
Nicole Zwieg Daly, J.D, Ed.D.
Executive Director & Adjunct Professor of Ethics & Business Law
The Melrose and The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership connects learning in the liberal arts and humanities to leadership practice, meaningful work for employees, and the greater societal purpose of business in advancing the common good.
The Business Ethics Resource Center powered by U.S. Bank (BERC) is an open-access website that makes business ethics resources available freely to the public with the intent to educate business leaders and assist them in building and maintaining strong organizational cultures of ethics and compliance in the businesses and industries they serve. BERC provides users with the opportunity to gain a foundational ethics and compliance understanding as well as learn best practices and offer solutions to ethics and compliance challenges commonly experienced by small- and medium-sized businesses in the United States.
Check out BERC's downloadable, practical ethics & compliance toolkits!
New in 2021 is the BERC one-of-a-kind ethical decision-making tool called Empowering Ethics. Designed to to help business owners and organizations make better ethical decisions for their business, their stakeholders, and the common good, Empowering Ethics is a free, user-friendly tool. Try it today!
Read our Business Forum commentary published in the Star-Tribune July 2020 to gain an understanding of the Center's future work to maximize the value of rebuilding the Twin Cities for the common good with public-private partnerships to connect community interests with corporate resources.
Read Christopher Michaelson's oped published in the Conversation May 2020 relating to meaningful & essential work.
Tentative plans to host the International Meaningful Work Conference anticipated 2023.
Tentative plans are also being made to co-host a faculty seminar on preparing students for careers for the common good with the University of St. Thomas Center for Catholic Social Thought and other partners in 2023.
In the spirit of connecting learning in the liberal arts and humanities to leadership practices, we are exploring programming partnerships with arts organizations to further inspire principled leadership. Read our column in the Star Tribune August 2020 to deepen your knowledge about social justice and leadership through art and the humanities.
Our inaugural creative programming partnership was held in December 2019! Essential work, counting what counts, and leaving a legacy: These are just some of the themes discussed during the virtual event on December 8: a performance, panel, and partnership between the Guthrie Theater and the Melrose and the Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership at the University of St. Thomas.
If you were unable to attend the virtual event...please go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B-5mhr2B2A to enjoy the event when it works in your schedule!
Articles and commentaries in refereed scholarly publications
Book chapters and entries
Reviews, teaching materials, proceedings, and other publications
Other media publications and blog
Michaelson, C. 2020. Clap all you like now but workers with meaningful jobs deserve to be values in a post-coronavirus economy too. The Conversation, May 26. Online at https://theconversation.com/clap-all-you-like-now-but-workers-with-meaningful-jobs-deserve-to-be-valued-in-a-post-coronavirus-economy-too-136472.
Non-academic white papers
As co-editors for the Books (& More) Review section of the Journal of Business Ethics, Michaelson and Zwieg Daly have accepted their first reviews for publication in Winter 2021. Unique to academic convention, these reviews, which are ordinarily available only to academic subscribers, will be freely available to the business community and general public for eight weeks in an effort to continue bridging the academic and practitioner communities.
The Journal of Business Ethics publishes reviews of scholarly books as well as relevant nonfiction, fiction, documentaries, films, plays, television shows, art exhibits, and so on that advance dialogue between scholars and the public about business ethics and society. In addition to answering the question, “Is this book/film, etc. worth reading/viewing?”, these reviews should answer the question, “What ideas or questions will this book/film, etc. illuminate for anyone with an interest in business ethics?”
Links to upcoming Book (& More) Reviews will be forthcoming.
The Business Ethics Resource Center powered by U.S. Bank (BERC) is an open-access website that makes business ethics resources available freely to the public with the intent to educate business leaders and assist them in building and maintaining strong organizational cultures of ethics and compliance in the businesses and industries they serve. BERC provides users with the opportunity to gain a foundational ethics and compliance understanding as well as learn best practices and offer solutions to ethics and compliance challenges commonly experienced by small- and medium-sized businesses in the United States.
Check out BERC's downloadable, practical ethics & compliance toolkits!
New in 2021 is the BERC one-of-a-kind ethical decision-making tool called Empowering Ethics. Designed to to help business owners and organizations make better ethical decisions for their business, their stakeholders, and the common good, Empowering Ethics is a free, user-friendly tool. Try it today!
Read our Business Forum commentary published in the Star-Tribune July 2020 to gain an understanding of the Center's future work to maximize the value of rebuilding the Twin Cities for the common good with public-private partnerships to connect community interests with corporate resources.
