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2008-2009 Press Releases
July 21, 2009 - Special issue of The CPA Journal features Lubin Forum on Contemporary Accounting Issues
July 16, 2009 - Pace University researchers develop new models to predict debt default in international finance
April 15, 2009 - IASB Vice Chairman Tom Jones and FASB Chairman Robert Herz to keynote Pace accounting conference
March 9, 2009 - Nation's top marketing executives join for one-day strategic summit at Pace
March 5, 2009 - Andreas Beroutsos, senior managing director and partner at Eton Park, to speak at Pace
February 9, 2009 - Conrad W. Hewitt and Lynn E. Turner, former chief accountants at SEC, to speak at Pace breakfast
January 6, 2009 - Richard F. Zannino elected to Pace University Board of Trustees
November 20, 2008 - IASB Chairman Sir David Tweedie to speak at Pace University Lubin Breakfast
November 11, 2008 - President Bush to host G-20 summit in Washington on November 15
March 7, 2008 - Pace MBA students spend spring break In Tanzania
February 5, 2008 - Moody's considers changes in structured-finance ratings
February 4, 2008 - Firms in emerging markets get higher stock valuations for improvements in
corporate governance
Special issue of The CPA Journal features Lubin Forum on Contemporary Accounting Issues
Posted by: Office of Public Information
Date: July 21, 2009
Contact: Bill Caldwell, Office of Public Information, Pace University, 212-346-1597, wcaldwell@pace.edu
Status of increasing international moves toward common accounting standards for businesses and governments assessed in special issue of The CPA Journal based on annual forum at Pace University's Lubin School of Business
Comments from most major players address huge potential change under reconsideration by Obama administration
July 21, 2009—The July issue of The CPA Journal features a collection of articles on Pace University's Lubin Forum on Contemporary Accounting Issues with many insights into the increasing international moves toward common accounting standards for businesses and governments.
Pace University's Lubin School of Business organizes the Annual Lubin Forum on Contemporary Accounting Issues. The focus of this year's event, presented in conjunction with The International Accounting Standards Board on April 30, was "International Accounting Standards: Going from the Talk to Doing the Walk."
Keynote speakers included Tom Jones, Vice Chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board; Robert Herz, Chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board; Samuel A. DiPiazza, Jr., Global CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers; and Edward E. Nusbaum, CEO of Grant Thornton.
Speakers addressed a variety of topics like the economic crisis and the SEC's roadmap to move to IFRS; politics and independence in standards setting; disparity in enforcement mechanisms and auditing standards across the globe; fair value and mark-to-market accounting; and the possible paths of convergence and conformity to IFRS.
The July issue of The CPA Journal is available at http://viewer.zmags.com/publication/a8fe9ceb#/a8fe9ceb/1
The Lubin School of Business is a national leader in promoting informed discussions of issues involved in international accounting standards. In addition to this third annual conference, the school has held a number of breakfast sessions on the subject and offered half-day update sessions for accounting professionals. Since the fall of 2008, information about international standards has been included in many Lubin accounting courses.
Pace professors develop new graphical models to demonstrate the predictability of debt defaults
Posted by: Office of Public Information
Date: July 16, 2009
Contact: Bill Caldwell, Office of Public Information, Pace University, 212-346-1597, wcaldwell@pace.edu
Deliberately-planned debt defaults
Pace University researchers develop new models to predict debt default in international finance
New study shows debt defaults are "planned and recurrent, and those who plan defaults try to maximize the benefits to themselves"
Assisting the global financial community to "develop strategies to forestall and/or soften the impacts associated with financial catastrophes" and helping investors to partially avoid losses associated with defaults
July 16, 2009—Pace University professors Robert G. Vambery and James W. Gabberty have developed new graphical models to demonstrate the predictability of debt defaults and to help in the detection of their timing and magnitudes.
"This new study shows that debt defaults are planned and recurrent, and those who plan defaults try to maximize the benefits to themselves," said Vambery, a professor of international business at Pace and co-author of the paper.
"In the previous three decades some of the economically larger Latin American countries became associated with major debt defaults that were politely labeled as debt rescheduling. The world now faces the bigger question: Are the US and other G8 countries candidates for debt rescheduling and defaults or some other forms of modifications of outstanding and rising debt?
"The current default situation is massive, about as big as the most pessimistic assessments. The problem is probably the biggest in the United States and growing, and it is also taking place in most other financially important countries.
"The Argentine debt crisis scenarios of this decade are representative of a climate of financial irresponsibility that does not show signs of waning and sadly has become an all too- permanent feature of the international finance landscape.
