Can corporate governance help restore trust in business? The Harold S. Geneen Institute for Corporate Governance at Bentley University says “yes,” and is prompting global conversations aimed at finding out how to regain the confidence of a variety of important constituents. A grant from the Harold S. Geneen Charitable Trust will fund a symposium September 18 to 19, 2015, at Copenhagen Business School, and two Best Paper Awards on best practices in corporate governance.

“Governance is about accountability and responsibility, so the conference is closely aligned with Bentley’s commitment to educate responsible leaders,” says Cynthia Clark, noting longtime initiatives like the Center for Business Ethics and the Bentley Alliance for Ethics and Social Responsibility. Clark is associate professor of management and director of Bentley’s Harold S. Geneen Institute of Corporate Governance.

The goal of the conference is to explore how to instill trust in organizations and determine what governance practices companies should adopt in order to more fully engage with and be responsive to a broad base of stakeholders. The symposium theme, “Restoring Trust in Business through Corporate Governance,” will also be the basis of two Geneen Institute Best Paper Awards: one at the conference and one chosen from the journal, Corporate Governance: An International Review.

Bentley established Harold S. Geneen Institute for Corporate Governance in 2008 using a grant from Harold S. Geneen Charitable Trust. The Institute’s main mission is to support doctoral fellowships in order to further in-depth research into corporate governance.