The Greater Houston Business Ethics Roundtable recognized University of St. Thomas Master of Business Administration student Jamie Hesterberg as the 2012 emerging leader. Dr. Michele Simms, director of the UST Center for Business Ethics in the Cameron School of Business, nominated Hesterberg for her scholarship and leadership. The GHBER Bette Stead Scholarship is a $3,000 award applied toward tuition. Hesterberg said she was surprised and honored.

 

"It is very meaningful to me to be recognized for something that is so important to my core beliefs and values," Hesterberg said. "The best thing about accepting the award was the recognition for moral and ethical behavior, not just at UST, but also from the Greater Houston business community."

 

As one of the founding members of Beta Epsilon Sigma, a business ethics society for MBA and Master of Science in Accounting students, Hesterberg supports and emphasizes the vision of BES in "building ethics in society, through leadership, service and integrity." She continues to serve on the BES Executive Committee and is one of four CBE Emerging Leaders being coached by Dr. Sue Brown, executive coach of SJ Brown and Associates.

 

"I don’t want to live a double life: a personal life of integrity and then a more cut-throat business life," Hesterberg said. "I want to be the same person all the time and lead by example. In order to develop into a progressive, forward-thinking business leader in the corporate world, I need to continually challenge the status quo."

 

CBE strives to help business people and students make good choices that benefit themselves, their businesses and their community. Simms said the MBA ethics courses are designed to educate the whole person, and Hesterberg was a strong candidate to illustrate the ideal.

 

 “Jamie has earned the respect of her peers and her faculty for her quiet fortitude and creative ideas as to how we live out our commitment to business in ways that integrate the intellectual with the spiritual," Simms said. "Jamie joins a remarkable group of GHBER recipients and is certain to be a leader in business ethics. I am proud to have her serve as our 2012 GHBER recipient.”

 

GHBER is a voluntary professional organization dedicated to promoting ethical business practices and serving as a forum for the exchange of information and strategies regarding implementation, administration and compliance of ethical business conduct programs.