The president and chief executive officer of Westar Energy said a trial involving former company leader David Wittig and another former executive likely would not damage the Topeka-based utility.

Jurors in Kansas City, Kan., have been hearing arguments since late October in a federal fraud trial accusing Wittig and Douglas T. Lake of looting the state’s largest electric utility company.

“At this point, I don’t think Westar’s future would be harmed if Mr. Wittig and Mr. Lake are found innocent,” said Jim Haines, president and CEO of Westar.

Haines was in Lawrence on Monday to deliver the Kansas University School of Business Anderson Chandler Lecture.

Haines also defended the company’s decision to keep three board members who had served the company during Wittig’s tenure. In the ongoing trial, attorneys for Wittig and Lake have argued that Westar board members knew of business practices that prosecutors have alleged were designed to bilk the company.

Haines said he continued to have full confidence in the three holdover directors: Charles Chandler IV, R.A. Edwards and John Nettels Jr.

“I’m very confident that they’ll continue to be strong directors,” Haines said.

Haines said the three members deserved to remain on the board because they led a special committee that investigated the management of the company under Wittig and ultimately pushed for the Westar board to become more independent.

“Without the continuity that those three folks have provided, the turnaround of Westar would have been much more difficult,” he said.

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Haines made his remarks regarding the trial at a news conference before the evening speech. At the lecture, Haines addressed a Lied Center crowd of several hundred on the issues of corporate governance, business ethics and individual responsibility.

Haines said even in the post-Enron world, the business community faced many opportunities to act unethically. He cited 10 forces that work against ethical behavior in the business community, including uneven or lax enforcement of laws, the short-term outlook of many shareholders and a de-emphasis on the importance of being responsible for your own actions.

“The duty to be accountable seems to be nearly forgotten in our contemporary society,” Haines said. “In our society, if you say the dog ate your homework, we tend to believe it is the dog’s fault and you should get extra credit for pain and suffering.”

Several audience members said they agreed with Haines’ assessment.

“The issue of ethics is always going to be a huge challenge when the bottom line that everybody looks at is how much money a company makes,” said Jake Albers, a Lawrence senior in the business school. “Most people don’t care how you got there as long as you come out on top.”