ND professor to teach business ethics in South Korea as an ‘International Scholar’

The Rev.
Oliver F. Williams, C.S.C., a
noted expert in business ethics and associate management professor at the
University of Notre Dame, will be spending the 2012-13 academic year
introducing South Korean students to the concepts of ethical leadership and
international efforts to use commerce as an instrument of peace.

Williams
has been designated as an International Scholar and visiting professor at
Kyung Hee University in Seoul, South Korea. He will be teaching a course for
both graduates and undergraduates on business ethics, as well as on the topic
of “The United Nations Global Compact: Peace Through Commerce.” Williams has
taught in Seoul in July 2010, 2012 and 2013, and was selected as an
International Scholar for the year on the basis of his teaching and research.

The UN
Global Compact is the world’s largest voluntary corporate citizenship
initiative with more than 6,000 businesses around the world as members. “Peace
through commerce” refers to a philosophy that says corporations have
responsibilities to the societies they operate in, particularly in developing
countries. Commerce is considered in terms of its potential to build
connections between disparate parties – crossing cultural, religious and
personal boundaries – in order to reduce conflict and promote social wellbeing.

“South
Korea will be a great learning experience for me,” said Williams, who is the
director of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Religious Values in Business
at the Mendoza College. “After the Korean War in 1953, almost everyone was
poor. Today, South Korea ranks in the upper quarter of the Legatum Prosperity
Index. Understanding this modern-day miracle will be a great challenge, and I
hope to share some of the lessons and best practices of Global Compact companies
with important businesses in the country.”

Williams, the editor or author of
15 books as well as numerous articles on business ethics in journals, plans to
write a book for the Routledge Global Institute on the development of corporate
social responsibility, its history and its promise. He also will present
workshops on “Business as a Vocation” for the Catholic Church in Seoul.

A member
of the Mendoza College of Business faculty since 1983, Williams specializes in
the areas of business ethics, corporate governance and Catholic social
teaching. He is the director of the Notre Dame Center for Ethics and Religious
Values in Business at the Mendoza College. A former naval officer, Williams
earned his doctorate from Vanderbilt University and his bachelor’s and master’s
degrees from Notre Dame. He is a Catholic priest in the Congregation of Holy
Cross. He served as associate provost of Notre Dame from 1987-94 and is a past
chair of the Social Issues Division of the Academy of Management.

In 2006,
Williams was appointed a member of the three-person Board of Directors at the
United Nations Global Compact Foundation. He recently served as a chair for a
session on “Building a New Ecosystem for a Sustainable Economy,”
among other responsibilities, at the United Nations Third Annual Global
Forum for Responsible Management Education, held June 14-15 in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil.

/news_and_events/news_articles/article/11703/nd-professor-to-teach-business-ethics-in-south-korea-as-an-international-sc