'Supranational financial organizations such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Central Bank (ECB) recently had to come to the temporary rescue of smaller country economies such as for Iceland and Hungary. The massive interventions by G-7 Central Banks and Treasuries have been widely publicized. Though there is partial consensus that some forms of large scale interventions were necessary, the interventions are also likely to become sources of future financial and economic dislocations, burdens and losses."
"Iron Triumvirate of Debt Default". According to the researchers, in nearly all cases, debt crises have emerged from the activities as well as the in-activities of the three major participants in large-scale international borrowing and lending: the borrowers, the lenders, and the regulators who oversee financial transactions at the national and global levels. The researchers say debt crises arise because these three players who together make up an "iron triumvirate" exhibit behavior which qualify them for the monikers – 'unworthy borrowers', 'irresponsible lenders', and 'incapable regulators'. The simultaneous interaction of all three forces results in the near collapse of the financial stability of the borrowing institution or country.
The paper is available at www.pace.edu/lubin/rvambery
Professor Vambery is available to comment. Phone: 212-618-6572; e-mail: rvambery@pace.edu
IASB Vice Chairman Tom Jones and FASB Chairman Robert Herz to keynote Pace accounting conference
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Tom Jones
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Posted by: Office of Public Information
Date: April 15, 2009
Contact: Bill Caldwell, Office of Public Information, Pace University, 212-346-1597, wcaldwell@pace.edu
MEDIA ADVISORY
Notes: This event is by invitation only. Members of the media must RSVP to attend. One-on-one interviews with the speakers may be possible. E-mail wcaldwell@pace.edu.
International Accounting Standards: from Talk to Walk
IASB Vice Chairman Tom Jones and FASB Chairman Robert Herz to keynote Pace University's Lubin School of Business third annual accounting conference, Thursday, April 30
Alan Murray, Executive Editor, Online of The Wall Street Journal and Floyd Norris, Chief Financial Correspondent of The New York Times, to conduct interviews with IASB Vice Chairman and FASB Chairman
Mid-morning keynote: Samuel A. DiPiazza, Jr., Global CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers, interviewed by Emily Chasan, Accounting Correspondent of Reuters
Afternoon keynote: Edward E. Nusbaum, CEO of Grant Thornton interviewed by David Reilly, Columnist of Bloomberg News
April 15, 2009—Key players and decision makers in the move to globalize accounting rules and processes will come together Thursday, April 30, under the auspices of Pace University's Lubin School of Business, to discuss progress and impediments to a single set of high-quality international accounting standards that can be used in all the world's capital markets.
The discussion will proceed in depth at Lubin's third annual accounting conference, held in conjunction with The International Accounting Standards Board. The focus is "International Accounting Standards: Going from the Talk to Doing the Walk."
The conference will raise contentious issues and questions in converging U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS):
- Is the new SEC chairman Mary Schapiro ready to board the IFRS train? "I will take a big deep breath and look at this entire area again carefully and will not necessarily feel bound by the existing road map that's out for comment," Schapiro said at a hearing of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee in January.
- What roadblocks must be overcome?
- How prepared are U.S. companies to make the transition to IFRS?
- Is convergence really necessary given that studies have shown that IFRS are already of high quality?
- Is the IASB really independent?
- Given that incentives of preparers, auditors, and users vary significantly across the globe, how serious a problem is this for the implementation of IFRS?
The conference takes place Thursday, April 30 from 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., at 320 Park Avenue, the Mutual of America Building (between 50th and 51st streets), 35th Floor, New York City. Media admission by press card. Media RSVP to wcaldwell@pace.edu. Phone: 212-346-1597.
Opening keynote interview: Tom Jones, Vice Chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board, interviewed by Alan Murray, Deputy Managing Editor and Executive Editor, Online of The Wall Street Journal.
Mid-morning keynote interview: Samuel A. DiPiazza, Jr., Global CEO of PricewaterhouseCoopers, interviewed by Emily Chasan, Accounting Correspondent of Reuters.
Luncheon keynote interview: Robert Herz, Chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, interviewed by Floyd Norris, Chief Financial Correspondent of The New York Times.
Afternoon keynote: Edward E. Nusbaum, CEO of Grant Thornton interviewed by David Reilly, Columnist of Bloomberg News.
Panel discussions will include: Mary-Jo Kranacher, Editor-in-Chief of The CPA Journal (Moderator); Chris Craig, a Partner in Grant Thornton; Patrick G. Edgar, a Partner in KPMG; Samir M. El-Gazzar, the KPMG Professor of Accounting in the Lubin School of Business at Pace University; Richard A. Fuchs, a Partner in the Global Capital Markets Group of PricewaterhouseCoopers; D.J. Gannon, a Partner in the U.S. National Office and the Leader of the IAS Centre of Excellence for the Americas at Deloitte & Touche; Wendy M. Hambleton, a Partner and the National SEC Director at BDO Seidman; Danita K. Ostling, a Partner and Americas IFRS Leader at Ernst & Young.
