March 18, 2003
Contact: Sarah Ray
802-443-5794
sray@middlebury.edu
Posted: March 18, 2003
MIDDLEBURY,
VT - A group of four
Vermont chief executives,Ed Colodny of Fletcher Allen Healthcare, Liz
Robert of Vermont Teddy Bear, Jim Boutin of Merchants Bank and John Casella
of Casella Waste Systems,will participate in a panel discussion titled
“How Do Responsible Public Companies Handle the Issues of Enron+1,”
on April 10 at Middlebury College. The town-meeting-style open event,
which is the 2003 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. Following the panel, there will be a reception in the Great Hall
of Bicentennial Hall.
Scott
Pardee, Middlebury College Alan R. Holmes Professor of Monetary Economics,
will serve as moderator. He will pose questions to the panel and then
open up the question and answer session to the audience. Pardee has worked
for a variety of firms and corporations, including Yamaichi International
(America), where he was chairman from 1989-1995. At the Federal Reserve
Bank of New York, Pardee was the senior vice president and manager for
foreign operations of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) from 1962-1979.
He is also a member of several corporate boards of directors and a former
member of a number of corporate auditing committees.
The
April 10 forum will explore several issues, including the Sarbanes-Oxley
Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002,
which regulates the accounting industry and requires increased business
and financial disclosures. President Bush signed the act into law on July
30 in the wake of corporate accounting scandals, most notably Enron and
WorldCom. According to National Real Estate Investor magazine, “CEOs
of publicly traded companies are pulling their hair out these days trying
to muddle through the laundry list of mandates included in the Sarbanes-Oxley
Act.” The panel will also address additional topics related to corporate
accountability in the areas of accounting, auditing, boards of directors,
auditing committees, and other matters.
Funds
from the D.K. Smith Chair in Applied Economics support an annual lecture
or forum. The chair 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 at Middlebury College, Smith received
a master’s degree and a doctorate from Harvard prior to joining the department
of economics at Middlebury, where he served as department chair for 15
years. Smith’s students established the chair in honor of his work as
a teacher and mentor.
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 required. R.S.V.P. to Elizabeth Robinson of Middlebury
College at erobinso@middlebury.edu
and 802-443-5435.