Sherron Watkins
Enron “Whistleblower” and TIME Magazine “Person of the Year”
Ms. Watkins is the former Vice President of Enron Corporation who alerted then-CEO Ken Lay in August 2001 to accounting irregularities within the company, warning him that Enron ‘might implode in a wave of accounting scandals.’ She has testified before Congressional Committees from the House and Senate investigating Enron’s demise. TIME magazine named Sherron, along with two others, Coleen Rowley of the FBI and Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom, as their 2002 Persons of the Year, for being “people who did right just by doing their jobs rightly.”
Watkins now lectures on leadership and ethics as Professor of the Practice at Kenan-Flagler at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Watkins is co-author of Power Failure, the Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron, (Doubleday, 2003).
Known internationally as the Enron whistleblower, Sherron speaks around the globe to a broad range of audiences about ethics and leadership, and the lessons to be learned from the collapse of Enron, where she served in a variety of executive positions for 8 over years. Sherron was employed for over two decades as an executive for three large global companies, the accounting firm Arthur Andersen, Metallgessellschaft AG, the German metals giant, and Enron Corp. All were multi-billion dollar companies brought down by scandal. Sherron has seen firsthand the cost of an erosion in values. Her journey through the Enron crisis has inspired many, and has crystallized her focus to share and to improve the lot of whistleblowers and would-be whistleblowers.
Sherron Watkins is the former Vice President of Enron Corporation who alerted then chairman Ken Lay in August 2001 to accounting irregularities within the company, warning him that Enron ‘might implode in a wave of accounting scandals.’ She has testified before Congressional Committees investigating Enron’s demise from both the House and the Senate. Sherron received national acclaim for her courageous actions and TIME magazine named Sherron along with two others, Coleen Rowley of the FBI and Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom, as their 2002 Persons of the Year, calling it “The Year of the Whistleblower.”
In recognition of her outstanding demonstration of ethics in the work place, Ms. Watkins has received numerous honors, including the Court TV Scales of Justice Award and its Everyday Hero’s Award, the Women Mean Business Award from the Business and Professional Women/USA Organization, and the 2003 Woman of the Year Award by Houston Baptist University. Glamour Magazine named her one of its 2002 Women of the Year, and Barbara Walters included her as one of the 10 Most Fascinating People of 2002. In 2003, the National Academy of Management presented Ms. Watkins with their Distinguished Executive Award and the Women’s Economic Round Table honored her with the Rolfe Award for Educating the Public about Business and Finance.
Watkins now lectures on leadership and ethics as Professor of the Practice at Kenan-Flagler at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Watkins is co-author of Power Failure, the Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron, (Doubleday, 2003).
Ms. Watkins is a Certified Public Accountant, retired. She holds a Masters in Professional Accounting as well as a B.B.A. in accounting and business honors from the University of Texas at Austin.
Lessons from the Enron Scandal as Told by Sherron Watkins, the Enron Whistleblower
Sherron is better known as the Enron whistleblower. She speaks around the globe to a broad range of audiences about ethics, flawed leadership, and the toxic label of whistleblower. Sherron was employed for over two decades as an executive for three large global companies, the accounting firm Arthur Andersen, Metallgessellschaft AG, the German metals giant, and Enron Corp. All were multi-billion dollar multinational companies brought down by scandal. Sherron has seen firsthand the cost of an erosion in values. Her journey through the Enron crisis has inspired many, and has crystallized her focus to improve the lot of whistleblowers and would-be whistleblowers.
Enron’s leadership pursued best practices on paper, but behaviors told a different story, setting up a culture and value system that became a breeding ground for not just thinking outside of the box, or pushing the envelope, but for actual fraud. Enron was known as the most innovative company – in fact Fortune Magazine named Enron just that, for seven years in a row. Unfortunately the dark side of innovation is fraud. And the interesting thing about white collar crime is that it involves 3 key factors: extreme pressure to meet a goal (be that an earnings target or to obtain more money personally, etc.); the opportunity to cheat or game the system; and most importantly - the rationalization that it’s not cheating.
Topics to be covered:
- How compensation systems impact fraud and wrongdoing.
- How does bad news get to the top and how is bad news dealt with.
- Form over substance compliance
- Risk Management and Compliance Role within a Corporation
- Consequences of violating company policy – do they exist?
- The importance of the CEO - ethical lapses from the C-suite are magnified in subordinates.
- Whistleblowing in the 21st Century and the importance of robust Internal Reporting Systems (introduced in keynote, but to be covered in separate panel discussion)
Ms. Watkins will likely discuss practices that encourage naming elephants. Naming and discussing issues and problems that no one wants to acknowledge is just one example of the practices Ms. Watkins recommends for building an irreproachable organization.