TIAA-CREF President and CEO Roger Ferguson challenged the idea that the recent financial crisis is an inevitable economic cycle. He shared his thoughts at the 19th Raytheon Lecture in Business Ethics at Bentley on Tuesday, April 2, at 3:30 p.m. in the Wilder Pavilion, Adamian Academic Center, Bentley University, Waltham, MA.
As a former Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System and a member of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, Ferguson asserts that financial services firms need to ensure that such a crisis never happens again. He believes that firms must be firmly guided by high ethical principles — particularly as America’s population is aging, and the safety nets provided by Social Security and Medicare face significant challenges.
His presentation, “Business Ethics and the Financial Services Sector: The Way Forward,” focused on factors that make ethics essential to the financial sector, and the relevant demographic changes that are transforming the nation. He also discussed how TIAA-CREF – nearly a century old – has remained a highly respected brand through tumultuous times.
About Roger Ferguson, Jr.
In addition to serving as Vice Chairman of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve System, Ferguson was a voting member of the Federal Open Market Committee, served as Chairman of the Financial Stability Forum, and chaired Federal Reserve Board committees on banking supervision and regulation, payment system policy, and reserve bank oversight. Prior to joining TIAA-CREF in 2008, he was head of financial services for Swiss Re, Chairman of Swiss Re America Holding Corporation, and a member of the company’s executive committee. From 1984 to 1997, he was an Associate and Partner at McKinsey & Company. He began his career as an attorney at the New York City office of Davis Polk & Wardwell.
The program was presented by the Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University through the generous support of Raytheon Company. The center is a partner in the Bentley Alliance for Ethics and Social Responsibility. The event was co-sponsored by Bentley’s Academic Integrity Society.