Meet the 2026 Torch Award Judges

Corporate Counsel and Compliance & Ethics Advisor
Fons Law Group

Being the leader of the Fons Law Group, John is always working with a strong business-first approach, offering straightforward and practical legal advice to protect clients while driving greater productivity.  He was an in-house lawyer for 20+ years, including more than 15 years as a General Counsel of large, multi-national, publicly-traded companies and 9 years as Director of Global Compliance & Ethics. He has been a judge for the Better Business Bureau’s Torch Awards for Ethics since 2003.

Director, Service Operations
Harley-Davidson Motor Company

Lori Oelhafen is the Director of Service Operations at Harley-Davidson Motor Company, where she oversees the Field Technical Service team and leads the technicians who provide expert technical support to dealer technicians. With over 30 years at Harley-Davidson, Lori has built strong relationships with more than 600 U.S. dealers. Her teams deliver diagnostic, consultative, and service business assistance, as well as customer-facing service teams that address and resolve complex product and customer issues.

Professor, Organizations & Strategic Management
Sheldon B. Lubar College of Business, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Maria Goranova is Professor of Organizations and Strategic Management at the Lubar College of Business, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee. Her research examines corporate governance, ownership, and shareholder activism issues in the context of strategic management. She is Director for the M&I Center for Business Ethics and teaches courses in strategic management, corporate governance, and organization theory at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral level. 

Professor and Chair
University of Wisconsin - Whitewater

Dr. K. Praveen Parboteeah is the Chair of the Department of Management and Director of the Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) program, a doctoral program he was pivotal in developing and leading. Over his 25-year tenure at UWW, he has been highly influential in business ethics efforts, including creating a dedicated student organization, proposing ethics curricula, and establishing an annual Business Ethics Week. Recognized globally for his research in cross-national and business ethics, Dr. Parboteeah was recently ranked 8th among all business ethics scholars and serves as a senior editor for the field's leading journals.