Warrington student receives ethics award

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Megan Towzey was named the 2016-2017 recipient of the Virginia Maurer Business Ethics Student of the Year award. She is the first recipient of this prestigious award.

The honor recognizes students in the Warrington College of Business who have demonstrated a commitment to the role of ethics in business, as evidenced through academic excellence, leadership, personal integrity, and civic engagement.

“Being the first-ever recipient of this award is the pinnacle of my college career,” Towzey said. “Showing people the importance of business ethics is my passion, and there is no greater honor than this award. The Poe Business Ethics Center has been my home on campus. I’ve developed skills during my involvement in business ethics that have directly carried over into my academic work, involvement on campus, and internships.

“The Poe Center gave me the opportunity to analyze real world business problems and work with my peers to find ethical solutions, which directly relates to my post-grad work as a Risk Advisory Associate for RSM. No involvement on campus has prepared me more for my future than my involvement in business ethics through the Poe Center.”

Towzey (BSBA-ES ’17) has served as the captain of the Heavener Business Ethics Case Competition team, President of the Florida Business Leadership Society, and Peer Leader for Warrington Welcome. During her time on the ethics case competition team, Towzey competed at five national case competitions, placing third in Seattle, second in Boston, and winning first place for her business ethics essay in Arizona. While balancing these roles, Towzey earned a stellar GPA and will graduate from the University of Florida Honor’s Program in Spring ‘17.

Virginia Maurer is the founding director of the Poe Business Ethics Center and served as a Professor of Business Law and Legal Studies. With over 35 years of distinguished research and teaching at the University of Florida, Professor Maurer also served as a visiting faculty member at some of the most prestigious institutions in the world such as Cambridge University, the Helsinki School of Economics and Business, the University of Michigan, and the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies at the University of London.