From TexasSports.com

AUSTIN, Texas — University of Texas senior Emily Anderson has been named to the 2009 ESPN The Magazine Academic All-America Women’s Soccer First Team, as selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA). Anderson is the first Longhorn in program history to earn Academic All-America honors twice in a career and the second to be tabbed as a First Team honoree. The defender earned a Second Team Academic All-America nod in 2008.

The defender out of Austin, Texas, boasts a 4.00 GPA in the prestigious Accounting/MPA program in the McCombs School of Business and is no stranger to academic awards. Since starting on the Forty Acres in 2006, Anderson has picked up three First Team Academic All-Big 12 Honors, two ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA First Team selections and an ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Second Team All-America honor.

On the pitch in 2009, Anderson was one of four Longhorns to start every one of UT’s 21 matches over the course of the season, and contributed one goal and one assist while helping the Longhorns hold six opponents scoreless. Over her four-year career she posted 11 goals and four assists for 26 points.

To be eligible, a student-athlete must be a varsity starter or key reserve, maintain a cumulative grade point average of 3.30 on a scale of 4.00, have reached sophomore athletic and academic standings at his/her current institution and be nominated by his/her sports information director. Since the program’s inception in 1952, CoSIDA has bestowed Academic All-America honors on more than 14,000 student-athletes in Divisions I, II, III and NAIA, covering all NCAA championship sports.

As a volunteer with Community Tax Centers earlier this year, finance junior Stratton Borchers guided one of his first customers to her seat at a tax center.

The woman was elderly and legally blind, and came to the center every year to get her taxes done.

As Borchers finished helping his client fill out her tax forms, the woman began to cry and thanked him “at least five times” for his services and told him that she would not be able to afford to pay someone to help her.

“I can’t say that I have ever felt more proud than in that moment,” Borchers said. Read more in The Daily Texan

Kelly currently serves as chairman, president and CEO of the nation’s fifth largest airline, Southwest Airlines. A 22-year Southwest veteran, Kelly began his career as controller, moving up to chief financial officer and vice president finance, then executive vice president and CFO, before being promoted to vice chairman and CEO in 2004. Kelly assumed the role of chairman and president in 2008. Kelly is a member of the Financial Executives Institute and the Texas Society of CPAs, and he serves on the McCombs School Accounting Advisory Board and the Advisory Council at the University of Texas at Austin. Read more in CNN Money

Harvin C. Moore III gave a speech on ethics Nov. 4 to Prof. Urton Anderson and Prof. Janet Dukerich’s undergraduate studies class, Organizational Corruption and Organizational Control.

At first glance, Moore looks like the picture of success. He earned a law degree from UT Austin and went to work for a law firm in Houston, where he had a “Midas touch” for putting together lucrative business deals. His real estate developments were valued at $250 million and he co-owned a savings and loan business with more than $400 million in assets.

It wasn’t until Moore took off his jacket and put on the prison badge he wore during his 2-year sentence in federal prison that students realized that this wasn’t going to be like any ethics speech they had heard before.

Moore was in business during the collapse of both the oil and gas industry and the real estate market in the four oil and gas states - Texas, Colorado, Oklahoma and Louisiana. That collapse caused all of his personal business to fail and left him with only the savings and loan institution, which he believed to be in excellent health.

However, the savings and loan institution was hit by defaults on the loans it had made to people in Houston and under the rules the partners could not declare a dividend for themselves under those circumstances. That meant that they could not pay back their debts and lenders were threatening to foreclose on their stock in the institution, thereby forcing both parties into bankruptcy.

It was the pressure and fear of being without a job that caused Moore to make three loans to his friends. Those friends would then use part of the money they were lent to “buy” miscellaneous assets from Moore’s personal holdings so that he could use the money to pay his debts.

