John Biggs: Bringing Ethics From the Boardroom to Stern
by Suehyun Kim, suehyun.kim
Issue date: 2/8/05 Section: News
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In 2004, Stern appointed Mr. John H. Biggs, former chairman, president and CEO of the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF), the Citigroup Distinguished Fellow in Leadership and Ethics for the 2004-05 academic year.
The Citigroup program is a three-year grant to foster the research and development of teaching programs of Leadership and Ethics. Each year, a new fellow is named based on his or her leadership and activism in the field of business ethics. This fellow will provide guidance and provide access to unparalleled knowledge of the field. Students and faculty can benefit from the fellow's involvement in the development of teaching programs as well as in special events such as the February 4th Institutional Investors as Owners Conference hosted by the Markets, Ethics and Law Program. Mr. Biggs is the second Distinguished Fellow to join the new Citigroup Leadership and Ethics Program at Stern. He follows Arthur Levitt, former Chairman of the SEC.
Since the beginning of the year, Mr. Biggs has been visiting both MBA and undergraduate classes at Stern, discussing various issues of corporate governance and business integrity. When asked about his experience thus far, he answered that he was "enjoying very much the interaction with students and faculty at NYU", citing, for instance, conversations with Professor Joshua Ronen of the Accounting department on how to best organize the auditing profession.
Mr. Biggs is well acquainted with auditing, as he has been involved in the oversight of the accounting profession in the public sector over the past decade as a trustee of FASB and the IASC. He was also a member of the Public Oversight Board, which attempted the same in the private sector. This organization became defunct when all members simultaneously resigned in protest of the Big 5 auditing firms and Chairman of the SEC, Harvey Pitt. Along with their collective resignation, the group submitted a final report in which they made a number of recommendations to Congress including stronger rights for federal regulators and strong rules on auditor independence. Later, the provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley were largely based on these recommendations, and in its stead, the Public Oversight Board was replaced with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or PCAOB, affectionately nicknamed "peek-a-boo".
The Citigroup program is a three-year grant to foster the research and development of teaching programs of Leadership and Ethics. Each year, a new fellow is named based on his or her leadership and activism in the field of business ethics. This fellow will provide guidance and provide access to unparalleled knowledge of the field. Students and faculty can benefit from the fellow's involvement in the development of teaching programs as well as in special events such as the February 4th Institutional Investors as Owners Conference hosted by the Markets, Ethics and Law Program. Mr. Biggs is the second Distinguished Fellow to join the new Citigroup Leadership and Ethics Program at Stern. He follows Arthur Levitt, former Chairman of the SEC.
Since the beginning of the year, Mr. Biggs has been visiting both MBA and undergraduate classes at Stern, discussing various issues of corporate governance and business integrity. When asked about his experience thus far, he answered that he was "enjoying very much the interaction with students and faculty at NYU", citing, for instance, conversations with Professor Joshua Ronen of the Accounting department on how to best organize the auditing profession.
Mr. Biggs is well acquainted with auditing, as he has been involved in the oversight of the accounting profession in the public sector over the past decade as a trustee of FASB and the IASC. He was also a member of the Public Oversight Board, which attempted the same in the private sector. This organization became defunct when all members simultaneously resigned in protest of the Big 5 auditing firms and Chairman of the SEC, Harvey Pitt. Along with their collective resignation, the group submitted a final report in which they made a number of recommendations to Congress including stronger rights for federal regulators and strong rules on auditor independence. Later, the provisions of Sarbanes-Oxley were largely based on these recommendations, and in its stead, the Public Oversight Board was replaced with the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, or PCAOB, affectionately nicknamed "peek-a-boo".