Read Christopher Michaelson's oped published in the Conversation May 2020 relating to meaningful & essential work.
Tentative plans to host the International Meaningful Work Conference anticipated 2023.
Tentative plans are also being made to co-host a faculty seminar on preparing students for careers for the common good with the University of St. Thomas Center for Catholic Social Thought and other partners in 2023.
In the spirit of connecting learning in the liberal arts and humanities to leadership practices, we are exploring programming partnerships with arts organizations to further inspire principled leadership. Read our column in the Star Tribune August 2020 to deepen your knowledge about social justice and leadership through art and the humanities.
Our inaugural creative programming partnership was held in December 2019! Essential work, counting what counts, and leaving a legacy: These are just some of the themes discussed during the virtual event on December 8: a performance, panel, and partnership between the Guthrie Theater and the Melrose and the Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership at the University of St. Thomas.
If you were unable to attend the virtual event...please go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B-5mhr2B2A to enjoy the event when it works in your schedule!
Articles and commentaries in refereed scholarly publications
Book chapters and entries
Reviews, teaching materials, proceedings, and other publications
Other media publications and blog
Michaelson, C. 2020. Clap all you like now but workers with meaningful jobs deserve to be values in a post-coronavirus economy too. The Conversation, May 26. Online at https://theconversation.com/clap-all-you-like-now-but-workers-with-meaningful-jobs-deserve-to-be-valued-in-a-post-coronavirus-economy-too-136472.
Non-academic white papers
As co-editors for the Books (& More) Review section of the Journal of Business Ethics, Michaelson and Zwieg Daly have accepted their first reviews for publication in Winter 2021. Unique to academic convention, these reviews, which are ordinarily available only to academic subscribers, will be freely available to the business community and general public for eight weeks in an effort to continue bridging the academic and practitioner communities.
The Journal of Business Ethics publishes reviews of scholarly books as well as relevant nonfiction, fiction, documentaries, films, plays, television shows, art exhibits, and so on that advance dialogue between scholars and the public about business ethics and society. In addition to answering the question, “Is this book/film, etc. worth reading/viewing?”, these reviews should answer the question, “What ideas or questions will this book/film, etc. illuminate for anyone with an interest in business ethics?”
Links to upcoming Book (& More) Reviews will be forthcoming.
Ken Melrose: Friend, mentor, former CEO of The Toro Company & quintessential principled leader.
Building upon its forty-year foundation as the Center for Ethical Business Cultures, the newly renamed center housed in the Opus College of Business honors the legacy of former CEO of The Toro Company Ken Melrose thanks to The Toro Company and The Hoffman Family Foundation for their generous commitment of $3 million to the University of St. Thomas to create the Melrose and The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership. The four-year gift commitment creates a $3 million endowment with contributions totaling $2 million from The Toro Company and $1 million from The Hoffman Family Foundation.
The Melrose & The Toro Company Center for Principled Leadership promotes and celebrates principled leadership through academic research, teaching, and outreach activities. Melrose was a fervent champion for ethics and servant leadership. He served as chairman of the center’s advisory board, held the university’s Holloran Endowed Professorship and was a popular lecturer on business ethics and leadership.
“Ken was forever a friend and mentor to me personally as well as a dear friend of our family. He was a very giving person who helped many people grow into better leaders at The Toro Company, St. Thomas, and beyond. My wife Tami and I are thrilled that The Hoffman Family Foundation can honor him and his legacy through an organization that so deeply shares his values,” said Mike Hoffman, former chairman and CEO of The Toro Company.
“Ken lived and breathed the values of ethical, principled and, more importantly, servant leadership. The Toro Company is forever changed by his impact and I’m grateful to continue this legacy for our region at St. Thomas,” said Rick Olson, chairman and CEO of The Toro Company.
“This generous gift will honor and celebrate Ken Melrose as a principled leader who promoted the values, practice and impact of servant leadership, said Stefanie Lenway, dean of the Opus College of Business. “This will also shine a spotlight on Toro and Opus and build their brands as co-leaders in promoting the efficacy of profitable business models based on purpose-driven strategies and values-based leadership.”
Executive Director & Adjunct Professor of Ethics & Business Law
Academic Director & Professor of Ethics & Business Law
Christopher MichaelsonExecutive Fellow & Adjunct Professor of Ethics & Business Law
Susan Supina