Andy Fastow Featured Former CFO of Enron; Risk Management, Ethics, and HR Expert

Select Keynotes

• Unbiased: How to Manage Risk in the Gray Zone
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  Unbiased: How to Manage Risk in the Gray Zone

  We live in the Age of Corporate Disasters. From Enron to Purdue Pharma, J&J, 3M, General Electric, Boeing, and Silicon Valley Bank, to name a few–seemingly great and iconic companies have been harmed or destroyed by self-inflicted wounds. What has changed? Are we worse at compliance? Are we less ethical? Has corporate culture changed so significantly? The leaders at these organizations did not set out to do harm. Their challenges arose from an inability to lead their teams through and to the right decisions in what we call the Gray Zone– that place where creative application of complex and ambiguous rules allow us to get to a technically correct answer that may be the wrong solution. The Gray Zone is where leadership is needed most, but where leaders have the least amount of training.

  Andy Fastow spent six years in federal prison thinking about his role as CFO at Enron. He is now a sought-after public speaker who consults with Boards of Directors on ways to help leaders better identify, price, and manage these unseen Gray Zone risks in their businesses and in their lives.

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• Rules Versus Principles
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  Rules Versus Principles

  When is it acceptable to engage in a transaction that technically complies with the rules, but that may be misleading? Can a transaction that technically complies with the rules be considered unethical or illegal? Is it ever appropriate to depart from GAAP or IFRS? Andy will cite examples of such transactions at major companies, he will discuss the rationalizations made by executives to justify their decisions, and he will discuss examples of how these decisions can cause great harm to stakeholders.

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• Why Does Enron Keep Happening?
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  Why Does Enron Keep Happening?

  Enron’s implosion was caused by a Culture problem, not a Compliance problem.  Yet, the Human Resources Group at Enron, the people charged with managing culture, thought that everything was fine.  Employee surveys showed that Enron’s work environment was great and improving.  There were neither objections nor complaints from the employees.  Enron was inundated by job applicants.  The HR Group won national awards for its employee manual, visions and values statement, and training programs.  Yet, in just a four-month span, Enron imploded and declared bankruptcy, destroying $40 billion of shareholder wealth and retirement savings, and resulting in tens of thousands of lost jobs at Enron, Arthur Andersen, and other companies.  Corporate disasters keep happening, from Enron, to the financial crisis, to General Electric today, and to hundreds of companies in between.  Fastow discusses the common thread of all of these disasters; the phenomenon that HR, Senior Management, and Directors keep missing. 

  Target Audiences: HR, Senior Management, Corporate Leadership 

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