1. CEO - Chief Ethics Officer?
Sun Microsystems Chief Ethics Officer
What is a Chief Ethics Officer?
What are the pros & cons of having a Chief Ethics Officer?
Can ethical standards be imposed top-down?
Are Chief Ethics Officers just a fad?
Dell Chief Ethics Officer
Team: Danny, Krista, Richard

2. What is a Chief Ethics Officer?
What are the key responsibilities of a CEO?
Ethics and compliance are still fundamentally line management responsibilities
CEO’s role to provide dedicated leadership of the organisation’s ethics and compliance program
policy setting and code of conduct creation
ethics and compliance education and training
operation of an internal reporting mechanism (e.g. whistle blowing)
consistent internal investigations and resolution
dissemination and monitoring
establish organisational support services
guidance on ethical or compliance aspects of decisions
Why has this new role come about?
Recent corporate scandals due to unethical corporate behaviour
Increased corporate stakeholder and society concern for sound business practices

3. Adoption of CEOs has really only occurred within the US

4. And now its time for…

5. Ethics BINGO!!!

6. What are the PRO’s of a CEO?
Increases investor confidence in the company
Promotes an ethical culture
Can act as an advisor to employees on ethical dilemmas
Ensures that decisions made by the company are ethical, and prevents potentially damaging decisions
Provides a vehicle for dealing with stakeholder concerns
Provides better protection to shareholders and other stakeholders
Can identify problems and fix them
Ensures compliance with increasingly complex regulations
Ethical focus may be competitive advantage for the company

7. What are the CON’s of a CEO?
Potential loss of investor confidence in the Chief Executive Officer and the company
Additional cost to shareholders
CEO may not be taken seriously by Senior Management
Potential conflict of interest (salary & bonuses)
May lead to decisions that do not maximise shareholder wealth
Could lead to worse behaviour if ethical responsibility is outsourced to the CEO
May create “police-state” culture within the company

8. Can ethical standards be imposed top-down?
Senior Executives have a critical role to play in creating an ethical culture
Top-down imposition of ethical standards is only one way to achieve this
Other means include:
Leading by example
Rewarding and championing ethical behaviour
Hiring ethical people
Conducting training
Incentive alignment

9. We believe that Chief Ethics Officers are here to stay
Many stakeholders are demanding CEOs
Legal incentives
Investor demand
Additional reporting and transparency requirements
CEO role supports CSR initiatives
It has existed in some form in many businesses previously
Legal, HR, Compliance, Risk Management are all areas which have handled it in the past
Recent scandals have shown that conflicts of interest can arise from this, thus leading to the creation of the new role