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Sunday, November 8, 2009
 
 
 

Roger Ballentine is the president of Green Strategies Inc., where he advises and represents businesses, associations, government agencies, and nonprofit entities on domestic and international public policy issues and business strategies. Mr. Ballentine is also a senior fellow at the Progressive Policy Institute in Washington, D.C., where he works to develop cutting-edge, third way approaches to public-policy challenges in the areas of energy and the environment. Mr. Ballentine served as senior advisor on energy and environmental matters to the Kerry-Edwards campaign. He previously served multiple positions during the Clinton administration, including roles as chairman of the White House Climate Change Task Force and deputy assistant to the president for environmental initiatives. Prior to being named deputy assistant to the president, Mr. Ballentine was special assistant to the president for legislative affairs.

Mark Cohen is Justin Potter professor of American Competitive Enterprise at Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management and is a member of the Stakeholder Council of the Global Reporting Initiative, which is dedicated to developing and disseminating globally applicable sustainability reporting guidelines. Professor Cohen has both governmental and academic experience in analyzing government enforcement policies regarding environmental and criminal justice issues. He is the author of over eighty-five articles and books on such diverse topics as the effect of community “right to know” laws on firm behavior; why firms reduce toxic chemical emissions; and cost-benefit analysis of oil-spill regulation and enforcement. Prior to joining the Owen faculty in 1986, Professor Cohen was a senior economist with the U.S. Sentencing Commission. He also served as a staff economist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and the U.S. Sentencing Commission. In 2005, he was honored by Money Magazine as a "Class Act of 2004" for his work on racial disparity in the automobile lending industry.

Aron Cramer is president and chief executive officer of Business for Social Responsibility (BSR). Prior to assuming these positions, he was based in Paris, where he launched BSR’s Europe office in 2002. He also led the establishment of BSR’s Hong Kong office in 2001. Cramer joined BSR in 1995 and served as the founding director of its business and human rights program. Cramer advised dozens of BSR’s member companies on corporate social responsibility, including Ford Motor Co., Chevron, Nike, Unilever, Royal Dutch/Shell, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, and Rio Tinto. Prior to joining BSR, Cramer served as an attorney in private practice in San Francisco and at ABC News in New York.

Clive Crook is the chief editorial advisor to the chairman for Atlantic Media Company in Washington, D.C., watching over a portfolio of media properties including National Journal, CongressDaily, Government Executive, The Atlantic and Hotline. Prior to joining Atlantic Media, Mr. Crook spent twenty-two years at The Economist, where he held many positions, including economics correspondent (1983–85), Washington, D.C., correspondent (1985–86), economics editor (1986–93); and deputy editor.

Frank Dixon is an author and consultant specializing in sustainability, system change, and enhancement of financial performance through increased corporate responsibility.  He is currently advising Wal-Mart and a Wal-Mart subsidiary in the United Kingdom on sustainability.  For six years, he was the managing director of research for Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, the largest socially responsible investing research firm in the world.  Based on his observation that systemic issues compel all firms to act unsustainably, he developed a new sustainability approach focused on system change, called “Total Corporate Responsibility.  Before joining Innovest, he worked as a management consultant in the energy and manufacturing sectors. 

Arindrajit Dube is a labor economist who has worked on the issues of low-wage work, job quality, outsourcing, and employment-based health care. Dr. Dube's areas of expertise include health care, minimum wage, restructuring in the retail labor market, and labor relations. His Dube's recent research include studying the impact of Wal-Mart on retail sector earnings; the effects of citywide wage mandates; and changes in employment-based health coverage in response to rising employee contributions.

Jon Entine is an adjunct fellow at AEI and a scholar-in-residence at Miami University in Ohio. His articles have appeared in more than 200 publications in nine countries, including the Wall Street Journal, National Review Online, Sunday Times (UK), Guardian (UK), and Guardian Weekend (UK). Entine also consults with corporations, public interest groups, public relations companies, and law firms on issues of business ethics and corporate social responsibility. Previously, Entine spent twenty years as a network television news producer, winning more than twenty awards, including two Emmys for specials on the reform movements in China and the former Soviet Union.

James K. Glassman is a resident fellow at AEI, where he specializes in economics and financial markets. In addition, he is host and cofounder of TCSDaily.com, an online journal started in February 2000, which concentrates on matters of technology and public policy. In September 2004, Mr. Glassman launched a new organization, Investors Action, for which he serves as chairman. Mr. Glassman also writes a monthly column on investing for Kiplinger's Personal Finance. His most recent book, The Secret Code of the Superior Investor (Crown, 2002) was named one of the top-ten investing books of 2002 by Barrons.

