Gender equality in business leadership is not only the right thing to do; it is the economically smart thing to do, according to author Robin Gerber, who spoke at DU on Friday.

About 350 students, alumni, community business leaders and corporate partners attended the “Voices of Experiences” speaker series on Friday afternoon in the the Daniels College of Business.

Oscar Hasman, a graduate business student at Daniels and the events coordinator of the Voices Series, began the lecture by explaining the difference between becoming a person of success versus a person of value.

He said the Voices Series promotes the inclusion of moral elements in business.

Speaker Robin Gerber, the biographical author of Katherine Graham: The Leadership Journey of an American Icon, related the critical business decisions Graham made to the critical decisions businessmen and women make today.

Graham took over her father’s ownership of The Washington Post after her husband died.

Without business know-how but with values-based leadership, Graham ran the paper during the Watergate scandal, deciding to publish Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s accounts of wrongdoing by President Nixon. Later, The Washington Post and The New York Times published the Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam War.

Despite the financial jeopardy to the Post, Graham never backed down and published the stories, Gerber said.

Gerber’s discussion about Graham’s business values and a leader’s ability to mix moral excellence with profit struck chords of agreement with the audience.

“I’m very pleased that DU has taken the lead with these programs [for business ethics], to raise awareness among students and in the community,” said DU alumna Rebekah Burton, who attended this and many other lectures in the series.

“It’s a comment about what’s happening in society and the business world that people need to be taught ethics.”

Chair of Ethics and Legal Studies Sam Cassidy said that he hoped Gerber’s lecture would explore the challenges women face in business leadership.

“The men at the Post didn’t get Graham’s style of leadership,” said Gerber, during the question-and-answer portion of the lecture with DU Business Dean Kathy Newman.

“Graham led by collaboration, asking questions, listening, and by being a negotiator.”

A panel discussion followed the question-answer portion of the lecture, wherein Gerber, Newman, Professor Cindy Fukami and Laura Belsten answered questions about balancing being a values-based leader and being a woman in business.

Belsten said potential leaders often ask, ‘how do I know if I have what it takes to be a leader, and how do I develop it?’ She said everyone should begin leadership development with their values.

Gerber agreed, saying that when Graham herself faced pressures as a CEO, she made decisions based on the values her father had taught her: “above all else, always tell the truth, and be aligned with the public good.”

Fukami added that a woman entering the business world as a leader should not just wonder if she has any influence, but she should start exercising it. She also encouraged women not to hide their femininity in the business place.

“Women start the vast majority of businesses today,” Belsten pointed out.

The panel discussion brought a new angle to Daniels students’ education.

“It has been a great experience for me to learn about the woman’s point of view in business,” said graduate business student Leah Chiu.

“Today I also learned how important courage is in leadership.”