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Founder of World Anti‑Doping Agency wins Ethical Leadership Award

Posted by Faculty of Management on November 21, 2014 in News

A Canadian lawyer who led the battle against doping in international sport is the recipient of the second annual Scotiabank Ethical Leadership Award. The award was presented at the opening ceremonies of the Ethics in Action case competition and conference held at Dalhousie University’s Rowe School of Business on November 14.

Award recipient Richard Pound, Q.C., holds many other honours including the Order of Canada, and the National Order of Quebec. In 2005 Pound was honoured by Time Magazine as being one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World”. He is an Olympian and has won a gold, two silver, and a bronze medal in swimming at the Commonwealth Games. Pound was the vice-president of the International Olympic Committee, a former chancellor of McGill University, and he founded the World Anti-Doping Agency of which he served as President. He has been a champion of the latter cause for many years and his courageous actions are responsible for a significant decline in unethical behaviour in international sport through doping. He has been involved with famous cases including that of Lance Armstrong. Currently, Pound is the chairman of the board of Olympic Broadcasting Services.

“The Scotiabank Ethics in Action Ethical Leadership Award recognizes ethical leaders from across Canada – those who, through their actions and decisions, made with respect to either a single, significant event, or over the course of their career, have demonstrated character, courage and ethical principles,” said Peggy Cunningham, Dean, Faculty of Management. “This award is adjudicated by student leaders from our four Schools. While all of the nominees were laudable, Richard Pound was chosen because of his exceptional courage, his willingness to stand up for what he thought was right even though there was tremendous personal cost and opposition to his stance.”

On being notified of the award, Mr. Pound said, “For me this is an award I would never have expected to win. It means a lot to me because it reflects values that are very important to me in my life. And it means something in particular because it comes from students. I think it’s wonderful that today’s students are taking on some of these tough issues and trying to recognize that they are out there and to identify people who’ve wrestled with the same kind of problems they will have to wrestle with in their own lives.

The Scotiabank Ethics in Action Ethical Leadership Award recognizes a Canadian leader from a corporate, non-profit or government organization who has demonstrated outstanding ethical leadership within an organization and maintained this leadership in the face of challenging situations that held serious implications and consequences for both the organization and its stakeholders. In 2013, the inaugural award was presented to co-recipients Sir Graham Day and Chief Phil Fontaine.

Ethics in Action provides business students with three ways to participate. A national contest awards prizes for the best video and written essays on the topic of ethical leadership. This year’s case competition saw UPEI place first in undergraduate (Acadia 2nd, SMU 3rd) and a first-place finish by Ryerson in the MBA level (Dal 2nd, UNB SJ 3rd). Amir Rashti (Dalhousie MPA) won the video contest and Patrick Brousseau (Dalhousie MBA) won the essay contest. The student conference was held in conjunction with the case competition November 14 & 15, 2014, at the Dalhousie campus.

The Rowe School of Business established Ethics in Action with a $1.5 million donation from Scotiabank. The student-led program is aimed at engaging business students and the Canadian business community in shaping ethical business leadership. The program is built upon the success of the Dalhousie Business Ethics Case Competition, which attracted teams of undergraduate business students from top U.S. and Canadian schools for nine years.

“At the Rowe School of Business at Dalhousie University, graduates are encouraged to manage with integrity and make things happen by focusing on our core values of Integrity, Diversity, Experiential Learning, Action and Sustainability (IDEAS). The winners of this award exemplify these values. Their experience and perspective will serve as a source of inspiration and emulation for us all, especially for today’s business students,” said Peggy Cunningham.