KIRK O. HANSON recently stepped down as the John Courtney Murray, SJ, University Professor of Social Ethics and executive director of the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University. He has been a leading figure in the field of business ethics and corporate social responsibility for almost fifty years. He earlier taught business ethics and business-government relations at the Stanford Graduate School of Business for twenty-three years, where he was the faculty director of the Stanford Sloan executive master’s program.

An active corporate and nonprofit consultant, Hanson has consulted with more than one hundred corporations on the management of business ethics and business scandals. He has spoken widely before corporate, academic, government, and civic audiences on ethical decision-making, how organizations create ethical cultures, and corporate leadership and governance. He has written a regular column on workplace ethics for the SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS; served as the founding chair of the Santa Clara County Political Ethics Commission; and was the founding Honorary Chair of the Center for International Business Ethics, China’s first business ethics center. He was the founding president of the Business Enterprise Trust, a national awards program for exemplary behavior in business created by national leaders in business, the media, labor, government, and civil society. He has served on many nonprofit boards, including serving on the board of the Skoll Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship for the past twenty years. Hanson graduated from Stanford University and received his MBA from the Stanford Business School. He held research fellowships and appointments at the Yale Divinity School and the Harvard Business School. He has been awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Portland and Santa Clara University, and he was honored by the Aspen Institute Center for Business Education with a lifetime achievement award for contributions to business and society.

Marc J. Epstein was, until recently, Distinguished Research Professor of Management at Jones Graduate School of Business at Rice University in Houston, Texas. Prior to joining Rice, Dr. Epstein was a professor at Stanford Business School, Harvard Business School, and INSEAD (European Institute of Business Administration). In both academic research and managerial practice, Dr. Epstein is considered one of the global leaders in the areas of innovation, corporate responsibility, sustainability, governance, performance measurement and accountability in both corporations and not-for-profit organizations.

His two most recent books are Rotten: Why Corporate Misconduct Continues and What to do About It (2021) and The Brilliant Jerk Conundrum: Thriving with and Governing a Dominant Visionary (2019)

Dr. Epstein has extensive academic research and practical experience in the implementation of corporate strategies and the development of performance metrics for use in these implementations. In many recent articles and books Epstein shows how the use of new strategic management systems can help organizations focus strategy, link to performance metrics, and drive improved performance in organizations. In a recent book, Making Innovation Work: How to Manage It, Measure It, and Profit from It, he applies these approaches to driving increased innovation in large organizations and developing appropriate measures of success. In another book on innovation, he builds on his experiences with the leading corporations of the world and focuses on how to design organizations for growth. The Innovation Paradox: Why Good Businesses Kill Breakthroughs and How They Can Change was released in early 2014.

He has also worked extensively in developing countries in Africa, Asia, and South America on innovative and entrepreneurial solutions to global challenges and measuring and managing the social impacts of corporations, NGOs, and foundations. Each year he took all of his MBA students to Africa as part of his course "Commercializing Technology in Developing Countries." In 2011, his book Joining a Nonprofit Board: What You Need to Know was published. In May 2013, his book Pharmacy on a Bicycle: Innovative Solutions for Global Health and Poverty was released. In March 2014, his book Measuring and Improving Social Impacts: A Guide for Nonprofits, Companies, and Impact Investors will be released.

In 2008, Making Sustainability Work: Best Practices in Managing and Measuring Corporate Social, Environmental, and Economic Impacts, was published to provide guidance to managers and academics on the implementation of corporate social responsibility. A completely revised and updated edition of that book was released in 2014. In 2006, his edited series The Accountable Corporation (with Kirk Hanson) was published with four volumes including Corporate Governance, Corporate Social Responsibility, Business Ethics, and Business-Government Relations. He has since written extensively on corporate and non profit board governance, the role of boards of directors, organizational trust, the business case for sustainability, and corporate accountability.

He is the author of twenty books and well over 200 professional papers that have won numerous top academic, professional, and business awards. He was also Editor-in-Chief of a top academic journal. Dr. Epstein also provides seminars, executive courses, consulting, and lectures to senior managerial audiences throughout the world.