Ross Kari, CFO of Freddie Mac, speaks with CGO students Allison Walt, Alex Ode, Nina Sabotka, and Lindsay Curletto in their classroom in the Living Learning Center where the program is headquartered

This week the CGO had its final class of the year, concluding with a conversation with Ross Kari, the Chief Financial Officer of the Freddie Mac Corporation, who came out from Washington, D.C. to speak with us about his career and the ethical issues he has faced as a principal figure in the banking industry and now at one of the most controversial organizations caught up in the financial crisis.  As per our custom, we began with a classroom conversation and then continued our dialogue over dinner in the adjacent dining hall.  As always, the give-and-take was lively, and we shifted back and forth between focuses on Ross’s work and the broader questions of ethics, finance, the housing crisis, and human rights.  It was great to learn from Ross, and interesting to follow his path from his hometown of Medford, Oregon, through the University of Oregon, and on to a career that has brought him to the corridors of power.  Ross described for us the links between the mortgage industry in the United States and the global economy, and his enduring interest in math, problem solving, and being involved in critical challenges that face our country.  Student questions probed the difficulty that Ross faces in the tension between maximizing profit/success and acting ethically, and he detailed for us his effort to determine the right path.  Particularly poignant were his reflections on the issues that arise in relation to the differences in serving the board of a public corporation and serving the public.  With Ross as our guest we closed out the term in style, enjoying a great conversation and then our meal together.  We began the year with twenty-one bright and dedicated students, Mika and Miriam, our undergraduate assistants providing tremendous support, and Leslie our Graduate Teaching Fellow providing leadership and cohesion.  We wind up the year wiser, stronger, committed to one another and the CGO community, and more dedicated in our pursuit of ethics near and far!