Michael Hicks is a visiting research professor at the Center for Business and Economic Research. Dr. Hicks was previously a visiting research assistant professor at the University of Tennessee, where he received the College of Business Graduate Teaching Award in 1998. He currently serves as a Reserve Major at the Army's operation center in the Pentagon. Dr. Hicks has researched a number of issues in industrial organization and environmental, public-finance, and regional economics. His research has appeared in a number of academic and policy publications. Dr. Hicks is on the editorial board of two scholarly journals.

Chris Holling is the executive managing director at Business Planning Solutions, where he consults with clients to integrate independent, forward-looking information about the external business environment into strategic and tactical planning processes. His specific industry expertise includes telecommunications equipment and services, computer hardware, credit card services, industrial machinery and equipment, consumer packaged goods, and biotechnology, among. Mr. Holling has completed forecasting assignments for clients such as Coca-Cola, Honda R&D Americas, Georgia Pacific, Procter & Gamble, Emerson Electric, Brunswick, Eaton, the McGraw-Hill Companies, Moen, Snap-On Tools, and Wal-Mart.

Russell Roberts is a professor of economics at George Mason University and the J. Fish and Lillian F. Smith Distinguished Scholar at the Mercatus Center. He is also a research fellow at the Hoover Institution at Standford University. His latest book, The Invisible Heart: An Economic Romance (MIT Press, 2001), explores the economics of various policy issues, including corporate responsibility, safety regulation, welfare programs, and the environment. His novel on international trade policy, The Choice: A Fable of Free Trade and Protectionism (Prentice Hall, 1994), was named one of the top ten books of 1994 by Business Week and one of the best books of 1994 by the Financial Times. He is working on a new book on how the emergence of order and unplanned cooperation create wealth and enhance our standard of living. 

Phil Rudolph is vice president and general counsel of Ethical Leadership Group, a preeminent ethics consultancy based outside of Chicago. Mr. Rudolph provides senior management-level strategic corporate responsibility guidance, program development, crisis management, stakeholder engagement strategy, and related services to a variety of major global brands and retailers. He is also president of Corporate Responsibility Law, LLC, where he provides legal services in support of his clients’ corporate responsibility activities. Prior to joining Foley Hoag, Mr. Rudolph was a vice president at McDonald’s Corporation, where he served in several capacities, including those of U.S. and international general counsel.

Barbara A. Shepard is vice president of human resources and community relations at the Doe Run Company, where she is responsible for internal communications, public relations, and all human resource functions. Shepard is also chairman of the board for the Missouri Mineral Education Foundation, is second vice chairman for the Associated Industries of Missouri, and sits on the Health Care Catalyst Committee for the Civic Entrepreneur Organization. Prior to joining Doe Run in 1997, Shepard held a variety of human resources, legal, and administrative positions at Gould, Inc., Todd Uniform, and Laclede Steel.

Elaine Sternberg is principal of Analytical Solutions, a consultancy firm specializing in business ethics, corporate governance, and corporate ethics. She is also a visiting fellow at the Center for Ethics and Public Affairs at Tune University’ Dr. Sternberg worked for fourteen years as an investment banker in London, New York and Paris, specializing in international corporate finance and equity syndicate. She founded and ran two multimillion-pound profitable businesses for her employers. Dr. Sternberg is the author of numerous books on corporate governance and business ethics, including Just Business:  Business Ethics in Action (Oxford University Press, 2000), Corporate Governance:  Accountability in the Marketplace (Institute of Economic Affairs, 2004), and The Stakeholder Concept: A Mistaken Doctrine (Foundation for Business Responsibilities, 1999).

Richard Vedder is an adjunct fellow at AEI and Distinguished Professor of Economics at Ohio University. Dr. Vedder is the author of eight books and monographs and over 200 scholarly papers on a variety of topics in economic history, labor economics, and budget policy. His books include Out of Work: Unemployment and Government in Twentieth-Century America (with Lowell Gallaway), and Going Broke by Degree: Why College Costs Too Much, published by the AEI Press in 2004. His newest book, coauthored with Wendell Cox, is The Wal-Mart Revolution: How Big-Box Stores Benefit Consumers, Workers, and the Economy, due out later this year from AEI.

David Vogel holds the Solomon P. Lee chair at the Haas School of Business and is a professor of political science at the University of California - Berkeley. Vogel's research focuses on business-government relations with a particular emphasis on the comparative and international dimensions of environmental and consumer regulation. He is the author or editor of numerous books, including The Market for Virtue: The Potential and Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility (Brookings Institution Press, 2005), The Dynamics of Regulatory Change: How Globalization Affects National Regulatory Policies (UC Press, 2004), Barriers or Benefits? Regulation in Transatlantic Trade (Brookings Institution Press, 1998), and Kindred Strangers: The Relationship between Business and Politics in America (Princeton University Press, 1996).

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