Ethisphere's Business Ethics Leadership Alliance Grows to More Than 300 Companies With New Members Originating From Canada, Mexico, Thailand, UK, and US Markets

NEW YORK, November 18, 2020 (Newswire.com) - ​The Ethisphere Institute, a global leader in defining and advancing standards of ethical business practices, announced today that 19 companies have recently joined the more than 300 existing members of the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA). Founded by Ethisphere, BELA is a 300+ member strong globally recognized organization of leading companies collaborating together to share best practices in governance, risk management, compliance, and ethics.

As the threat of COVID-19 continues to demand work-from-home environments and urgent changes to business strategy, this growth in membership rewards the community with new shared insights that enable organizations to continue placing values and integrity at the center of all that they do.

The complete list of new companies joining BELA includes:

• ABM Industries
• Altán Redes
• Aramark Corporation
• Brown-Forman Corporation
• Capital Power
• Charoen Pokphand Group Co., Ltd.
• CNA Insurance
• Frontera Energy
• KeyBank
• Novant Health
• Ohio Health
• Owens Corning
• Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company
• Reckitt Benckiser Inc.
• Selective Insurance Group, Inc.
• Spirit AeroSystems
• UNT Health Science Center
• Verisign Inc.

Based on the continued demands from the community to connect and engage with notable faculty and experts at academic institutions, BELA is pleased to also welcome the University of Texas at Austin to its existing roster of high-level educational institutions. The immersion of academic involvement provides universities with the opportunity to leverage all Ethisphere and BELA content, practical tools, data-driven insights, and more into their curriculum to aid in building the next generation of purpose-driven leaders, as well as share their own research and expertise with the community of leaders.

"Whether an organization is new to BELA or a long-standing member, we are seeing that all are rigorously pursuing ethics and compliance in a way that measurably improves business performance, despite the obstacles a worldwide pandemic has created," said Kevin McCormack, Executive Director, BELA. "This year has been an unprecedented exercise in agility and vigilance. Through Ethisphere's program benchmarks and unrivaled data set, BELA members are putting this information to use in new ways as they adjust their strategies and plan for new compliance challenges. BELA is arguably more unified than it has ever been, with an exceptional level of global peer support and an array of resources to help them along each of their journeys."

"Whether it is focusing on diversity and inclusion efforts to ensure we attract top talent or making compliance and ethics a differentiator as we strive to remain among the best insurance underwriting companies, CNA has a story, and we look forward to sharing our strategies with fellow BELA members," said Garrett Williams, Sr. Vice President & Chief Compliance Officer at CNA Insurance. "We are equally anxious to hear from other experts in the fields of CSR, compliance, and ethics to learn the best practices being executed on a global level. The growth of BELA has been astounding, and we are pleased to add CNA Insurance to an already impressive roster."

"At Aramark, we strive to create a better world by considering the company's environmental, economic, social, and ethical dimensions," said Tamsin Fast, Chief Compliance Officer, Aramark. "Our commitment to sustainability, to doing the right thing always, begins with integrity. As we consider our membership in BELA, we are pleased to be part of a community that prioritizes purpose and understands its vital impact on the bottom line."

The more than 300 BELA member companies represent more than 60 industries headquartered in 15 different countries. It has become a pivotal platform of connected leadership dedicated to progressing company standards and practices across global and regional business ecosystems. Driven by a global desire to advance integrity and improve business performance, in 2017 BELA expanded to South Asia. The South Asia Chapter includes a community of select Founding Member companies and "integrity partners" who have taken on a leadership role in inspiring best practices in ethics, integrity, and anti-corruption efforts across India and South Asia. Applying a similar model, BELA's new chapter expansion has reached the Americas, Europe, and most recently Asia Pacific.

BELA Member Benefits—Request Guest Access

BELA members receive enterprise-wide access to the BELA Member Hub—a premier repository of key resources featuring examples of work, presentations, and research provided by BELA companies that are intended to cultivate the exchange of ideas and provide inspiration for companies to continuously improve in the area of ethics and compliance. To enable executive decision-making and resource calibration, members also have the opportunity to measure their own programs through data-driven benchmarking as an independent evaluation of ethics and compliance programs and analysis of best practices relative to other leading companies' programs. To request guest access to the BELA Member Hub, click here.

Founded by the Ethisphere Institute, the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) is a globally recognized organization of leading companies collaborating together to share best practices in governance, risk management, compliance, and ethics. BELA's membership has since grown to a large community of companies who recognize the inherent value of promoting ethical leadership and world-class compliance culture. Learn more about BELA by visiting http://bela.ethisphere.com. To nominate a company to join BELA, contact Director of Member Engagement Sarah Neumann at [email protected].

 About Ethisphere 

The Ethisphere® Institute is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust, and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World's Most Ethical Companies® recognition program, provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA), and showcases trends and best practices in ethics with Ethisphere Magazine. Ethisphere also helps to advance business performance through data-driven assessments, benchmarking, and guidance. More information about Ethisphere can be found at https://www.ethisphere.com.

Source: The Ethisphere Institute