Team ethicsLINC

Linda K. DiSantis, CEO
linda@ethicslinc.com


Linda DiSantis is the founder and CEO of ethicsLINC, LLC, a business ethics and compliance consulting
services firm providing innovative business ethics solutions to organizations. The firm focuses on translating
legal and technical advice into business processes that can be implemented and sustained in daily operations.
In conjunction with the creation of sustainable business process change, ethicsLINC produces and provides
training on legal requirements, process changes and ethical decision making, through innovative training
methods that can be delivered as live sessions or streamed over the web for distant operational sites.

Linda’s professional background includes significant assignments in the area of legal, environmental,
compliance, ethics, and management. In March 2007, Linda was appointed an executive in residence at
the Center for Ethics and Corporate Responsibility in the J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia
State University in Atlanta. In this position, she is responsible for collaboration between the College of
Business and the GSU College of Law on global business ethics issues, including the development and
teaching of a joint course for MBA and law students. She also assists with seminars for practitioners in
the areas of compliance and ethics.

From 1992 through 2002, Linda DiSantis was a Vice President and managing attorney in the UPS Corporate
Legal Department. In addition to her responsibilities in the Corporate Legal Department, Linda developed,
implemented and provided legal support to the Corporate Compliance work of the company. In 1994 and
1995, Linda chaired a project team of senior managers that created the company’s Business Conduct and
Compliance program. In 1999, when the global version of the program was introduced, she traveled
internationally and trained management personnel throughout Asia and Europe. She served as Chair of the
Corporate Compliance Committee from its creation in 1996 until 2002, when she left the company. In 2000,
she was given the additional responsibility of directly managing the Corporate Compliance Department, which
is responsible for overseeing the company’s business conduct and ethics initiatives worldwide. As Corporate
Compliance Manager, she was responsible for reporting to the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors on
all aspects of the company’s compliance activities. In 2002, she served on the CEO’s Strategic Initiatives task
force and was instrumental in the creation of the company’s Corporate Responsibility/Sustainability program.

As a member of the UPS Legal Department management team, she managed the practice group responsible
for commercial litigation, real estate and engineering issues, and environmental matters. In 1999, she was
responsible for creation of the UPS Core Counsel Network, a network of law firms organized on a regional
and substantive basis that provides legal services to the company throughout the United States. Throughout
her career at UPS, Linda served as the company’s principal environmental attorney and was responsible for
environmental regulatory matters, environmental transactional matters, and environmental litigation. Her area
of practice also included legal matters arising from health and safety issues, the transportation of hazardous
materials and homeland security.

While at UPS, Linda served on the Information Technology Strategy Committee, a group that developed
and reviewed strategic initiatives in technology. The group met frequently with large and startup technology
companies to determine the direction the company would take in furthering its approach to the use of
technology. She also worked extensively with the Corporate Public Affairs group in addressing policy issues
on many topics at the federal and state levels. In addition, Linda worked with the security and operations
senior management to address the company’s issues related to homeland security following the
September 11 terrorist attacks.

From August 2002 through December 2006, Linda served as the City Attorney of Atlanta, appointed by Mayor
Shirley Franklin. In her role as the City Attorney, she served as the chief legal officer for the City of Atlanta
and was responsible for handling all civil legal matters for the City. She directed the City Law Department,
which has a staff of about 90. The Law Department provided legal advice to the Mayor, the City Council,
and all agencies within the City. During her time as City Attorney, Linda transformed the Law Department.
This transformation is widely viewed within the legal community and elsewhere as significantly improving
the delivery of legal service for the City, with particular emphasis on improvement of performance and
professional development of the staff. As City Attorney, Linda also formed the first Compliance function
for the City within the Department of Law. The Compliance Manager, a member of the Law Department
senior management team reporting directly to the City Attorney, is responsible for investigations of potential
illegal conduct within the City, responding to calls to the City’s Integrity Line, creating proactive processes
for management of the City’s legal responsibilities, and training of employees on legal and ethical matters.

