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College of Business announces BELIEF Week fall 2019 speaker series

October 2, 2019

On Monday-Thursday, Oct. 7-11, the NIU College of Business will hold its fall semester BELIEF Week. BELIEF is the name of the applied business ethics program in the college. BELIEF builds ethical business leaders through the integration of program development, faculty support, business community involvement and learner engagement.

The BELIEF Week Speaker Series kicks off on Monday, Oct. 7, at 5 p.m. in Barsema Hall 300 with a panel discussion entitled, “Ethics Across Industries.” Executives from the engineering, financial services and corporate security industries will discuss the most significant ethical issues currently challenging their respective industries. They’ll also discuss how those issues may cross over to impact the other industries represented on the panel. Panelists are:  Joseph Sener, principal/owner at JPS Consulting, representing the engineering industry; Frank Scarpiniti, CFO at Hehmeyer Trading + Investments, representing the financial services industry and Dominick Archer, a longtime security and loss prevention professional.

The second event takes place on Tuesday, Oct. 8, at 3:30 p.m. in Barsema Hall 300. Jeffrey Yordon, president/CEO of Athenex Pharma, and alumnus of NIU’s political science program in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, will make a presentation entitled, “Relationships and Ethics: Keys to Success.” One of the most important elements of Yordon’s success in business has been his attention to creating relationships, which is a by-product of solid ethics and ethical behavior. Yordon will share examples of his philosophy in practice, as he walks attendees through the progression of creating billions of dollars of value for his investors and employees.

The final event in the speaker series is the BELIEF Week Keynote Address, which will take place on Wednesday, October 9th at 5:00 p.m. in the Barsema Hall auditorium. Entrepreneur, NIU College of Law graduate and current NIU College of Business instructor Jed McClure will present “The Ethical Organization: Lessons from the Front.” During his presentation, McClure will recount his remarkable personal story where in 2013, a business partner embezzled millions of dollars from one of his companies and killed two partners. At great risk to his own life, McClure spent more than a year exposing his former partner and uncovering evidence that would later be used in his arrest and conviction. Having survived two attempted murder plots and enormous financial loss, McClure is passionate about preventing fraud and teaching others how to protect themselves.

The NIU Business BELIEF Week Speaker Series is open to all NIU members as well as members from the larger community areas. For NIU Business students, these events are also Business Passport approved.