The ethical questions raised by the amount of compensation paid to executives will highlight the Oct. 29 University of Colorado at Boulder annual Japha Symposium on Business and Professional Ethics.
The free public symposium, "The Ethics of Executive Compensation," will be held from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. at the Boulder Marriott, 2660 Canyon Blvd. The event is hosted by the Center for Business and Society of the Leeds School of Business.
CEOs often bring home millions, even tens of millions of dollars annually in total pay. The public scrutiny of the salaries and spending habits of executives like Dennis Koslowski at Tyco International Ltd. and Ken Lay at Enron has lead to a widely-held perception that these high salaries do not mesh with CEO performance, according to Robert Kolb, assistant dean for business and society at the Leeds School of Business.
"We hope to gain a better understanding of why executive compensation has reached levels that seem so high to many observers and to ask whether some compensation packages are just simply excessive or if they might be justified by performance," said Kolb, who organized the event.
Joann S. Lublin, management news editor at The Wall Street Journal, will give the keynote address at 4 p.m. and will focus mainly on board of directors' roles in setting CEO pay. She has written about management compensation for 12 years as contributing editor of the Journal's annual special section on executive pay.
John Huber of the law firm Latham and Watkins in Washington, D.C., and former director of the Security and Exchange Commission's Division of Corporation Finance, is the honorary chair and will give brief descriptions of papers being presented during the symposium.
The papers will delve into topics like "The Ethics of Executive Compensation: The Obligation of Corporate Boards to Set and Monitor Compensation," "How Much Is Too Much?" and "CEO Compensation and Virtue Ethics."
CU alumnus and Denver attorney Dan Japha established the ethics symposium in honor of his parents, Ly and Gerry Japha, through a donation to the Leeds School of Business. Japha's goal in creating the symposium was to teach business students and others in the community the importance of ethical conduct in business. He will speak during the lunch, which begins at 12:30 p.m.
Participants planning to attend the lunch or the 8 a.m. breakfast must R.S.V.P. by calling (303) 492-0437.
For more information on the symposium call (303) 492-0437 or visit and click on programs and events.