Dixie State University Business and Ethics Forum

Dixie State University’s Udvar-Hazy School of Business continues its bi-monthly noontime Business and Ethics Forum series for the 2014 spring semester on Thursday, February 20, featuring a presentation on ethical practices in financial planning by Lynn Bridges, founder and president of Bridges Wealth Preservation (BWP), Inc.

Bridges founded BWP in St. George, which is an independent financial planning firm that focuses on finding and implementing responsible money solutions for client’s current and future financial needs and goals. Prior to establishing BWP, Bridges worked over 26 years in several areas of the financial services industry, including fee-based planning, estate planning, securities, fee-based wealth management and insurance.

The series will continue March 6, with a presentation by Joel Deceuster, marketing strategist for the St. George Area Chamber of Commerce. In addition, Bryan Thiriot, executive director for the Five County Association of Governments, will address the forum March 20, and Dixie Leavitt, founder of the Leavitt Insurance Agency, will wrap up the semester schedule with a presentation April 10.

The DSU Business and Ethics Forum is held every other Thursday throughout the fall and spring semesters, with each guest lecturer speaking on business matters in their respective professions and how ethics are introduced into the discussion.

The bi-monthly forum, along with campus’ Institute for Business Integrity, was created by former DSU president Dr. Robert Huddleston in 2006, as a way to integrate ethics into the curriculum, and have it serve as a blueprint to ensure that students graduate with a set of ethical tools to help them get along in the professional world.

In 2006-07, Dixie State’s business program sought initial accreditation with the high profile Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB). In order to become accredited with the AACSB, ethics were required to be integrated into the college’s business curriculum. As a result, each business class on the DSU campus now includes an ethical component.

Dr. Huddleston noted that the business forums will give students – and current and prospective local business owners – an added dose of ethics training that is so sorely needed into today’s business world. His hope is that by the time students leave Dixie State, they have been exposed to enough ethical cases that, when they get out in the workforce, they will have the wherewithal and the intestinal fortitude to do the right thing, even when their job might be on the line. 

“The Institute for Business Integrity has brought an important opportunity for the business community, as well as DSU faculty and students, to emphasize the significance of social responsibility for business and industry in Washington County,” said Huddleston. “As research indicates, ethics contribute to employee commitment, investor loyalty, customer satisfaction and to profits.”

The Dixie State University Institute for Business Integrity is a partnership between the DSU Udvar-Hazy School of Business, the Small Business Development Center, the Washington County Economic Development Council, and the St. George Area Chamber of Commerce.