McDonald's, Nationwide, Spirit AeroSystems, STO Building Group, Rio Tinto, and More Join the Growing Ranks of Ethisphere's Business Ethics Leadership Alliance

NEW YORK, February 8, 2021 (Newswire.com) - The Ethisphere Institute, a global leader in defining and advancing standards of ethical business practices, announced today that several major companies have recently joined more than 315 existing members of the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA). Founded by Ethisphere, this globally connected community of leading companies continues to expand and enrich nearly every facet of the work that professionals are encountering across governance, risk management, compliance, and ethics practices. The extraordinary circumstances in 2020, and the still ongoing challenges of 2021, have created an even greater reliance on the community to support the myriad of new work entanglements.

This continuous growth in membership rewards the community with new shared insights that enable organizations to support and challenge one another as they innovate to address risks, improve performance, and place values and integrity at the core of all that they do. Companies joining BELA include:

• Capital Power
• Corteva Agriscience
• Farm Credit Canada
• Ferguson Enterprises
• Guidehouse
• McDonald's Corporation
• Nationwide
• Orica
• Prudential
• Rimini Street
• Rio Tinto
• Saint-Gobain Corporation
• Spirit AeroSystems
• STO Building Group
• University Hospitals

In 2020, BELA previously welcomed a slew of leading companies, representing a diverse set of industries such as Altán Redes, Charoen Pokphand Group Co., Ltd., CNA Insurance, Owens Corning, Reckitt Benckiser Inc., and more.

"The entire world is closely monitoring and assessing how companies will lead us out of this pandemic by securing business continuity, returning to high performance, and committing to many new investments in people and communities," said Kevin McCormack, Senior Vice President, and Executive Director, BELA. "Where government has often stumbled, businesses will be there to restore confidence in society and opportunity. The compliance and ethics leaders at each BELA member organization will have a historically significant role to play in 2021. Resiliency is a hallmark of this community, as is the way that members coalesce around a common purpose: to serve an ecosystem greater than any one organization, with corporate integrity at the center. Given how closely each BELA organization partners with Ethisphere, and with one another, we share in the optimism about the work and outcomes ahead."

"For more than 90 years, Nationwide has been helping to protect people, businesses and futures with extraordinary care," said Parag Shah, Nationwide's Chief Ethics Officer. "Joining the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance reinforces our continued commitment to ethics, honesty and integrity. We look forward to engaging in meaningful ways with BELA and its members in 2021 and beyond."

"As a power generator, we're committed to optimizing our business to deliver responsible energy for tomorrow—including strengthening our ethics and compliance practices to meet the evolving expectations of our employees, investors, communities, and stakeholders. Our integrity, ethics, and compassion are key to achieving our goal to be net carbon neutral by 2050," said Leigh Mulholland, Capital Power's Chief Compliance Officer. "We're pleased to join the growing, international list of companies taking advantage of the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance and look forward to engaging and sharing insights with our peers."

BELA member organizations, inclusive of academic institutions, 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.

Through an inherent 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 Asia Pacific.

Based on the continued demands from the community, there's an ongoing desire and increased flexibility in the new work-from-home environment for leaders to connect and engage with industry peers. That is why, in addition to the many other benefits of being a BELA member, this year, Ethisphere will continue to expand upon its tradition of offering one of the most compelling platforms for leadership connectivity and diverse, pan-industry voices at the virtual 2021 Global Ethics Summit, which will feature faculty members from around the world representing the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) community.

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.

About BELA

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