11.14.2007 - 08:01am ET

(CSRwire) NEW YORK - November 14, 2007 - The Aspen Institute Center for Business Education, a project of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program, will announce the winners of the 2007 Faculty Pioneer Awards at a breakfast at Ernst & Young's corporate headquarters in New York City on November 16, 2007. This annual recognition, now in its sixth year, celebrates MBA faculty who have demonstrated leadership and risk-taking in integrating social and environmental issues into academic research, educational programs, and business practice.

"The remarkable faculty that have been chosen for these awards are truly change agents when it comes to bringing discussions of issues of social and environmental responsibility into the MBA classroom," says Rich Leimsider, director of the Aspen Institute Center for Business Education. And, he adds, "through their research in areas ranging from employee empowerment and stakeholder management to social entrepreneurship these faculty winners are helping foster those discussions in corporations and the community at large."

Nominations are open to faculty at any institution offering a graduate management degree. Candidates are nominated by their academic peers and finalists are selected by a panel of corporate judges. This year 137 nominations were accepted from almost 20 countries, up from last year's 80 submissions. "The significant increase in nominations is an indication that more business school faculty are tackling these difficult issues," says Judy Samuelson, executive director of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program.

The announcement of the Faculty Pioneer winners follows the release in October of the Center for Business Education’s biennial survey and alternative business school ranking, Beyond Grey Pinstripes 2007-2008. The survey ranks MBA programs based on how well they prepare students to manage the complex relationship of business and society. Deans from some of the Global 100 business schools identified in the ranking will be on hand at the awards breakfast on November 16th. The morning will also include a panel discussion on the future of business leadership.

In addition to recognition by the Aspen Institute and their peers and schools, Faculty Pioneers receive a $1,500 honorarium.

The 2007 Faculty Pioneer Award winners are:

Social Entrepreneurship - Johanna Mair, IESE Business School, University of Navarra

The 2007 European Faculty Pioneer Awards, given in conjunction with the European Academy of Business in Society (EABIS), were presented in September at a ceremony in Barcelona. The winners were Chris Hope, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge (Lifetime Achievement) and André Sobczak, Audencia Nantes Ecole de Management (Rising Star).

Information on Award Winners

Carrie Leana's (Academic Leadership Award) field-based research has been conducted in settings that range from steel mills and public schools to police departments and labor unions. Her numerous books and articles look broadly at the areas of employment relations, employee empowerment and social capital. Her book, Coping with Job Loss, was a finalist for the Academy of Management’s award for best book of the year.

Daniel Diermeier, Institutional Impact award winner, is a renowned researcher, institution builder and entrepreneur at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management. Dr. Diermeier is Director of the Ford Center for Global Citizenship and a co-founder of the Social Enterprise at Kellogg program. In 2001 he was named Kellogg's Professor of the Year.

David Cooperrider, one of two winners of the External Impact award, has helped institutions all over the world discover the power of strength-based approaches to multi-stakeholder innovation and sustainable design. In 2004 he applied this methodology to the design of the Global Compact Leaders Summit. Dr. Cooperrider is also the co-founder and current director of the Center for Business as an Agent of World Benefit.

Warner Woodworth, also a winner of the External Impact award, uses Organizational Behavior and Strategy techniques to help reduce human suffering. He has collaborated on the design of more than 40 international projects on social, environmental and economic systems.

Jeffrey Robinson, this year's Rising Star award winner, is a passionate advocate for community economic development. He has recently been using his research in the area of social entrepreneurship to analyze the role of entrepreneurship in the rebuilding of New Orleans.

Kirk Hanson, winner of the Lifetime Achievement award, is currently the Executive Director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. Dr. Hanson has been a leader in bringing the study of corporate social responsibility into American business schools. He is also founding president of the Business Enterprise Trust, a national organization created by leaders in business, labor and academia to promote exemplary behavior in business organizations.

J. Gregory Dees, Lifetime Achievement winner of the Ashoka Award for Social Entrepreneurship Education, is founding faculty director of the Center for the Advancement of Social Entrepreneurship at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. In addition to his teaching and research in the areas of social entrepreneurship and nonprofit management, Dr. Dees helped conceive and launch an initiative to find new ways to stimulate entrepreneurial activity in central Appalachia.

Johanna Mair, a winner of the Ashoka Award for Social Entrepreneurship Education, is involved in Asia Link, an EU-sponsored program that fosters academic exchange and mobility between Asia and Europe in the areas of social entrepreneurship. Her co-authored book, Social Entrepreneurship, was nominated for the "Most Promising Forthcoming Management Book" by the European Academy of Management.

Chris Hope, EABIS Lifetime Achievement award winner, has been involved in the integrated assessment modeling of climate change, providing information to help inform public policy. Dr. Hope was nominated by the UK government as Lead Author for the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

André Sobczak, winner of the EABIS Rising Star Award, founded the Center for Global Responsibility at Audencia Nantes Ecole de Management. He was also involved in the creation of a global responsibility track for the school's Master of Management students.

The Aspen Institute Center for Business Education (Aspen CBE) seeks to create business leaders for the 21st century who are equipped with the vision and knowledge necessary to integrate corporate profitability with social value. To that end, it offers programs that provide business educators with the resources they need to incorporate issues of social and environmental stewardship into their teaching, research and curriculum development.

As part of the Aspen Institute Business and Society Program, Aspen CBE maintains close ties with over 100 MBA programs in 23 countries. Its websites draw over 75,000 visits monthly and its events and networks attract over 1,000 participants each year.

For more information on the Faculty Pioneer Awards, as well as other Aspen CBE programs, go to www.AspenCBE.org.

For more information please contact:

Linda Lehrer, Communications Director
The Aspen Institute
(212) 895-8002

Peter Rooney
Gehrung Associates
(603) 352-5300

For more CSR news and information from this organization:

Corporate Social Responsibility Profile for The Aspen Institute

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