“Each year our esteemed guest lecturer is carefully selected from the world’s foremost leaders on business ethics,” said Fr E Abraham S.J., director of XLRI. “Dr. Snyder was chosen because he is an eminent leader known for his intelligence, enterprise, social and ethical concern.”

As a distinguished guest lecturer and innovator of leadership competency development, Snyder will deliver a speech entitled, “Triple Bottom Line: Pathway to a 21st Century Business Paradigm.” Triple-bottom-line business accountability, which is also gaining global recognition as “sustainability reporting,” is the practice of expanding traditional business reporting to take into account environmental and social performance in addition to financial results.

“It is truly an honor to present as part of the JRD Tata Oration,” said Steven Snyder. “Sustainability reporting, or triple-bottom-line business accountability, is an emerging concept in India. But with the country’s rapidly growing economy, it is important to make sure businesses are accountable for the long-term impact they are having economically, socially and environmentally to ensure a strong future for India and its people.”

Past JRD Tata Oration lecturers include University of St. Thomas Business Ethics Professor Ken Goodpaster, and Peter Eileen, founder and chairman of Transparency International, the world’s leading organization fighting against corruption.

Snyder began his acclaimed career at Microsoft where he secured the company’s relationship with IBM and helped shape the history of the personal computer industry. He introduced organizational and process innovations that have become hallmarks of Microsoft’s strategy. As co-founder and CEO of Net Perceptions, Snyder successfully commercialized the groundbreaking technology, “collaborative filtering,” to enable the real-time personalized recommendations that have become central to the online shopping experience with Amazon.com.

Through his business experience and innovative thinking, his consulting firm, Snyder Leadership Group, helps organizations assess executive candidates, coach executive team members, and successfully connect talent with business strategies. Snyder also teaches a master’s-level business ethics course as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management.

The JRD Tata Oration on Business Ethics, which began in 1991, is supported by an endowment from Mr. JRD Tata of the Tata Group, India’s largest conglomerate company. The Tata Group, with more than 90 businesses operating in steel, oil and other industries, has a global reputation for innovation, research and professionalism.