2011 CARE-CEASA Conference

CARE-CEASA Conference

Accounting for Uncertainty and Risk:
Investor, Management and Policy Implications

 

 

IBM Palisades
Palisades, New York

 

Experiencing Uncertainty and Risk

Session Video

 

Chair and Introduction:  Trevor Harris - The Arthur Samberg Professor of Professional Practice; Co-Director, Center for Excellence in Accounting and Security Analysis, Columbia Business School

Professor Harris' research and practical experience has covered most areas of the use of accounting information for valuation, investment and management decisions, with a particular focus on global aspects. He originally joined the Columbia Business School faculty in 1983, and was the Jerome A. Chazen Professor of International Business, Director of the Chazen Institute of International Business and Chair of the Accounting Department, prior to joining Morgan Stanley as a Managing Director and Head of the Global Valuation and Accounting Team in 2000. He rejoined the faculty of Columbia Business School in July 2008 and was appointed as The Arthur J. Samberg Professor of Professional Practice. He is co-Director of Columbia's Center for Excellence in Accounting and Security Analysis. He has published widely on valuation and accounting issues, in both academic and practitioner journals. He has made presentations at over 200 conferences, institutes and universities around the world.

Through September 2008, Professor Harris was a Managing Director and Vice Chairman at Morgan Stanley, working on special projects for Firm Management in all business areas. He became a Senior Advisor to Morgan Stanley in October 2008. In his time in Equity Research he was the primary author of the Apples-to-Apples research series focusing on global sector valuations and earnings quality issues, and led the creation and initial development of Morgan Stanley's ModelWare project and its Risk-Reward valuation application, that is used in all its current published research. He wrote extensively on earnings quality, company-specific investment ideas and global pension and retiree benefit issues. While in Equity Research he was an early sponsor of the XBRL initiative. He has also worked with corporate and investor clients on disclosure and valuation issues, and capital raising situations. Working with senior management, he was responsible for developing strategic solutions, and enhancing the management information systems of the firm. He has served on the Standards Advisory Council to the International Accounting Standards Board (until November 2008), the Users' Advisory Council to the Financial Accounting Standards Board (current) and was a member of the International Capital Markets Advisory Committee at the New York Stock Exchange until its dissolution.

Professor Harris has also provided advice on international accounting, controllership, valuation and investor relations issues to many large, international corporations and organizations.

 

Neal Shear - Former Global Head of Securities at UBS and Morgan Stanley

No Slides Available

Neal Shear has been a Group Managing Director and the Global Head of the Securities Business for UBS Investment Bank and Morgan Stanley. During his tenure at UBS, Neal was responsible for the global strategic management of the investment businesses that included Equities, Fixed Income, Foreign Exchange, Commodities, and Capital Markets. Spanning the entire investment cycle, each business within the Securities organization includes a comprehensive Global Research and Advisory offering, Securities Origination and Distribution, Global Execution and Trading capabilities and a variety of value-adding services such as Commission Management and Corporate Access.

Prior to joining UBS, Neal was a managing partner at Apollo Commodities Partners, where he led the firm's global commodities business stream, including Private Equity investing and their independent Hedge Fund. Previously, he spent 25 years with Morgan Stanley, where from 2005 until 2007 he served as the Global Head of Fixed Income and Equity Trading, and Co-Head of Sales and Trading. He led that organization into the emerging markets by purchasing banks in China and Russia, and throughout his tenure significantly increased the firm's market share and profitability. He also served as the founding Chairman of Morgan Stanley's Commodities Business.

Neal began his career in 1978 with Citibank's Credit Training NBG. He worked for a number of years as a trader at J Aron and Co., and joined Morgan Stanley in 1982. He holds a BS from the University of Maryland and an MBA from Cornell University.

 

 

Steve Girsky - Vice Chairman, Corporate Strategy and Business Development, General Motors

No Slides Available

Stephen J. Girsky was named GM vice chairman, Corporate Strategy and Business Development effective March 1, 2010. In this position, he has overall responsibility for corporate strategy, business alliances, new business development and other related areas. On January 1, 2011, he assumed responsibility for OnStar, and on February 1, 2011, he also assumed responsibility for the Global Product Planning and Global Purchasing and Supply Chain organizations. He continues to serve on the General Motors Board of Directors, a position he has held since July 10, 2009. He also briefly served as Senior Advisor to the Office of the Chairman before he was named Vice Chairman.

Previously, Steve was president of S. J. Girsky & Co, an independent advisory firm based in New York, where he applied more than twenty years of experience working with senior corporate and board executives, labor leaders, OEM leaders, suppliers, and dealers, national and local policy makers. He also served as the lead director of Dana Holdings Corp.

Steve also served as president of Centerbridge Industrial Partners, an affiliate of Centerbridge Partners, LP, an investment fund with approximately $8 billion of assets under management. Prior to Centerbridge, Steve was a special advisor to the CEO and CFO of General Motors Corporation from August 2005 to June 2006.

