Corporate governance series set

11:36 a.m., Feb. 25, 2005--Three panel discussions on important business issues facing the nation will be held this spring as part of an undergraduate course on corporate governance being offered in the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics at the University of Delaware.

Charles Elson, UD’s Edgar S. Woolard Jr. Chair and director of the John L. Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance, will lead the discussions. Elson is an internationally recognized authority on corporate governance issues.

The corporate governance course, which meets from 9:30-10:45 a.m., Tuesdays and Thursdays, in 125 Alfred Lerner Hall, will feature discussions on audit committee reform and financial misconduct on Tuesday, March 22, on fairness opinions and value enhancements on Tuesday, May 3, and on the role of dissident members of the board of directors on Thursday, May 12.

“I’m very excited about the spring 2005 series,” Elson said. “It will provide UD and members of the community access to the insights of corporate executives, nationally recognized academics, business journalists and judges on key issues shaping the corporate landscape.”

The panel discussions are free and open to the public, although pre-registration is requested. For information, call the center at (302) 831-6157.

The March 22 panel is scheduled to include Jeffrey Cunningham, a member of the board of directors of the Countrywide Corp.; Kayla Gillan, one of the founding members of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board created by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002; and Jon F. Hanson, founder and chairman of the Hampshire Companies who sits on the boards of Prudential Financial, HealthSouth and Yankees Entertainment and Sports Network.

Also scheduled to participate are April Klein, associate professor of accounting at the New York University Stern School of Business; Stephen Lamb, vice chancellor in the Delaware Court of Chancery; Claude Lamoureux, president and chief executive officer of the Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board; Phillip Livingston, vice chairman of Approva Corp. and the former chief financial officer of World Wrestling Enterprises; and Jay Lorsch, Louis E. Kirstein Professor of Human Relations at Harvard University

Scheduled for the May 3 panel are Ann Davis, a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal; David Hilty, managing director of the international investment banking firm of Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin; Andrew Moore, jurist in residence at the Stetson University Law School and a former justice on the Supreme Court of Delaware; Giovanni Prezioso, general counsel to the Securities and Exchange Commission; and Mark Ramseyer, Mitsubishi Professor of Japanese Legal Studies at Harvard Law School.

Also scheduled to participate are Arthur Rosenbloom, co-founder of CFC Capital LLC; Jerry Rosenfeld, chief executive officer of Rothschild North America; Thomas Selman, senior vice president for corporate finance for the National Association of Security Dealers; Dan Schleifman, managing director of Credit Suisse First Boston; Myron Steele, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Delaware; and Nate Van Duzer, assistant general counsel of Fidelity Investments

The May 12 panel is scheduled to include Lucian Bebchuk, William J. Friedman and Alicia Townsend Friedman Professor of Law, Economics and Finance at the Harvard Law School; John Fowler, vice chairman of Deutsche Bank; David Katz, a partner with the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and Lewis Lazarus, an attorney with the Morris James corporate and business litigation practice groups.

Also scheduled to participate are Linda Scott, director of corporate governance for TIAA-CREF; David Skeel, S. Samuel Arsht Professor of Corporate Law at the University of Pennsylvania Law School; and Leo Strine, vice chancellor of the Chancery Court of Delaware.

Article by Neil Thomas

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