Also Tracy Byrnes, a Reporter at the FOX Business Network (Moderator); Richard J. Carroll, the Chief Accountant at IBM; Talia Griep, VP & Comptroller of Honeywell; Joyce Joseph-Bell, Senior Director at Standard & Poor's Credit Market Services; Dan Mahoney, Co-Director of Forensic Accounting Research at RiskMetrics Group; Mark R. Newsome, Director of ING Capital and Chairman of the New York Society of Security Analysts' Committee for Improved Corporate Reporting; Kaustav Sen, an Associate Professor of Accounting and the Ernst & Young Research Scholar at the Lubin School of Business of Pace University.
The agenda is at www.pace.edu/lubin/accountingconference.
Nation's top marketing executives join for one-day strategic summit at Pace
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Keynote Speaker Richard S. Braddock, CEO of FreshDirect
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Posted by: Public Information
Date: March 9, 2009
Contact: Richard Altman, REA Communications, 914-288-9811 / 914-882-6953
Nation's Top Marketing Executives Join for One-Day Strategic Summit at New York's Pace University Lubin School of Business
May 8th Conference Explores Secrets of Mining New Marketing Technologies to Succeed in Current Economic Climate
March 9, 2009—Marketing and advertising executives and entrepreneurs seeking strategies for success have a one-day opportunity to glean insights and expertise from many of the nation's leading marketing innovators, when Pace University convenes its Executive Summit: Marketing & Technology - the Next Frontier on May 8, 2009.
Under the auspices of the Lubin School of Business and co-sponsored by McGraw-Hill/Irwin, the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) and The Wall Street Journal, the summit coalesces a marketing brain trust from a broad range of industries for a general session as well as a series of compelling tutorials and panel discussions.
Keynoting the summit is Richard S. Braddock, the CEO of FreshDirect, whose career includes significant tenures as chairman/CEO of Priceline.com and president/COO of Citicorp and Citibank, N.A.
Panels and tutorials cover such timely topics as product development: leveraging technology to get results; the role of technology in building brands; making Internet and email marketing work, and balancing business results and consumer privacy.
Participants include such top-tier talent as marketing savant Richard Guha, partner in the consultancy Max Brand Equity; John Sateja, executive vice president of Consumers Union, publishers of Consumer Reports; Lili Gil, Johnson & Johnson's worldwide director of marketing services; Bonin Bough, Pepsico's global director of social media; Dan Michael, Mars Inc. research & development director; Patrick Walsh, senior vice president of Brooks Brothers; WellPoint Healthcare Director of eBusiness Strategy Tim Gilchrist, and Capital One's senior vice president of brand marketing, Peter Horst.
The summit will take place on Pace University's lower Manhattan campus (One Pace Plaza, east of City Hall) and is limited to 250 attendees. Advance registration is required; no registration at the door. Registration fee, including luncheon, is $495. Those registering by March 31, 2009 receive a $100 discount. For additional information and to register visit www.pace.edu/2009executivesummit.
Proceeds benefit Lubin School of Business scholarship programs.
Media admission by press pass.
Andreas Beroutsos, senior managing director and partner at Eton Park, to speak at Pace
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Andreas Beroutsos
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Posted by: Office of Public Information
Date: March 5, 2009
Contact: Bill Caldwell, Office of Public Information, Pace University, 212-346-1597, wcaldwell@pace.edu
MEDIA ADVISORY
Note: Seating is limited. RSVP to wcaldwell@pace.edu. Media admission by press pass.
Regulation of private equity vs. publicly-owned firms
Andreas Beroutsos, senior managing director and partner at Eton Park Capital Management, L.P., to speak at Pace University's Lubin School of Business, Monday, March 9
WHO and WHAT: As private-equity firms are expected to report steep declines in the next few weeks for the fourth quarter of 2008 amid the deep economic recession, Andreas Beroutsos, a former senior partner with McKinsey & Co. who now is senior managing director and partner at Eton Park Capital Management, L.P. will visit Pace University's Lubin School of Business. He will speak with students about how private-equity ownership is faring in the current crisis and how governance, regulation and compliance at private-equity firms compares with that at publicly-owned firms.
Beroutsos is a partner in Eton Park's private investments team, focusing on private opportunities globally. He was with McKinsey before joining Eton Park in January, 2008. In 1997, he co-founded McKinsey's practice advising Principal Investor clients, which subsequently became one of the largest global practices of the firm.
In his seventeen years with McKinsey, Beroutsos advised several of the world's most successful private equity, hedge fund, and real estate direct investors (GPs) and fund-of fund investors (LPs) on strategy and business development, investment approach, organization and governance, succession planning, and people and compensation processes. He also worked extensively with US and global investors on sourcing transactions, conducting due diligence on specific deals, enhancing the value of their portfolio companies, and successfully exiting their investments. He also worked with private equity industry associations in developed and emerging markets on organization and industry-wide issues.
