Villanova University Announces 2009 Praxis Award in Professional Ethics

Amy Domini, founder and CEO of Domini Social Investments, will receive Villanova’s 2009 Praxis Award in Professional Ethics

VILLANOVA, Pa., Sept. 3, 2008 – The Villanova University Ethics Program of the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences has announced the selection of the recipient of its third annual Praxis Award in Professional Ethics. Amy Domini, the Founder and CEO of Domini Social Investments, an investment management company committed to social responsibility, will be presented the award on March 31, 2009 at 5:30 p.m. in the Villanova Room of the Connelly Center. The Praxis Award highlights and celebrates the contributions of a professional or an academic in the field of professional ethics.

Recipients of the award have accomplished one or more of the following achievements:

• excellence in fulfilling and embodying the ethical ideals of a profession
• excellence in connecting professional work to a broader understanding of the common good
• excellence in promoting and embodying ethical integrity in a professional field
• excellence with respect to research in the field of professional ethics
• excellence in terms of influence on the field of professional ethics through writing, teaching, consulting, and/or professional leadership.

Driven by a personal belief in responsible investing, ingenuity, and strong business intuition, Domini began systematically exploring the principles and strategies of socially responsible investing during the 1980s. In her book Ethical Investing (1984), Domini and co-author Peter Kinder were the first to offer a comprehensive discussion on the subject of socially responsible investing.

“Amy Domini has been a beacon of ethical integrity in the sphere of social investment and is most deserving of the University’s Praxis Award in Professional Ethics,” said Mark Doorley, Director of the Ethics Program at Villanova University.  “Villanova honors Ms. Domini for her commitment to the common good, her demand for integrity in the industry she represents, and her efforts to bring the ideals of social responsibility to the forefront in the international business community.”

Understanding the social investors’ need for a standard “akin to traditional investment benchmarks like the Standard & Poor’s 500 or the Dow Jones Industrial Average”, Domini and her partners, Kinder and Steve Lydenberg, launched the Domini 400 Social Index (SM).  The Domini 400 Social Index (SM), established in 1980, incorporates a wide range of social and environmental standards to help investors determine the costs and benefits associated with socially responsible portfolios.

Domini continues to promote social responsibility regionally and globally. Through its shareholders’ investments, her company works to encourage greater corporate responsibility by using both social and environmental standards in selecting holdings and by directly engaging corporate management through proxy voting and shareholder dialogue.  In addition, Domini Social Investments has developed investment vehicles which enable investors to help rebuild the economy of struggling communities (http://www.domini.com).

For more information on the Praxis Award, visit http://www.villanova.edu/artsci/ethics/praxisaward/.

Villanova University, a co-educational Roman Catholic institution, was founded by the Order of Saint Augustine in 1842.  A premier institution of higher education, Villanova provides a comprehensive education rooted in the liberal arts; a shared commitment to the Augustinian ideals of truth, unity and love; and a community dedicated to service to others.  A wide variety of undergraduate and graduate degree programs are offered through the University’s four colleges: the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, the Villanova School of Business, the College of Engineering and the College of Nursing, as well as the Villanova School of Law. With a total enrollment that surpasses 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and law students, Villanova is the oldest and largest Catholic university in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Contact:
Jonathan Gust, Director of Media Relations
(610) 519-6508
Jonathan.gust@villanova.edu