In all, Steve has 25 years of automotive experience, including serving as managing director at Morgan Stanley and as senior analyst of the Morgan Stanley Global Automotive and Auto Parts Research Team. While at Morgan Stanley, Steve was ranked the No. 1 automotive and auto parts analyst by Institutional Investor's All-American Research Team annual investor poll for 14 consecutive years. His automotive and auto parts team ranked No. 1 in the Greenwich Associates poll for 14 consecutive years as well.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, he was managing director of PaineWebber's Automotive Group and worked as an analyst on the overseas financial staff of GM.

Steve holds a BS in mathematics from the University of California at Los Angeles and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. He was born on April 30, 1962.

Charitable and non-profit organizations which Steve has supported over the years include the United Jewish Appeal, Student/Sponsor Partnership, Multiple Sclerosis, The UCLA Chancellor's Associates Fund, Harvard Business School, Columbia University, Cornell University, the United Way and The Babies & Children's Hospital of New York.

 

 

 

Steve Galbraith - Partner, Portfolio Manager, Maverick Capital

No Slides Available

Prior to joining Maverick in 2004, Mr. Galbraith served as Chief Investment Officer and Chief U.S. Investment Strategist at Morgan Stanley. While at Morgan Stanley, Mr. Galbraith's work was consistently recognized in various Wall Street analyst polls, including a No. 1 ranking in the Institutional Investor All America Research Team poll in 2002 and 2003. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, he was a Partner at Sanford Bernstein, where he was a highly ranked analyst in both the packaged foods sector and the securities industry.

Mr. Galbraith is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University Business School, where he teaches securities analysis. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of Tufts University and the National Constitution Center, and as a board member for Pzena Investment Management, Narragansett Brewing Company, and the Harlem Success Academy, a charter school founded in 2006 in New York City. Mr. Galbraith received his BA, summa cum laude, from Tufts University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.

What We Learn From Academic Work on Assessing Uncertainty and Risk

Session Video

 

 

 

 

Chair: Guy Weyns - Managing Director, Morgan Stanley

Guy Weyns is a Managing Director in Morgan Stanley's Global Investment Research division in New York. In this position, he plays a leading role in developing the division's analytical and valuation frameworks and in directing its thematic research. 

Before joining Morgan Stanley, Guy worked in Goldman Sachs' mortgage and principal finance group as well as its financial institutions M&A group in London. Guy holds a PhD in Business from Stanford University and has served on the faculty of Harvard Business School.

 

 

 

 

 

Doron Nissim - Ernst & Young Professor of Accounting and Finance, Columbia Business School

A Review of Insurance

Professor Nissim earned his PhD in Accounting at the University of California, Berkeley, and joined Columbia Business School in 1997. From 2006 to 2009, he served as the Chair of the Accounting Division. Professor Nissim's research is primarily in the areas of earnings quality, fundamental analysis, and equity valuation. His studies investigate various issues related to fundamental and relative (multiple) valuation, corporate and personal taxes, market efficiency, reliability and relevance of financial disclosures, corporate finance decisions, and financial institutions.

Professor Nissim's research has been published in such internationally acclaimed accounting and finance journals as Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, Review of Accounting Studies and Journal of Finance, as well as in practitioner-oriented journals such as Financial Analysts Journal. Professor Nissim is an active participant at academic and professional conferences and is an editor of Review of Accounting Studies. Professor Nissim's research is frequently cited in the popular press, including Time, New York Times, Chief Executive Magazine, The Economist and International Herald Tribune. Professor Nissim consults extensively, primarily on earnings quality, fundamentals-based analyses, valuation, and investment management.

At Columbia Business School, he teaches MBA and PhD courses in financial accounting, earnings quality, and fundamental analysis, and regularly participates in executive education programs. Professor Nissim has received various honors and awards, including a prize from the Financial Executive Research Foundation for "the article from those published in The Accounting Review during 2004, which had the greatest import for users and preparers of financial reports," two nominations for the Brattle Prize at Journal of Finance (outstanding paper in corporate finance), and the Columbia Business School Dean's Award for Teaching Excellence in a Core Course.

 

 

 

 

Mark Bradshaw - Associate Professor, Boston College

Assessing Tail Risk

Mark T. Bradshaw is an Associate Professor of Accounting at the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. Bradshaw previously taught at University of Chicago, Harvard Business School, University of Michigan Business School, and University of Georgia. He has been a Certified Public Accountant since 1991 and is a former auditor for Arthur Andersen & Co. in Atlanta, where his primary clients included Delta Airlines, Continental Airlines, The Southern Company, Institute of Nuclear Power Operators, Augusta National Golf Club, and The Masters Tournament.

