Meet a powerful businessperson, who is not willing to profit at the expense of sacrificing their moral principles such as business/social ethics, corporate responsibility, or protecting the environment (unless the affected party also profits in this manner). Extreme examples may even do so in spite of great detriment to their business operations.
The question then becomes: if he succeeds, then how does he do it? It could be all that positive PR translating into repeat customers. Perhaps he's a Benevolent Boss who attracts and retains high quality employees. Maybe his success lies in making every effort to outdo his rivals by providing better products and services than they do. The spirit of competition drives him to excel. There's also the possibility that even though the HCE may be a good person, he still plays hardball in his business operations. He might not try to sabotage his competition or cheat his customers, but if he spots a loophole in a contract you sign with him, he will have no issues using it to maximum effect. Finally, he could stay ahead of the curve by living on the line between genius and insanity.
He will likely be contrasted with his Evil Counterpart, the Corrupt Corporate Executive, and the differences in their approaches could be a central theme of the work. In the poorly handled cases, the Corrupt executive can turn into a Card-Carrying Villain or making the Honest executive's business savvy an Informed Attribute. (After all, even if the corrupt executive is motivated purely by greed, you would think he wouldn't Kick the Dog unless it was profitable.)
If the Honest executive is doing better, it could be because he's a more talented businessman, whereas the less-talented Corrupt exec needs to "cheat" to succeed. It's also possible that the Corrupt executive gets ahead through cheating or otherwise being unethical to achieve more immediate success, but the Honest executive wins in the long run because his customers prefer his dependability and/or his employees are more motivated. In this way the Honest demonstrates the distinction of Enlightened Self-Interest.
Often (but not necessarily) also a Reasonable Authority Figure, Uncle Pennybags, and/or a Benevolent Boss. If he's part of the minority in his organization that are trying to resist the rest's rampant corruption, he would probably be also an Internal Reformist, or a flavor of Anti-Villain. If he's given the chance to act corrupt, expect him to say Screw the Money, I Have Rules!. May teach An Aesop that Good Pays Better.
Whether the Honest Corporate Executive is actually Truth in Television is a hotly debated issue. For every story that seemingly validates it for some, there are horror stories of terrible working conditions, minimum wages, and even widespread sexual harassment—with executives more inclined to defend these practices than do much about them. So No Real Life Examples, Please!.
