactions, or by robots and computers that do not require human intervention” (Birkinshaw, 2018: 196). Our distinguished panel will address the implications of AI for strategic management.

Nan Jia is Professor of Strategic Management at Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California. She holds a PhD in Strategic Management from the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto (Canada). Her research interests include corporate political strategy, business-governance relationships, and applications of Artificial Intelligence technologies in management. Her research has been published in multiple top journals, such as Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, Organization Science, Management Science, Academy of Management Review, and others. She currently serves as an associate editor for the Strategic Management Journal and on the editorial boards of multiple leading academic journals.

Alex Murray is Assistant Professor of Management at Lundquist College of Business, University of Oregon. His research addresses empirical and theoretical puzzles stemming from the technologically-driven phenomena of crowdfunding, blockchain-based firms, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs). His research is published in Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Academy of Management Annals, Business Horizons, and others. He received his PhD from University of Washington and previously served as senior researcher at ETH Zurich. He is recipient of multiple best papers, research, teaching, and reviewer awards, and serves on the editorial boards of Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal and AMR, and as guest editor of the special topic forum on “AI in Management” at Academy of Management Review.

Shaker Zahra is Professor of Strategy and Entrepreneurship and Robert E. Buuck Chair at Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota. His research studies entrepreneurship and new firm strategy in global technology and science industries, technology strategy by new firms vs. incumbents, role of digital technology, and emergence of new organizational forms in ecosystems. Widely published in leading academic journals, he is among the most highly cited in the field of management. He is Fellow of the Academy of Management and Academy of International Business, and Research Fellow of the Global Consortium of Entrepreneurship Centers and several other organizations. In recognition of his “creative and impactful contributions to entrepreneurship research,” Professor Zahra received the Academy of Management Entrepreneurship Division‘s award. He served as academic director of the Holmes Entrepreneurship Center and co-founding director of the university-wide Center for Integrative Leadership. He also held several chaired visiting international positions and has served in leadership positions on multiple editorial boards.

2024 programming included:

Securing Your Future in the Future of Work

Featuring: Michael J. Fenlon, Ph.D, Chief Future of Work Officer at PwC
Mike has held a variety of senior US and Global leadership roles driving people strategies to enable sustained business outcomes. As Chief Future of Work Officer, he was recognized for expertise in workforce and digital transformation, inclusive culture, leadership development, and employee well-being. He is a former member of the Columbia Business School Executive Education Faculty ranked by The Financial Times as #1 in the world, and Associate Dean for top-rated global executive MBA programs. Mike earned a Ph.D. and three master’s degrees from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Teaching Business Ethics: Workshop for Faculty & Doctoral Students

Featuring: Dr. Jennifer J. Griffin, Raymond C. Baumhart, S.J. Chair in Business Ethics, Quinlan School of Business, Loyola University
Dr. Jennifer J. Griffin has received numerous research awards and grants. She is the award-winning author of the Academy of Management 2017 Best Book Award, SIM Division, for her book Managing Corporate Impacts: Co-Creating Value, Cambridge University Press. Among her research awards is Best Paper Award in 20 Years for a ‘Corporate Social Performance and Corporate Financial Performance:  Twenty-five years of Incomparable Research.’  It remains among the most cited articles in Business & Society. Dr. Jennifer J. Griffin is engaged at all levels of learning (e.g., executive, doctoral, graduate, and undergraduate including online and experiential study abroad courses). She examines how organizations continuously co-create value. Annually, she leads corporate strategy, social impact, and strategy-oriented CSR workshops for Australian, Chilean, and US executives as well as periodically in Brazil, India, and Lebanon.

Artificial Intelligence and Ethics (Webinar)

Featuring: Ramayya Krishnan, Dean and W. W. Cooper and Ruth F. Cooper Professor of Management Science and Information Systems at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College of Information systems and Public Policy
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already transforming our lives. As companies and states are increasing their investments in AI, both hopes and fears have come to the forefront. On one hand, AI could help us live longer, better, and more productive and creative lives. On the other hand, AI has also evoked concerns about profound risks to humanity, such as misinformation, inequality, and eroded social stability. Ramayya Krishnan, Dean of Carnegie Mellon’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy will address AI and Ethical Issues in a fireside conversation with Kaushal Chari, Dean of UWM’s Lubar College of Business. Dean Krishnan serves on the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Artificial Intelligence Advisory Committee (NAIAC) and is an expert on socially responsible applications of AI.

Click here to view the presentation.

Corporate Ethics Scholarship Awards

The M&I Center for Business Ethics awards two $5,000 scholarships during Business Ethics Week, to be used towards tuition in the following academic year.

Scholarship recipients are selected by a committee comprised of members of the Lubar College of Business faculty and local business leaders. The scholarships seek to reward outstanding Lubar students who excel both in the classroom and beyond and do so despite financial and other constraints. These scholarships are an integral part of fulfilling the mission of the M&I Center to promote and uphold the principles and values of fundamental morality and business ethics among the community.

Deadline to apply will be set early in the spring semester.

Great Journeys: An Inspirational Series

The Great Journeys series emphasizes the values of business integrity, ethics, and social responsibility. Featuring exceptional “role model” business and community leaders who share the guiding values, transforming influences, successes, and challenges in their lives, the series inspires the next generation to embark on their own “great journeys.”

The series, which emphasizes the values of business ethics, integrity, and social responsibility, is sponsored by the M&I Marshall & Ilsley Center for Business Ethics.

Scheduled programs will be featured on the Lubar College’s Events page.

Contact

Maria Goranova
Director, M&I Marshall & Ilsey Center for Business Ethics
Lubar Hall S381
414-229-5429
goranova@uwm.edu