Moore said he knew that this type of lending was illegal but that he rationalized his actions by convincing himself that he needed to do it to survive. He also told himself that he and his partner were the only ones at risk since they had made the original loan and would be the only ones hurt if the borrower defaulted. He tied it all up by reminding himself that “everybody’s doing it,” and that they were doing far worse things than what he had done.

Things continued to get worse at the institution, however, and by the end of 1988 the company had been taken over by the Resolution Trust Corps (RTC), which mean that Moore lost ownership of the company to the government and had to file for bankruptcy anyway. It was then that his 27-year marriage ended in divorce.

During the investigation of his bankruptcy filings the RTC found those illegal loans and filed a criminal suit against Moore. While he was planning how to defend himself, he suddenly realized that he had no defense.

“It didn’t matter that the institution was solvent when I made that loan,” said Moore. “Did I get the money out correctly? The answer is no. That is a federal crime, and I realized I could not go into a courtroom and plead not-guilty.”

As a result of his conviction, Moore spent 601 days in federal prison and three years on parole in Houston. He was forced to pay $500,000 in restitution and he lost his licenses to practice law and to issue property, casualty and life insurance. He also lost the right to vote or to own or possess a gun.

He said that the toughest thing was getting a job after his release. He went through five jobs in five years before he found one that gave him a platform from which to rebuild his life and his career.

Moore ended his talk by reinforcing the consequences of one bad decision.

“When you make the right choice, most of the time there is a short-term cost associated with it,” said Moore. “But the potential of taking the other side is a long-term liability.

“A felony is forever,” he continued. “That’s not a legacy to leave to anybody.”

ArrowStream, a leading provider of supply chain solutions for the foodservice industry, announced that John Harvey will join the company November 10 as Chief Financial Officer (CFO).  He will be responsible for all financial aspects of the company.

 Harvey will replace Mary Healy, ArrowStream’s current CFO, who announced her retirement earlier this year.

Harvey brings a wealth of experience from rapidly growing companies to ArrowStream, serving most recently as CFO of Redbox Automated Retail, LLC and then as CFO of Redbox’s publicly traded parent, Coinstar, Inc.  Prior to Redbox, Harvey was with JetBlue Airways Corporation where he supported the company’s growth from an entrepreneurial start-up to a mature, $3 billion operation serving initially as Vice President & Treasurer and then as Executive Vice President & CFO. 

Harvey’s proven ability to build financial teams, discipline and processes that deliver operational insight for rapidly growing companies is crucial as ArrowStream continues its growth trajectory.  As the premier provider of supply chain solutions for the foodservice industry, ArrowStream serves blue-chip customers such as Wendy’s, Church’s Chicken, Steak n Shake, and ARCOP, Arby’s purchasing cooperative group.

Key to the company’s rapid success is The ArrowStream Network, which is the largest most extensive system of restaurants chains, distributors and manufacturers in the foodservice industry with more than 2,300 partners and more than $15 billion of transactions on an annual basis.

“When Mary announced her retirement we were concerned about finding someone with equal skills.  We are thrilled about the addition of John Harvey to our executive team.  His leadership, experience and core values are particularly relevant to the next phase of our evolution and will enhance our already strong financial position as we continue to expand The Network and fulfill ArrowStream’s commitment to delivering supply chain innovation and mutually beneficial solutions to our customers,” said Steven LaVoie, CEO and Chairman of ArrowStream.

Eric Israel, managing director of forensic and global sustainability services for KPMG, gave a presentation Oct. 6 on how sustainability relates to business value. His talk was part of the MPA Distinguished Speaker Lyceum.

According to Israel, sustainability plays a large role in a company’s value and its outlook for the future.

Israel listed the Carbon Disclosure Project is one example of how important sustainability practices and plans are to investors. The project is sponsored by financial investors and asks Fortune 500 companies around the world to report on their carbon emissions. The investors then use these reports to determine in which companies they will make long-term investments.

Israel stressed that sustainability is not merely compliance with the laws. He argued that sustainability should look beyond the minimums of compliance and plan for the future.

