Twenty-five years have passed.  It is hard to believe that the Council has reached its Silver Anniversary. It is also hard to believe that the Council will be celebrating a quarter of a century of accomplishment this year as it enhances and refines its contributions to business and professional ethics and its focus on ethical leadership as part of its new affiliation with Capital University.

Over the years the Council and its members have been many things for many people. And yet, as is so often the case in the life of an organization, some members may be too new to the organization to have an awareness of all of the Council’s many accomplishments. That is why I am hoping that our 25th Anniversary Year can be a time to celebrate both the Council’s exciting new future in association with Capital as well as a time to reach out to all of the Council’s former members to thank them and invite them to join with us in this bright future.  It seems to me that some kind of “Homecoming Book” and 25th reunion will clearly be in order as we honor the future as well as the past and the people who have been a part of the Council’s mission over these many years.

What are some of the things that the Council done over the last 25 years?  Let me offer a few reminiscences.  It is has hosted an international conference on business ethics right here in Columbus that included the leaders of many of the world’s largest corporations.  It has published various materials, including ethics cases that have been used in schools here and abroad.  It has provided consulting services and a speakers’ bureau that have provided ethics and compliance advice and training in both the corporate and governmental sectors. It has most recently hosted a popular business and professional ethics luncheon series, published a web-based newsletter, and offered its support for a Columbus-based group of local ethics and compliance officers.