Prior to joining the UPS Legal Department, Linda was an attorney with the law firm of Alston& Bird in Atlanta
and was part of the firm’s environmental practice. Linda is a summa cum laude graduate of the Georgia State
University College of Law where she served as Managing Editor and Legislation Editor of the Law Review.
She published the article Constitutional Barriers to Statewide Land Use Regulation in Georgia: Do They Still
Exist? in the Spring/Summer 1987 edition of the Georgia State University Law Review. She is a summa
cum laude graduate of Georgia State University with a B.A. in political science with a minor in economics.
She is also an honors graduate of the Lutheran General Hospital School of Nursing, and worked as a registered
nurse in a number of capacities, including the emergency room at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois
and the neurological unit at Case Western Reserve University Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio.

Linda is a member of the Board of Visitors of the Georgia State University College of Law. She is also
a member of the board of Quantum Leaps, a non-profit corporation serving as a global accelerator of women’s
entrepreneurship. She is a member of the Board of Directors Network, an organization that advocates for
increased representation by women on corporate boards, and has assisted BDN in establishing a new
Executive Level membership category for board-ready women. While City Attorney, she served on the
Legislative Advisory Committee of the International Municipal Lawyers Association and on the faculty of the
Institute for Local Government Lawyers presented each year at the IMLA annual meeting. She served as the
co-chair for the ABA Central European and Eurasian Law Initiative (CEELI) luncheon honoring the President
of the Republic of Georgia at the ABA annual meeting in Atlanta in 2004. She has served on the Georgia
Advisory Board of the Trust for Public Land, the Board of the Georgia Wildlife Federation, the Environmental
Advisory Committee of the National Chamber Litigation Center, the Environmental Policy Committee of the
Metropolitan Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, and the Executive Committee of the Clean Air Campaign.

After she left the City Attorney position, Mayor Franklin appointed Linda to serve on the City of Atlanta Fulton
County Recreation Authority, where she serves as Vice-Chair. The authority is responsible for oversight of the
professional sports venues in Atlanta, including Turner Field and Philips Arena.

Linda is a frequent speaker on issues related to compliance and ethics, legal department management,
environmental law, diversity in the legal profession, and the law profession generally. Her publications include
an article in The Environmental Forum, discussing environmental issues in the context of e-commerce and
an article on compliance and ethics in Ethikos.

Linda was awarded the 2006 Ben F. Johnson, Jr. Public Service Award from the Georgia State University
College of Law for her work as Atlanta City Attorney. This award is given to an attorney whose life and career
reflects the high tradition of selfless public service that the College’s founding dean, Ben F. Johnson Jr.,
exemplified during his career. She is the first GSU law graduate to receive this award since its inception in
1992 and was nominated for it by her senior staff in the City Law Department.

She has been named a 2005 and 2006 Georgia Super Lawyer by Law & Politics and Atlanta Magazine and
was nominated for the 2005 Woman of the Year by Atlanta Woman Magazine. She received recognition from
Looking Ahead Magazine as a “woman with extraordinary talent.” She has been recognized in the Atlanta
Business Chronicle in the 2004, 2005 and 2006 “Who’s Who in Law & Accounting” edition. In 2003, the
Committee on Women in the Profession of the Younger Lawyers’ Section of the State Bar of Georgia named
Linda the 2003 Woman of Distinction. She was the commencement speaker at the May 2003 commencement
of Georgia State University and the keynote speaker at the 2004 GSU College of Law’s Law Week activities.
In 1985, she received a special recognition award from the Georgia Wildlife Federation for work on legislation
creating an income tax check off on the Georgia income tax form for contributions to the Nongame Wildlife
Program of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

Linda is a member of the State Bar of Georgia, the American Bar Association, and the Atlanta Bar
Association. She was a member of the Ethics Officer Association during the time she served as UPS’s
Compliance Manager.

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