There have been many contributory factors cited for causes of the financial crisis that has affected western economies over the past two years. One has been the role of regulation: Too little, and rules rather than principles based. Today, revised regulation is being proposed in the US, the UK as well as the EU.

The question is already being asked: Will this fail too, because fundamentally behaviours and culture within organisations are at the root of the problem and therefore require prior attention?

Dr Rushworth Kidder, President and Founder of the US based Institute for Global Ethics (IGE) is an experienced author, journalist and speaker in the fields of ethics in business and society. He will introduce and lead the discussion as to why moral courage, not legal regulation is the only way out of the current mire.

His presentation will be followed by an open discussion under the Chatham House Rule.

To book your place email our events team or complete the online registration form

Richard Ellis became Director of Corporate Social Responsibility following the merger between Boots and Alliance UniChem and the subsequent Private Equity Buy Out. Richard became responsible for all the company’s CSR activities when he joined Boots in 2003. The early part of his career was spent in Banking before becoming involved in CSR after the Inner City riots of the early 1980s. After this involvement he held CSR related positions at HSBC, TSB, British Aerospace and ran his own CSR consultancy for five years.

Some of the issues that Richard will be discussing are:
• ETI and Boots decision to ask BitC to verify our Supplier Verification Programme: Was this the right choice?
• China and alternative medicines, other cultures have different values: Who is right?
• Reporting on Palm Oil uses why should we be branded a "bad boy" even though we only use limited amounts and it’s all certified?
• Can NGOs be critical friends? In our relationships we are not always in accord but let’s keep having a dialogue!

To book your place email our events team or complete the online registration form

Further details to follow