Rutgers MBA team wins first-ever BNY Mellon social finance prize

NEWARK, N.J., April 21, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Rutgers Institute for Ethical Leadership announced today that three Rutgers MBA students won the inaugural BNY Mellon Social Finance Prize. Laavanya Shriram, Priya Shivkumar, and Irene Kaganman will also be honored during the Rutgers Institute for Ethical Leadership's annual Ethical Leadership Conference: Ethics in Healthcare, which takes place in New Brunswick on Thursday, April 30.

The BNY Mellon Social Finance Prize was a new addition this year to the annual Aspen Institute's Business & Society International MBA Case Competition. Created in partnership with the Aspen Institute, the prize encourages innovation in the field of social finance, which encompasses investment activities that include both financial returns and significant social impact. Teams submitting for the prize were asked to consider how to further the field of corporate responsibility measurement or reporting.

The Rutgers student team's recommendation focused on further developing existing guidelines to provide financial services companies with a corporate responsibility metric to evaluate performance in emerging markets. As winners of this year's BNY Mellon Social Finance Prize, the Rutgers student team will apply their insights to the real world by working with an organization to implement their recommendation. BNY Mellon will direct $15,000 to the organization to improve social responsibility standards. The students will also share a $2,500 honorarium awarded by the Aspen Institute.

"We are so proud of these future leaders, who will graduate with a true understanding of how to be socially responsible, and why it is so important," said Ann K. Buchholtz, PhD, research director at the Rutgers Institute for Ethical Leadership (IEL). "We work hard to provide our MBA students with the critical thinking and leadership skills they need to navigate today's ever changing world. We're grateful for opportunities like Aspen's International Case Competition and the BNY Mellon Social Finance Prize, where they can apply those skills to real-world scenarios and make an actual difference."

Next up, the Rutgers IEL is looking to move the needle on ethics in healthcare at its annual ethical leadership conference. The conference will focus on such topics as the cost of fraud, economics and consequences and big data.

Speakers include: Jennifer G. Velez, senior vice president of strategy and planning, Barnabas Health, and former commissioner, New Jersey Department of Human Services; Robert Garrett, president and CEO, Hackensack University Health Network; Michael Ullmann, vice president and general counsel, Johnson & Johnson; and Richard L. Edwards, chancellor, Rutgers University - New Brunswick. To learn more about the Ethics in Health Care conference, visit http://www.business.rutgers.edu/iel/conferences/2015, and join the conversation online with the hashtag #EthicsMatter.

About the Rutgers Institute for Ethical Leadership
The Institute for Ethical Leadership at Rutgers Business School works with business and government, nonprofit and philanthropic organizations, and within Rutgers University to provide leaders and future leaders with the education, training and critical thinking tools needed to become more effective leaders and managers and make ethical decisions for real-world challenges. For more information, visit www.business.rutgers.edu/iel.

About the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program
Established in 1998 and building on over 60 years of Aspen Institute programming, the Aspen Institute Business & Society Program helps established and emerging business leaders put values at the heart of practice. Through dialogue, research, and outreach, Aspen BSP creates opportunities for executives and educators to explore new routes to business sustainability and values-based leadership. For more information, visit www.aspenbsp.org.

The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, DC. Its mission is to foster leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical issues. The Institute is based in Washington, DC; Aspen, Colorado; and on the Wye River on Maryland's Eastern Shore. It also has offices in New York City and an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org.

SOURCE Rutgers Business School

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