Whitman School plans Corporate Responsibility Week

Whitman School plans Corporate Responsibility WeekApril 19, 2004Cynthia J. Moritzcjmoritz@syr.edu

The Martin J. Whitman School of Management’s second annual Ethics and Corporate Responsibility Week, April 19-23, will feature public lectures by executives who have witnessed firsthand the ruinous consequences of ethical missteps. Two MCI auditing executives who uncovered the fraud at WorldCom and a former entrepreneur whose decisions led to four years in federal prison will share their insights into the causes and effects of unethical business decisions and corporate greed.

Cynthia Cooper, vice president, and Glyn Smith, director of internal audit, both from MCI, will lead participants on a journey through the WorldCom scandal and share experiences and lessons learned as they uncovered the largest fraud in corporate history during their lecture, “Navigating the Storm: Lessons from WorldCom.” It will be held April 21 from 3-4:30 p.m. in Hendricks Chapel.

Patrick Kuhse, speaker and consultant on business ethics, will address “Eight Critical Thinking Errors that Landed Me in the Federal Pen,” April 23 from 10-11:30 a.m. in the Whitman School’s Schoepflin Auditorium. From 1987-94, Kuhse was co-owner and principal of a San Diego financial planning firm, where his activities became the focus of an FBI investigation that led to 32 federal charges.Both presentations, sponsored by the James S. Kemper Foundation, are free and open to the public, and will be offered as live Webcasts at http://whitman.syr.edu/corporate/businessconnections/index.asp.

“These speakers give us a chance to reflect on the role of ethics in business and in our personal lives. It seems particularly appropriate these days when the news is full of corporate scandals, personal and corporate wrongdoing, and the toll it takes on the company, employees and customers, the community and society at large,” says Frances E. Zollers, chair of the Whitman School’s Law and Public Policy Department and organizer of the week’s events.