He also noted that sustainability means different things for different companies. For a flooring company, sustainability might include a flooring recycling program. For clothing manufacturers, sustainability might include monitoring the production of their products and ensuring that the plants abide by labor laws as well as environmental regulations.

Israel went on to say that sustainability is about efficiency and competitiveness, regardless of what business you are in.

He referenced Wal-Mart’s Sustainability Product Index as a great example of this. Not only will the index allow Wal-Mart to make decisions to increase efficiency, but the program creates a large amount of goodwill and improves Wal-Mart’s image in the minds of its customers, especially when that increased efficiency leads to lower prices.

Israel’s final point concerned trends in ethics and sustainability. In 2008 ethics was the number one driver for companies to report sustainability practices, which is a significant change from 2005, when economic benefits were the primary driver.

Climate change also joined the ranks in 2008 as the second most important driver for reporting, leaving economic benefits in third place.

Israel closed by pointing out that no matter the reason, companies need to address climate change and sustainability early and forcefully. He cited research that said an early change would cost 1 percent of global GDP, which is a lot of money, but a late response could cost up to 5 percent of global GDP.

Florence Atiase

Atiase fits the profile perfectly. Since joining the McCombs faculty in 1993, she has taught a variety of courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, including introductory financial and managerial accounting, intermediate financial accounting and financial statement analysis.

Urton Anderson, professor and chair of the Department of Accounting, said, “Florence is truly an outstanding member of the accounting profession who has done much to pass on the values of the profession to a new generation of CPAs.”
 
Her dedication as a teacher is reflected in her students’ comments on her teaching evaluations. “She explains things really well,” one student wrote, “making a very difficult subject accessible to all students.”  Other comments characterize her as “a hard but a compassionate and dedicated teacher” and “one of the best professors I have had at UT so far.”

In 2001, Atiase received the President’s Service Award in appreciation for exceptional dedication and service to the TSCPA’s Austin chapter. In 2007 she also received the CPA of the Year – Industry, Government and Education award from the Austin CPA Chapter of the TSCPA.

Atiase has done a lot of work to promote diversity, both within the McCombs community and the accounting profession.  She serves as a member of the TSCPA’s Diversity and Inclusiveness Committee and as faculty advisor to the University chapter of the National Association of Black Accountants. Since 1994, she has been the faculty coordinator/instructor and facilitator of the McCombs Accounting Career Awareness Program summer camp for underrepresented high school students interested in a career in accounting. In recent years, 80 to 100 percent of former ACAP participants have enrolled as University of Texas business majors.

Atiase joins former McCombs TSCPA Outstanding Educator Award winners Professors Anna Flower, Michael Granof, Ray Sommerfeld and Ed Summers.

Southwest Airlines Chairman and CEO Gary Kelly, BBA ‘77, waxed philosophic about leadership and his experiences in the top spot at SWA during a conversation with Professor George Gau September 24. Ethical leadership was the theme of the event, the first of three McCombs Leadership Forums planned for this semester.Kelly emphasized how important caring for people is at the airline he has run since 2004 when he became CEO. In 2008 he became chairman, following the retirement of founder Herb Kelleher.

“Southwest Airlines is family-like, which implies love,” he said. The pervasiveness of this warm corporate culture is even captured in its stock ticker symbol: LUV.

As the company’s leader, Kelly said he strives to balance three important areas of focus for the company: low cost, customer service and a focus on people. He acknowledged that the strong customer service culture was deeply embedded when he arrived at SWA in 1985.

“All good stories about Southwest Airlines are because of an interaction someone had with one of our people. We share stories [about customer service triumphs] and celebrate those events,” he said. “They happen over and over.”

Communication is a key piece of being a leader, he said. Kelly, who previously served as CFO, is an accountant by training. When he became chairman and CEO, he said he found it to be very different than being a financial technician.

“God gave us two ears and one mouth,” he said, noting that communication is largely about listening. “Leaders need to know when to listen and respond.”

