CFO, The Magazine for Senior Financial Executives articles from August 2006

CFO, The Magazine for Senior Financial Executives archives from August 2006

Following FASB.(ACCOUNTING)(Financial Accounting Standards Board)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... Leasing. Uncertain tax positions. Insurance. Pensions. Once upon a time, the Financial Accounting Standards Board was criticized for moving too slowly on important issues. Few finance executives would make that charge today. Indeed, even as it...

The old college try.(from the editor)(finance for college sports)(Editorial)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... WITH THE NEW ACADEMIC YEAR about to begin, do you know where your alumni dollars are going? Increasingly, they are funding university athletics, "the most dysfunctional business in America," in the words of an expert who has studied the...

A man's issue, too.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2006... I'm all for promoting women in finance, or any other field for that matter, but why does everyone believe that home/family concerns tug harder on women than on men ("What Women Want," June)? The issue with that assumption, as I see it, is that...

A response to hiring criticism.(letters)(Letter to the editor)
August 1, 2006... I would like to respond to the letter by Name Withheld in Richmond, Virginia ("More Thoughts on Immigrant Workers," Letters, June), about corporations hiring and training workers based in the United States. The writer wanted to know if...

Have CPA, will travel?(ACCOUNTING)(certified public accountants)
August 1, 2006... THERE'S A NEW RAW-MATERIAL SHORTAGE plaguing global business--only this one is in the finance department. While the Sarbanes-Oxley Act has sent U.S. companies and accounting firms scurrying for financial talent, the problem is not limited...

Expending energy on energy.(COST-CUTTING)
August 1, 2006... LIKE CONSUMERS, companies are feeling the squeeze from rising energy prices. On average, electric rates are rising 15 percent per year. Wholesale natural-gas prices have tripled over the past several years. "As a nation, we're in the middle of...

Lessons learned.(HURRICANE KATRINA)(disaster planning)
August 1, 2006... UNTIL KATRINA, many Gulf Coast businesses thought their disaster-recovery plans were pretty solid. As the first anniversary of the hurricane approaches, some of those companies have renovated the old plans or built new ones. Like other...

Las Vegas at work.(INCENTIVES)(Circulation Services Inc.)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... FOURTEEN MONTHS AGO, employees at Circulation Services Inc. (CSI) were leaving at an alarming pace. To stem the annual turnover rate of nearly 500 percent at the call center, CEO Andrew Orr decided to play games. Specifically, Orr teamed...

Paying nothing--or double?(PRICE-FIXING)(fines)(Archer Daniels Midland Co.)
August 1, 2006... NOT ONLY MAY COMPANIES implicated in price-fixing schemes have to pay hefty fines, they may have to pay them twice, if not more. In May, the European Court of Justice, an appeals court for the European Union, upheld a fine of 43.9 million...

You say potato, I say ...(COMMUNICATION)
August 1, 2006... CEOs AND CFOs MAY WAX POETIC on strategy, but the message may be lost on one important constituency--employees. According to senior executives surveyed by Deloitte & Touche LLP and the Economist Intelligence Unit, fewer than 10 percent believe...

When talk isn't cheap.(BLOGGING)(websites)
August 1, 2006... AS BLOGGING'S POPULARITY RISES, some major companies, including Sun Microsystems and IBM, are encouraging employees to contribute to company-backed Websites. Some even let them rant--Microsoft's Robert Scoble, for example, a popular blogger who...

See you in September.(VACATION TIME)(survey of executives )(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... NOW THAT THE second-quarter books are dosed, why not take a vacation? Your boss won't mind. In fact, a new survey by Accountemps finds that senior executives believe August is the best month for employee vacations. So go ahead: hit the beach,...

Sins of commission.(AFTERMATH)(CA Inc.)
August 1, 2006... TALK ABOUT NIGHTMARES that won't end. In late April, $3.5 billion software firm CA--ostensibly in the midst of a postscandal turnaround--shocked investors with the news it would miss GAAP EPS estimates by at least 75 percent. CA's original...

