We all have experienced moments in our personal and professional lives where we have been faced with difficult choices. But is business school the right place to learn how to handle those conflicts? Can we really be taught ethics or is it something that should be saved for the philosophy department?We have been told that Columbia strongly believes that ethics has a place in business school. We have also heard the media tell us that business schools fail to instill a sense of professional ethics in their graduates. Now, with the creation of the Leadership and Ethics Board, the school has put this responsibility in our hands by creating a joint faculty-student group responsible for developing the Individual, Business and Society (IBS) curriculum. This acknowledges that ethics isn’t something that we can simply learn from lectures and guest speakers. It is something that can only be internalized when we have an ongoing dialogue between faculty, practitioners and students, combining our own personal experiences with general principles and current events.The Board is a part of The Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics, founded in May 2003 by a generous gift from the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Foundation. The center functions as the umbrella for all activities on leadership and ethics at Columbia Business School. Among other things, the center is charged with advancing the IBS curriculum.The Bernstein Center was cited by Jeffrey Garten, the former dean of Yale Business School, in a recent issue of BusinessWeek where he discussed the efforts business schools are making to address the question of ethics. Noting the challenge that at Columbia gave rise to the Leadership and Ethics Board, Garten writes, “The idea is not for B-schools to provide simple right or wrong answers, but to prepare these future executives to better assess the morally complex choices they will face during their careers.”In addition to developing the IBS curriculum, the board plans to develop a series of events. First up is an October 11th open forum, moderated by Professor Michael Feiner, where students will discuss and role-play some of the ethical challenges first-years wrote about from their personal experiences. Other events during the year will include a speaker series and small group discussions. Finally, the Board will be working with Mary Gentile of the Aspen Institute to develop a seminar on acting on personal values into the workplace – a first for any business school.Professor Feiner, who teaches High Performance Leadership, has made it a personal point to play an active role in the Leadership and Ethics Board, noting: “Values are the oxygen of leadership, and the capacity to motivate, galvanize, and energize people is crucial to achieving career success. The Leadership and Ethics Board can help shape IBS activities and events that will impact the hearts, minds and careers of all CBS students.”Faculty members on the Board include Paul Glasserman, Senior Vice Dean, Jack R. Anderson Professor of Business and director of the Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics, Ralph Biggadike, professor of professional practice, Michael Feiner, professor of management and Ray Horton, Frank R. Lautenberg Professor of Ethics and Corporate Governance and director of the Social Enterprise Program, amongst others. Twelve members of the full time and EMBA classes comprise the student membership of the Board, with two slots reserved for the incoming J-term class: Brian Anderson '07, Sara Batterton '07, Cindy Bo '06, Michael Dwork '07, Chris Hunter (EMBA) '06, Kim Karetsky '06, Robert Nolden '07, Michelle Savage '07, Jon Stenzler (EMBA) '06, Kimberley Tait '07; Jon Gordon '06, and Dimple Kaur '06 serve as co-chairs. Additional guidance is provided by Sandra Navalli, a graduate of CBS and the associate director of the Bernstein Center, and Nayla Bahri, Assistant Dean for Student Life.Our role as members of the Leadership and Ethics Board is not to rule by fiat – we have been charged with the responsibility of responding to the ideas and concerns of both students and faculty. Consequently, it is our hope and expectation that the student body, student clubs and the entire Columbia Business School community will be participants in this new dialogue about leadership, ethics and society. To reach us, or for more information about the board, please visit www.gsb.columbia.edu/leadership/about/sleb.