February 27, 2012

As a long-time faculty member at the University of Alberta, I have opposed the University of Alberta decision to award an honorary degree to corporate executive Peter Brabeck-Lamathe, CEO of Nestlé Group and executive with Nestlé since 1997.

The other day, I participated at an interfaculty meeting with University of Alberta colleagues from various faculties and departments. While the reason for our meeting was unrelated to this honorary degree, our conversation turned to the ethical dimensions of our teaching and research. At the table, one person detailed how Nestlé over many years has been a textbook case of controversial corporate practices on a number of fronts. And there was nothing abstract in this attribution since a number of professors from different faculties pointed out that the textbooks they used in their courses include references, articles, and chapters devoted to ethical problems with Nestlé.

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