Bradshaw conducts research on capital markets, specializing in the examination of securities analysts and related financial reporting issues. He has published scholarly work in Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting, Auditing, and Finance, Contemporary Accounting Research, and Accounting Horizons. He is co-author with James Wahlen and Stephen Baginski of the textbook, Financial Reporting, Financial Statement Analysis, and Valuation. With Brian Bruce, he co-authored the book, Analysts, Lies, and Statistics - Cutting through the Hype in Corporate Earnings Announcements. He is an Associate Editor of Journal of Accounting and Economics and Journal of Accounting Research, is on the Editorial Board of The Accounting Review and Review of Accounting Studies, and is a reviewer for numerous accounting and finance journals.

Bradshaw was a Harvard Business School Berol Fellow and received the Harvard Business School Apgar Award for Innovation in Teaching and the Harvard Business School Robert F. Greenhill Award. He has received fellowships from the Arthur Andersen Foundation, Deloitte & Touche, American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and the American Accounting Association, among others. He received the American Accounting Association Competitive Manuscript Award for his paper, "How Do Analysts Use Their Earnings Forecasts in Generating Stock Recommendations?"

Bradshaw received a PhD from the University of Michigan Business School, earned a BBA summa cum laude with highest honors in accounting and a master's degree in financial accounting from the University of Georgia.

 

 

 

Rodrigo Verdi - Sarofim Family Career Development Associate Professor of Accounting, MIT Sloan School of Management

Transparency in Accounting in Assessing Uncertainty

Rodrigo Verdi has broad interest in capital markets research in accounting and finance. His past research investigates the economic consequences of financial reporting quality to investment efficiency and to the cost of capital. He has also studied the interaction between accounting information, voluntary disclosure, and market efficiency. Overall, Verdi's research provides insights on the role of accounting information in corporate finance decisions and in the capital markets behavior.

Verdi received his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania in 2006.

 

 

 

Anette Mikes - Assistant Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School

A Review of Industry Practices

Anette Mikes is an assistant professor in the Accounting & Management Unit at Harvard Business School. She teaches Financial Reporting and Control and in 2010 launched (with Professor Robert Kaplan) the new executive education program Risk Management for Corporate Leaders. She received a PhD from the London School of Economics (LSE), where her dissertation, "Enterprise Risk Management in Action," was the first field-based research study on risk management in financial institutions. Her subsequent publication "Risk Management and Calculative Cultures" won the 2009 David Solomons Prize.

Mikes also holds an MSc in economics and finance from the Budapest University of Economics, and an MSc in accounting and finance, with distinction, from LSE. During her doctoral studies, Professor Mikes was a tutorial fellow at LSE and an executive education associate at London Business School. 

A former advisor to the Group Risk function at Standard Chartered Bank, Professor Mikes instigated and continues to direct the CRO Futures Research Initiative in the United Kingdom. With the cooperation of a number of senior risk officers contributing to the British Bankers' Association's Risk Advisory Panel, this ongoing research program investigates evolving directions in risk management and the emerging roles of senior risk officers. Professor Mikes also studies risk management practices in high-risk nonfinancial organizations, such as the Canadian energy company Hydro One and the Mars Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. 

Coping with Uncertainty and Risk

Session Video

 

 

 

Chair: Gregory Jonas - Managing Director, Morgan Stanley 

No Slides Available

Greg Jonas is a Managing Director in Morgan Stanley's Equity Research group, covering matters involving accounting, financial reporting, and taxation. His goal is to improve the insight that analysts and investors glean from companies' public disclosure.

Greg came to Morgan Stanley from Moody's, where, during the credit crisis, he led the firm's communication functions. For five years, Greg was Moody's chief accountant on ratings of corporations. Greg joined Moody's from Andersen where he led the technical functions that supported Andersen's worldwide audit practice.

Greg has served on numerous committees supporting the AAA, AICPA, FASB, IASB, IMA, PCAOB, and SEC. During the 1980s, Greg served a two-year fellowship at the FASB.

 

 

Betsy Graseck - Managing Director, Morgan Stanley

Analyst Perspective

No Slides Available

Betsy Graseck is a Managing Director at Morgan Stanley responsible for Equity Research coverage of Large Cap Banks. Betsy joined Morgan Stanley in 1986 as a fixed income analyst. After business school, she joined KPMG's financial services consulting practice and worked with US banks during their restructuring phase from 1990 through 1992. 

Betsy rejoined Morgan Stanley in 1992 and moved to Tokyo to cover Japanese Banks and Financial Services stocks. After six years covering those stocks, Betsy returned to New York as Associate Director of Equity Research where she was responsible for six industry groups primarily focusing on tech, telecom and media from 1998-2002.