WHEN and WHERE: Monday, March 9, at Pace University's Lubin School of Business, room W-619, 1 Pace Plaza (east of City Hall), New York City Campus, at 6 p.m. Media admission by press pass.
Conrad W. Hewitt and Lynn E. Turner, former chief accountants at SEC, to speak at Pace breakfast
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Conrad Hewitt, former Chief Accountant, U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission
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Lynn Turner, former Chief Accountant, U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission
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Posted by: Office of Public Information
Date: February 9, 2009
Contact: Bill Caldwell, Office of Public Information, Pace University, 212-346-1597, wcaldwell@pace.edu
MEDIA ADVISORY
Notes: This event is by invitation only. Members of the media must RSVP to attend. One-on-one interviews with the speakers may be possible. E-mail wcaldwell@pace.edu.
What Should the SEC Do About Accounting?
Conrad W. Hewitt and Lynn E. Turner, former chief accountants at U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, to discuss SEC role in accounting with NY Times Floyd Norris at Pace University Lubin Breakfast, Wednesday, March 4
Contentious issues in transition to international rules to be examined
February 9, 2009—As the accounting world moves toward the biggest changes in decades with global acceptance of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), Conrad W. Hewitt and Lynn E. Turner, former chief accountants at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, will address specific topics of interest to a group of invited practitioners at Pace University's second Lubin Breakfast on Contemporary Accounting Issues.
Hewitt and Turner will be interviewed by Floyd Norris, Chief Financial Correspondent of The New York Times.
Before the Obama administration took over, the SEC had proposed that all U.S. companies be required to switch to IFRS beginning in 2014.
The discussion will focus on the SEC's role in accounting and where it should go from here, providing insights into the challenges confronting the new SEC chairman and President Barack Obama as they strive to lead the country out of the current financial crisis.
The event takes place Wednesday, March 4, 8:00 a.m. - 9:30 a.m. at Ernst & Young, 22nd Floor Café, 5 Times Square (Seventh Avenue between 41st and 42nd Streets), New York City.
It is part of Lubin's ongoing effort to prepare students and leaders of international business to deal with the increasing worldwide use of the IFRS. The school's annual Lubin Forum on Contemporary Accounting Issues, on April 30, will feature, among other notables, Robert Herz, Chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board and Tom Jones, Vice Chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board discussing the IFRS on the theme of "Going from the Talk to Doing the Walk." More information is at http://www.pace.edu/lubin/accountingconference.
At the breakfast, contentious issues and challenges will be raised:
- Given the lack of uniformity in reporting across the globe, how concerned should the SEC be with the quality of financial statements issued under IFRS?
- Should U.S. companies be able to choose to report using either IFRS or U.S. GAAP? What are some capital market implications of this action?
- What should the SEC have done differently to mitigate or even prevent the financial crisis we now face?
- Should acceptance of IFRS be contingent on convergence of U.S. and IFRS standards?
- Should the new SEC chairman implement the road map laid out by former chairman Christopher Cox wherein all U.S. companies may be required to switch to IFRS beginning in 2014?
Media admission by press card. RSVP to wcaldwell@pace.edu. Phone: 212-346-1597.
BACKGROUND: Conrad W. Hewitt was the Chief Accountant of the SEC from 2006 to January 2009 - the principal advisor to the Commission on accounting and auditing. Hewitt also was responsible for formulating and administering the accounting and auditing programs and policies of the Commission, and for the Commission's oversight of FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board) and the PCAOB (Public Company Accounting Oversight Board).
Before joining the SEC, Hewitt had over 30 years experience as a leader of one of the world's largest accounting firms (Ernst & Young), as a financial institution regulator, as Chairman of 10 audit committees (four public companies) as a corporate director and as trustee of two pension plans and a charitable foundation.
From 1995 to 1998, Hewitt was the California Superintendent of Banking and Commissioner of the California Department of Financial Institutions, a department he created and served as its first Commissioner.
Hewitt began his career as an auditor in the U.S. Air Force at Strategic Air Command Headquarters, Omaha. He held the rank of Captain.
Lynn E. Turner was the Chief Accountant of the SEC from July 1998 to August 2001 and actively involved in the legislative process leading up to passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. In 2007, Treasury Secretary Paulson appointed him to the Treasury Committee on the Auditing Profession.
Since its inception, Turner has served on the Standards Advisory Group of the Public Companies Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB), and he is a member of Financial Accounting Standards Board Investor Technical Advisory Committee. Previously he served as the SEC Observer to the FASB Emerging Issues Task Force and Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council.
