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Mary Robinson gives the 2011 Ethics and Leadership Lecture for Brennan School of Business
Mary Robinson

Learn More
    -Mary Robinson: Mary Robinson Foundation I The Elders
    -Brennan School of Business: Undergraduate I MBA I MSA
    -Faculty Experts: Elizabeth Collier I Al Rosenbloom
Mary Robinson, former president of Ireland, was specifically chosen to deliver the 2011 Ethics and Leadership Lecture because Brennan School of Business Dean Arvid Johnson knew that she would continue and extend the impact of the School’s signature lecture event.

“To have someone of President Robinson’s renown speak to the very ideals we embrace can be a transformative experience for our students,” Johnson says. “She is a great example of a leader who is committed to human rights and ethics on a global scale.”

Robinson was the first woman elected president of Ireland, serving from 1990 to 1997 before leaving to join the U.N. After completing her post at the U.N., Robinson founded Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative, which worked for corporate social responsibility, climate justice, global health and women’s rights across the globe. Among its goals was improving human rights policies for major corporations. Much of the group’s work focused on ensuring human rights in developing countries in Africa and working with the U.N. to implement global business standards.

As president, Robinson brought global human rights to the attention of her country with visits to end the famine in Somalia, the genocide in Rwanda and civil unrest in Tibet. She also re-opened relations with England and increased national pride in the wide diaspora of Irish immigrants who have landed throughout the world.

She continues to work for global human rights as a member of The Elders, a group of world leaders including Nelson Mandela, Jimmy Carter and Desmond Tutu tackling issues of international importance. With the Elders, she has worked to bring peace to the Middle East, solve hunger issues in North Korea, increase women’s rights in Cote D’Ivoire and end child marriage in Ethiopia. She also leads the Mary Robinson Foundation for Climate Justice, which works to establish sustainability practices in some of the world’s poorest developing countries.

After its founding in 1977, the Brennan School of Business pioneered the requirement of coursework in corporate social responsibility and continues to emphasize ethics through its Center for Global Peace Through Commerce, U.S. Bank Center for Economic Education and through the Christopher Chair in Business Ethics.

“Our mission – which flows from the University’s own mission and heritage – serves as the foundation of everything we do in the Brennan School of Business,” Johnson says. “We prepare our graduates to be leaders who have impact with integrity in their organizations and the communities they serve.”