World Citizens - DePaul University

Institute for Business and Professional Ethics Launches Program
to Advocate Reducing Poverty through Commerce
The College of Commerce recently launched an ambitious threeyear
program to promote the creation of business initiatives to
reduce poverty and health care inequities in Chicago as well as in
developing nations.
Sponsored by the college’s Institute for Business and Professional
Ethics (IBPE) and supported by a $45,000 grant from Abbott
Laboratories, the initiative features a lecture series, which kicked
off March 5 with a talk by William Easterly. He is the author of
the bestselling book, “The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s
Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good.”
Patricia Werhane, Wicklander Chair of Business Ethics and
director of the Institute for Business and Professional Ethics, and
William Easterly, professor of economics and Africana studies at
New York University, shown with Easterly’s bestselling book.
A professor of economics and Africana studies at New York
University, Easterly is a nationally known expert on long-term
economic growth and the effectiveness of foreign aid. He worked
for 16 years as a research economist at the World Bank and is a
fellow of the Center for Global Development in Washington, D.C.
During the 2007-08 academic year, the IBPE will sponsor
programs that examine how business could expand health care for
the poor and reduce the number of uninsured. In the third year
of the project, IBPE’s goal is to develop new, appealing models for
the business sector to address urban poverty and health care
access locally and globally.
“While this focus on the for-profit sector is only one of
several viable models, it is one that challenges both traditional,
classical economic models and the view that only charity or
government is capable of addressing poverty,” said Patricia Werhane,
Wicklander Chair of Business Ethics and director of the IBPE.
“As we will learn from our speakers, models for long-term change
can come from for-profit programs that promote dignity, responsibility
and self-reliance among recipients and the companies that
create these programs.”
Stuart Hart, author of the newly published book, “Capitalism
at the Crossroads: The Unlimited Business Opportunities in
Solving the World’s Most Difficult Problems,” is scheduled to
continue the lecture series on Oct. 8.
The IBPE also is actively involved in the United Nations
Global Compact Networks. Created by the United Nations in 2000,
Global Compact challenges business leaders and a coalition of
U.N. agencies, labor unions, academic institutions and civil society
organizations to advance universal principles for human rights,
fair labor practices, environmentalism and anti-corruption.
DePaul is taking a leadership role among the 120 academic institutions
that have joined Global Compact to develop educational
materials that will be used for teaching principles for responsible
business worldwide.
For information about the public lectures,
contact the IBPE at 312.362.8786.
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