Turner serves as a senior advisor to Kroll, Inc., is on the board and audit committee of the Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association (COPERA), and is a trustee and chair of the audit committee of a mutual fund.
From 2003 to 2007, he was the managing director of research and officer of Glass Lewis & Co., an internationally recognized proxy and financial research firm, and was a professor of accounting at Colorado State University from 2001 to 2003. From 1996 to 1998, he was the Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Symbios, Inc., an international semiconductor and storage manufacturer, after having been responsible for the high technology audit practice at the international audit firm now known as PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC).
Floyd Norris is the chief financial correspondent of The New York Times and the International Herald Tribune. His column appears in both papers on Fridays, and a weekly analysis of financial data, called "Off the Charts," appears on Saturdays. His blog also appears on the New York Times Web site, at norris.blogs.nytimes.com.
Norris has worked for The Times since 1988, and spent 18 months in 2004-2005 based in Paris at the offices of the International Herald Tribune.
He has been a financial columnist for most of his career at The Times, although he spent more than a year in 1998 and 1999 as a member of The Editorial Board of The Times.
Before joining The Times, Norris had been with Barron's National Business and Financial Weekly since December 1982, where he wrote "The Trader" column on the stock market.
Norris was the 2003 recipient of the Loeb Foundation's Lifetime Achievement Award for exceptional career achievements in the field of business, financial and economic news. In 2001 he received the Gerald Loeb award for distinguished Business and Financial Journalism for his insightful columns educating investors about the complexities of Wall Street. In 1998, he was cited by the Financial Writers Association of New York for outstanding lifetime achievement. In 2008, he received the lifetime achievement award of the Society of American Business Editors and Writers.
Richard F. Zannino elected to Pace University Board of Trustees
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Richard F. Zannino '84
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Posted by: Office of Public Information
Date: January 6, 2009
Contact: Bill Caldwell, Office of Public Information, Pace University, 212-346-1597, wcaldwell@pace.edu
Richard F. Zannino elected to Pace University Board of Trustees
Predicts migration of U.S. economy to global skills and services base will accelerate need for Pace graduates
January 6, 2009—Pace University has elected Richard F. Zannino '84, a global media and retail executive and the former chief executive officer of Dow Jones & Company, to the University's Board of Trustees, effective immediately. Zannino is an alumnus of Pace University's Lubin School of Business, where he earned an MBA in Finance in 1984.
Commenting on his appointment, Mr. Zannino said, "Pace offers real-life academic inspiration, knowledge and experience to a very diverse group of smart, ambitious, hard-working, and multi-talented students. The lessons learned at Pace help these students succeed in life, at work, and in their communities. I am honored to join with fellow Pace trustees as well as faculty, students and other colleagues to help Pace build on this tradition."
"Rich Zannino's sophisticated experience in management and finance will help Pace achieve even more for our students and enhance our graduates' value for the employers who hire them," added Aniello A. Bianco '61, Chair of the Pace Board of Trustees. "We are very pleased he is joining our team as Pace prepares for the challenges ahead in these difficult economic times."
Zannino sees Pace's future as brighter than ever. He concludes: "The migration of the U.S. to a predominantly skills- and services-based economy, and its increasing reliance on the global marketplace, is sure to accelerate the need for the types of creative, sensible, diverse, globally-minded and honest teachers, nurses, lawyers, accountants, businesspeople, technologists, information specialists and other thinking professionals who graduate from Pace each year."
Double-digit growth. At Dow Jones, Zannino began the firm's business and cultural transformation from newspaper publisher to diversified media company, driven by $2.5 billion in acquisitions, organic growth investments, business restructurings, and asset sales. This culminated in eight consecutive quarters of double-digit earnings growth during 2006 and 2007. Zannino joined Dow Jones as executive vice president and chief financial officer in February 2001, was promoted to chief operating officer in July 2002, and to chief executive officer and director in February 2006. He resigned from the company in January 2008, shortly after its acquisition by News Corp.
Before Dow Jones, Zannino was executive vice president in charge of strategy, finance, mergers and acquisitions, IT, and several business units at Liz Claiborne, having joined the company in 1998 as chief financial officer. Before that, he worked as executive vice president and chief financial officer of General Signal in 1998 prior to its sale. Earlier he had been at Saks Fifth Avenue from 1993 until early 1998, most recently as its executive vice president and chief financial officer.
He held finance, strategy and merger and acquisitions positions at Peter Kiewit Sons', Inc., from 1986 to 1991, JWP during 1992, Emery Air Freight from 1984 to 1986 and Continental Group from 1981 to 1984, where he began his career as an accounts payable supervisor.
