To defend and promote the role of the business people in fostering a free and virtuous society.

Business leaders and entrepreneurs are increasingly called upon to address these issues and foster not only a robust economy, but a truly just and virtuous society. As part of the work of Acton Institute’s work in the intersection between theology and economics, it has launched the Center for Entrepreneurial Stewardship.

The Acton Institute’s Center for Entrepreneurial Stewardship is an international educational resource center dedicated to advancing the business ethics model of entrepreneurial stewardship, encouraging and supporting business leaders in the active integration of integrity with their profession. Through both theoretical and practical education, the CES seeks to deepen entrepreneurs’ understanding of the essential role of free enterprise in fostering a free and virtuous society where economic activity is universally beneficial.

Business leaders will be fortified to live their vocations courageously as they:

• recognize their talents as gifts
• embrace their vocation as a way to love their neighbor
• understand the pivotal role of business in developing a civil society
• live their convictions in the midst of the ethical challenges of business

We will seek to fulfill this mission and make this vision reality by aggressively pursuing the following primary objectives:

• To articulate a simple and broad defense of entrepreneurial stewardship to our culture, highlighting the moral dimensions of free market activity and recognizing the market as a necessary component of a free society;
• To engage successful entrepreneurs in the active promotion of the message of the moral validity and practical superiority of a free economy.
• To provide moral guidance to business leaders in resolving difficult ethical dilemmas related to their vocation;
• To create an extensive network of entrepreneurs which will provide professional and personal avenues for support for business leaders confronting the challenges of business leadership;

The Center for Entrepreneurial Stewardship ultimately seeks to educate entrepreneurs on the nobility and higher responsibilities implicit to their vocation in business. Counterproductive to this is an alarming spread of ethical relativism among business schools and younger business leaders, and an inability to recognize that a free economy’s vitality is dependent upon a moral culture in which absolute norms of right and wrong prevail. Designed to counter this, virtue based ethics curriculum promotes the entrepreneurial stewardship model. These curricula are available to colleges and universities for use in their MBA and business programs.

The Center sponsors a wide variety of regional, one-day and two-day events that will be open to the public and designed to fit easily into the demanding lifestyle of modern business executives. Held at various locations around the country and featuring noted scholars, business figures, and other leaders, these events highlight the intellectual roots and practical benefits of entrepreneurial stewardship as an effective means of addressing the critical ethical, business, and economic issues of our time.

The Center produces a variety of publications advancing the core ideas of entrepreneurial stewardship, highlighting practical models and promoting helpful resources for entrepreneurs. In addition, the Center identifies other supportive educational resources and curricula, including journals, books, monographs, and tapes that augment the Center’s efforts to mentor and encourage business leaders in faithfully pursuing their profession as an undertaking essential to the development of an effective society.