‘Most Ethical’ List Includes Indiana Connections
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowSeveral businesses with ties to the state are on a global think tank's annual list of the World's Most Ethical Companies. The Ethisphere Institute examined factors including regulatory infraction histories, investment in innovation and industry peer nominations. Evansville-based Old National Bancorp (NYSE: ONB) is the only U.S.-headquartered bank on the list.
NiSource Inc. (NYSE: NI) in Merrillville is being recognized among natural gas utilities.
California-based Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE: CRM), which is the parent company of ExactTarget Inc. in Indianapolis, is in the computer software category.
Three subsidiaries of Indianapolis-based WellPoint Inc. (NYSE: WLP), Blue Shield of California, BlueCross BlueShield of North Carolina and CareFirst BlueCross, are part of the health insurance providers on the list.
Source: Ethisphere Institute
March 20, 2014
News Release
EVANSVILLE, Ind. – Today the Ethisphere Institute recognized Old National Bank (NASDAQ: ONB) as a 2014 World’s Most Ethical Company. Ethisphere is an independent center of research promoting best practices in corporate ethics and governance.
This is the third consecutive year that Old National has been honored with this award, which recognizes organizations that continue to raise the bar on ethical leadership and corporate behavior. World’s Most Ethical Company honorees understand the correlation between ethics, reputation and daily interactions with their brand and that the award belongs as much to their associates as it does to them. Old National is one of only five companies in the banking industry honored this year and the only U.S. bank to earn the recognition.
“Old National’s recognition as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies for the third time may be even more exciting, meaningful and significant as it was the first,” said Bob Jones, Old National President & CEO. “Our commitment to ethical practices and transparency in governances is ongoing and essential to our company and we work diligently to ensure that it continues.”
“The entire community of World’s Most Ethical Companies believe that customers, employees, investors and regulators place a high premium on trust and that ethics and good governance are key in earning it,” said Ethisphere’s Chief Executive Officer, Timothy Erblich. “Old National joins an exclusive community committed to driving performance through leading business practices. We congratulate everyone at Old National for this extraordinary achievement.”
The World's Most Ethical Company assessment is based upon the Ethisphere Institute’s Ethics Quotient framework. The Ethics Quotient framework has been developed over years of effort to provide a means to assess an organization’s performance in an objective, consistent and standardized way. The information collected provides a comprehensive sampling of definitive criteria of core competencies, rather than all aspects of corporate governance, risk, sustainability, compliance and ethics. The Ethics Quotient framework and methodology was determined, vetted and refined by the expert advice and insights gleaned from Ethisphere’s network of thought leaders and from the World’s Most Ethical Company Methodology Advisory Panel.
Scores are generated in five key categories: ethics and compliance program (25%), reputation, leadership and innovation (20%), governance (10%), corporate citizenship and responsibility (25%) and culture of ethics (20%).
The full list of the 2014 World's Most Ethical Companies can be found at http://ethisphere.com/worlds-most-ethical/wme-honorees/.
About Old National
Old National Bancorp (NASDAQ: ONB) has $9.7 billion in assets and ranks among the top 100 banking companies in the U.S. Since its founding in 1834, Old National has focused on community banking by building long-term, highly-valued partnerships with clients in its primary footprint of Kentucky, Indiana, Southern Illinois and Southwestern Michigan. In addition to providing extensive services in retail and commercial banking, wealth management, investments and brokerage, Old National also owns Old National Insurance, one of the 100 largest brokers in the U.S. For more information and financial data, please visit Investor Relations at oldnational.com.
About the Ethisphere Institute
The Ethisphere Institute is an independent center of research, best practices and thought leadership that promotes best practices in corporate ethics and governance and enables organizations to improve compliance, mitigate risk, and enhance relationships with employees, business partners, investors and the broad regulatory community. Ethisphere evaluates and benchmarks compliance and governance programs, honors superior achievement through its World's Most Ethical Companies recognition program and publishes Ethisphere Magazine. Ethisphere is also the leading provider of independent verification of corporate ethics and compliance programs that include: Ethics Inside Certification, Compliance Leader Verification and Anti-Corruption Program Verification. More information about Ethisphere can be found at: www.ethisphere.com.
Source: Old National Bancorp
March 20, 2014
News Release
MERRILLVILLE, Ind. – NiSource Inc. (NYSE: NI) has been designated as one of the World's Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute for the third consecutive year. Ethisphere is a leading international organization dedicated to the creation, advancement and sharing of best practices in business ethics, corporate social responsibility, anti-corruption and sustainability.
“We don't take this distinction for granted,” NiSource President and Chief Executive Officer Robert C. Skaggs Jr. said. “This is a significant achievement, recognizing our commitment to ethical leadership, compliance practices and corporate social responsibility.”
NiSource is one of 143 companies from 30 different countries recognized by Ethisphere for leadership in promoting ethical business standards as measured by four specific categories: Ethics and Compliance Programs; Reputation, Leadership and Innovation; Governance; and Corporate Citizenship and Responsibility.
“The entire community of World's Most Ethical Companies believe that customers, employees, investors and regulators place a high premium on trust and that ethics and good governance are key in earning it,” said Ethisphere's Chief Executive Officer Timothy Erblich. “NiSource joins an exclusive community committed to driving performance through leading business practices. We congratulate everyone at NiSource for this extraordinary achievement.”
The NiSource Code of Business Conduct is the foundation of the NiSource Ethics and Compliance Program, and is designed to provide guidance on how to apply the company's Core Values and Principles to maintain high standards of business conduct. NiSource's Code of Business Conduct is available at www.nisource.com/ethics.
More on NiSource's commitment to ethics and compliance, as well as the company's overall corporate sustainability priorities, can be found in the 2012 Sustainability Report available at www.nisource.com/sustainability. The 2013 report will be published later this year.
Ethisphere's Selection Process
The methodology for the World's Most Ethical Companies includes reviewing codes of ethics, litigation and regulatory infraction histories; evaluating the investment in innovation and sustainable business practices; looking at activities designed to improve corporate citizenship; and studying nominations from senior executives, industry peers, suppliers and customers.
Read about the methodology and view the complete list of the 2014 World's Most Ethical Companies at http://ethisphere.com/worlds-most-ethical. The World's Most Ethical Companies will also be featured in the first quarter 2014 issue of the quarterly magazine Ethisphere.
About NiSource:
NiSource Inc. (NYSE: NI), based in Merrillvill