Knights of Columbus named as a 2015 world's most ethical company by the Ethisphere Institute for 2nd year

Recognition demonstrates Knights of Columbus' commitment to ethical leadership

NEW HAVEN, CT, March 13, 2015 /CNW/ - The Knights of Columbus announced today that it has been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute, the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices, as a 2015 World's Most Ethical Company^®.

The World's Most Ethical Companies designation recognizes those organizations that have had a material impact on the way business is conducted by fostering a culture of ethics and transparency at every level of the company.

Being a two consecutive year honoree underscores the Knights of Columbus' commitment to leading ethical business standards and practices ensuring long-term value to key stakeholders including customers, employees, suppliers, regulators and investors. The Knights of Columbus is one of only four companies in the Life Insurance category honored this year. 

"For more than 130 years, the Knights of Columbus has been protecting the financial future of Catholic families and providing charity to those on the margins of society," said Knights of Columbus CEO Carl Anderson. "That founding principle of helping those in need is at work in every aspect of our business, guiding our corporate governance, our professional agency force, our investments, and our day-to-day business operations. It is this continued commitment to our foundational, Catholic principles that is the key to our ethical, sustainable and successful business model."

"The World's Most Ethical Companies embrace the correlation between ethical business practice and improved company performance. These companies use ethics as a means to further define their industry leadership and understand that creating an ethical culture and earning the World's Most Ethical Companies recognition involves more than just an outward facing message or a handful of senior executives saying the right thing," said Ethisphere's Chief Executive Officer, Timothy Erblich. "Earning this recognition involves the collective action of a global workforce from the top down. We congratulate everyone at Knights of Columbus for this extraordinary achievement."

The World's Most Ethical Company assessment is based upon the Ethisphere Institute's Ethics Quotient™ (EQ) framework developed over years of research to provide a means to assess an organization's performance in an objective, consistent and standardized way. The information collected provides a comprehensive sampling of definitive criteria of core competencies, rather than all aspects of corporate governance, risk, sustainability, compliance and ethics. The EQ framework and methodology is determined, vetted and refined by the expert advice and insights gleaned from Ethisphere's network of thought leaders and from the World's Most Ethical Company Methodology Advisory Panel.

Scores are generated in five key categories: ethics and compliance program (35%), corporate citizenship and responsibility (20%), culture of ethics (20%), governance (15%) and leadership, innovation and reputation (10%).

The full list of the 2015 World's Most Ethical Companies can be found at http://ethisphere.com/worlds-most-ethical/wme-honorees/.

Senior executives of honorees contribute high-level insights and best practices to the well-regarded World's Most Ethical Companies Executive Briefing (download Volume 2 here). Additional insights gleaned from the World's Most Ethical Companies will be released in a series of whitepapers and infographics over the coming months (download the 2014 Insights). Organizations interested in how they compare to the World's Most Ethical Companies are invited to learn more about Ethisphere's services.

About the Knights of Columbus
Knights of Columbus offers top-rated life insurance to its members and their immediate families, and with its rating of A++ (Superior) from A.M. Best, no life insurer in North America is more highly rated. Despite the recession and slow recovery, since late 2000, when Carl Anderson became CEO of the Knights of Columbus, the organization's sales have grown for 14 consecutive years, and it has logged more than $95 billion in new sales for an annual growth rate of 5.2 percent, and a 143 percent growth in insurance business in that same period. Members of the Knights of Columbus are organized in 15,000 councils around the world and are a strong charitable force within their communities, donating more than $170 million and 70 million hours to charitable causes in 2013 alone. More information is available at: www.kofc.org.

About the Ethisphere Institute
The Ethisphere® Institute is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World's Most Ethical Companies^® recognition program, provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) and showcases trends and best practices in ethics with the publication of Ethisphere Magazine and The World's Most Ethical Companies Executive Briefing. Ethisphere is also the leading provider of independent verification of corporate ethics and compliance programs. More information about Ethisphere can be found at: http://ethisphere.com.

SOURCE Knights of Columbus

Knights of Columbus Media Contact, Andrew Walther, 203.752.4253, [email protected]; Ethisphere Media Contact, Clea Nabozny, 480.397.2658, [email protected]