Verbatim.(top line)
August 1, 2006... "If you're on appeal and you die before that appeal is decided, it's like stepping into the way-back machine. It's as if Lay had never been charged." WAYNE STATE LAW PROFESSOR PETER J. HENNING, COMMENTING ON THE LEGAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE...

Setting a gold standard.(E-CURRENCY)(Candente Resource Corp.)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... CANDENTE RESOURCE CORP. NO LONGER CALCULATES currency-exchange rates. It doesn't wait for international wire transfers to dear either. It doesn't have to: the gold- and copper-drilling company, based in Vancouver, converted some of its...

More rules, higher profits? New research shows that good governance practices may reduce your cost of capital.(by the numbers)
August 1, 2006... All too often, the drive for corporate-governance reform feels like a costly exercise in wishful thinking. After all, can you really find a strong correlation between a mandatory retirement age for directors and a bigger net profit margin? ...

Walk softly, and carry a big wallet.(VIEW FROM china)(acquisitions by foreign companies)(Editorial)
August 1, 2006... In the rush to gain a foothold in a market of 1.3 billion people, multinationals are pursuing mergers and acquisitions in China more religiously than ever. Foreign companies have so far this year bought stakes in 248 Chinese assets, many of...

Learning to love dividends: why an old-fashioned financial tool is worth a second look.(insight)
August 1, 2006... This is the age of the share buy-back. With record amounts of cash swelling corporate bank accounts, companies are increasingly giving money back to shareholders by buying their own stock. Over the past year and a half, companies in the S&P 500...

High anxiety: a new security standard may help companies do a better job of protecting data, but it's no lock.(in tech)
August 1, 2006... Paul Wilde is a big believer in data protection. As CFO of Corillian Corp., he almost has to be. The Hillsboro, Oregon-based company delivers financial services and products to banks via the Internet. As such, the company not only stores data...

What's the big idea?(PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT)(product portfolio management)(Inspire Pharmaceuticals Inc. used SmartOrg's Portfolio Navigator)
August 1, 2006... LIKE MOST DRUG MAKERS, INSPIRE Pharmaceuticals lives and dies by its ability to deliver valuable new medicines. Figuring out whether to advance or kill an idea, however, has gotten harder. Not only has the company's product portfolio grown, so...

Can you keep a secret? M&A can become a cat-and-mouse game as companies attempt to analyze (or safeguard) sensitive data.(deals)
August 1, 2006... LIKE MANY ENTREPRENEURIAL start-ups, Andara Life Sciences had a secret to protect. Its provisional, nonpublic patent filings covered the Andara Oscillating Field Stimulator Device, part of a system for regenerating damaged spinalcord tissue....

CBS's Fred Reynolds.(ON THE RECORD)(Interview)
August 1, 2006... "I DON'T KNOW WHEN I'VE HAD THIS MUCH FUN," says Fredric Reynolds about his work as CFO of the newly retooled CBS Corp. Since the company split from Viacom Inc. at the start of the year, Reynolds has sold off the company's parks business for...

The money bowl: the real competition in big-time college sports is over who can spend the most.(Cover story)
August 1, 2006... IT'S ENOUGH TO MAKE LEGENDARY COLLEGE-FOOTBALL BROADCASTER KEITH JACKSON CRY, "WHOA, NELLIE!" During a three-year project completed in 1999, the University of Texas spent $90 million to upgrade and expand the football stadium on its Austin...

Delaware rules: heated debates over governance, director independence, and executive pay will likely be resolved in Delaware's Chancery Court.
August 1, 2006... REPORTERS DESCENDING ON the hamlet of Georgetown for The Walt Disney Co.'s Delaware Court of Chancery trial poked fun at the Mayberry-like setting. In Vanity Fair's February 2005 account of the shareholders' star-studded battle to recover...

XBR-what? Even as Sec Chairman Cox champions "interactive data," few CFOs seem impressed. Is that because too few of the benefits accrue to them?(Extensible Business Reporting Language)(Christopher Cox)
August 1, 2006... IT HAS BEEN HERALDED AS AN INVENTION that rivals the bar code and color TV. Internet pioneer Leonard Kleinrock believes we will be "surprised and even amazed" by it. Xerox CEO Anne Mulcahy has drawn a link between it and the French Revolution,...

