The Honorable David A. Sampson, president and CEO of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America (PCI), was awarded the Lipscomb University Heroes of Business Award this month.

In an effort to improve aspiring business students’ perception of the cut-throat private sector, Lipscomb College of Business Dean Turney Stevens created the Heroes of Business Award, an honor bestowed on ethical businesspeople who have succeeded in the private sector working from a foundation of Christian faith.

Past recipients of the Heroes of Business Award include William Pollard, former CEO of ServiceMaster; Sam Moore, former CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers; Steve Lynn, CEO of Backyard Burgers; and Keith Dyer, director of worldwide channels at Cisco Systems.

Sampson, a 1978 alumnus of Lipscomb with a degree in political science major, began his career as a minister in Texas, but found a knack for public policy that took him all the way to George W. Bush’s White House, where he served as deputy secretary of commerce.

Along the way, he worked as the president and CEO of the Arlington, Texas Chamber of Commerce; in the Texas government as the chairman of the Texas Council on Workforce and Economic Competitiveness; and as the U.S. assistant secretary of commerce for economic development, managing the Economic Development Administration’s $400 million budget to promote regional economic growth and competitiveness.

Today, as the head of PCI, Sampson represents more than 1,000 homeowner, auto and business insurance companies that write 37.4 percent of the nation’s property and casualty insurance. His unique career combination of extensive financial services and management experience, global insights and political acumen have made him a strong leader at PCI, and he was named to the Insurance Newscast’s list of the 100 Most Powerful People in the Insurance Industry.

“The thing that is most impressive about (Sampson) is the path he has taken and the way he came to that path. He’s done all this as a committed Christian who has always known where his moral compass is and as a man of integrity,” said Lipscomb President L. Randolph Lowry, introducing Sampson at the awards presentation.

During the course of the day at Lipscomb, Sampson and his wife Karen, also a former federal government appointee, met with faculty, staff, community members and students reminding them that “through the eyes of faith, we see that work and economic activity are a service to God.”

“Since the onset of the economic downturn in 2008, I have been amazed to see our politicians taking every opportunity to demonize the private sector, the very people we need to improve the economy and create jobs,” Sampson said at the awards luncheon.

“Every business failure is now treated as if it were criminal activity. So it is no surprise to me that boardrooms today are risk averse and are sitting on their capital.”

Such an environment is even more detrimental in a time when polls show that only 20 percent of likely voters believe the country is “on the right track,” Sampson said. For the first time in decades, Americans today have the perception that the next generation will not be better off than their elders, he said.

Across the nation, the major debate in the 2012 presidential campaign season will be the size of the role government should take in economic recovery, Sampson said.

In contrast to politicians’ portraits of businesspeople, Sampson’s experience with the private sector has been one filled with ethical leaders. The CEOs of the major property insurance companies he works with routinely deal with problems by saying, “First let’s figure out what is the right thing to do and then we’ll figure out how to deal with consequences of doing the right thing,” he said.

“I hope we will put away the notion that there is a dichotomy between the business world and the spiritual world,” Sampson told business students gathered at Lipscomb.

Lipscomb University College of Business

Lipscomb University’s College of Business (COB) is committed to preparing students to navigate the business world both successfully and ethically. Though various programs, such as the Heroes of Business speaker series and award, Boardroom Briefings held by the Dean Institute for Corporate Governance and Integrity, and the first chapter nationwide of the NASBA Student Center for the Public Trust, the college has infused business ethics education into every level of its curriculum.

COB Dean Turney Stevens was named one of Ethisphere magazine’s 2009 Most Influential People in Business Ethics. The college has earned the Commitment Level in the annual Excellence in Tennessee program administered by the Tennessee Center for Performance Excellence (TNCPE). It is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Business Schools and Programs (ACBSP) for graduate and undergraduate programs.

Dean Institute for Corporate Governance and Integrity - Lipscomb University

Dean Institute for Corporate Governance and Integrity - Lipscomb University

The Dean Institute for Corporate Governance and Integrity at Lipscomb University is a national forum for integrating best practices in governance with integrity and faith to benefit public and private company executives, board members and other top-tier corporate leaders. The institute seeks to address the root issues at play, namely, how character and integrity inform the decisions, actions, culture and performance of corporations.

Within the Dean Institute faculty and administration are experts in business ethics, how character and integrity inform business decisions and corporate governance among other issues.

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