Goodpaster, Kenneth E.

Kenneth Goodpaster earned his A.B. in mathematics from the University of Notre Dame and his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Michigan.  He taught philosophy at the University of Notre Dame during the 1970s before joining the Harvard Business School faculty in 1980. 

In 1990, Goodpaster accepted the David and Barbara Koch Endowed Chair in Business Ethics at the University of St. Thomas (MN).  At St. Thomas, he introduced a Great Books Seminar for graduate students in business, law, education, and engineering. 

His book Conscience and Corporate Culture (Wiley-Blackwell, 2007) received generous praise from reviewers and he contributed to Vocation of the Business Leader, issued by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace (2012) and Respect in Action: Applying Subsidiarity in Business (UST Center for Catholic Studies, 2015). 

Goodpaster served for a number of years as an Associate Editor of Business Ethics Quarterly and was Executive Editor of Corporate Responsibility: The American Experience (Cambridge University Press, 2012) which received the 2014Academy of Management Best Book Award. 

 In 2014, he was named to Ethisphere Magazine’s list of the 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics—and was honored by the Society for Business Ethics for a “Career of Outstanding Scholarly Achievement in the Field of Business Ethics.”  He is now Professor Emeritus in the St. Thomas Opus College of Business. 

Goodpaster's wife Harriet is a nationally-recognized equestrian and a (retired) software engineer. They have three children, four grandchildren -- and a Morgan horse.