Betsy assumed coverage of Large Cap Banks in 2002. She completed her undergraduate degree at Cornell University and received her MBA from Columbia Business School; Betsy is a Chartered Financial Analyst. Betsy has twice been ranked #1 in Starmine's US "Stock Picker of the Year" in Commercial Banks (2007 and 2008). Betsy was ranked #2 stock picker in the country by Zacks/Forbes for the 2007-2009 period.

 

 

Richard Edlin - Principal Shareholder, Greenberg Traurig LLP

Litigation Perspective

No Slides Available

Richard Edlin is an accomplished trial attorney and has broad experience in both trial and appellate courts, including the United States Supreme Court. He has tried numerous cases in federal and state courts all over the country and has handled arbitrations both in the United States and abroad.

Mr. Edlin handles a wide variety of litigation and routinely acts for companies and their management in areas such as securities, general commercial, contractual disputes, antitrust and intellectual property. He is currently handling major matters for leading financial institutions arising out of the economic downturn and real estate collapse, for leading pharmaceutical companies involved in contract disputes, antitrust investigations and intellectual property matters and for significant individuals involved in various commercial disputes.

Mr. Edlin has been recognized and selected as a leading litigator by numerous professional publications, including Chambers & Partners USA Guide to Leading Business Lawyers, The Best Lawyers in America, Super Lawyers, Lawdragon and Martindale-Hubbell. Mr. Edlin is a frequent lecturer on litigation strategy and is the author of Courtroom Strategies for Litigation Success.

Mr. Edlin is a member of the Board of Governors of Hackensack University Medical Center, where he serves on the finance committee; a trustee of The Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs; a member of the Economic Club of New York; a fellow of the Litigation Council of America and a trustee of New Jersey SEEDS, among other professional and community activities.

Mr. Edlin received his BA degree from Tufts University, magna cum laude in history, was a varsity athlete and the winner of the New Jersey Rhodes Scholarship competition. He received his law degree from Columbia University School of Law, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar and Notes editor of the Columbia Journal of Environmental Law. Following his graduation, Mr. Edlin served as law clerk to Honorable Lee P. Gagliardi of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

 

 

John Veihmeyer - Chairman & CEO, KPMG LLP USA

Auditor Perspective

No Slides Available

John B. Veihmeyer is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of KPMG LLP, the U.S. member firm of KPMG International Cooperative (KPMG International), a global network of professional firms providing Audit, Tax and Advisory services, operating in 150 countries, with approximately 138,000 people working in member firms around the world, including more than 7,900 partners. John serves as Chairman of the KPMG LLP Board of Directors and is a member of the Management Committee.  For KPMG International, John is Chairman of the Americas Region, which includes the U.S., Canada, Central and South America, and Israel.  In addition, John is a member of KPMG International's Global Board and Global Executive Team.

John has held key leadership positions during his 34-year career with KPMG. He has extensive experience dealing with the complex needs of our clients, currently serving as client service partner for several of KPMG's largest clients.  John is committed to ensuring that professionalism, integrity and diversity are foundational elements of the profession and the firm, and that KPMG is recognized as an Employer of Choice.

John joined the Washington D.C. office of KPMG LLP in 1977 and was elected to the partnership in 1987. Between 2005 and June 2010, John served as U.S. Deputy Chairman. 

Previously, John was Global Head of Risk Management & Regulatory and a member of the KPMG International Executive Team.  Earlier, he was KPMG LLP's Managing Partner for the Mid-Atlantic area, and Managing Partner in Washington, D.C. John also served as partner-in-charge of KPMG LLP's Audit practice in Washington and Baltimore and was the lead SEC partner and professional practice partner for the Mid-Atlantic Area.

John is a member of the Center for Audit Quality (CAQ) Governing Board and previously served as a member of Chairman Christopher Cox's SEC Advisory Committee on Smaller Public Companies. In the community, he is a member of the Partnership for New York City (PFNYC), Board member of the Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy (CECP), serves on the University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business Advisory Council and 2010-2011 Kennedy Center Corporate Fund Board. He is also a member of the Business-Higher Education Forum (BFEH), Co-Chair of CEOs Against Cancer, a member of St. Mary's College Campaign Steering Committee and former Board of Trustees member of Saint Mary's College.  John previously served as the board chairman of the Cultural Alliance of Washington, D.C., and as a member of the executive committee of the boards of the Federal City Council and the Greater Washington Board of Trade.

John was named one of the 2009 Top 100 Most Influential People in Accounting by Accounting Today magazine. He has also spoken on the critical role of ethics and integrity in leadership, as well as the importance of diversity, at colleges and universities, including the University of Notre Dame, Brigham Young University, the University of Illinois and Howard University.

John received his BBA, cum laude, from the University of Notre Dame in 1977. He is a licensed CPA in New York, Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia, as well as a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

 

 

Tom Linsmeier - Board Member, Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)

Regulation Perspective

Thomas J. Linsmeier was appointed as a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) in July, 2006. An award-winning teacher and researcher with particular expertise in financial reporting for derivatives and risk management activities, Dr. Linsmeier was formerly Russell E. Palmer Endowed Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Accounting and Information Systems at Michigan State University.

