Director: Philippa Foster Back OBE

Since taking a degree in Geography at University College London, Philippa has 30 years of business experience. She began her career at Citibank NA before joining Bowater in their Corporate Treasury Department in 1979, leaving in 1988 as Group Treasurer. She was Group Finance Director at DG Gardner Group, a training organisation, prior to joining Thorn EMI in 1993 as Group Treasurer until 2000. In 2001 she was appointed Director of the Institute of Business Ethics.

As Director of the Institute she is responsible for implementing strategy, leading the team and ensuring that the Institute meets its charitable aims, of raising awareness and spreading best practice in the field of business ethics.

In connection with her IBE role she served on the Woolf Committee 2007/8 looking at ethical business practice in BAE Systems plc; and has been appointed to the Advisory Board of the Centre for Corporate Reputation at the Saïd Business School at Oxford University and consequently as a Visiting Fellow of the University.

She has a number of external appointments, including at the Institute of Directors where she sits on the Board; and the Board of the Norfolk and Norwich University Foundation Trust Hospital. In 2002 she was appointed a Commissioner of the Public Works Loan Board.

In 2006 she was awarded the OBE for services to the Ministry of Defence where she was formerly a NED and Chair of the Defence Audit Committee. She is past President of the Association of Corporate Treasurers (1999-2000).

Her outside interests include the history and exploration of the Polar Regions; she is Chairman of the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust.

Research Director: Simon Webley

Simon has been Research Director at the Institute of Business Ethics in London since 1998. He has published a number of studies for IBE and others on codes of ethics, the most recent being Making Business Ethics Work (2006) and the Use of Codes of Ethics in Business 2007 Survey (2008). In 1993, he compiled the Interfaith Declaration on International Business Ethics.

After reading economics and political science at Trinity College, Dublin and National Service in the RAF, he joined Reed International (now Reed Elsevir) as a research economist in 1959. From 1969 until 1998, Simon was British Director of the British-North American Committee.

In his current role at the IBE he helps a range of business companies and organisations and has spoken and written on business practice topics around the world. He has three grown up children, four grandchildren and lives in a fifteenth century cottage in Kent.

Head of Projects: Dr Nicole Dando

Dr Nicole Dando is Head of Projects at the Institute of Business Ethics where she writes and trains on a range of business ethics issues and good practice. Recent publications she has worked on include Living Up to Our Values: developing ethical assurance, Does Business Ethics Pay - revisited and the IBE Guide to Good Practice on Speaking Up. She joined the IBE in 2003 from the Institute of Social and Ethical AccountAbility where she was Programme Manager for the AA1000 standard. Prior to that, she was a facilitator of stakeholder engagement, carried out a social and environmental audit of an NHS hospital, and worked on the Environment Programme at the Royal Institute for International Affairs, London. Nicole has a PhD from University College London in sustainability and water resources management, a Masters in Development Studies and a degree in Chemistry.

Project Assistant: Katherine Bradshaw

Katherine joined the Institute in November 2000 initially as Office Manager. Prior to that she had a career in the music and comedy industry, with roles as general manager and press officer for, among others, Eddie Izzard, Robert Newman and the Guildford Festival. She has helped write the Good Practice Guides on Speak Up and Surveying Staff, as well as devising the IBE E-Learning Tool. Since returning from maternity leave, she has taken on the role of Project Assistant. She has a BA in English from Royal Holloway and an MA in Creative Writing and Personal Development from Sussex University.

Office Manager: Sarah Watts

Sarah joined the Institute in April 2009, initially as maternity cover. She has worked for many years in the charity/not for profit sector, where she was Finance & Administration Manager for an African health charity, and brings experience of the administrative needs of a small organisation. Prior to that she has worked in both the advertising and employment agency sectors, amongst other areas.

Administrator: Alexandra Johnson

 

Researcher: Judith Irwin

Judith has been working for the Institute of Business Ethics on a part-time basis since mid 2008 and ‘officially’ joined the IBE team in November 2008.  Judith has an undergraduate MA in International Business from the University of Edinburgh and has recently completed a postgraduate MA in Corporate Social Responsibility at the International Centre for CSR at the University of Nottingham.  She has previous experience as a researcher for a sustainability consultancy in Sydney, Australia.

Research Assistant: Robert Currall

Robert joined the IBE in September 2009 for one year before beginning his legal career with a City law firm. Previously, Robert studied history at Durham University and completed his legal training at BPP Law School, London.

 

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