Ethics: 2019 Conference Speakers

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Jeff Belskus

President, Indy Sports & Entertainment

Presenting: "The Ethical Treatment of Professional Athletes"

Jeffrey G. Belskus is the president of Indy Sports and Entertainment, which does business as the Indy Eleven. The Indy Eleven is a men’s professional soccer club, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, that competes in the United Soccer League (USL). Indy Eleven games are played at Lucas Oil Stadium.

Previously, Belskus served as president and chief executive officer of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation and president and chief financial officer of privately owned Hulman & Company, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Corporation’s parent organization. Belskus attended Indiana State University, where he graduated with honors in 1981. He received his bachelor’s degree in accounting, and earned his CPA designation in the state of Indiana in 1985. Belskus serves on numerous boards of directors, including the board of Indiana Farmers Mutual Insurance Company, the board of the Morris Plan Company of Terre Haute, the board of trustees of Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology (emeritus), and the Indiana State University Foundation Board. He has previously served on the boards of Hulman & Company, the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, the Greater Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce, the 500 Festival, the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership (CICP), and the Indianapolis Convention and Visitors Association (Visit Indy).

His professional affiliations include the American Institute of CPAs, the Indiana CPA Society, and the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD). Belskus and his wife, Debbie, live in Indianapolis, Indiana and have two grown children, John and Kristen.

Trey Carpenter

Senior Enterprise Risk Management Analyst, State Farm

Presenting: "The Ethics Behind Artificial Intelligence"

Carpenter is a graduate of Indiana State University where he double majored in insurance and risk management, and finance. Upon graduation, Carpenter began his career with State Farm, a Fortune 40 company, as an enterprise risk management analyst at their corporate headquarters in Bloomington, Illinois.

Since his employment, he has obtained numerous industry designations including CPCU, CLU, CCEP, FLMI, ACS, and AIRC and currently works as a senior enterprise risk management analyst. Carpenter resides in Bloomington, Illinois with his wife, Kassie, and their two dogs, Tucker and Sophie.

Ruth Fairbanks

Instructor, Department of History & Multidisciplinary Studies, Indiana State University

Co-presenting: "Gender, Work and Changing Opportunity in the United States"

Fairbanks is an instructor in the Department of Multidisciplinary Studies at Indiana State University, where she teaches gender studies and American history. Fairbanks is currently a co-coordinator of ISU’s gender studies program. Last year, she had a Fulbright Fellowship teaching American studies in Norway. Fairbanks earned her Ph.D. in history at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Fairbanks is currently working on a book on American maternity policy from 1940 to 1993. She is also writing a role playing game about the utopian socialist experiment in New Harmony, Indiana in 1825.

Lori Frederick

Senior Vice President, Sales, Toppan Merrill Corporation

Presenting: "Lessons Learned the Hard Way"

Frederick is a senior vice president of sales, for Toppan Merrill Corporation. For over 20 years she has facilitated major corporations with initial public offerings; SEC compliance reporting including XBRL; mergers and acquisitions, and Virtual Data Rooms. Frederick is a trusted advisor for financial print document management and assists her clients in digital document management. Frederick has a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Indiana State University.

Matt Henry

Senior Investment Officer, STAR Wealth Management; Vice President, CFA Society, Indianapolis; and Instructor, Ball State University

Presenting: "Greed vs. Profit in the World of Finance"

Henry is a vice president and senior investment officer at STAR Wealth Management, and is responsible for investment strategy. He also provides portfolio management for his clients and specializes in institutional and nonprofit relationships. He holds a bachelor of arts from Ball State University where he graduated cum laude from the Honors College, along with an MBA from Western Governors University. Henry is a CFA charterholder and vice president of CFA Society Indianapolis. Matt is a Lilly Endowment scholar and 2017 honoree of the Star Press and M Magazine’s “20 Under 40.” He serves as adjunct faculty for the Miller College of Business at Ball State University. Henry also serves on the Lilly Endowment selection committee for the Legacy Fund in Hamilton County. Henry also makes time to volunteer with the Wheeler Mission and Indiana Sports Corporation.

Debra Israel

Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Indiana State University

Co-presenting: "Gender, Work and Changing Opportunity in the United States"

Israel is an associate professor of economics at Indiana State University, an affiliated faculty member with the gender studies, international studies, and multidisciplinary studies programs, and a Faculty Fellow for Teaching Innovation at the ISU Faculty Center for Teaching Excellence. Israel received her doctorate in economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In the area of gender studies, she has taught both gender and economics, and a course on gender, developing economies and globalization. Her current research projects relevant to gender studies include: examining gender and contributions to environmental organizations, the gender gap in environmental concern, gender as a factor in fuel choice in developing countries, and gender diversity in economics.

