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Session 21: Global Competition and Sarbanes-Oxley
This session addresses the question whether Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) has tipped the scales too far and will result in a competitive disadvantage for U.S. firms and U.S. financial markets, or alternatively, if watering down the SOX reforms will re-open the way for wrongdoing for U.S. corporate executives.
Sponsor: NABE Financial Roundtable
Links of Interest
Presentations
Speakers
Richard J. DeKaser
Chief Economist
National City Corporation, moderator
Steve Harris
Senior Vice President and Special Counsel
Apco Worldwide
Steve Harris joined Apco Worldwide as senior vice president and special counsel in March 2007. Prior to that, Harris served at Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs as majority and Democratic staff director and chief counsel to the full committee, as well as staff director and chief counsel to the securities subcommittee. He worked with Sen. Paul Sarbanes during consideration and passage of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, and is widely credited as a primary engineer of the sweeping reform legislation that dramatically changed the U.S. securities, accounting and corporate governance landscape.
During more than two decades working in Congress, Harris was deeply involved in all aspects of the committee’s legislative process where he dealt extensively with all sectors of the financial services industry. The committee’s jurisdiction also included consumer protection; economic stabilization and defense production; export controls and foreign trade promotion; federal monetary policy, including the Federal Reserve System; and federal subsidies to commerce and industry. Harris has experience in handling crises, including the Whitewater investigation, Enron and WorldCom.
Prior to his service on the committee, Harris served as counsel to the late former Cong. Barbara Jordan (D-TX) and was a representative to President Carter’s National Commission for the Review of Antitrust Laws and Procedures. A member of the D.C. Bar Association, Harris was an attorney with the Legal Services Corporation and the Office Economic Opportunity. He started his career working at Time, Inc. He is a member of the Executive Council of the Federal Bar Association Securities Law Committee, and on the Board of Directors of the Washington Campus.
Alex Pollock
Resident Scholar
American Enterprise Institute
Alex J. Pollock has been a resident fellow at AEI since July 2004, focusing on financial policy issues, including government-sponsored enterprises, Social Security reform, accounting standards, and the issues raised by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Previously he spent thirty-five years in banking, including twelve years as president and chief executive officer of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Chicago, while also writing numerous articles on financial systems and management. He is a director of Allied Capital Corporation, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation, the International Union for Housing Finance, and chairman of the board of the Great Books Foundation.
Mark W. Seetin
Senior Vice President, Government Affairs
American Stock Exchange
Lynn E. Turner
Managing Director of Research
Glass Lewis & Co
Lynn E. Turner is managing director of research at Glass Lewis & Co., an analytical proxy and financial research firm that evaluates the corporate governance and financial transparency of U.S. and international public companies. Mr. Turner was Chief Accountant at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) from 1998 to 2001, where he oversaw the development of U.S. accounting, disclosure and auditing standards and the coordination of international accounting standards. Mr. Turner was previously an audit partner with Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers) where he was responsible for the High Technology Audit Practice. He has been vice president and chief financial officer of an international semiconductor company as well as a professor of accounting at Colorado State University.
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