2024 IFBEC Highlights

For fifteen years, the International Forum on Business Ethical Conduct (IFBEC) has provided an opportunity for companies within the aerospace and defense (A&D) industries to exchange information on best practices in the areas of business ethics and global trends. IFBEC has strengthened commitments to ethical conduct with A&D throughout the globe through public events discussing best practices, industry wide initiatives, and providing a forum for our industry to communicate efforts made within the industry. 2024 IFBEC efforts include:

·       Webinars: IFBEC partnered with the American Bar Association Center for Human Rights to conduct a webinar focused on The Case for Human Rights Due Diligence for the Arms Sector. Additionally, IFBEC partnered with Ethicist International to conduct a webinar focused on Emerging Considerations in Building an Ethical and Sustainable Corporate Culture.

·       NATO Building Integrity: IFBEC members continued to work with NATO on its Building Integrity programme, giving NATO access to IFBEC member companies to update on different initiatives including speaking at their annual course on Defence Leadership and discussions on a planned engagement with Ukraine Defence Industries.

·       New Initiative - IFBEC Ethics and Compliance Officer Academy: The IFBEC Ethics and Compliance Officer Academy is the first of its kind. Launching in January 2025, the Academy is a comprehensive training course designed to delve into principles and practices in the aerospace and defense industry spread over a 12 month period. The Academy will provide participants with an overview and understanding of key topics that are essential knowledge areas for performing an ethics or compliance role within the Aerospace and Defence industry and to learn from instructors and participant peers who are all from IFBEC member companies.

·       Annual Conference: In October 2024, IFBEC hosted the annual conference in Washington, D.C. at The George Washington University Law School with participants from across the globe. This year’s two-day conference provided a forum for industry experts to discuss key topics in ethics and network with their industry peers. Trending issues discussed included human rights, reducing corruption risks in public procurement, internal investigations at legal practices and leading in the age of disruptive technologies including artificial intelligence. Speakers came from academia, NGOs, service providers as well as public and private sectors.

In addition to efforts discussed above, IFBEC continually provides speaking engagement opportunities to our member companies with government and external stakeholders. This raises the ethical profile of individual member companies and positively impacts the entire industry. These engagements and our ongoing projects are how IFBEC will continue to deliver on our mission to strengthen the practice of business ethics for aerospace and defense.  Please visit the IFBEC website for more information.

Thank you,

Bry Spinella, Executive Director, IFBEC I bry.spinella@aia-aerospace.org

Nadia Kader, Executive Secretariat and Director of Membership, IFBEC I nadia.kader@aia-aerospace.org