The Society for Business Ethics presented a Lifetime Achievement Award to W. Michael Hoffman, founding executive director of the Center for Business Ethics (CBE) and Hieken Professor of Business and Professional Ethics at Bentley University. Hoffman was honored for “Outstanding Service to the Field of Business Ethics” at the society’s annual meeting in August in San Antonio, Texas.

“This award means a great deal to me,” Hoffman says. “The society is without question the premier association for business ethics scholars, and to be honored by it and given the award before my peers was extremely gratifying and flattering.”

Hoffman has been founding executive director of the Center for Business Ethics for more than 35 years, and co-founded the Society for Business Ethics 31 years ago. He is also founding executive director of the Ethics & Compliance Officer Association.

In addition to consulting for numerous corporations and law firms, Hoffman has written or edited 16 books, including Business Ethics: Readings and Cases in Corporate Morality; Ethics Matters: How to Implement Values-Driven Management; and The Ethical Edge: Tales of Organizations That Have Faced Moral Crises. He has published over 100 articles in publications that include the Journal of Business Ethics, Business Ethics Quarterly, and Business and Society Review. He is also co-editor of the book series Foundations of Business Ethics.

Hoffman has been a popular speaker on business ethics for organizations and associations around the world, and has been quoted and featured on many occasions in print and broadcast media.  He was honored with the Bentley Award for Excellence in Research in 1989, in addition to being named the Humanist of the Year by the Ethical Society of Boston in 2007. Hoffman also received a lifetime achievement award from the Society for Corporate Compliance and Ethics in 2009, and recently received the Central and Eastern European Management Association (CEEMAN) Champion’s Award for Responsible Management Education.