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March 6, 2006, at 4:45 p.m.
University Events Room
Glickman Family Library, 7th floor
Portland USM Campus (map)

Private enterprise is rapidly taking hold as the world's dominant economic paradigm, but business scandals, environmental degradation, and rampant poverty are stark reminders that business alone—unregulated and unsupervised—will not solve the world's problems. Using a unique market-based approach and a socially inclusive definition of wealth, Corporations and the Public Interest offers a refreshing new system for assessing corporations' real commitment to the public. Steven Lydenberg's plan includes strategies for steering companies in socially responsible directions and imposing costs on those that neglect their responsibilities to the community.
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Steven Lydenberg has been active in social investing for over 27 years as Director of Corporate Accountability Research with the Council on Economic Priorities, Investment Associate with Franklin Research and Development Corporation (now known as Trillium Asset Management), and Director of Research with Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini & Co. (now known as KLD Research & Analytics).

For 12 years, from 1975 through 1987, he worked with the Council on Economic Priorities, where he researched and wrote numerous studies on corporate social accountability, including reports on the role of corporate financing in ballot question campaigns, the filing of shareholder resolutions, and corporate initiatives in the areas of child care and minority banking. In his capacity as Director of Corporate Accountability Research with CEP, he was coauthor of (1984), the first systematic rating of the overall corporate social accountability records of major U.S. corporations. In 1987, he joined Franklin Research and Development where he worked as an investment analyst, contributing to the company's Insight newsletter. Mr. Lydenberg is the co-author of several books on corporate social responsibility including Rating America's Corporate Conscience (Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1986), The Social Investment Almanac (Henry Holt & Co., 1992) and Investing for Good (Harper Collins, 1993), a guide for socially responsible investors. In September 2002, his article "Envisioning Socially Responsible Investing: A Model for 2006" appeared in The Journal of Corporate Citizenship.

Mr. Lydenberg currently serves on advisory boards for CANICCOR and Social Accountability International, and has served as Honorary Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Sustainable Investment Research International (SiRi) Group. Mr. Lydenberg holds degrees from Columbia College and Cornell University and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

The colloquium is sponsored by the L.L. Bean/Lee Surace Endowed Chair in Accounting.

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USM Professor Jeffrey Gramlich was appointed the first L.L. Bean/Lee Surace Chair in Accounting in the USM School of Business in 2003. His appointment was made possible by a $1 million gift from L.L. Bean, Inc., its board chair, Leon Gorman, his wife Lisa, Jim and Maureen Gorman, and Tom Gorman, who established the chair in memory of L.L. Bean CFO Lee Surace '73, '81, who died in March of 2001. Surace was chair of the USM School of Business' Advisory Council and was a frequent guest lecturer.

The USM School of Business is accredited by the prestigious AACSB International. For students seeking the finest education and companies seeking the highest caliber talent, partnership, and educational opportunities, AACSB International accreditation is one of the most important affirmations of sustained quality in the word. For more information about School of Business programs, call 780-4020.