Inaugural Global Business Ethics Conference Brings in Wide Range of Distinguished Speakers

This Friday February 15th, the Yale Law and Business Society and the Yale Law School Center for the Study of Corporate Law will host Yale’s inaugural Global Business Ethics Conference. The conference’s programming will examine thinking about business ethics in a variety of contexts, including natural resource extraction, emerging market growth, and the financial crisis.

The conference will feature a keynote address from Sheila Bair, the former Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, as well as remarks from Paul Volcker, the former Chairman of the Federal Reserve, who will then be interviewed by Reuters journalist Felix Salmon.

The day will open with remarks from renowned economic sociologist Neil Fligstein of California Berkeley, who will speak about perverse incentive structures leading up to the financial crisis of 2008. It will then move to a panel in which SEC Commissioner Troy Paredes will discuss securities law enforcement since 2008 with David Anders, a Wachtell Lipton white collar defense attorney, and others. The second panel focuses on the ethics of extractive industries and will feature Ernesto Zedillo, Chair of the Natural Resource Charter, in dialogue with Ken Cohen, Vice President of Governmental Affairs at ExxonMobil and others.

After our keynotes, former President of the Hewlett Foundation Paul Brest will discuss emerging market growth with Lynn Roland, general counsel of the Acumen Fund and other panelists. The conference will close with a dialogue between James Wolfensohn, former President of the World Bank and founder of Wolfensohn & Co., and Bobby Shriver, founder of DATA and (PRODUCT)RED.