Courtrooms around the country are sending a message to corporate America about the consequences that await those who violate the law. But are people hearing that message? At 500 Pearl Street we offer speakers to come into your organization to assure your people not only hear the message but gain a renewed sense of understanding the importance of a corporate compliance program.
We have speakers that cover various perspectives on white-collar crime ranging from those who perpetrate them, law officers who arrest them and journalists who cover or expose the cases.
Walt Pavlo, Jr. has captivated audiences around the world with his highly personal first-hand account of his journey from fast-rising corporate executive to white-collar criminal. Pavlo's experience has served as the basis of business ethics training programs developed by the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE), American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) and leading accounting firms. His story has also been the focus of textbooks and business school case studies. Pavlo used his criminal past as the subject of Stolen Without A Gun, which he co-authored with Neil Weinberg, fomerly Executive Editor of Forbes magazine and currently Editor in Chief of American Banker. In addition to lecturing, Pavlo is a contributor to Forbes.com. By reporting on and providing commentary on some of the most high-profile white-collar crime cases in the news, Pavlo is applying his first-hand experiences to helping audiences make sense of unfolding events and to helping sponsors of ethics and compliance programs place strong emphasis on their policies.
Pavlo's talks are based on a successful format of providing an interactive case study of a white-collar crime based on his own experiences. While he has given keynote addresses, his presentation has been integrated into new-hire training, corporate compliance programs and conferences focused on ethics. In addition to his own candid story, Pavlo's topics include:
1) Crime Cases In The News
In addition for writing on white-collar crime for Forbes.com and here at 500PearlStreet, Pavlo talks with leading defense attorneys, prosecutors, law enforcement officers and defendants in some of the biggest white-collar cases in the country. Pavlo's courtroom reporting for Forbes.com included coverage of the Ross Mandell trial (Sky Capital) and the Winifred Jiau trail (insider trading and expert networks).
2) Consequences Beyond Prison
Pavlo maintains an extensive network of contacts with people who have been convicted of white-collar crimes and reports on their progress, the personal impacts of their actions and their road to contributing back to society.
3) Pressures of Performance
Business has been guided by performing each quarter to meet the expectations set by senior management, who are also influenced by Wall Street expectations. These pressures are not only put on the CEO and other high ranking executives, but are passed down to middle management who must perform to meet those goals. How those pressures influence individuals, who themselves have their own pressures they are managing, is something management teams need to understand.
4) Good People Making Poor Choices
Professional, well educated people enter federal courthouses each day to face lengthy prison sentences for their illegal behavior. While there is a segment of the population that is predisposed to commit fraud after fraud, many white-collar felons are first time (only time) offenders who are like many others in the work place. Pavlo communicates and interviews law enforcement officers and academics who study criminal behavior. Often, many of the qualities that every good employee has are also the ones that lead people to go over the line and commit a crime.
5) Life in Federal Prison It is no "Club Fed"
Many people who work in corporate America have had no contact with someone who has gone to prison. It is very foreign to those in middle and upper class society. Audiences are curious as to how one does cope with the prison experience. Beyond prison, there are various consequences of convicted felon that affect personal and professional aspects of life.
6) Why We Don't Act As We Predict
A number of leading academics have started to perform studies that document how people who predict that they will do the "right thing" often do just the opposite when a situation presents itself. These insightful and audience engaging examples provide for lively discussion.
7) Importance of An Ethics And Compliance Program At Work
Studies indicate that the reminder of an ethics and compliance program is often enough to encourage more ethical decisions by employees. It is important and ethics training does make a difference by creating an open atmosphere where people are encouraged to participate in making a better place to work.
8) Reinforce Professional Skepticism
What does a felon look like? Well they look a lot like anyone we work with. We work based on biases, quick assessments of people that allow us to make quick decisions. We often think of bias as something to do with black or white, ethinicity, where one went to school, etc. But one bias we use more than any other is our trust of the people we work with, particularly management. Do people simply take the word of a person, particularly auditors, when their documentation says something different? We don't want to create a mistrust of people we work with, we want to create a environment where people make judgements based on facts...professional skepticism.
9) Federal Sentencing Guidelines
Every day in courtrooms across the country, federal judges are sending once respected professionals to prison for many years. In those sentences both judges and prosecutors tell the prison bound felon that they want to send a message with this sentencing....well, Pavlo will deliver that message of how those sentences are calculated based on the illegal behavior involved. It is eye opening to discover the consequences of violations that may have started by "just going along".
10) Mentoring
In conjunction with an ethics and compliance program is the process of mentoring. Having seasoned professionals work with and guide new people teaches them about the corporate culture, personal responsibility, professional development and, hopefully, better decision making.
Speaking fees vary based on format, length of presentation and content. To get a quote please contact us at WaltPavlo@500PearlStreet.com or call 617-858-5008.
Other Speakers and Their Topics Are found Here:
Peter Baci - Speaks on Anti-Trust matters
Neil Weinberg - Editor in Chief at American Banker
Mark Whitacre - Speaker, Author and main character of the book and movie "The Informant"