U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan, Barbara McQuade, will deliver the keynote address for Eastern Michigan University’s College of Business Ethos Week, which will be held March 14-18.
This year will be the fifth for the annual event.
McQuade, 46, helped oversee the indictment of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and is currently conducting an investigation into corruption in Detroit city government.
She began serving as U.S. attorney in Jan. 2010 and she is the first woman to hold the post. Before, she served as assistant U.S. attorney in the district since 1998 and she worked as an associate attorney at Butzel Long, P.C. in Detroit from 1993 to 1998.
McQuade graduated from the University of Michigan Law School.
She will deliver her keynote address from 1:40 to 2:25 p.m. March 18 in the EMU Student Center Ballroom.
EMU’s Ethos Week was the first event of its kind offered at any business school in the country. In 2006, the faculty of the COB decided they wanted to develop a statement of the ethics and values they wanted to represent the “spirit” of the college, according the COB website.
The business school adopted the Ethos Statement, which lists six values as the core for the college: integrity, honesty, trustworthiness, respect, learning and work ethic.
The Dean’s Board of Student Advisors created the original concept and events in 2007.
According to the College of Business’s website, the event is designed to “promote business ethics and to further ethics education.”
This year, the week-long ethos event will begin with a broadcast from the Paul W. Smith show from WJR 760-AM. The broadcast will last from 5:30 to 9 a.m.
“We have a terrific lineup of speakers for this year’s Ethos Week, including a professional whose ethics are playing a central role in the welfare of our country and our state – U.S. Attorney Barbara McQuade,” Dave Mielke, dean of the College of Business, said in a statement.
Mielke said Ethos Week reinforces what professors emphasize in the classroom.
“Business ethics are a pillar in a successful company,” Mielke said. “We at the COB continue to build a culture – an ethos – based on ethics and values. This foundation for the college brings a sense of pride to our students, faculty and staff.”
The number of sponsors has grown from seven in the inaugural year to more than 25, including companies such as Kohl’s, Ford, Domino’s Pizza and Thomson Reuters.
EMU junior Kim Hobson said even though she’s not a business major, she usually enjoys Ethos Week.
“They usually have some interesting speakers,” she said. “Last year they had Robert Bobb. I went to see if he would talk about what was going on in the Detroit Public Schools.”
Tickets for the luncheon are $5 for students and $35 for non-students.