Linsmeier has also served as Academic Fellow and Special Consultant to the Office of the Chief Accountant at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), where he was responsible for developing U.S. financial reporting disclosure rules relating the market risk inherent in derivatives and other financial instruments. In addition, he has held professorial appointments at the University of Iowa and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Throughout his academic career, Dr. Linsmeier's research has explored the role of accounting information in securities markets, including the usefulness to investors of fair value and market risk management disclosures, the valuation-relevance of earnings component information, and the economic effects of changes in accounting regulation. His work has been published in The Accounting Review; Journal of Accounting Research; Review of Accounting Studies; Accounting Horizons; Management Science; Journal of Accounting, Auditing, and Finance; Journal of Business, Finance and Accounting; and  Financial Analysts Journal.

Dr. Linsmeier has served as chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Committee and president of the Financial Accounting and Reporting section of the American Accounting Association. He received his PhD and MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his BBA from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

Dr. Linsmeier's second FASB term on ends on June 30, 2016.

The Impact of Fair Value Accounting for Uncertainty and Risk During the Crisis

Session Video

 

 

 

Chair: Christian Leuz - Joseph Sondheimer Professor of International Economics, Finance and Accounting, Chicago Booth School of Business

Christian Leuz is the Joseph Sondheimer Professor of International Economics, Finance and Accounting and the Richard N. Rosett Faculty Fellow at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. He is also a Co-Director of the Initiative on Global Markets, a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and at the European Corporate Governance Institute and a Fellow at Wharton's Financial Institution Center and the CESifo Research Network.

His research examines the role of corporate disclosures, accounting transparency and disclosure regulation in capital markets, corporate governance and corporate financing. His most recent publications have appeared in Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Financial Economics, and the Review of Financial Studies. He has received several grants and honors, including the Notable Contribution to the Accounting Literature Award, a JFE All Star Paper Award and the Geewax Terker Prize. Professor Leuz is an associate editor for Journal of Accounting and Economics and serves on the editorial board of Journal of Accounting Research, Journal of Business, Finance and Accounting, and Review of Accounting Studies.

Born in Germany, Professor Leuz earned his doctoral degree and "Habilitation" at the Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany. Prior to this position, he was the Harold Stott Term Assistant Professor in Accounting at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a visiting doctoral fellow at the Simon School of Business, University of Rochester.
 

 

Positive Banking Perspective Andreas Bezold - Consultant, Sandgate

Andreas Bezold is an independent consultant on international accounting matters, specialized in banking issues.

Andreas has been a member of EFRAG, the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group, Brussels, in its initial phase from 2001 - 2004, representing the European Banking Federation.  For the previous 10 years, Andreas worked for Dresdner Bank, Frankfurt, serving finally as Chief Risk Officer & Deputy Financial Officer, Deputy Member of the Board of Managing Directors.

Andreas qualified originally as a Rechtsanwalt, Wirtschaftsprüfer und Steuerberater in Germany and was a senior banking partner of Deloitte & Touch, Germany.

 

 

Jeff Burks - Assistant Professor of Accountancy, Mendoza College of Business, University of Notre Dame

Negative

Jeffrey Burks researches financial accounting issues, focusing on public policy questions. In recent papers, Jeff has examined the surge in accounting restatements after passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and the role of fair value accounting in the recent financial crisis. Burks teaches Measurement and Disclosure I, an intermediate-level financial accounting course.

Jeff earned a PhD from the University of Iowa in 2007, with a major in accounting and a minor in finance. He has an MBA from Creighton University and a BBA from the University of Notre Dame; he has also worked as an internal auditor in the financial services industry.

 

 

Dushyantkumar Vyas - University of Minnesota

Timeliness of Write Downs of Assets of US Financial Institutions

Dushyantkumar Vyas is an Assistant Professor in accounting at the University of Minnesota.  He obtained his PhD in accounting from the University of Toronto. 

Vyas' research examines financial reporting by financial institutions, the role of accounting information in the credit markets, and international issues in accounting and finance. His dissertation paper was entitled "The Timeliness of Accounting Write-downs by U.S. Financial Institutions during the Financial Crisis of 2007-2008." Dushyant's research has been accepted for publication in Journal of Accounting Research and Journal of International Business Studies.

 

 

Stephen Ryan - Professor of Accounting, KPMG Faculty Fellow, New York University

Overview & Perspective

No Slides Available

Stephen G. Ryan is Professor of Accounting and KPMG Faculty Fellow at New York University's Stern School of Business. At Stern, Professor Ryan teaches unique courses on financial reporting for financial instruments and financial analysis of financial institutions to MBA and MS in Accounting students. These courses are based on his book Financial Instruments and Institutions: Accounting and Disclosure Rules (John Wiley & Sons, second edition, 2007). Professor Ryan is director of the doctoral program in accounting and also teaches in that program.