Kent A. Kramer

President and CEO, Goodwill of Central and Southern Indiana

Presenting: "Ethical Dilemmas in Business"

Kramer joined Goodwill of Central and Southern Indiana in 2002 as vice president of retail operations, later serving as chief operating officer. In 2015, he was named president and CEO—the organization’s fourth leader in almost 90 years. Beyond Indiana, Kramer has led the organization through the development of the Excel Center National Office, to support expansion of their adult high school model across the United States. A proud alumnus of Indiana State University, Kramer holds a bachelor of science degree in management and serves on the university’s Alumni Association board. He holds an MBA from the Falls School of Business at Anderson University. Kramer is a 2010 graduate of the Goodwill Industries International Executive Development Program and in 2014 was appointed by Indiana Governor Mike Pence to serve on the State Workforce Innovation Council.

Julie Kratz

CEO and Founder, Pivot Point

Presenting: "Men as Allies: How Allies Partner for Equality"

Julie Kratz is a highly-acclaimed leadership trainer who led teams and produced results in corporate America. After experiencing her own career "pivot point," she developed a process for women leaders build winning plans. Promoting gender equality in the workplace, Julie is a frequent keynote speaker and executive coach. She holds an MBA from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University, is a Certified Master Coach, and is a certified unconscious bias trainer. Her books include Pivot Point: How to Build a Winning Career Game Plan and ONE: How Male Allies Support Women for Gender Equality. Meet Julie at NextPivotPoint.com.

Cheryl Mitchell

Director, Management Operations, Starfire Industries, LLC

Presenting: "Stop the NOISE! Getting to the Core of Ethics."

Mitchell is currently the director of management operations for Starfire Industries. Starfire Industries provides industry-changing plasma source and particle accelerator solutions, designed, manufactured, and delivered worldwide from their headquarters in Champaign, Illinois. While Mitchell has a passion for encouraging and equipping individuals and organizations to reach their goals, her greatest joy as a single mom has been in raising her two sons: Doug, a full-time firefighter for the Lexington, Kentucky fire department, and Ben, a sophomore at Eastern Kentucky University, studying criminal justice. With close to 30 years of leadership development and training experience, Mitchell is known for her dedication and desire to help individuals and organizations reach their full potential and have success.

Ed Pease

Senior Vice-President, Rolls-Royce North America

Presenting: “Ethics in the Business of Political Campaigns”

Pease graduated from Terre Haute’s Gerstmeyer Technical High School as valedictorian. He received a full scholarship to Indiana University, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa, received the Wells Award as the outstanding graduating senior in the Class of 1973, and was selected as IU’s nominee for the Rhodes Scholarship. The arc of his life included an array of careers, as an attorney in general practice, as general counsel and later a vice president at Indiana State University, as a 12-year member of the Senate in the Indiana General Assembly, a member of the United States House of Representatives representing western Indiana, as senior Vice-President for Rolls-Royce North America, and now as chair of the ISU Board of Trustees. But it is his life as a volunteer that has perhaps brought him the most satisfaction, having served on the board of directors of the Nature Conservancy, as president of his local council of the Boy Scouts of America, the board of the United States Capitol Historical Society, and dozens of others.

Theresa Rutherford

President and CEO, HSHS St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital

Presenting: "Ethics in Healthcare 2019"

Rutherford currently serves as president and CEO of HSHS St. Anthony’s Memorial Hospital. As president and CEO, she is responsible for all aspects of planning, operations, and financial management of the hospital. Rutherford joined St. Anthony’s in 2013, after serving several years as Chief Operating Officer at HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital in Decatur. In her time at St. Anthony’s, she has successfully led the hospital in advancing technology, enhancing quality, increasing colleague engagement, improving the patient experience, and reflecting transparency with community members. Rutherford completed her undergraduate degree in nursing at Millikin University, Decatur and holds a master of science nursing administration and an MBA from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Joel Schneider

Financial Advisor, Edward Jones

Presenting: "The Ethics of Financial Advising"

Prior to joining Edward Jones as a financial advisor in 2008, Schneider was in science education for nine years and pharmaceutical development and finances for two years. While at Edward Jones, Schneider has served in key administrative capacities, developing leadership as well as training new and veteran financial advisors how to run a solutions based practice, while running his own successful practice. Schneider currently resides in Bloomington, Indiana with his wife and two daughters.

Jim Schultz

Founder, Open Prairie

Presenting: "Public Life and Private Business Experiences from the Perspective of a Private Equity Professional and Secretary of Commerce (IL)"

Schultz is the founder of Open Prairie and is responsible for the management of four private equity funds with investments in innovative technologies spanning agriculture, medical devices, and information systems. Schultz is a fifth-generation Illinoisan, agribusiness entrepreneur, and private equity executive. From 2015-2017, Schultz served in newly-elected State of Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner’s cabinet, as the director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. In conjunction with his role, Schultz co-founded Intersect Illinois with Governor Rauner and served as chairman/CEO. Schultz has served as chairman of the board for Prime Banc Corporation and also has served as chairman of the board for the following organizations: Illinois Chamber of Commerce, Southeast Illinois Community Foundation, the Cross Foundation, and Effingham County Community Foundation. Schultz also served on the advisory board for the Chicago Federal Reserve. He earned his MBA in finance and entrepreneurship from Northwestern University, a juris doctor degree in corporate finance from DePaul University, and a bachelor of business administration from Southern Methodist University (cum laude).

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