Hello Columbia Business School community!
On behalf of the MBA Student Leadership and Ethics Board (SLEB), we are excited to introduce ourselves as the Co-Chairs for the 2020-2021 academic year.
This year has certainly brought to light serious ethical issues and a call for values-based leadership in our society. Converging global crises have amplified the need for deep reflection, open and candid conversations, and change. And the Student Leadership and Ethics Board will play an important role in contributing to the achievement of these goals at Columbia Business School and beyond. The Board, in close partnership with the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics, aims to promote and instill the principles of values-based leadership by engaging students and the broader community in discussions and education around the topics of ethics, governance, and corporate social responsibility.
Since the inception of The Center in 2003, this work has been of prime importance to the Columbia Business School community, and we are excited to build upon the past achievements of the Center and Board alike. For instance, during the 2019-2020 academic year, we expanded the work of the late Professor Katherine W. Phillips to include more conversations around diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), as well as evaluated the Core Curriculum to identify opportunities for more dialogue around business ethics. Additionally, we facilitated the first ever virtual Leadership and Ethics Week, which attracted a record number of diverse participants and engaged students and faculty in conversations around the COVID-19 pandemic and leadership in moments of crisis. As we reflect on the tragic but illuminating events of the past few months—the devastation caused by a global health pandemic and the call for equality in light of pervasive systemic racism in the United States—we find ourselves in a unique moment in time.
It is perhaps more important than ever to equip our future business leaders with the tools and frameworks necessary to create a more equitable, inclusive, and ethical world. Thus, our goals for this coming year are twofold: partner with other organizations to co-sponsor workshops and panels about DEI and its intersection with ethical leadership and continually enhance the School’s Individual, Business, and Society Curriculum. It is our hope to bolster frank and open student exchange around current events through our successful #ethicsmatters conversation series, a program dedicated to providing a space for students to delve into these topics in an intimate setting. And we also hope to bring prominent leaders to campus to share their experiences with ethical decision-making as part of our Montrone Seminar Series on Ethics. Finally, we look forward to working with the Arthur J. Samberg Institute for Teaching Excellence to help infuse more of these conversations into Core Classes and electives aligned with faculty areas of expertise.
We are excited to connect with the incoming first-year students, other student clubs on campus, faculty, alumni, and business leaders across the globe this year. With support from the Bernstein Center, we are committed to driving SLEB’s mission forward, bringing these critical conversations to life at Columbia Business School, and ensuring our peers become ethical leaders unafraid of instituting necessary change.
Looking forward to a great year,
Anna Houseman '21, Kathryn Savasuk '21, and Amanda Pfabe '21