Ryan's primary research interests are accounting measurement, accounting-based valuation and risk assessment, and financial reporting by financial institutions and for financial instruments. Professor Ryan has published in numerous academic and practitioner journals including The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Accounting Research, Review of Accounting Studies, Accounting Horizons, and Financial Analysts Journal. Professor Ryan has served as editor of Review of Accounting Studiessince 2006.

Professor Ryan is actively involved in financial accounting standard setting. He currently serves on the Financial Accounting Standards Board's Liabilities and Equity Resource and Financial Institutions Advisory groups. From 2000-2003, he was a member of the Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Council, the advisory body for the Financial Accounting Standards Board. He has also previously chaired the American Accounting Association's Financial Accounting Standards and Financial Reporting Issues Conference committees. 

Ryan received his BA in Economics and Philosophy from Dartmouth College in 1981 and PhD in Business from Stanford University in 1988.

How the Army Analyzes and Copes with Uncertainty and Risk

Session Video

 

 

 

Major Hugh Jones - US Army

Major Hugh W. A. Jones is an Instructor of Economics and Finance in the Department of Social Sciences at the United States Military Academy. He was commissioned into the Army from West Point in 1999 as an Infantry officer with a BS in Systems Engineering. As an Infantry officer, he served in a variety of leadership and staff positions in the United States, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East. 

Most recently, he served as the commander for an airborne rifle company and a reconnaissance troop based at Ft. Bragg, NC. While in command, he deployed to Iraq twice and also in support of Hurricane Katrina relief. These deployments included a deployment to Baghdad, Iraq, conducting counterinsurgency operations during the height of sectarian violence in Baghdad and the beginning of the "surge," and a deployment as part of a Joint Special Operations Task Force targeting Al Qaida in Iraq and other foreign fighters.  

Major Jones' experience in tactical risk management and education in financial risk management motivated his desire to research and evaluate the Army's treatment of risk and uncertainty. He will discuss this research and his experiences. He will also be willing to field questions on issues related to West Point, the Army, and current operations within the scope of his experience and knowledge. He holds an MBA in finance from Fuqua, the Duke School of Business. 

Forecasting in the Face of Uncertainty

Session Video

 
 

Introduction to the Day:  Trevor Harris - The Arthur Samberg Professor of Professional Practice; Co-Director, Center for Excellence in Accounting and Security Analysis, Columbia Business School
 

 

Sam Savage, Consulting Professor of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University

Dr. Sam L. Savage, is author of The Flaw of Averages, Chairman and co-founder of Vector Economics, Inc., Consulting Professor of Management Science and Engineering at Stanford University, and Fellow of the Judge Business School at Cambridge University. In 2006, he co-founded ProbabilityManagement.org, and in 2008, in collaboration with Oracle Corp., SAS Institute, and Frontline Systems, he led the development of the DIST standard Distribution String for storing probability distributions. He holds a PhD in the area of computational complexity from Yale University.

An Academic Review of Liquidity and Capital

Session Video

 

 

 

Chair: Scott Richardson, Visiting Professor, London Business School

Scott Richardson holds a Bachelor of Economics (First Class Honors) from University of Sydney (1995) and a PhD in Business Administration from the University of Michigan (2002). Scott worked as Assistant Professor at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, from 2002 to 2006. During this time he published extensively in leading academic journals ranging from Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Finance, Review of Accounting Studies, Journal of Accounting Research and The Accounting Review. Scott's research interests concentrate on empirical archival capital markets research, primarily on understanding how accounting information is used to determine security prices. Scott's research interests also cover earnings management, corporate governance and corporate finance.  

From 2006 to 2010 Scott worked at Barclays Global Investors (now BlackRock). During that time he served as Global Head of Credit Research and head of European Equity Research, where he shared investment decision rights across a set of large actively managed credit and equity funds for institutional clients. He also served on BGI's Proxy Committee in the U.S. and Shareholder Engagement Committee in the U.K. helping set the firm's policy with respect to proxy voting guidelines.  

In 2009 Scott was awarded the Notable Contribution to Accounting award for his work with Richard Sloan, Mark Soliman and Irem Tuna on accrual reliability. Scott left BlackRock as Managing Director in 2010, and is currently visiting London Business School. Scott also serves on the editorial boards of several journals and is an active referee across most leading journals.

 

 

Charles Calomiris - Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions, Finance and Economics, Columbia Business School

An Economist's Overview of Bank Capital

Charles W. Calomiris is the Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions at Columbia Business School and a Professor at Columbia's School of International and Public Affairs. His research spans several areas, including banking, corporate finance, financial history, and monetary economics.

