KU News Release

LAWRENCE — Kathleen Edmond, chief ethics officer for Best Buy, is the University of Kansas School of Business’ 2010 Walter S. Sutton Ethics Lecturer. She will present “Ethical Decision Making in a Transparent World” at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 24, at Woodruff Auditorium in the Kansas Union. The event is free and open to the public.

“At Best Buy, our values are a driving force behind everything we do,” Edmond said. “Ethics is never done. It’s about culture and environment. My job is to cut across a bunch of different departments and figure out who it is we want to be. I deal with gray area questions. I ask, ‘We’re permitted to do this, but should we?’ ”

As chief ethics officer, Edmond develops and directs Best Buy’s global vision for its ethics and business conduct and is a key partner in the corporate social responsibility work. She has been chief ethics officer of Best Buy since 2002. Edmond is a graduate of the University of Minnesota School of Law and holds an master’s in business ethics from the University of Saint Thomas.

“Transparency is about being honest about what we’re doing as a company and how it’s going to effect people,” Edmond said. “The technology of today is unparalleled. We have to ask, ‘what is it we’re really saying and should we be saying it at all?’ If we want to be a key part of the community, we need to have an open line of communication. I try to provide a safe place for people to come with ethical issues.”

Edmond will discuss the value of corporate transparency, the difference between ethics and compliance, and decision making in ethical dilemmas.

“Being ethical in the workplace isn’t always the easiest thing to do,” she said. “You need to know yourself in order to decide the right thing to do. Ethical decision making isn’t about the profession, it’s about the journey.”

The Sutton Lecture Series began in 1993 in memory of 1939 School of Business alumnus Walter S. Sutton. He devoted much of his time to civic organizations before his death in 1985. The lecture series is presented in conjunction with KU’s School of Business and International Center for Ethics in Business.