Building a World-Class Compliance Program: Best Practices and Strategies for Success

Chapter 8. Interview with an Ethics and Compliance Thought Leader

"To be good is noble. To teach others to be good is nobler ... and no trouble."

—Mark Twain

John D. Copeland, J.D., LL.M., Ed.D., is an Executive in Residence at the Soderquist Center for Leadership and Ethics and Professor of Business at John Brown University. Prior to these positions, Dr. Copeland was Executive Vice President of Ethics and Compliance (1998–2003) at Tyson Foods, Inc.

Dr. Copeland holds a Juris Doctorate from Southern Methodist University, a Master of Laws in Agricultural Law from the University of Arkansas, and a Doctorate in the Administration of Higher Education from the University of Arkansas. He has twice received the American Agricultural Law Association's Award of Excellence for Professional Scholarship, as well as the University of Arkansas' Doctoral Dissertation of the Year Award. In 2001, the Center for Business Ethics, Bentley College, recognized him as an outstanding ethics officer by naming him an Ernest A. Kallman Executive Fellow.

Listed in Who's Who in American Law, Dr. Copeland is a member of the State bars of Texas and Arkansas. Following years of private law practice, he directed the National Center for Agricultural Law Research and Information and was a Research Professor of Law at the University of Arkansas School of Law (1989–1998). He has authored numerous publications on business ethics, employer-employee relations, environment law, insurance coverage, product liability, food safety, ...