In an extended interview, philosopher Douglas B. Rasmussen responds to a series of questions about his life and work.

Dr. Rasmussen is a professor of philosophy at St. John’s University in New York. In addition to the books discussed in the interview, he is the author of articles in American Philosophical Quarterly, The Review of Metaphysics, International Philosophical Quarterly, and many scholarly anthologies.

Watch the interview at Dr. Stephen Hicks’s site.

Related: Stephen Hicks interviews Douglas Rasmussen about Philippa Foot’s Natural Goodness.

Chan Luu is CEO of Chan Luu, Inc. Born and raised in Vietnam, Luu came to the USA for college in Boston before launching herself as a designer of jewelry and clothing in Los Angeles. Her designs are now carried by stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, and Banana Republic, as well as in high-end stores in London and Japan. We met with Chan Luu in L.A. to discuss entrepreneurship in the design business, how she combines creativity with bottom-line thinking, and the challenges of maintaining a successful enterprise in the fashion world.

Kaizen: Your designs have been worn by many Hollywood celebrities—Jennifer Lopez, Lady Gaga, Kate Hudson, Christina Aguilera, Reese Witherspoon, Sandra Bullock, Janet Jackson, and many others.

Luu: It has been happening for a long time and, of course, it’s always exciting.

Kaizen: But your story starts in Vietnam, where you were born. Where in Vietnam did you grow up?

Luu: I was born and raised in South Vietnam, in Nha Trang. I don’t know if you know that town. It’s more toward the center. It’s a seaside town, very beautiful. I was born and raised there. But mom and dad had business in Saigon, so I did go back and forth.

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Kaizen interviewee Mary Mazzio was profiled last month in Forbes. The piece covers her various careers: Olympian, lawyer, filmmaker, and entrepreneur.

Read the article here.

Read our in-depth interview with Ms. Mazzio here.

In our latest issue of Kaizen we feature an interview with Chan Luu, CEO of Chan Luu, Inc. Born and raised in Vietnam, Luu came to the USA for college in Boston before launching herself as a designer of jewelry and clothing in Los Angeles.

Also featured in Kaizen are: student essay contest winners Farzaneh Farhangi, Kelly Foster, and Rebecca Robinson; Extreme Entrepreneurship Day; filmmaker Jeffrey Van Davis‘s discussion panel for his film Only A God Can Save Us; and guest speakers Douglas Den Uyl, who visited us from Indianapolis, and Federico Fernández and Martin Sarano, who visited us from Argentina.

A PDF version of Kaizen is available here. We will soon post separately the full interview with Ms. Chan Luu.

If you would like to receive a complimentary issue of the print version of Kaizen, please email your name and postal address to CEE [at] Rockford.edu.

Dr. Stephen Hicks, CEE’s Executive Director, was invited last month to the Universidad Francisco Marroquín in Guatemala to give a series of lectures on business ethics and political economy. Here is a Spanish-language interview in Siglo 21, in which Dr. Hicks discusses business ethics and entrepreneurship. Below is a video interview with Dr. Hicks conducted by Luis Figueroa on corporate social responsibility:

Dr. Stephen Hicks, CEE’s Executive Director, talks with Federico Fernández and Martin Sarano, co-founders of Bases Foundation, on the political and economic climate in Argentina.

Part I:

Part II:

Dr. Stephen Hicks, CEE’s Executive Director, talks with Phyllis Johnson about entrepreneurship, coffee, and empowering women in Africa.

Part I:

Part II:

For more information about the organizations Ms. Johnson works with, go to:

International Trade Center

Export Impact For Good YouTube Channel

International Women’s Coffee Alliance

Dr. Stephen Hicks, CEE’s executive director, talks with guest speaker Alexei Marcoux about moral partiality in business practice.

Part I:

Part II:

Francesco Clark is founder and CEO of Clark’s Botanicals, based in Bronxville, New York. At age 24, he became paralyzed from the neck down after a swimming pool accident. Some physicians thought he would never move or breathe without assistance again. But with great effort over several years, Mr. Clark made strong progress and, given his physical-therapy experiences, developed an award-winning line of skin-care products that became Clark’s Botanicals, now sold in Europe, Asia, and the United States. We met with Mr. Clark in New York to discuss coming back from tragedy, what it takes to fight against overwhelming odds, and entrepreneurship as an option for people with disabilities and special challenges.

Kaizen: Where did you grow up?

Clark: I grew up in Italy — in Bologna — for seven years and then we moved to New York. Since sixth grade, I grew up just outside of New York City in Westchester.

Kaizen: When you were a teenager, what were you thinking your likely career would be?

Clark: My original career path was to be become a diplomat. So I went to Baltimore and studied at Johns Hopkins. I double majored in International Relations and Romance Languages. I liked that because it gave me kind of a wide funnel, a wide array of options to go into. I took the Foreign Service Exam and I passed, and it gave me the option in going into that aspect, or business, or law. But in reality, I didn’t really know what I wanted; I was just curious. I love learning and I’m still just as curious as I was before about that. And then I just kind of started working after I graduated.

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Dr. Stephen Hicks, CEE’s executive director, talks with guest speaker Douglas Den Uyl about the essence of capitalism.