Calomiris received a BA in economics from Yale University in 1979 and a PhD in economics from Stanford University in 1985.
 

 

 

Murillo Campello - Alan J. and Joyce D. Baltz Professor of Finance, University of Illinois

Liquidity Management, Firm Investment and Risk

Murillo Campello is the Baltz Professor of Finance at the University of Illinois and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. Campello's research interests include corporate finance, financial intermediation, financial markets, and applied contract theory. His recent scholarly work has focused on corporate liquidity management and credit markets imperfections.

Campello has served as an associate editor at Review of Financial Studies, Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Journal of Financial Intermediation, Journal of Corporate Finance, and International Review of Finance. Campello earned his PhD in finance from the University of Illinois in 2000, an MS in business administration from the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro in 1995, and a BA in economics from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in 1991.

 

 

Mark Lang - Thomas W. Hudson, Jr. / Deloitte & Touche Distinguished Professor of Accounting, Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Accounting Transparency and Liquidity Uncertainty

Mark Lang is Thomas W. Hudson, Jr./Deloitte and Touche L.L.P. Distinguished Professor at the Kenan-Flagler Business School, University of North Carolina. His research interests include international accounting and analysis; stock market valuation of accounting information; employee stock option valuation, taxation and exercise behavior; causes and effects of voluntary disclosure; and multinational tax strategy. His recent research has focused on determinants and consequences of accounting quality and transparency internationally. 

Mark currently serves on the FASB's Financial Accounting Standards Advisory Committee, and was previously a member of the IASB's Share-Based Payment Advisory Group, the AICPA's Blockage Factor Task Force and the American Accounting Association's Financial Advisory Committee. His research has appeared in a variety of journals including Journal of Accounting Research, The Accounting Review, Journal of Accounting and Economics, Journal of Finance, Quarterly Journal of Economics, Management Science, Journal of Public Economics, and Journal of Investment Management. He received his PhD and MBA from the University of Chicago.

 

 

Florin Vasvari - Assistant Professor of Accounting, London Business School

Measuring Liquidity in Debt Markets

Florin Vasvari is an Assistant Professor at London Business School. Professor Vasvari teaches Financial Accounting in the executive program and electives on Private Equity and Analysis of Financial Institutions at London Business School. His research interests cover the role of accounting disclosures and information intermediaries in debt markets. 

He has published in Journal of Accounting Research, Review of Accounting Studies, Accounting Organizations and Society, and Journal of Business Finance and Accounting. Professor Vasvari holds an MA in Economics from the Department of Economics at University of Toronto and a PhD in Accounting, with minors in Finance and Econometrics, from Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto.

Capital and Liquidity Requirements in Practice

Session Video

 

 

 

Chair: Charles Calomiris - Henry Kaufman Professor of Financial Institutions, Finance and Economics, Columbia Business School

 

 

Michael Alix - Senior Vice President Federal Reserve Bank of NY

Central Bank

No Slides Available

Michael Alix is a senior vice president in charge of the risk management function in the bank supervision group at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The risk management function is responsible for broad risk categories: market and liquidity, operational, credit, banking trends, legal and compliance, and insurance. Each of these risk departments will maintain and deploy the specialized staff needed to implement the supervisory plans for individual institutions, provide appropriate cross-institutional assessments, and assist in developing sound practice guidelines and new exam procedures in response to changing risks. Prior to his current assignment, Mr. Alix worked with the bank's AIG Monitoring Team, focusing on managing the bank's credit risk to AIG Financial Products and other AIG financial services affiliates.

Before joining the bank in November 2008, Mr. Alix was at Bear Stearns Companies, Inc., where he served as chief risk officer from 2006 to 2008 and global head of credit risk management from 1996 to 2006. His previous experience included eight years at Merrill Lynch & Company where he was a director and chief credit officer for Asia, and as vice president and head of North America financial institutions credit. He began his banking career with the Irving Trust Company where he served as an assistant vice president and lending officer. 

Mr. Alix holds a BA degree from Duke University and an MBA degree from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School.

 

 

 

Bob Herz - Former Chair, Financial Accounting Standards Board

Accounting Regulation

No Slides Available

Robert H. Herz was Chairman of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), from July 2002 through September 2010.

Prior to joining the FASB, Mr. Herz was PricewaterhouseCoopers North America Theater Leader of Professional, Technical, Risk & Quality and a member of the firm's Global and U.S. Boards. He was also President of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Foundation, which supports college and university activities. He also served as a part-time member of the International Accounting Standards Board. Mr. Herz is both a U.S. Certified Public Accountant and a U.K. Chartered Accountant and a gold medal winner on the uniform CPA examination. 

Mr. Herz joined Price Waterhouse in 1974 upon graduating from the University of Manchester in England with a BA first class honors degree in economics, graduating top of his class. He later joined Coopers & Lybrand becoming its senior technical partner in 1996 and assumed a similar position with the merged firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers in 1998. 

