Cecil B. Day Program Presents Ethical Leadership: Playing the House of Cards

Seletha Butler joined Georgia Institute of Technology’s Scheller College of Business as an assistant professor of business law and ethics in July 2011.  Prior to joining Scheller, Professor Butler spent fourteen years, collectively, with global law firms in Atlanta and Chicago and one of the nation’s largest commercial banking organizations.  During her tenure in private law practice and corporate America, Professor Butler’s legal practice focused on complex domestic and global commercial transactions, including acquisitions and divestitures, joint ventures, strategic alliances, technology licensing, and outsourcing, and corporate governance matters.

Professor Butler’s research agenda focuses on corporate governance issues specifically the structure, obligations, and activities of boards of directors (including board diversity).  She teaches courses involving the intersection of business, law, ethics, and policy, including developing a Corporate Governance course for undergraduate students for which she received the Scheller Professor of the Year Award—Elective Business Courses (2013) on her first semester teaching the course.  Professor Butler also is the recipient of other honors recognizing her work at Georgia Tech, including Professor Appreciation recognition from the Georgia Tech Women’s Basketball team, Men’s Basketball, Baseball, and Football teams, and Swimming and Diving team; and Thank-a-Teacher recognitions from students through the Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning.

Professor Butler received the 2015 Faculty Award from the Georgia Tech Black Alumni Organzation and in February 2014 was honored by Georgia Tech Women’s Basketball as a 2014 Women Out Front honoree. In 2011, she was a recipient of the Nation’s Best Advocates:  40 Lawyers Under 40, an honor by the National Bar Association and IMPACT to recognize a cross-section of legal professionals age 40 and under within the African American legal community who have achieved prominence and distinction in their career.

Professor Butler is a speaker on organizational governance, diversity, professional responsibility and ethics in business, and career development and advancement strategies for education institutions, professional associations, governmental organizations, and not-for-profit organizations.  She is the author of All on Board!  Strategies for Constructing Diverse Boards of Directors, Butler, S., 7 Va. L. & Bus. Rev. 61 (2012), “Financial Expert”:  A Subtle Blow to the Pool and Current Pipeline of Women on Corporate Boards, Butler, S. 14 Geo. J. Gender & L. 1 (2013) (lead article), Higher Education Governance: Proposals for Model Child Protection Governance Policy, co-authored with an industry expert (forthcoming Summer 2015 inBrigham Young University Education and Law Journal), Business Ethics: Conceptualize Governing with the Ethic of Care and Justice (forthcoming Fall 2015 in NYU Journal of Law & Business), and working paper: A Critical Mass of Women on the Board of Directors as Critical Influencers.  Media outlets have quoted Professor Butler regarding corporate governance issues.

A native of Alabama, Professor Butler has a Bachelor of Science in Corporate Finance, summa cum laude, from The University of Alabama, a Juris Doctorate from Harvard Law School where she served as current development editor of The Harvard Journal on Racial and Ethnic Justice, formerly the Harvard BlackLetter Law Journal, and a Master of Business Administration (global focus) from Georgia Institute of Technology.

Among Professor Butler’s professional and community activities, she is on the Board of Trustees of MedShare International, Inc. (serving as Secretary and on the Executive and Nominating and Governance Committees) and a former member of the Board of Governors of Tech High School, Inc. Professor Butler served as a Faculty Associate for the Georgia Tech Grand Challenges Program, and Faculty Advisor for the Scheller Society of Entrepreneurs and the Scheller College of Business Graduate Minorities in Business. She also is a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated, the Georgia Tech Leadership Roundtable, Fall 2011 and the 2005 Class of Leadership Georgia.