Alumnus Stanley Chung Lectures on ESG Standards

Alumnus Stanley Chung Lectures on ESG Standards

Alumnus Stanley Chung Lectures on ESG Standards

Stanley Chung (’98 Economics), Managing Director of Morrow Sodali Korea, lectured on “ESG & ESG Consulting” as Mason Korea's first alumni guest speaker in its new alumni speaker series.

Chung described current trends around the analysis of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) non-financial criteria in evaluating corporate performance. More companies and their stakeholders, Chung observed, are paying greater attention and take more significant action towards improving their ESG rating to support the long-term growth of companies and benefits for their stakeholders.

Chung presented the case of the Ford Pinto from the 1970s to illustrate how Ford’s decision to ignore engine defects to maximize immediate profits resulted not only in hundreds of deaths, but also damage to Ford's reputation. He pointed out that Korean companies, due to their traditionally family-based ownership, struggle to raise their governance scores by proving transparency in the appointing of boards of directors and auditors.

Chung also advised that job-seeking students should consider the ESG ratings of the companies for which they want to work. He showed two images of two companies, one with wind-turbines and the other one with a coal-powered generator, and asked members of the audience which of the two companies they would pick to work at. He suggested that the environmentally conscious company will be a more promising employer since it will stay in business longer than those on the opposite spectrum.

“I want to thank George Mason University and Campus Dean Robert Matz for this opportunity to speak as a guest speaker," Chung said. "I hope that my presentation gave students a chance to think about their future and future career, just as how something as mundane as watching a movie (for me it was watching Pretty Woman) sparked my interest in working in the financial market.”

Jaehoon Jeong, a sophomore majoring in Business, concentration in accounting, provided English interpretation for Chung’s lecture.