Gary Edwards

Gary Edwards is the CEO of Ethos International, Inc. which he co-founded in 2007 to provide strategic assistance to US and multinational organizations seeking to create and manage integrity-driven corporate cultures. He brings to Ethos International nearly thirty years of leadership in organizational ethics and effective governance.

Prior to founding Ethos, Mr. Edwards served for fifteen years as President of the Ethics Resource Center, where he began the Advisory Services consulting practice in 1985, creating the first corporate ethics office that year for General Dynamics. At the request of President Reagan's Blue Ribbon Commission on Defense Management, Mr. Edwards drafted the Commission's recommendations on industry self-governance which led directly to the creation of the Defense Industry Initiative on Business Ethics and Conduct (DII). The DII later served as a template for mitigation factors for the U.S. Sentencing Commission's Guidelines for sentencing organizations.

Mr. Edwards is frequently called upon by business and government leaders for his advice and expertise on matters related to ethics. A popular speaker, he has addressed top management and hundreds of teams in over 200 corporations, dozens of trade and professional associations, government agencies and NGOs. He has appeared on network news broadcasts by ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, and CNN, and has been widely quoted in major publications, including The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and The Economist.

Articles by Mr. Edwards include: “Compliance, Ethics and Corporate Culture: A Call to Action for Board Leadership” (December, 2007 issue of Directors Monthly , published by the National Association of Corporate Directors); “Challenges Facing Corporate Ethics and Compliance Programs”, a research report released by Ethos International in November, 2007; “False Comfort: Corporate Compliance and the Board of Directors” in Ethics and the Boardroom, published by the National Association of Corporate Directors, and “Auditor Independence Through Self–Regulation and Professional Ethics” which was commissioned by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants for their White Paper, Serving the Public Interest: A New Conceptual Framework for Auditor Independence submitted to the Independence Standards Board. Additionally, Mr. Edwards has written and broadcast a series of weekly commentaries on ethics issues in business, government and public affairs for the Business Radio Network.

Mr. Edwards holds a J.D. degree from the Georgetown University Law Center, an M.A. from Yale University where he was a Hooker-Dwight Fellow, and a B.A. from Andrews University. He has also done graduate work in philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and Princeton University.

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