PANAMA CITY, Panama, March 10, 2015 – For the fifth straight year, the Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has been celebrated by the Ethisphere Institute, a research organization committed to advancing the standards of ethical business practices, as a 2015 World’s Most Ethical Company.

The ACP has been privileged with this award, which recognizes organizations that continue to seek out and execute leading ethical corporate best practices.

“The ACP is truly honored to be recognized with this award, especially as it nears the completion of its Expansion Program, the largest project at the Canal since its original construction,” Panama Canal Administrator/CEO Jorge L. Quijano said. “As at all times, the ACP remains committed to ensuring the very highest standard in transparency, ethical values, and responsibility to the Panamanian people, our customers, the environment and our most important asset – our workforce.”

The 2015 World’s Most Ethical Companies list features 132 companies from five continents, 21 countries and 50 industries in areas including retail, business services, energy and utilities, electronics, and transportation and logistics.

The ACP was one of five Latin American companies honored with this award. Other companies that were recognized include: Banco do Brasil S.A. (Brazil), Cementos Progreso (Guatemala), Empresa de Desarrollo Urbano (Colombia), Natura Cosméticos (Brazil).

“The World’s Most Ethical Companies embrace the correlation between ethical business practice and improved company performance. These companies use ethics as a means to further define their industry leadership and understand that creating an ethical culture and earning the World’s Most Ethical Companies recognition involves more than just an outward facing message or a handful of senior executives saying the right thing,” said Ethisphere’s Chief Executive Officer, Timothy Erblich. “Earning this recognition involves the collective action of a global workforce from the top down. We congratulate everyone at the Panama Canal Authority for this extraordinary achievement.”

The full list of the 2015 World’s Most Ethical Companies can be found by visiting Ethisphere.com at http://ethisphere.com/worlds-most-ethical/wme-honorees/.

About the Panama Canal Authority (ACP)
The ACP is the autonomous agency of the Government of Panama in charge of managing, operating and maintaining the Panama Canal. The operation of the ACP is based on its organic law and the regulations approved by its Board of Directors. For more information, please refer to the ACP’s website: http://www.pancanal.com/. You can also follow us on Twitter @thepanamacanal.

About the Ethisphere Institute
The Ethisphere® Institute is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World’s Most Ethical Companies® recognition program, provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) and showcases trends and best practices in ethics with the publication of Ethisphere Magazine and The World’s Most Ethical Companies Executive Briefing. Ethisphere is also the leading provider of independent verification of corporate ethics and compliance programs. More information about Ethisphere can be found at: http://ethisphere.com.