GIVING BACK >>
OF REVOLUTIONARIES AND RENEGADES “We’ve never heard of ‘business ethics.’ ” The grant refusal by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) came swiftly and spoke volumes of the times: It was 1974 and the country under President Richard Nixon was in the thick of the Watergate scandal. The denial didn’t dissuade W. Michael Hoffman, PhD, from flying to Washington, D.C. At age 32 and untenured, the new chair of Bentley’s Philosophy Department was far from his Kentucky roots, but rooted in his determination to bring business ethics to bear on the practice of business and in business education. He asked to see the proposal’s evaluations. They read simply “no” or “this is an oxymoron.” The NEH director, embarrassed by the lack of substantive feedback, asked him to reapply. Hoffman did, and got the grant. Forty years later, he and the W. Michael Hoffman Center for Business Ethics (CBE) — newly named in his honor — have helped transform Bentley and the business world. Thomas White, recently retired professor and chair of business ethics at Loyola Marymount University, calls Hoffman “a revolutionary and a renegade.” His center challenged the nature of ethics research at the time, which focused on theory, not practice. But “practice” helps people and “applied” is Hoffman’s beloved bread and butter. PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) was an early supporter of Hoffman’s cause. “Thirty years ago, we were one of the first big firms to begin an ethics program — the pioneers,” says Bobby Kipp, a retired partner at the company. “But we needed a pioneer to lead us.” With help from Hoffman and the center, PwC won the American Business Ethics Award in the program’s first year.
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W. Michael Hoffman and his namesake Center for Business Ethics have helped transform Bentley and the business world. Scores of conferences, lectures, courses, awards, publications and one-on-one meetings later, businessmen and women are bringing ideas the center has championed to workplaces everywhere. And Bentley itself has incorporated ethics into its mission statement and many of its courses. They can all thank Hoffman and the CBE for influencing how business is done. Hoffman, in turn, credits corporations like Raytheon and Verizon for establishing annual lectures and visiting professorships for the CBE. “Our Bentley campus has been enriched by the presence of these visiting scholars,” he says. The events are often standing room only. His gratitude extends to the NEH for the initial push to establish business ethics at Bentley. The Hieken Professor of Business and Professional Ethics and former winner of the Michael Mee Prize for faculty excellence, Hoffman is thankful for donors such as Chuck Hieken P ’93 and Michael Mee ’66. Their gifts are the kind that keep talented faculty — the renegades — on staff, and allow revolutionary thinking to thrive.
ON MERIT For so many Bentley donors, their gifts are founded on trust — and transformational goals. “Bentley is a school that is really on the move,” says Cynthia Deysher, MSF ’87. “Our career placement numbers are phenomenal. That speaks to the high-quality student experience, as well as the type of young men and women Bentley attracts: hardworking, enterprising and invested in their futures.” She and husband Bryon, MSF ’85 have been proud supporters of their alma mater for many “ I go to Bentley years. Now, they’re boosting with high that investment for some expectations exceptional students. One of of myself.” Bentley’s first merit scholarships, the Deysher Academic Hoang Nguyen ’14, Excellence Endowed Fund will MBA ’17 help applicants to the Honors Program who may not have the means to attend Bentley. “It is a lot of money to send one child to college, let alone two or three at the same time,” says Deysher, a former scholarship recipient and a university trustee. “We cannot lose these bright students to our competitors, especially if Bentley is their number one choice.” That was almost the case for Hoang Nguyen ’14, MBA ’17, until he received the Cynthia and Bryon Deysher Graduate Fellowship Award. “I go to Bentley with high expectations of myself, to work hard in every class and project,” he says. “Coming from Vietnam, without this scholarship, my dream would not have come true.”
“ We cannot lose these bright students to our competitors, especially if Bentley is their number one choice.” ynthia Deysher, MSF ’87, pictured with C husband Byron, MSF ’85