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Dreier spoke to a full auditorium of approximately 300 people about his experience in the business industry, his family life and his college life.  "I admit I'm biased," Dreier said while explaining why he believes LMU does the best job of teaching its students both business and ethics, "I'd take an LMU business graduate over a Stanford business graduate any day."

"Ethics is doing the right thing even when no one is watching," Dreier said, "If you get money you don't deserve, give it back."

The overall message from the address was that everything is not black and white, and that people should do their best to keep their integrity and be honest in all aspects of life. "My experience is that good people always rise to the top," said Dreier. "You can be a loser, whiner, complainer, or you can step up and just do it."

At the end of the talk, Lawrence Kalbers, the current R. Chad Dreier Chair in Accounting and Director of the Center for Accounting Ethics, Governance and the Public Interest, presented Dreier with the Accounting in Public Interest Award along with an LMU bag and sweatshirt. Dreier also met with three small groups of students and faculty earlier that day for additional question and answer time. Kalbers explained the center likes to have speakers who are "prominent individuals in business ethics," and that this LMU alum fit the description perfectly.

"I love seeing speakers at LMU who are very ethics-based," said Cynthia Salim, a junior philosophy and political science major who attended the event. "It shows that we are Jesuit educated students that are going to be leaders in the community." "I love seeing speakers at LMU who are very ethics-based," said Cynthia Salim, a junior philosophy and political science major who attended the event, "It shows that we are Jesuit educated students that are going to be leaders in the community."

Dreier, an accounting graduate from the class of 1969, was involved in ROTC and varsity baseball, and he met his wife, Jenny, at an LMU dance located where the bookstore currently stands. Chad and Jenny Dreier, along with their kids Kirsten and Douglass, are extremely involved in philanthropic and community activities and have donated over $6.5 million to LMU.

Dreier is currently the chairman, president, and CEO of the Fortune 500 Company The Ryland Group.  He is also the chairman of the board of trustees at LMU. Dreier said that one of the best lessons he learned from his work experience is that "learning what not to do is just as important as learning what to do."

LMU alumni, like Victor Lemus, a graphic design major from the class of 2007, came to also came to hear Dreier's speech. "LMU needs a lot more people like him," Lemus said. "Speakers don't need to be high profile, just someone with something good to say."

The next speaker event hosted by the Center for Accounting Ethics, Governance, and Public Interest is in April, with a journalist from the L.A. Times as the featured guest.