David Freel

Background

David E. Freel serves as a Senior Lecturer at the Max Fisher College of Business at The Ohio State University, having joined the faculty in 2011.  Mr. Freel teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in the subjects of Business Ethics, Global Ethics and Integrity Compliance for Corporations, and Ethical Leadership and Decision Making. Professor Freel also teaches in the Executive Education and Certificate Programs of Fisher and the John Glenn School of Public Affairs. He previously taught fulltime in Ohio State’s Moritz College of Law Clinical Programs.

Mr. Freel formerly served as the Executive Director of the bipartisan Ohio Ethics Commission for seventeen years. During his entire tenure, he worked for the public through four different gubernatorial administrations. As Executive Director, Mr. Freel supervised staff responding to ethical advisory and enforcement issues involving senior level public officials and employees at state and local levels, including those at 37 public universities and colleges, and applicable to 500,000 in public service throughout Ohio. 

Mr. Freel has served as a Special Assistant Prosecutor and as an expert witness in ethicsrelated state and federal criminal prosecutions. He has written and edited articles on ethics governance and given ethics presentations to public, private, and nonprofit sector audiences and legislatures throughout the United States and internationally.  He serves as a member of the Editorial Board of Public Integrity, a journal of the American Society for Public Administration.  He also has consulted on ethics and integrity issues enterprise leaders face, and has served as past board presidents of notforprofit organizations serving youth.  

In May 2014, at the request of the U.S. Embassy and USAID, Mr. Freel traveled to Sarajevo to present in conferences and leadership meetings on strategies to implement groundbreaking whistle blower protections and related anticorruption efforts.  BosniaHerzegovina civil societies began the legislative effort with government leaders to attack endemic corruption. In 2011, Mr. Freel served as an Expert Consultant for the U.S. Office of Government Ethics and their International Assistance and Governance Initiative, working within the AsianPacific Economic Conference (APEC) Economies to draft disclosure and antiillicit enrichment principles adopted by APEC for leaders in those economies. In 2009, he served as an international ethics expert team member for the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) conducting a Joint Learning Study with the Kingdom of Jordan on ethics codes within their government ministries headquartered in Amman, Jordan.

Mr. Freel is a past President of the Council of Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL), an international organization, and was named the recipient of their highest honor, the 2007 COGEL Award, at their Conference in Victoria, British Columbia.

Areas of Expertise

Ethics Ethical DecisionMaking Conflicts of Interest Ethical Leadership and Integrity Compliance Codes of Conduct Disclosure Transparency Corporate Social Responsibility

Education

JD, Capital University Law School BA, The Ohio State University

Courses

BUSMHR 2292 Business Skills & Environment

Introduce the role of business in the lives of individuals, consumers, employees, and citizens. Focus on the concept of ethical leadership with emphasis on both oral and written communication skills for the business environment. Prereq; English 1110.01 (110), or equivalent; and admission to the Business Administration major.Not open to students with credit for BusAdm 499, 499.01, or BusMHR 2291. Not open to prebusiness students.

BUSMHR 2292H Business Skills & Environment

Introduce the role of business in the lives of individuals, consumers, employees, and citizens. Focus on the concept of ethical leadership with emphasis on both oral and written communication skills for the business environment. Prereq: English 1110.01 (110) or equivalent, honors standing, and admission to the Business Administration major program. Not open to students with credit for 2291, 2292, or BusAdm 499(H).

BUSMHR 7610 Business Ethics

Developing ethical perspectives in the business environment for use in managerial decisionmaking. Prereq: Not open to students with credit for 859.

BUSMHR 7611 International Corporate Compliance and Ethics Governance

Managers face increasing compliance standards for multinational enterprises that governments view as reducing corruption and promoting ethical business practices. Anticorruption prohibitions, codes of conduct, and model ethics guidelines are no longer limited to business conducted solely with governments, but also apply to NGOs. Prereq: Grad standing in the Fisher College of Business.

BUSMHR 7612 Ethics and Leadership Integrity in a Global Economy

This course will explore fundamental concepts and false assumptions in ethical issues facing corporate actors and business decisionmaking, explore the factors, steps, and pressures that accompany making ethical business decisions and that reflect leadership integrity, and consider ethical dilemmas faced by enterprises that arise internationally under these measures and best ethics practices. Prereq: Not open to students with credit for 7610 or 7611.

BUSMHR 7800 Advanced Topics in Management and Human Resources for EMBA

Advanced Topics in Management and HR for students in the Executive MBA Program. Prereq: Enrollment in EMBA program. Repeatable to a maximum of 15 cr hrs or 7 completions.