Problem solvent: get ready for a wave of class-action lawsuits linked to benzene.(in practice)
August 1, 2006... IN APRIL, Christopher Crowley, executive vice president and treasurer of Polar Beverages, was informed that class-action lawsuits had been filed against his family's business in Massachusetts and Florida. The charge? That Polar's Diet Orange...

Pension dissension: FASB gets an earful as CFOs protest key details of pension-accounting reform.(pensions)
August 1, 2006... COMPANIES generally pride themselves on being forward-looking, but many are balking at the idea of looking ahead to future pension obligations and affixing a firm price tag on today's balance sheet. That has emerged as the biggest, but by no...

Cabin fever: don't let a vacation home become the perfect place for your cash to get away.(your money)
August 1, 2006... IF IN SPRINGTIME THOUGHTS turn to love, by late summer hearts yearn for real estate. After a week watching the sun set over the Gulf of Mexico or red-tail hawks soar over Big Sur, it's only natural to dream of doing it all again next year. And...

No vacation: business travel can be grueling, but there are ways to ease the pain.(your move)
August 1, 2006... IF YOU SUSPECT THAT BUSINESS travel is getting worse, you're right. Recent data from the Department of Transportation indicates that on-time arrivals are declining, mishandled baggage is more common, frequent-flyer miles are more difficult to...

Aware Inc.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
August 1, 2006... Aware Inc. has appointed Keith Farris as its new finance chief. Formerly CFO of LoJack, Farris succeeds Rob Weiskopf, who resigned to pursue other interests....

Pope & Talbot.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
August 1, 2006... Maria Pope is the new CFO of pulp-and-wood-products company Pope & Talbot. She succeeds Richard Atkinson, who resigned to become finance chief at a private bioenergy company....

Ducommun.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
August 1, 2006... Ducommun has named Gregory Hann CFO. He succeeds James Heiser, who will continue as VP, general counsel, and secretary. Most recently, Hann was the CFO of Alcoa's fastening-systems and mill-products business....

James Welch has resigned from Rigel Pharmaceuticals to become the first CFO of Rigel Pharmaceuticals.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
August 1, 2006... James Welch has resigned from Rigel Pharmaceuticals to become the first CFO of Cerimon Pharmaceuticals. Rigel has named Ryan Maynard as acting CFO....

SecurePipe.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
August 1, 2006... SecurePipe has chosen Janet Berger as its new finance chief. Berger was CFO of software developer Esker....

Todd Shipyards.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
August 1, 2006... CFO Scott Wiscomb has retired from ship-mender and manufacturer Todd Shipyards. He is succeeded by Berger Dodge, who was previously manager of planning and financial analysis at the company....

Aurora Oil & Gas.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
August 1, 2006... Ronald Huff was appointed CFO of Aurora Oil & Gas. Huff succeeds Loft King, who remains as senior controller....

Allegheny Energy.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
August 1, 2006... Allegheny Energy has named Philip Goulding as CFO. Goulding succeeds Jeffrey Serkes....

VA Software.(CFOs ON THE MOVE)
August 1, 2006... Patricia Szoka Morris was named CFO of VA Software. She replaces Kathleen McElwee, who resigned to become CFO of WageWorks.

Robert Schiffner, CFO of Campbell's Soup.(CLIMBING VINE)(Interview)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... HITTING THE BOOKS: B.A., Princeton University; M.B.A., Rutgers University FIRST JOB IN A SUIT: Prudential Insurance in Newark, N.J. FAVORITE JOB: Vice president of finance planning and trade marketing at Nabisco Inc. (2 years). "I saw...

Going once ... going twice ...(grapevine)(how scandals effect auctions)(Brief article)
August 1, 2006... What would you bid for a piece of scandalous corporate history? Or rather, for many pieces? In July, auctioneers in Lubbock, Tex., brought down the gavel on a range of assets belonging to the estate of Jonathan "Jody" Nelson, former CFO of...