During his distinguished career, Mr. Herz headed Coopers & Lybrand's Corporate Finance Advisory Services and served as audit partner on numerous major clients including AT&T, Dun & Bradstreet, Goldman Sachs, Shearson Lehman Bros, and Volvo.

Mr. Herz has authored numerous publications on a variety of accounting, auditing and business subjects, including the book, The Value Reporting Revolution:  Moving Beyond the Earnings Game, which he co-authored. He is a frequent speaker at major business and accounting conferences, is regularly quoted in the major news media and has appeared on a number of television and cable business shows.

Among Mr. Herz's other activities, he chaired the AICPA SEC Regulations Committee and the Transnational Auditors Committee of the International Federation of Accountants, and served as a member of the Emerging Issues Task Force, the FASB Financial Instruments Task Force, the American Accounting Association's Financial Accounting Standards Committee, the SEC Practice Section Executive Committee of the AICPA, and the International Capital Markets Advisory Committee of the New York Stock Exchange. He has also served on various public policy commissions and governmental advisory groups.

Herz is also a trustee, vice chair and chair of the Finance Committee of the Kessler Foundation, one of the nation's largest foundations conducting medical research and support for people with severe physical disabilities. Mr Herz recently joined the faculty of the Columbia University Business School as an Executive in Residence and serves on the Advisory Board of the Manchester University Business School in England.
 

 

David Russo - Managing Director and CFO of Institutional Securities Business, Morgan Stanley

Banking Perspective

Slides

David Russo is a Managing Director and Chief Financial Officer of Morgan Stanley's Institutional Securities segment. In this role, Mr. Russo serves as a key advisor to company management by linking business strategy with financial performance. Mr. Russo is also responsible for driving key strategic initiatives that support effective control and business growth.

Prior to his current role, Mr. Russo was an Assistant Treasurer in the Corporate Treasury Department where he led the firm's Capital and Liquidity Planning and Legal Entity Strategy functions. He previously served as the Chief Operating Officer for the firm's Risk Management Division and was the Chief Risk Officer for the firm's US bank subsidiary. From September 2008 to early 2010 Mr. Russo also served as the Senior Point of Contact with the firm's regulators.

Prior to joining Morgan Stanley, Mr. Russo worked at Capital Market Risk Advisors, a boutique risk management consulting firm, where he provided derivative valuation services and litigation support for counterparty disputes. Prior to that, he was a consultant at Deloitte in their Capital Markets practice. Mr. Russo began his risk management career at Bankers Trust, where he was responsible for monitoring proprietary trading activities.

Mr. Russo earned his MBA in Finance and Statistics and his B.S. in Finance from the Stern School of Business at New York University where he was awarded the distinguished honor of Dean's Scholar. Mr. Russo has been with Morgan Stanley since 2000 and has been a Managing Director since 2005.
 

 

Jesse Greene - Former Vice President Financial Management and Chief Financial Risk Officer
IBM

Corporate Perspective

No Slides Available

Jesse Greene is currently a consultant and is serving on the Board of Directors and Audit Committee of Caterpillar, Inc.

He retired from IBM on December 31, 2010. His most recent position at IBM was Vice President Financial Management and Chief Financial Risk Officer where he was responsible for the identification, assessment and monitoring of financial risk elements for the corporation, and led the corporation's Financial Risk Management Board. In addition he was responsible for the company's Enterprise Risk Management program, addressing strategic and operating risks, the company's retirement funds, worldwide real estate operations, credit operations and investor relations.

Mr. Greene began his career at IBM in 1971, and has held a broad range of positions in IBM including Associate Engineer in the Advanced Systems Development division; Tax Attorney from 1975 to 1983; served 8 years in the Global Finance unit (financing customer and dealer purchases of IBM equipment) including the role of Vice President of Special Financing; and Assistant Treasurer for IBM from 1991 to 1994.

In 1994, Mr. Greene left IBM to join Eastman Kodak in Rochester, New York, first as Treasurer, then Vice President Finance, acting Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President, Strategy and Information Technology.  In 2000, he joined Compaq Computer Corporation in Houston, Texas and served as Chief Financial Officer and Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning.
In 2002 he returned to IBM as Vice President and Treasurer with responsibility for IBM's balance sheet and capital structure, cash flow, currency risk management, pension investments, real estate, investor relations and global tax operations. In 2007 he was named Vice President, Financial Management, continuing his existing responsibilities. In 2007 he assumed the Chief Financial Risk Officer position at IBM.

Mr. Greene graduated from Columbia University School of Law with a JD. He also holds an MBA from Columbia Business School, a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering and Bachelor of Mechanical Engineering from New York University School of Engineering and Science. He is a member of the New York State Bar Association, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and the Economic Club of New York. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the Strong Medical Center in Rochester, NY.

 

 

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