13 juin 2008 - Le lancement de la deuxième édition du Prix Robin Cosgrove
Discours de Sibilla Guidotti, Administratrice du Prix à la
NetImpact conference, Geneva: "Sustainable Prosperity: Taking on the
Global Challenge", 13 - 14 June 2008
Ladies and gentlemen,
I am very happy to announce
the launch of the second edition of the Robin Cosgrove Prize for Ethics
in Finance.
This is a global prize that aims to promote awareness among young people
with an interest in banking and related financial industries of the benefits
of ethics in finance.
Please permit me to thank
NET IMPACT for giving us the opportunity to launch the Prize here today.
The theme of “sustainability” is closely linked to our ideas
about the role of ethics in finance. We are convinced that for the future
sustainability of the financial system, it is essential that the people
who work in the sector have higher standards of ethical behaviour and integrity.
Robin Cosgrove was a bright young man who worked as an investment banker. He was convinced that the international finance business was in danger of losing peoples’ trust, and this would be catastrophic in its results.
Robin was keen to encourage the younger generation to “do the right thing because it is the right thing to do”. He had hoped to set up a foundation to reach out to young finance professionals, planning training and development programmes to raise awareness of ethics and integrity, so encouraging the sustainability of the finance industry. Sadly he died, not far from Geneva, at age 31, before he could put his ideas into action.
The Robin Cosgrove Prize is committed to implementing his ideas.
The Prize will be awarded to the best papers setting out projects or proposals for innovative ways to promote ethics in finance and banking, especially in emerging markets. It is open to young people, aged 35 years or younger, from throughout the world. The competition is open from now until midnight on 31st March 2009.
We really want to encourage papers from all over the world. The papers can be submitted in English or in French. Young people who may be interested must complete an Expression of Interest, which is available on the website, and send it to me.
A distinguished international Jury will then evaluate the papers submitted for the Prize and will allocate the prize money of USD20,000.
As said, the Prize is now at its second edition. The winners of the first one, which took place in 2006-7, were jointly Ms Clare Payne a young women who works for Macquarie Bank in Australia and who wrote on the theme “Ethics or Bust : Beyond Compliance” and Mr Jonathan Wisebrod a Canadian who founded Villari, a consulting company based in Singapore and who wrote about “Social Impact Ratings”. The seven best papers submitted for the 2006-7 Prize were published in FINANCE & THE COMMUN GOOD/BIEN COMMUN [Geneva, 2007] and may be found online on the website.
The management of the Prize is under the supervision of the Observatoire de la finance, a Swiss not-for-profit foundation based in Geneva, which also aims at promoting ethics in finance. The organizers of the prize, with the Obsevatoire de la finance, really want to make the Robin Cosgrove Prize a part of a global outreach programme that will promote awareness of ethics in finance all over the world.
All initiatives that will help us in achieving this are welcome. For example, we would be pleased to link the website to other sites that could be helpful in promoting ethics in finance. Please contact us info@robincosgroveprize.org
So, please persuade all young people to participate in the Robin Cosgrove Prize, as by encouraging young professionals to examine their own attitudes and behaviour, the Robin Cosgrove Prize will help in developing higher standards of ethics in all aspects of finance. Which is essential for our future.
Thank you for your attention.
Sibilla Guidotti, Robin Cosgrove Prize’s Administrator