At Global Ethics Summit, U.S. Chamber Executive to Link Free Enterprise Principles to Successful Businesses

Chavern’s Keynote Address to Honor the World’s Most Ethical Companies

NEW YORK, NY—Delivering the keynote address at the Ethisphere Institute’s annual World’s Most Ethical Companies Dinner tonight, David Chavern, chief operating officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, will highlight that “Successful business models are built on good reputations and strong, ethical business cultures.”

“Companies are capable of obtaining the highest degree of ethics when they operate in the most virtuous of economic systems – a free enterprise system,” Chavern will say. “Free enterprise promotes the most ethical behavior while providing opportunities for widespread prosperity that, in turn, generates more good works.”

This message will bring together the theme of tonight’s dinner – honoring those companies named to Ethisphere’s 2011 World’s Most Ethical Companies list – and the themes of the Chamber’s Campaign for Free Enterprise, a multi-year campaign to promote the values of free enterprise in America.

The dinner will recognize and celebrate the 2011 World’s Most Ethical Companies and coincides with Ethisphere’s 2011 Global Ethics Summit. The companies designated as the World’s Most Ethical demonstrate that ethical business is also profitable business, leading by example and forcing other companies to follow suit or fall behind. They embody the true spirit of Ethisphere’s credo, “Good. Smart. Business. Profit.”

“Just as individual companies go to great lengths to preserve, protect, and advance an ethical culture, collectively it is our responsibility to preserve, protect, and advance free enterprise,” Chavern will say. “This is the Chamber’s single biggest priority.”

A complete list of the 2011 World’s Most Ethical Companies is available at http://ethisphere.com/wme2011/

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is the world’s largest business federation representing the interests of more than 3 million businesses of all sizes, sectors, and regions, as well as state and local chambers and industry associations.

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