Christos Papoutsy Lectures on Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility at Andover College

Portland, Maine and Portsmouth, NH--On Thursday, March 7, 2004, Christos Papoutsy addressed students of Andover College at the request of Dean Renee Roach and Professor Gerry Ney. More than 50 business management and salesmanship students attended the lecture held on the Portland campus.

Mr. Papoutsy's high-tech presentation, titled "Corporate Social Responsibility: Is Moral Capitalism Possible?" stressed the importance of ethics and corporate social responsibility. It included a review of recent corporate business scandals and subsequent legislative and oversight commission responses. Both the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and new SEC requirements were specifically designed to reduce and eliminate the underlying corruption which led to the sensational scandals. Papoutsy also spoke about running a corporation in a socially responsible manner, referencing his own personal experiences: "Institutionalization of a corporation means establishing a professional board where disagreement is a virtue, not a vice, as opposed to the rubber-stamp board, which invites disasters like those of Tyco, Enron, and Worldcom." He further elaborated that international oversight bodies like the Caux Round Table have developed principles for ethical business behavior. He concluded his lecture with an in-depth discussion on whose values should be used in establishing business principles in the globalized commercial community.

"It was good to hear someone speak about something so important as ethics today and also to hear about it from someone other than my classroom instructor and textbook."
Following the presentation, Mr. Papoutsy fielded a wide range of questions from the students who were impressed with his experience. Said one learner, "It was good to hear someone speak about something so important as ethics today and also to hear about it from someone other than my classroom instructor and textbook." Added Professor Ney, a longtime business instructor at the college, "Real life brings home the fact that these situations do occur and to hear them from a successful business executive as to what can be done about them is valuable beyond any work that we can do here in the classroom."

At the conclusion of the session, Mr. Papoutsy presented the college's library with a book by Stephen Young, Executive Director of the Caux Round Table and an internationally known ethicist, and suggested that students utilize the ethics resources of the organization's website at the URL http://www.cauxroundtable.org.

"Real life brings home the fact that these situations do occur and to hear them from a successful business executive as to what can be done about them is valuable beyond any work that we can do here in the classroom."
Andover College is a progressive and growing educational institution that offers technical associate-degree programs in such fields as accounting, business administration, computer technology, medical technology, and criminal justice. Enrollments in recent decades have risen significantly, with more than 500 students now attending the Portland or Lewiston-Auburn campuses. The philosophy of the business administration department is to assist students to develop the necessary knowledge, skills, and temperance to ensure that they become ethical leaders in the business community and that they become proficient in state-of-the-art technology and in understanding social responsibilities in the local and global environment. For more information about the school, visit its website at http://www.andovercollege.com.

Christos Papoutsy is a business executive, author, musician, mediator, and founder of the Christos and Mary Papoutsy Endowed Chair in Business Ethics at Southern New Hampshire University. For more information, visit the webpages of the chair at the URL http://www.snhu.edu. Papoutsy lectures widely in the U.S. and abroad on business ethics and corporate social responsibility. In June, he will be the keynote speaker in Athens, Greece, at the annual conference of the Hellenic-American Chamber of Commerce, one of the largest and oldest chambers in Europe. Many of Papoutsy's articles can be viewed and downloaded free from his not-for-profit website, Hellenic Communication Service, at http://www.HellenicComServe.com.

Photo Caption: Business Executive Christos Papoutsy presents book by Stephen Young to Professor Gerry Ney of Andover College.