Sir David Tweedie, IASB Chairman, to Discuss Huge Global Challenges of Switch to International Accounting Standards with NY Times Floyd Norris at Pace University Lubin Breakfast, Wednesday, December 10
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Sir David Tweedie, Chairman, International Accounting Standards Board
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Posted by: Office of Public Information
Date: November 20, 2008
Contact: Bill Caldwell, Office of Public Information, Pace University, 212-346-1597, wcaldwell@pace.edu
Notes: This event is by invitation only. Media admission by press card. Members of the media must RSVP to attend. One-on-one interviews with the speaker may be possible. RSVP to wcaldwell@pace.edu, 212-346-1597.
November 20, 2008—As the accounting world moves toward the biggest changes in decades with global acceptance of International Financial Reporting Standards, Sir David Tweedie, Chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board, will address specific topics of interest to practitioners at Pace University's Lubin Breakfast on Contemporary Accounting Issues. Tweedie will be interviewed by Floyd Norris, Chief Financial Correspondent of The New York Times.
The event takes place Wednesday, December 10, at Ernst & Young, 5 Times Square, 22nd Floor Café, New York, NY, from 8:00 to 9:30 a.m. Focus of the event: "Will The New Global Accounting Rules Work?"
Contentious issues and challenges will be raised:
- The IASB's reaction to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent proposal to have all U.S. companies switch to IFRS by 2014. Is the SEC moving fast enough?
- What is being done to ensure full independence of the IASB as it carries out its role as global standard setter?
- What are some of the thorny issues that must be put on the top burner in the convergence project?
- Does the IASB chairman see the role of the International Organization of Securities Commissions changing as we move to a single global accounting standard?
Sir David was educated at the University of Edinburgh (B.Com., Ph.D). In 1990 he was appointed the first Chairman of the UK Accounting Standards Board (1990 – 2000) and the Chairman of the Urgent Issues Task Force. He served as National Technical Partner of KPMG Peat Marwick McLintock (1987 - 1990), National Research Partner of KMG Thomson McLintock (1982 - 1987), and Technical Director of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland (1978 - 1981). Between 1973 and 1978 was a Lecturer in the Department of Accounting at the University of Edinburgh. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in 1972.
He has received a number of honorary degrees and professional awards, including the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales's Founding Societies Award (1997), awarded annually to a member who has made an outstanding contribution in any field of endeavor and the Chartered Institute of Management Accounting's CIMA Award (1998), awarded to non-members of CIMA who have made an outstanding contribution to the profession. He was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants.
He has been a visiting professor at the University of Lancaster International Centre for Research in Accounting (ICRA), the University of Bristol and the University of Edinburgh.
He was knighted in 1994 for his services to the Accounting Profession.
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Jorge Pinto, professor of finance
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President Bush to host November 15 G-20 summit
Posted by: Office of Public Information
Date: November 11, 2008
Contact: Bill Caldwell, Office of Public Information, Pace University, 212-346-1597, wcaldwell@pace.edu
President Bush to host G-20 summit in Washington this Saturday, November 15
November 11—Jorge Pinto, an expert on the global economy and a former executive director of the World Bank in Washington, D.C., is professor of finance at Pace University's Lubin School of Business in New York. Pinto was the chief Mexican negotiator for the Miami Summit Declaration hosted by President Clinton in 1994.
Professor Pinto is available to comment on President Bush's plans to host a G-20 summit in Washington this Saturday.
"This is a peculiar kind of summit since it is not linked to any of the many that world leaders attend annually (G8, APEC, etc). Having been part of some of these events as chief negotiator for Mexico in charge of preparing an agenda and drafting the final declarations, I am aware of the problems this conference has, mainly the fact that the US President can not commit to any new initiative since he will be leaving his post soon."
Pinto has served as an executive director of the World Bank in Washington, D.C. and a member of its board representing Mexico, Central America, Spain, and Venezuela; ambassador of Mexico to Sweden in Stockholm; representative for Europe for Mexico's National Bank; consul general of Mexico in New York; undersecretary for International Cooperation at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Relations; deputy chief of Mission at the Mexican Embassy in Washington, D.C.; and chief of staff for Mexico's Department of the Interior.
Pinto has appeared on Bloomberg Television, CNN's Lou Dobbs Tonight, WABC-TV Eyewitness News, CNN en Espanol, and Univision. He has been quoted in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Investor's Business Daily, China Daily, and La Opinion.
Pace MBA students spend spring break In Tanzania
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![[Ambassador Mahiga]](https://www.pace.edu/Lubin/WFO/images/news/newsTanzania.jpg)
Dr. Augustine P. Mahiga, Tanzania's Ambassador to the United Nations, discussing Tanzania's greatest strengths and its most important challenges for the future at Pace University on October 22, 2007. This event was held to raise awareness of Tanzania and help promote the field study trip.
