Beyond corporate citizenship: A conversation with the former CEO of Alcoa and Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neill

Knut Kipper is currently a Scholar-in-Residence in Duquesne University’s Department of Philosophy in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a PhD Candidate at the Universität Witten/Herdecke. His thesis is titled “A Citizen Concerned with the Res Publica among Homines Economici: The Moral Reasoning and Discursive Practices of Dr. Alfred Herrhausen” and focuses on the intersection of transnational corporations and public policy and its effects in the form of gain or loss of normative authority. The thesis has a particular focus on the efforts Dr Herrhausen made concerning the debt crisis of the late 1980s. Further, Mr Kipper is interested in political theory, tolerance and political and social justice. Much of his current research rests upon Jürgen Habermas’s idea of a multidimensional model of transnational and supranational governance inspired by Kantian cosmopolitanism. Guiding his analysis are aspects of Habermas’s “ideal speech situation”, in particular a distillation by Matthias Kettner, as well as Rainer Forst’s theory of justice. Before beginning his doctorate studies, Mr Kipper worked in the USA at U.S. Steel and Bombardier Transportation and in Germany at the Investitionsbank Berlin. Mr. Kipper has lived, worked and studied in the USA, Germany and The Netherlands. He holds a bachelor’s degree in international business from Point Park University in Pittsburgh and a Master of Business Administration and a master’s degree in public policy from Duquesne University. At Point Park University, Mr Kipper received several merit-based scholarships, and at Duquesne’s John F. Donahue Graduate School of Business and the Graduate Center for Social and Public Policy, he held positions as Graduate and Teaching Assistant prior to becoming a Scholar-in-Residence. Mr Kipper is married to Jill, and they greatly enjoy the new addition to their family, Elsa Sophie. They currently live in Pittsburgh, PA. Mr Kipper holds US and German citizenships.