CEBC IN THE NEWS

Press Release

Center for Corporate Responsibility
to Announce Expansion Partnerships
with U of M and St. Thomas

For release on Tuesday, December 15, 1998.

Contacts: 

Robert MacGregor
Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility
(651) 962-4120

Alice Pepin
Carlson School of Management
University of Minnesota
(612) 625-0843

Jim Winterer
University of St. Thomas News Service
(651) 962-6404

Center for Corporate Responsibility to Announce Expansion, Partnerships with
U of M and St. Thomas

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - The Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility, established 20 years ago and affiliated with the Graduate School of Business at the University of St. Thomas for the past 10, would significantly expand its educational partnerships, research and business services under a proposal that will be announced at its annual meeting tonight.

Under the proposal, two graduate schools - the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota and the St. Thomas Graduate School of Business - would affiliate with the center.

Established in 1978 by leaders of Minnesota's largest corporations and currently chaired by retired Honeywell CEO James  Renier, the center is known throughout the United States and many parts of the world for its efforts to promote corporate responsibility and ethical business practices.

Although it is active on many fronts, including research, educational programs, and work-and-life issues, the center probably is best-known for advancing seven precepts originally known as the Minnesota Principles.

The precepts, later adopted by the Caux Round Table, a Swiss-based group of business leaders from Asia, Europe and the Americas, now are known as the Principles for Business.  The Minnesota center has been instrumental in presenting the principles to governments and corporations around the globe.   Published in 16 languages, they are the most broadly circulated code of business ethics in the world.

Under the proposal, which has received preliminary endorsement from the Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility's board of directors and from the two universities, the center would begin operating in its new form in July 1999, with planned initiatives phased in over a three- to five-year period.

The nonprofit center has been financed by its 120 corporate members and St. Thomas; future operations would be supported by corporate members regionally, nationally and globally, and through an endowment.

The restructured center would be governed by a business-led board of directors with representatives from collaborating institutions.

The proposal calls for close involvement from two existing endowed chair programs:  the Koch Endowed Chair in Business Ethics at St. Thomas, and the Andersen Chair in Corporate Responsibility at the University of Minnesota.

In its now format, the center would focus its efforts in three areas:  practical research, education and business services.

• In the area of research, the center would serve as a link and expand its work with businesses and educators to develop case studies and practical approaches to emerging issues dealing with corporate responsibility and ethics.

• In the area of education, the partnership would enhance business programs at St. Thomas, the University of Minnesota and other collaborating institutions.  This would happen through internships, student organizations, greater faculty coordination, and doctoral-level education at the University of Minnesota.

• In the area of business services, the center would actively help corporations address real-world business problems, with an emphasis on international issues and corporate community involvement.  It would significantly expand its workshop schedule, create networks that help corporations exchange useful strategies, and promote corporate and academic use of best-practices.  The center also would provide consulting and assessment services, and offer public commentary on critical issues facing the business community.

"This proposal builds on Minnesota's unique reputation as the global leader in matters of corporate responsibility and business ethics" said Robert MacGregor, president of the center.

"The transformation of the center, and the energy that will flow from its partnerships, will help us advance our knowledge of the ethical foundations of free-market economics and our quest for helping to create ethical business cultures - within individual enterprises, communities and among nations."

Keynote speakers at tonight's 20th, annual meeting will be Mark Yudof, president of the University of Minnesota, and the Rev. Dennis Dease, president of St. Thomas.

Also speaking will bc David Koch, chairman of Graco Inc.;   Tony Andersen, chairman of H.B. Fuller Co.;  David Kidwell, dean of the Carlson School of Management;  Theodore Fredrickson, dean of St. Thomas Graduate School of Business;  and David Andreas, president and CEO of National City Bancorporation.

The center's annual meeting, which will be held at the Hyatt Regency Minneapolis, will include the presentation of the Distinguished Corporate Citizenship Award to Charles Denny Jr., retired chairman and CEO of Minneapolis-based ADC Telecommunications and a longtime supporter of the center's efforts.

More information about the Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility can be found on the World Wide Web at www.stthomas.edu/mccr.

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