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Posted by: Samuella Becker
Date: March 7, 2008
Contact: sbecker2@pace.edu, Office of Public Information, Pace University, 212-346-1637 or 917-734-5172, sbecker2@pace.edu
Spring Break in Tanzania: Pace University MBA students to examine the dynamics of social and commercial entrepreneurship up-close in University's first field study course with East African political, business, academic and community leaders
Tanzania visits to include a coffee entrepreneur, a media mogul, an ambassador, and a social entrepreneurship organization that fights poverty by using a business-oriented methodology
March 7—On March 13, fifteen MBA students from Pace University's Lubin School of Business will forego the traditional spring semester break and embark for Tanzania on an intense 10-day international field study course.
They are being led by Professor Bruce Bachenheimer, an entrepreneur himself, who is the director of Lubin's growing entrepreneurship program and a Faculty Fellow at the University's Wilson Center for Social Entrepreneurship.
Pace selected Tanzania for its African program launch, Bachenheimer says, because of "the country's unique and successful move to free capital markets, its stable government and its World Bank reputation as a success in implementing a free market economy." Added Bachenheimer, "While this initial trip is only 10 days in length, it is also designed to serve as a foundation for a long-term relationship between the University of Dar es Salaam and Pace, one which will be truly meaningful and mutually beneficial."
According to Lubin Dean Joseph R. Baczko, an international business figure himself as the former President and COO of Blockbuster Entertainment Corporation and founder and President of the international division of Toys R. Us., Inc. "Our students know a year abroad, semester or even a spring break is excellent preparation for professional careers that are in demand."
Development strategies. Directly experiencing many of the concepts they have studied in the classroom, the Pace graduate students, based in Dar es Salaam, will:
- Meet with political, business, academic and community leaders
- Participate in an intense two-day workshop on March 18 and 19 in conjunction with the University of Dar es Salaam Entrepreneurship Centre (UDEC)
- Visit social ventures and commercial enterprises
- Be challenged to examine and assess what they observe in the context of the eight U.N. Millennium Development Goals, which have galvanized unprecedented efforts to meet the needs of the worlds-poorest, evaluate business strategies and make recommendations for short-to-long-term marketing plans after listening to a presentation by local CEOs about the "Challenges of Running a Business in Tanzania."
The group is scheduled to meet with several of Tanzania's most prominent leaders, including:
- David Robinson, the son of U.S. baseball legend and civil-rights hero Jackie Robinson, who is using the coffee grown on his 280-acre farmers' cooperative Sweet Unity Farms to encourage social change.
- Reginald Mengi, an industrialist and media tycoon. The former Chairman and Managing Partner of Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) in Tanzania, Mengi is the founder and Executive Chairman of the IPP business conglomerate.
- Ambassador Daudi N. Mwakawago, who served as Tanzania's Permanent Representative to the United Nations and was in charge of UN peacekeeping forces in Sierra Leone.
- Alex Mkindi, Deputy Country Director of TechnoServe, one of the world's most successful social entrepreneurial organizations. TechnoServe recently received a $46.9 million grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help small-scale farmers in East Africa improve coffee quality, increase production and link to markets.
A meeting at the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Marketing will provide insight into the role the government plays in supporting small and medium enterprises. The session will give particular attention to the structure of financial systems and the impact of global business on local development, including how foreign investors and multinational firms are embracing entrepreneurs to produce successful ventures and partnerships.
Speeches and spices. Pace will also have its turn at the podium as Bachenheimer and his students speak to University of Dar es Salaam faculty members and students about the "The Changing Role and Increasing Importance of Entrepreneurship in the United States" and "The Recent and Dramatic Growth of Social Entrepreneurism in the United States."
Not all of the trip will be academically-focused. The group will also be visiting the island of Zanzibar, known for its exotic spices, sandy beaches and historic Stone Town, said to be the only functioning ancient town in East Africa. An overnight safari will take place at Mikumi National Park, a favorite venue of wildlife photographers because of its population of elephants, giraffes, buffaloes, zebras, antelopes and tree-climbing lions.
Professor Bachenheimer has been enamored of Tanzania since childhood, when he was captivated by stories in National Geographic about Louis Leakey's discoveries near Olduvai Gorge and Jane Goodall's work with the chimpanzees of Gombe National Park. "But this study group will focus on the new economic dynamism of Africa," he says.
About Tanzania: Tanzania, the largest country in East Africa, is focused on wildlife conservation and sustainable tourism, with approximately 25 % of the land protected by the Government. It is the home of the tallest mountain in Africa, the legendary Mt. Kilimanjaro; the Serengeti, named in October, 2006, as the New 7th Wonder of the World by USA Today and Good Morning America; the Selous, the world's largest game reserve; Olduvai Gorge, "the cradle of mankind;" and seven UNESCO World Heritage Sites. For more information, visit www.tanzaniatouristboard.com.
