A former chief financial officer for a Fortune 500 company will offer ethics advice to aspiring business students on campus today.
Weston Smith, formerly of Healthsouth Corp., will speak at 3:00 p.m. today in the L.A. Pittenger Student Center, allowing students to get a firsthand look inside the world of corporate fraud, and to learn ways to find the most ethical solution to questions that may arise.
Smith saw the company grow from one location to over 2,000, situated in all 50 states.
“Underneath the glimmering corporate office, the fleet of corporate jets and consistent earnings reports, laid a multi-year multi-billion dollar financial statement fraud,” he said on his website. Smith eventually exposed this financial fraud by “finally doing the right thing.”
Mark Myring, chair of the accounting department, said Smith’s experience with real world ethical quandaries gives him the applicable knowledge of when and where to define the line.
“Weston Smith is an important speaker for our students because he has the ability to discuss the real world pressures placed on people to make unethical decisions,” Myring said. “Ethical decision making is an important component of virtually every course in the business curriculum.”
Smith’s lectures also include leadership principals and ethics, and how to instill them in others, which is something non-business students can use as well.
“Whether students are in business or not, my goal is to stress principles of honesty and long term direction and discipline,” Smith said on his website.
Smith said he doesn’t see his story as necessarily about accounting or business fraud, at least not entirely.
According to his website, he does speak about the ways in which business students or accounting students can find financial red flags, so they can then stop fraudulent activities when they enter the business world.
Myring said Ball State students, no matter the major, will have to make ethical decisions at some point in their career.
“While the nature of these situations may differ based on the type of career you choose, it is important to know how to recognize ethical dilemmas, develop alternative solutions to the situation and choose which is the most appropriate course of action,” he said.
