Fuqua creates Coach K ethics center

Professor K?

Not quite, but students will soon be able to take classes on leadership and ethics with men's basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski, as he is set to join the faculty of the Fuqua School of Business as an executive-in-residence at the newly announced Fuqua/Coach K Center of Leadership and Ethics. Krzyzewski will be available to teach, as well as write on scholarly topics of his choosing, during the basketball off-season.

The $5.1 million COLE center, to be announced during today's opening session of The Coach K and Fuqua School of Business Conference on Leadership, will create courses and materials, conduct conferences, endow distinguished professorships and support research and training on leadership and ethics.

"This is a great, great thing for Duke and Fuqua," Krzyzewski said. "I believe in leadership and doing things in an ethical manner. That's what Duke is about. Why not be the leader--be recognized across the country as the place to go to if you want to study these topics in depth?"

Dean of Fuqua Douglas Breeden, who will be present at the announcement of the center's creation today along with President Nan Keohane and Kenan Institute for Ethics Director Elizabeth Kiss, said he expects COLE to be a "pathbreaking place" where leading thinkers and corporate leaders from around the world will come for training and to advance key leadership and ethics issues.

"It will influence the way students, academics, corporations, governments and non-profit organizations view leadership and ethical foundations of business and policy in the 21st century," Breeden said.

The center will open in Jan. 2004, with Associate Professor Sim Sitkin and Thomas A. Finch professor of management Allan Lind serving as faculty co-directors. A managing director will also be hired.

Eventually, Breeden said, $8 million is sought for the center. Keohane spoke of the social importance of COLE. "Ethical leadership is basic to the success of our economic and social systems," she said. "I am very pleased that the Fuqua School is bringing together resources from across Duke University to explore practical models for moral engagement in business. This is surely one of the most urgent topics of our day."

The $5.1 million COLE center, to be announced during today's opening session of The Coach K and Fuqua School of Business Conference on Leadership, will create courses and materials, conduct conferences, endow distinguished professorships and support research and training on leadership and ethics.

"This is a great, great thing for Duke and Fuqua," Krzyzewski said. "I believe in leadership and doing things in an ethical manner. That's what Duke is about. Why not be the leader--be recognized across the country as the place to go to if you want to study these topics in depth?"

Dean of Fuqua Douglas Breeden, who will be present at the announcement of the center's creation today along with President Nan Keohane and Kenan Institute for Ethics Director Elizabeth Kiss, said he expects COLE to be a "pathbreaking place" where leading thinkers and corporate leaders from around the world will come for training and to advance key leadership and ethics issues.

"It will influence the way students, academics, corporations, governments and non-profit organizations view leadership and ethical foundations of business and policy in the 21st century," Breeden said.

The center will open in Jan. 2004, with Associate Professor Sim Sitkin and Thomas A. Finch professor of management Allan Lind serving as faculty co-directors. A managing director will also be hired.

Eventually, Breeden said, $8 million is sought for the center. Keohane spoke of the social importance of COLE. "Ethical leadership is basic to the success of our economic and social systems," she said. "I am very pleased that the Fuqua School is bringing together resources from across Duke University to explore practical models for moral engagement in business. This is surely one of the most urgent topics of our day."

COLE will serve as a global library for leadership writing and research, give research grants to faculty at Fuqua and other schools and sponsor leadership conferences each year with Krzyzewski and Fuqua students and a speaker series on leadership and ethics. The faculty will develop business school cases and teaching materials on leadership and ethics and create short non-degree courses for the Fuqua Executive Education program.

The Kenan Institute will work closely with COLE through the George C. Lamb Jr. professorship, which will fund a scholar at Fuqua who will have an active affiliation with the Institute, and through working with Fuqua students on projects focused on moral courage and leadership.

"This is a wonderful initiative, especially at a time when we're bombarded with bad news about unethical leadership in many social spheres," Kiss said. "Duke is emerging as a national model in its University-wide commitment to making ethics central to what and how we teach and to understanding how good leaders foster a strong ethical culture in their organizations. We are excited about collaborating with the Fuqua School and [Krzyzewski], and look forward to working together to create resources for ethical leadership from the classroom to the boardroom and beyond."