Author of new book "The Cell Game" to join April 8 forum on how insider greed threatens great companies

—U.S. News & World Report

—Library Journal

MIDDLEBURY, Vt.-Alex Prud’homme, author of “The Cell Game: Sam Waksal’s Fast Money and False Promises?and the Fate of ImClone’s Cancer Drug” (HarperBusiness, 2004), and Peter Kinder, president and co-founder of Boston-based KLD Research and Analytics, a firm that supplies social investment research and consulting services to institutional investors, will participate in a panel discussion titled “How Insider Greed Threatens Great Companies: The Waksal-Stewart Saga” on April 8 at Middlebury College. The town-meeting-style open event, which is the 2004 D.K. Smith Spring Forum, will take place from 4:30-6 p.m. in Room 216 of Bicentennial Hall on Bicentennial Way off College Street (Route 125). Following the panel, there will be a reception in the Great Hall of Bicentennial Hall.

In “The Cell Game,” which was published in January, Prud’homme, a 1984 Middlebury College graduate, explores the rise and fall of the drug development company ImClone Systems, its charismatic former Chief Executive Officer Sam Waksal, his record-breaking $2 billion deal with Bristol-Myers Squibb, and the “miracle” cancer drug Erbitux?all of which have been embroiled in a scandal that has sent Waksal to prison and led to Martha Stewart’s conviction for lying to federal investigators in connection with her ImClone stock trade. In its review of the book, U.S. News & World Report said, “Prud’homme weaves a chilling tale.”

Kinder’s firm, KLD Research & Analytics, is best known for creating the Domini 400 Social Index, which, according to the firm’s Web site, has become a benchmark for measuring the impact of social screening on financial performance. According to KLD, the DS 400 Index has outperformed the S&P 500 on a total return basis since its inception in May 1990.

Kinder was also the co-founder and principal, from 1997-2000, of Domini Social Investments, the sponsor of the Domini Social Equity Fund, a mutual fund whose objective is to track the performance of the Domini 400.

Charlie Kireker, managing director of Middlebury-based venture capital firm FreshTracks Capital, will serve as moderator of the forum. He will pose questions to the panel and then open up the question-and-answer session to the audience.

Middlebury College graduates Edward Schaefer of the class of 1956, Laura Schaefer Buckley of the class of 1979, and Edward Schaefer III of the class of 1984 established the Professor David K. Smith Visiting Economic Lecture Series. The series was established in honor of Professor Emeritus of Economics David K. Smith, a member of the Middlebury College economics department from 1950-1988, and maintains a focus on applied economics. An undergraduate economics major and a member of the Middlebury College class of 1942, Smith received four graduate degrees from Harvard, including a master’s in economics, a master’s in business administration, and a doctorate in economics. While a professor of economics at Middlebury, he served as department chair for 15 years.

The event is co-sponsored by two Middlebury College student organizations?the DigitalBridges2.0 Club and the Student Investment Committee.

Both the panel discussion and the reception are free and open to the public, but reservations are appreciated. For more information, contact forum coordinator Elizabeth Robinson of Middlebury College at erobinso@middlebury.edu and 802-443-5435.

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