Today Compliance Week begins the first of an ongoing series of weekly conversations with executives at U.S. public companies who are currently involved in establishing and developing compliance programs. Our first conversation is with Jay Haberland, vice president of business controls at $30.7 billion United Technologies Corp., who describes the type of internal control testing […]
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Posted inFrom the Archive
Accidental Disclosure: Presentation Sent To Shareholders
Brady Last week, $2 billion Amvescap—one of the world’s largest mutual fund companies, and parent of the Invesco and AIM fund groups—inadvertently emailed a sensitive presentation to a group of investors. The presentation was sent in error. “I would stress that this was a work in progress,” noted executive chairman Charles Brady, “an internal document, […]
Posted inEthics & Culture
Amended USSC Guidelines: Effective Compliance And Ethics Programs
Full text of the amendment modifying the provisions of Chapter Eight of the U.S. Sentencing Commission Organizational Sentencing Guidelines impacting “effective” compliance programs.
Posted inBoards & Shareholders
D&O Insurance Crisis: Could The Worst Be Behind Us?
Is the D&O crisis over? Not yet, but the worst may be behind us—gone are those nightmarish high double-digit and triple-digit price increases. According to the widely-followed annual RIMS Benchmark Survey released a couple of weeks ago, in the first quarter of 2004 price increases in a number of lines of insurance, “most notably” directors […]
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Ex-Salomon CEO Joins Board Of $113b ChevronTexaco
Denham Oil and gas giant ChevronTexaco recently announced the addition of Robert Denham to its board of directors. Denham is a partner in the law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson, and previously served as chairman and CEO of Salomon Inc. He was actually with MT&O for nearly two decades before joining Salomon, and then […]
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Foster Wheeler Names Governance, Compliance Officers
Fries Gardner $3.8 billion commercial construction company Foster Wheeler recently announced that vice president and secretary Lisa Fries Gardner would assume the additional role of chief governance officer. Fries Gardner will be responsible for implementing improvements in governance policies and practices, and will continue to oversee the company’s code of business conduct and ethics. The […]
Posted inBoards & Shareholders
Sense Of Reality Behind Annual Meeting Acrimony
On one level, this is shaping up as perhaps the most acrimonious annual meeting season ever. Earlier this year, two former Walt Disney directors—Roy Disney and Stanley Gold—seemed to inspire dissidents at other companies when they launched an intense, very public campaign to oust Chairman and CEO Michael Eisner. At the March annual meeting, 43 […]
Posted inEthics & Culture
SEC Names New Ethics Counsel, Enforcement Officer
The Securities and Exchange Commission announced last week it had appointed William Lenox as ethics counsel. Lenox will head the SEC’s ethics office, where he has worked since 1993. He previously served as a senior trial attorney in the division of enforcement at the Commodities Futures Trading Commission. The SEC also announced that Peter Bresnan […]
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SEC Caseload Increasing, But Decisions Reached Faster
According to the latest status report on the SEC’s administrative proceedings, the Commission’s caseload is getting heavier. No surprises there. Tracked every six months, the report shows that the number of “new matters added” has increased steadily over prior periods, in some cases nearly doubling. But, more importantly, the median age of the matters at […]
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Talking Convergence, Expensing With Ex-IASB Member
Last week, Volvo Group’s former CFO Jan Engström was appointed to the International Accounting Standards Board. He replaces former Nestlé SVP Harry Schmid, who—as we reported back in September—had stepped down one year before the end of his term. We conducted an interview with the Swiss-based accounting veteran to get his thoughts on convergence, America’s […]