The Chief Executive Officer of the Institute of Business Ethics is paying a special visit to Jersey on Monday 2nd February to meet with Directors of one of its member companies.

Philippa Foster Back OBE is spending the day with Itex, meeting staff and looking at the facilities at the company’s base on the Rue des Pres Trading Estate in St Saviour, which includes a state of the art data centre and various Disaster Recovery suites. Itex is the Channel Islands’ largest IT service provider and has been operating for more than 30 years.

Membership of the IBE is a very prestigious business accreditation. It means that a company conducts its business in an ethical manner. This covers behaviour including boardroom strategy, treatment of staff, staff development policy, accounting practices and conduct of relationships with clients and suppliers. ‘Business Ethics’, according to the IBE, surpasses legal practices by which a company is bound.

The IBE, which is based in London, was established in 1986 to raise awareness of the need to conduct business in an appropriate manner, establish the highest working practices and codes of conduct, and share good practice. The charity is funded solely by its corporate partners, and helps them to establish and implement ethical codes of conduct and corporate responsibility.

Philippa Foster Back OBE was appointed CEO of the Institute of Business Ethics in 2001 following a distinguished career in a number of financial roles including as Group Treasurer of Thorn EMI and Finance Director at DG Gardner Group. She sits on both the Board and the Professional Accreditation Committee of the Institute of Directors, is a Board Member and former President of the Association of Corporate Treasurers and was awarded an OBE in 2006 for services to the Ministry of Defence, where she chaired the Defence Audit Committee.

Dr Ian Jauncey, Chairman of Itex, is delighted to be welcoming Ms Foster Back OBE to Jersey: “Itex is very proud to be a member of such a prestigious organisation as the Institute of Business Ethics, and we are honoured that Philippa has taken time out of her busy schedule to come to Jersey to meet our staff and have a look first hand at our facilities.

“As the leading IT service provider in the Channel Islands, we take both our business conduct and our staff development very seriously and understand just how vital it is to form trusting working relationships with our clients.

“We also believe in giving something back to the community in which we live and work, and investing time and resources into developing and up-skilling our workforce, in turn giving them an environment in which they can thrive.

“It is a pleasure to be able to discuss with new ways of ethical working going forward from here with Philippa.”