CorpEthics’ History

A Brief History of Markets Campaigns

Corporate campaigns have played a key role in the emergence of the Corporate Social Responsibility movement. They remain one of the most important forces in the evolution of this movement. Campaigns targeting companies like Nestles’ (children’s formula), Nike (sweatshops), Mitsubishi Corporation (rainforests), and The Home Depot Campaign (old growth logging) provided clear evidence that when civil society threatened well-known brands, those companies would respond by changing their practices or the practices of their less well-branded suppliers.

Since those early campaigns, dozens of major U.S. corporations have been the subject of markets campaigns, including:

• McDonald’s: animal rights
• Dell, Apple, HP: computer recycling
• Staples, Victoria Secret, Kimberly Clark: ancient forests
• Lumber Liquidators, The Home Depot: toxics
• Google, Facebook, Apple: renewable energy
• Disney, Gap: apparel sweatshops

A Brief History of CorpEthics

In 2003, Michael Marx, Ph.D. founded CorpEthics (originally named Corporate Ethics International) in response to environmental, health, animal rights and labor non-governmental organizations (NGOs).  At the time, Michael and these NGOs strongly believed that markets campaigns were fast becoming one of the most effective ways to improve corporate environmental and social practices. They also believed that as a community, cross-organizational learning and multi-group coordination for large national and international campaigns were needed.

In 2003, CorpEthics created the Business Ethics Network (BEN) with the mission of facilitating cross-organization learning. BEN became the “trade organization” for market campaigners. It sponsored an annual conference, the Benny Awards, and created Corporate Campaign U.

In 2004, CorpEthics launched and managed the first cross-issue coordinated campaign focusing on Walmart. We managed the funding for and coordinated the Big Box Collaborative, which ultimately created the brand threat that motivated Walmart’s CEO to  put the company on a more ecologically sustainable path.

In 2007, CorpEthics spawned the Strategic Corporate Initiative. We coordinated a team of top corporate campaign analysts to identify the most strategic ways to bring corporations back under control and in service to the people.

In 2008, CorpEthics became engaged in the North American Tar Sands Campaign. This campaign was already underway with Canadian advocacy groups. CEI helped recruit U.S. and European groups that were already fighting domestic oil battles to join with their Canadian allies. CEI also helped generate support for all the groups in the Tar Sands Campaign. The campaign successfully blocked all major proposed pipelines, most notably when President Obama rejected the proposed Keystone XL pipeline across the U.S.  The controversy from this campaign drew attention to the excessive political power that oil companies in Canada and U.S. exercised over federal, provincial and state governments. Responsible Canadian citizens demanded greater balance between oil industry and environmental values and this may have contributed to  bold climate commitments by newly elected Canadian leaders. The Keystone XL Campaign also helped jump start a more aggressive  climate movement in the U.S. which challenged virtually all new oil production, transport, and refining infrastructure.

In 2015, CorpEthics moved on from the Tar Sands Campaign to spawn and manage the funding for the U.S. Beyond Oil Campaign. Its goal was to block all new proposed oil infrastructure in the U.S. and to protect all federal public lands and waters from oil and gas drilling. That campaign was successful until the election of Donald Trump. So in 2017 the Moving Beyond Oil Campaign shifted its strategic focus from limiting supply to limiting demand for oil. It began funding diverse state coalitions of climate, justice, labor, health and faith advocacy groups in New York, New Jersey, Minnesota, Colorado, and California. Their goal is to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles for passenger, freight, and mass transit.  The campaign has already produced exciting results and may become a model for further state and city EV campaigns.

CorpEthics Executive Director

Michael Marx, Ph.D.

Michael received his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he taught communications and organizational behavior courses. Earlier in his career, he founded Selection Sciences, Inc. a management consulting firm specializing in employee selection and management training and assessment. His clients included Fortune 500 companies like Hewlett-Packard, Transamerica, Pacific Bell, and American Express, Memorex, and Fireman’s Fund. Selection Sciences, Inc. also specialized in consulting with trial attorneys on mock trials, jury selection, case presentation, and post-verdict analyses in large civil cases. This work included helping defense attorneys win the multi-billion dollar Rocky Mountain Arsenault case that forced Shell to pay for its toxic cleanup.

In the early 1990s, Michael transitioned from corporate and legal consulting to become an environmental activist. In addition to leading the Mitsubishi campaign for the Rainforest Action Network and the National Beyond Oil campaign for the Sierra Club, he founded ForestEthics (which is now Stand.earth) and Corporate Ethics International, for which he still serves as Executive Director today. Michael also played a leadership role in international campaigns to improve the environmental and human rights practices of The Home Depot, Staples, PepsiCo, Coca Cola and Walmart. He also started the Business Ethics Network which is comprised of U.S. NGOs that engage in corporate campaigns.

Michael directed the International Tar Sands Oil Campaign, which included over 50 NGOs working in the U.S., Europe and Canada. He has been contracted by major foundations including Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Pew Charitable Trusts, Hewlett, ClimateWorks, and Sea Change to design corporate campaigns they fund, including targeting Smithfield (pork production), the U.S. Postal Service (junk mail), Uber and Lyft (ride sharing carbon emissions), and Amazon.com (delivery vehicle carbon emissions). Michael also managed the Beyond Oil/Zero Now pooled fund for several foundations with the goal of accelerating the transition to zero emission vehicles.

He is now leading the Meta-Corporate Campaign Project to encourage and improve corporate campaigns. The project includes the book, Reining in the Bulls: How to Stop Corporate Abuse in an Age of Unbridled Greed and the Corporate Ethics Campaign Resource Center website, which provides tools, models, and instructions for campaigners. It also includes video and podcast interviews with seminal corporate campaign directors. The website and podcasts are now live at corpcampaignscenter.org. The book will be released August 4, 2026 by Princeton University Press/Island Press and marketed to advocacy organizations, university professors for course adoption and foundation program officers.

CorpEthics Board of Directors

Jeff Wiles is a private investor, and the former owner of ProSchools, a professional adult education certification company. He advises many non-profit organizations on organizational management, financial and fiduciary matters. He is based in Portland, Oregon.

Kirk Hulett is a Senior Partner with Hulett Harper Stewart, a law firm that represents individual and corporate clients in areas of complex business, securities, antitrust, consumer, employment, Indian gaming, and class litigation. He has served as lead attorney on behalf of shareholders on security fraud cases against several of the largest corporations in America. He is based in San Diego, California.

David Welborn is a philanthropist, and sits on the boards of several non-profit organizations, including serving as Chairman of the Board of Nature and Culture International. He sits on the board of Hunter Industries, is the former president of San Diego Coastkeeper and member of the San Diego Foundation Environment Working Group. He is based in San Diego, California.