Olsson Announces New Director

In the wake of the financial crisis, as the world debates the causes and cures and the role of ethics in modern society, the Olsson Center for Applied Ethics at the Darden School of Business announces that Professor Andrew C. Wicks will become its new director on July 1, 2009.

The Olsson Center is one of the top 10 academic centers in the U.S. for the study of the role of ethics in business. Wicks has co-directed the Center since 2002, with Professor Ed Freeman.
“The financial crisis has made everyone’s job more urgent,” said Wicks, who joined Darden in 2002 in the area of strategy, entrepreneurship and ethics. “It’s about restoring responsible conduct and trust within the markets and fixing what seems to be broken. Regulation is only part of the answer. Ethics is a critical aspect.”

As the Olsson Center’s director, Wicks will oversee its main activities, including Darden’s business ethics teaching program – both the required and elective courses – and a robust Ph.D. program in management that will welcome up to 14 new students in the fall.

Wicks will also orchestrate the Ruffin Lectures, nationally recognized, two-day academic seminars held biannually and made possible by the Ruffin Foundation and ongoing support of the Olsson family.

The next Ruffin event, “The Ruffin Summit on Public Trust in Business,” will be co-directed by Wicks and Darden Professor Jared Harris. It will have a new, research-driven format and will take place at the Darden School from September 18-20, 2009. “We will invite 25 leading scholars to Darden to discuss the issue of public trust and business,” said Wicks.

The summit will follow on the publication of a new paper from the Business Roundtable Institute of Corporate Ethics on public trust and business.

Olsson’s leadership was instrumental in establishing the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics – a unique collaboration between the Business Roundtable, an association of 160 CEOs of leading companies, and top business ethics faculty – which is housed at the Darden School.

“Since the Olsson Center’s establishment in 1966, Darden’s reputation and leadership in business ethics has grown tremendously among the School’s many stakeholders,” said Darden Dean Bob Bruner.

Founded in 1955, the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business improves society by developing principled leaders in the world of practical affairs.

For additional information, contact communication@darden.virginia.edu.