By Jennifer Kleiner
Sherron Watkins (center) spoke at Mason on Sept. 15 as part of the Brown and Brown speaker series for the School of Business. Photo courtesy of John Boal Photography.
More than 300 George Mason University students, faculty and community members visited Mason’s Fairfax Campus on Sept. 15 to hear from Enron whistleblower and former Enron vice president Sherron Watkins.
Watkins told the story of how she discovered Enron’s income statement fraud when she stumbled across a spreadsheet where the math just didn’t add up and her experience uncovered the truth.
“When you have an ethical challenge, your life’s never the same,” Watkins said. “You’re either going to rise to it and try to stop the bad behavior or you’re going to rationalize why you’re staying silent. Something’s wrong with our system of checks and balances if we’re relying on lone truth tellers to save the day.”
Watkins has been speaking for the past decade on the ethical and leadership lessons from Enron’s demise. Her presentation, “The Lessons of Enron: The Importance of Ethical Corporate Leadership,” was part of the Brown & Brown Distinguished Speaker Series hosted by the School of Business.
The next event in the Brown & Brown Distinguished Speaker Series will feature Jack London, executive chairman and chair of the board of CACI International Inc. from 8-8:30 p.m. Nov. 4.
A highly successful business leader and a nationally recognized expert on business ethics, London has been called one of the founders of today’s government services contracting industry.
London’s speech, “Developing the Next Generation of Character-Driven Leaders,” will draw from personal, corporate, and military experiences to provide insightful and practical examples of how character makes all the difference in creating long-term personal and organizational success—addressing the importance of ethics, honesty, trust, integrity and accountability. Learn more or register for London’s presentation and networking event.