NEW YORK, December 11, 2009… Senior management and boards must move proactively to better integrate integrity and corporate strategy, according to a report by two leading ethics practitioners who are members of The Conference Board Global Council on Business Conduct.
“The time for integrity to be integrated into strategy has come,” said Andrea Bonime-Blanc, general counsel, chief compliance officer, and corporate secretary of Daylight Forensic & Advisory LLC, who co-authored the report with Jacqueline E. Brevard, vice president and chief ethics officer of Merck & Co. Bonime-Blanc and Brevard are members of The Conference Board Global Council on Business Conduct, which joins company representatives from around the world to address issues of ethics, compliance, governance and stakeholder engagement. Their report “Ethics & The Board—Integrating Integrity into Business Strategy,” is part of the Council Perspectives series, which periodically publishes insights gleaned in the usually private meetings of The Conference Board Councils.

“Because of the many ways in which some boards did not seem to get it, especially since Enron and culminating recently with very visible financial scandals, we felt it necessary to underline practical ways in which boards can and should proactively and preventatively engage with senior management on issues of ethics and compliance,” Bonime-Blanc said.

“We have attempted to triangulate the topic of who, what, when and how issues of business integrity touched on, or needed to intersect with, the upper most governing body of a company,” added Brevard.

The report offers practical guidance on how to integrate integrity into board oversight and includes, for example, best practices in codes of conduct, leadership vetting, and E&C risk management and auditing.

About Council Perspectives and The Conference Board Councils
Council Perspectives is a new publication from The Conference Board based on deliberations and shared insights on the most pressing business issues of our time by members of The Conference Board Councils. Members are among the most experienced and savvy executives in the business world. Council members meet several times a year with peers in other companies to discuss in confidence common critical concerns that affect each of their roles in their companies and industries.