The University of Colorado Denver Business School has named Kellye Gordon, vice president of ethics & compliance and legal operations at apparel company VF Corp., as the 2021 “Bill Daniels Ethical Leader of the Year.”
Gordon “designs creative ways to help VF employees understand how to follow complex compliance requirements while living their values in their everyday work,” the CU Denver Business School said in a statement. “Her focus on using data and principles of behavioral psychology to drive company-wide initiatives has led to increased associate engagement, more targeted training, and improved compliance results.”
The award is presented by UC Denver’s Daniels Fund Ethics Initiative Collegiate Program, which works to provide principle-based ethics education at twelve partner university business schools, including the University of Colorado system. It is named for Bill Daniels, a cable television pioneer, philanthropist, and former co-owner of the Los Angeles Lakers basketball team, who died in 2000.
At VF Corp., which owns such brands as Vans, The North Face, and Supreme, Gordon has helped build a world-class ethics and compliance program. Since 2017, the company has been recognized by the Ethisphere Institute as a World’s Most Ethical Companies honoree five years in a row.
“Gordon is being recognized for her hard work in ethics for VF Corp., which currently employees over 30,000 people. Kellye uses her legal background to help VF promote ethical initiatives across many worldwide locations,” said the university.
The Ethical Leader of the Year award will be presented later this month at the Small Business, Big Connections event presented by the CU Denver Business School and the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce. 
Joseph McCafferty is editor and publisher of Compliance Chief 360°.