Harry Van Buren was recently named the first Z. Lupton Patten Chair of Business Ethics at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga’s Gary W. Rollins College of Business.
Van Buren, also an honorary professor at Queen’s University Belfast School of Law, previously served on the faculties of the University of New Mexico, the American University of Beirut, and the University of St. Thomas (MN).
His doctorate in business environment, ethics and public policy is from the University of Pittsburgh’s Katz Graduate School of Business, and he also earned an MSc in education for sustainability from London South Bank University, an M.Div. from Princeton Theological Seminary, and an M.S. in finance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign. He is currently completing an LLM in human rights and humanitarian law at Aberystwyth University.
The Z. Lupton Patten Chair in Business Ethics was established as a tribute to the high moral standards, business acumen, and commitment to duty of Zeboim Lupton Patten, past Chairman of the University’s Board of Trustees. The chair, endowed through the vision and dedication of the late Fontaine Patten Moore (UTC ’65, Magna Cum Laude, Alpha Society) and the generosity of her sisters, the late Peggy Patten Winningham, Phyllis Patten Hardin, and Charlotte Patten Gauss, and their children, honors the legacy of their father and grandfather.
The goal of the Z. Lupton Patten Chair is to guide students to be ethical and successful managers and leaders and to encourage administrators and faculty members in business education to explore ways to incorporate and strengthen ethics education in the curriculum. Moving forward, the chair will:
• Develop and distribute a variety of teaching materials, case studies, and research papers.
• Conduct research and collaborate with top scholars in the field of ethics.
• Sponsor conferences and seminars on current topics related to ethics.
Van Buren has published more than 65 peer-reviewed articles in outlets that include Academy of Management Review, AIB Insights, Business and Human Rights Journal, Business & Society, Business and Society Review, Business Ethics Quarterly, Cross Cultural Management, Employee Relations, Futures, Human Resource Management, Human Resource Management Review, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Industrial Relations, and Journal of Management Studies, among other journals. His current research interests include relational stakeholder theory, business and human rights, preventing human trafficking in global supply chains, business and peace, and employment ethics. He is a former president of the International Association for Business & Society (IABS) and a former division chair for the Social Issues in Management division of the Academy of Management, as well as a current IABS Fellow.
He serves as the religion, spirituality, and business ethics section co-editor at the Journal of Business Ethics and is also co-editing special issues for Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (on feminist epistemology in CSR) and Business & Society (on business responses to refugee crises). He is currently co-editing a book on business and human rights to be published by Edward Elgar in 2023.
He is married Donna Ray, a historian of religion, and has two children: Max and Tessa. In his rare spare time, he is a fan of Arsenal soccer and England cricket, and enjoys working to improve his chess game.
