Loren Steffy, award-winning columnist and author, will discuss how a corporate culture can lead to environmental disaster in a lecture titled "Corrosive Corporate Cultures: from Enron to BP and Beyond" on Tuesday, Oct. 9, at 5.30 p.m. in the James J. Johnson Auditorium at Coastal Carolina University.

Earlier on Tuesday, Steffy will give an illustrated lecture about his newest book, a biography of his father titled "The Man Who Thought Like a Ship," at 12.30 p.m. at the Rice Museum in Georgetown. J. Richard Steffy was a distinguished nautical archaeologist who reconstructed histories and ancient ships. One of the ships his father reconstructed was the Brown's Ferry Vessel, a historic colonial ship now housed at the Rice Museum.

Steffy will sign copies of the book from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.

Cheryl Ward, director of CCU's Center for Archaeology and Anthropology, will be present to answer specific questions about the Brown's Ferry Vessel as well.

In his CCU lecture, Steffy will trace the evolution of cost-cutting practices and policies that directly contributed to the tragic loss of life and devastating effects of the April 2010 BP oil spill. He will discuss his writing career and his motivation for pursuing stories about energy policies and practices.

Steffy is an award-winning business columnist for The Houston Chronicle, and he also writes a daily blog about business topics. He has appeared on CNBC, Fox Business, the BBC and the PBS NewsHour.

He is the author of "Drowning in Oil: BP and the Reckless Pursuit of Profit" in 2010. Both books will be available for signing at the CCU lecture, which will be held in the auditorium of the E. Craig Wall Sr. College of Business Administration, Room 116. It was formerly known as the Wall Auditorium.

Contact Ward (cward@coastal.edu) for more information. The Explorations Lecture Series is sponsored by the Center for Archaeology and Anthropology.