Despite being the only profitable airline since its inception in 1972, SWA has experienced the global economic downturn during the past several months. But Kelly is circumspect. “To focus on great profits only isn’t sustainable,” he said, while a focus on good service, efficiencies (such as having only one type of aircraft in the entire Southwest Airlines fleet) and safety will lead to profits.

As an example of SWA’s different way of doing things, Kelly explained that Southwest employees are the highest paid in the industry, while Southwest executives are not. The company’s leadership agreed early on during the crisis not to have raises for executives but to give them to employees.

“Good leaders take care of employees first,” he said.

Even so, some employees have been very unhappy about changes in their schedules or compensation as a result of adjustments to a shrinking business travel market, he said. Allowing people to express their views in a respectful way is part of leading through change.

“It helps to be humble, to prepare for the unexpected, be graceful and quickly adjust to the new reality,” he said.

All of this focus on employees doesn’t negate the need for people to meet expectations in their jobs, he said.

“We have checks and balances in place,” he said. “It’s about having the right expectations, setting the right example and not straying ethically.” He used pilots as an example: “Pilots say flying an airplane is easy; it’s dealing with people over and over again that’s hard,” Kelly said. “That’s the real test of ethics.”

He noted that his early position with Arthur Young (now, Ernst and Young) gave him a great ethical foundation.

Kelly also observed that a strong sense of self is important in a good leader. “You must fit with the team and the culture, but you must be yourself,” he said. “Herb Kelleher is our legend, and I’m comfortable with that. My joy is seeing Southwest Airlines do well.”

Jim Mulva, chairman, CEO and president of Conoco Phillips, will join Prof. Gau for the second installment of the McCombs Leadership Forum October 8.

Robert Kueppers, deputy CEO of Deloitte LLP, talked about the future of auditing at the Sept. 16 meeting of the MPA Distinguished Speaker Lyceum.

In a speech titled “Accounting and Auditing: Implications of the Current Environment,” Kueppers told students “You’ll never learn anything from an audit that goes perfectly.” He added that he’s seen his fair share of imperfect audits, having worked with Enron, WorldCom and Fannie Mae, among others.

Kueppers highlighted what he sees as the three big issues facing public company auditing:

• The significance of professional judgment and professional skepticism.
• The effectiveness of the financial reporting model and the value of the audit.
• The inevitability of continued globalization.

According to Kueppers, auditors have to make professional decisions every day just in determining what to look at and how much time to spend on it, and they always have to keep their eye out for red flags.

“Professional skepticism is the essence of good auditing,” said Kueppers. ”It’s not about keeping the client happy. It’s about making sure you’re doing your job.”

Kueppers also said that the value of auditing will be questioned over time as it has been in the past, but that the need for professional auditing will never go away.

And as for globalization, he predicts that implementation of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is inevitable in the United States. He cites the fact that auditors in the U.S. already have to abide by IFRS if they are auditing the U.S. branch of companies that are based out of foreign countries such as Japan, Mexico or Canada.

However, he stressed to students not to worry about their education in non-IFRS auditing. “Everything you’re learning now is all transferable,” said Kueppers. “The fundamentals aren’t going to change. But at some point within the first five years of your work life…IFRS will be introduced, and at that time you’ll get what you need.”

BP has awarded Nathan Rice, MPA ‘10, a BP fellowship in the amount of $10,000. The competitive award is specifically for MPA students with an interest in exploring a career in the energy industry.

A Lake Charles, LA native, Nathan was a full-time tax intern at McElroy, Quirk & Burch CPAs in spring 2009. He graduated with a 4.0 GPA from McNeese State University in Lake Charles, LA in 2008. He was also president of Beta Alpha Psi, an honorary organization for Financial Information students and professionals, from 2006-08. Nathan is studying in dual academic tracks in the MPA program: Financial Reporting & Assurance/Managerial Accounting & Control. His cross-cultural experiences include extensive travel throughout Southeast Asia and Israel.