Rules Versus Principles

with Andrew Fastow, Former Chief Financial Officer of Enron

Tuesday, April 17, 2018
12:30 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Uris Hall, 3rd Floor, Room 301
​Columbia Business School
Register Here
Lunch will be provided.

The Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. Center for Leadership and Ethics and The Finance Division at Columbia Business School are delighted to invite you to a lunch discussion with Andrew Fastow, former CFO of Enron. The discussion will explore the importance of rules versus principles, and the ethics of understanding the difference between what is right to do and what you have the right to do. The event will feature a lecture by Andrew Fastow, followed by a Q&A session with Professor Paul Clifford, Adjunct Professor of Business, Finance.

Despite today’s more regulated and enlightened business environment, we continue to witness “Enron-esque” failures of corporate governance and compliance. Enron’s former CFO will make observations about how the ambiguity and complexity of laws and regulations breeds opportunity for problematic decisions and will discuss what questions corporate directors, management, attorneys, fraud examiners and auditors should ask, in order to ensure that their companies not only follow the rules, but uphold the principles behind them. Finally, he will discuss ways in which technology can be deployed to illuminate such problematic situations.

Mr. Fastow was the Chief Financial Officer of Enron Corp. from 1998 – 2001. In 2004, he pled guilty to two counts of securities fraud, and was sentenced to six years in federal prison. He completed his sentence in 2011, and now lives with his family in Houston, Texas. Mr. Fastow currently consults with Directors, attorneys, and hedge funds on how best to identify potentially critical finance, accounting, compensation, and cultural issues. He is also a Principal of KeenCorp, an artificial intelligence software company.

Mr. Fastow received a BA in Economics and Chinese from Tufts University and an MBA in Finance from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University. Prior to joining Enron, he was a Senior Director in the Asset Securitization Group at Continental Bank N.A.

Since his release from prison, Mr. Fastow has been a guest lecturer at universities and corporations, and at conferences for management, corporate directors, attorneys, accountants, and certified fraud examiners. Mr. Fastow was recently keynote speaker at the United Nations’ Principles of Responsible Management Conference, the FBI’s Advanced Financial Crimes Seminar, the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners Annual Conference, the American Accounting Association Annual Conference, and the Financial Times’ Outstanding Directors Conference.