Published: May 1, 2005

The University of Colorado at Boulder Leeds School of Business is a founding member of a new network exploring corporate compliance, governance and ethics that will kick off with a May 13 panel discussion on corporate scandals.

The Colorado Ethics and Compliance Exchange is a network of Colorado executives and business educators from Qwest Communications, First Data, Adelphia and the University of Denver.

The group's May 13 event will be held at The Cable Center, 2000 Buchtel Blvd. on the DU campus. The event is free and open to the public and will be held from 9 a.m. to noon.

Members of the group's steering committee will present the panel discussion following a talk by Cynthia Cooper, an internal auditor at WorldCom and the key whistleblower in the company's accounting fraud. Her talk is part of a speaker series sponsored by DU's Daniels College of Business.

"Corporations are under increasing social and legal pressure to create and sustain an ethical culture," said Lyla Hamilton, faculty director of the Leeds School's Center for Business and Society and a member of the new organization's steering committee.

"The Colorado Ethics and Compliance Exchange provides opportunities for professionals and scholars to learn from one another's experience as they face the challenges of developing and maintaining effective ethics and compliance programs. The Leeds School's involvement in CECE reflects our commitment to inquiry and community outreach regarding issues of business and society," she said.

The group plans to meet quarterly. Hamilton, Robert Kolb, assistant dean for business and society, and Francy Milner, an adjunct professor at the Leeds School of Business, are the CU-Boulder representatives on the group's steering committee. The committee includes representatives from every partner organization.