Thanks to the generosity of the Figueroa Family of Westchester, NY, Pace recently created a $1 million fund to support an international travel experience for undergraduates and graduates, 61 of whom will participate this year in field studies, summer studies and semesters abroad in Brazil, China, England, Italy, Panama and Tanzania.
>> Student experiences, blog entries, and trip photos
>> MBA Students travel to Tanzania over break, Pace Press, March 26, 2008
>> Mengi: Committment essential component in entrepreneurship, The Guardian,
March 18, 2008
>> Pace University, Lubin School of Business selects Tanzania for its first annual graduate student trip focused on entrepreneurship, Africa Travel Association, March 13, 2008
>> MBA students travel to Tanzania for business, The Paw Print, March 18, 2008
March 7, 2008
>> Dr. Augustine P. Mahiga, Tanzania's Ambassador to the United Nations, guest speaker at Pace University, October 22, 2007
Moody's considers changes in structured-finance ratings
Posted by: Public Information
Date: February 5, 2008
Contact: Bill Caldwell, Office of Public Information, Pace University, 212-346-1597, wcaldwell@pace.edu
February 5—Aron A. Gottesman, Ph.D., an authority on financial markets who often has been quoted in financial and business media and associate professor of finance at Pace University's Lubin School of Business in New York, is available to comment on the "difficulties" behind Moody's decision to consider a range of changes in the way it rates thousands of mortgage-related securities hit hard in the credit crunch.
Professor Gottesman's views on structured-finance ratings:
"The ratings of structured-finance products such as CDOs and CMOs represent a lucrative source of revenue for Moody's. At the same time, the reputation and brand of rating agencies has been hurt by the significant downgrades of structured-finance products.
"With these potential changes to their rating system, Moody's is attempting to separate its traditional ratings from its ratings of structured-finance products. Such a separation represents an admission by Moody's that it perceives the quality of its traditional ratings differently than it perceives the quality of its structured-finance ratings, and provides a clear indication of the difficulty that rating agencies such as Moody's have in developing models through which to evaluate the creditworthiness of structured-finance products.
"Regardless of which system Moody's eventually chooses to use, it will be interesting to see how institutions that are restricted from investing in speculative grade securities perceive these changes, and how this change will impact investor behavior."
Gottesman is co-author of studies published in the Journal of Banking and Finance, Journal of Empirical Finance, Journal of Financial Markets, and Journal of Financial Services Research. His research has been cited in The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes, and BusinessWeek. He teaches courses in Managerial Finance, and Money and Capital Markets at Pace's Lubin School of Business.
Curriculum vitae is available at webpage.pace.edu/agottesman/pdf/CV.Gottesman.pdf
Firms in emerging markets get higher stock valuations for improvements in
corporate governance
Posted by: Public Information
Date: February 4, 2008
Contact: Bill Caldwell, Office of Public Information, Pace University, 212-346-1597, wcaldwell@pace.edu
New study gives solid evidence that firms in emerging markets are rewarded with higher stock valuations for improvements in corporate governance
Researchers at Pace University, AllianceBernstein use new and unique data set with regular updates of governance ratings for 200 firms in 21 emerging markets over almost five years
Results show investors really care about governance as they have significantly higher valuations after controlling for various factors
February 4, 2008—Researchers at Pace University and AllianceBernstein have found solid evidence that when firms in emerging markets improve their corporate governance, they are rewarded with higher stock valuations.
The study used a new data set from AllianceBernstein that, unlike other corporate governance data, has regularly updated firm-level governance ratings for 200 firms in 21 emerging markets countries over almost a five year period.
This type of test largely allowed the researchers to overcome the issue of whether better governance causes better valuations, or whether firms with better valuations "simply have better governance."
The co-authors - Aron Gottesman and Matthew Morey of Pace University's Lubin School of Business, and Edward Baker, formerly of AllianceBernstein, and Benjamin Godridge of AllianceBernstein - found that improvements in governance led to significantly higher valuations that were independent of various risk factors in their countries.
Their working paper is available at srn.com/abstract=1084827
"In sum, our results show that corporate governance is important to investors," the researchers wrote. "Indeed, corporate governance is sufficiently important that major firms, such as AllianceBernstein, are willing to spend significant resources to devise their own internal firm governance rating system. Our results suggest that money spent on evaluating firm governance is worth the cost."
Gottesman and Morey are the research team that became known several years ago for studies examining CEO educational quality and firm performance; manager education and mutual fund performance; and the ability of the new Morningstar mutual fund rating system to predict future fund performance. Both teach finance at Pace's Lubin School of Business.
Emerging-markets countries examined in the study were: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Egypt, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Venezuela.
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