Human Capital: Page 135

  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    Smoothing Operators

    Never has the practice of smoothing pension results suffered the deft skewering it did on Wednesday, when the world’s two most powerful accounting standards-setters testified before the Senate Banking Committee.Tweedie SpeaksThe IASB chairman on pension smoothing.listen (mp3 55k)Responding to the...

    By David Katz • June 15, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    Job Picture Bright for Finance, Accounting

    Chief financial officers are apparently in a hiring mood. According to the latest quarterly survey from Robert Half International, 7 percent of CFOs expect to bring on full-time accounting or finance employees in the third quarter, while 3 percent anticipate reductions in personnel.The staffing f...

    By Stephen Taub • June 15, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    Options Troubles Blossom for Some Companies

    In an ever-widening scandal, a number of companies that have announced internal investigations or regulatory reviews of their options-grant practices now face additional burdens.• Semtech, which previously reported an internal review of its stock-option practices in light of an informal inquiry b...

    By Stephen Taub • June 15, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    CFOs on the Move

    • Interactive Data Corp. has appointed Andrew Hajducky executive vice president, chief financial officer, and treasurer. He succeeds Steven Crane, who will serve as president of FT Interactive Data, the largest business unit at the provider of financial-market data. Hajducky has held the CFO titl...

    By Marie Leone • June 15, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    In California Bill, Pensions Trump Dividends

    A bill currently making its way through the California Assembly would bar a corporation from paying out dividends or buying back shares if the company failed to make a required payment to its defined-benefit pension plan.AB 2122, sponsored by Johan Klehs, a Democrat, would also make a board membe...

    By David Katz • June 14, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    Monday-morning Options Morass

    One of the more persistent items on Corporate America’s agenda resurfaced on Monday with a host of announcements regarding stock-option awards. In addition, the nation’s largest pension fund is calling on more than two dozen companies to address the matter publicly, and the Senate Finance Committ...

    By Stephen Taub • June 12, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    Sarbox Burdens Prompt CFO Job Churn

    Here’s one more thing to blame on the Sarbanes-Oxley Act: an increase in job churn for CFOs of Fortune 500 companies. A study released this month by Russell Reynolds Associates found that 19 percent of large-company finance chiefs left their posts in 2005, up from 16 percent the previous year and...

    By Marie Leone • June 9, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    Upbeat Views from the People Who Count

    Accounting and finance workers are more optimistic about their job situation than they were only a few months ago, according to a new survey by Harris Interactive conducted for staffing and recruiting company Spherion.For the first quarter, 36 percent of survey respondents said they believed that...

    By Stephen Taub • June 8, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    CFOs on the Move

    • FTD Group has appointed Becky Sheehan chief financial officer, effective July 5. She has 19 years’ experience in public accounting with Deloitte and Touche and Arthur Andersen, serving as a lead client service partner and as the leader of the consumer business and manufacturing audit practice f...

    By Marie Leone • June 8, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    Job Satisfaction Higher in Finance

    Finance executives seem more satisfied with their jobs than most other workers, according to a new survey by human-capital consultancy Hudson.Some 34 percent of accounting and finance workers reported being very satisfied with their compensation, compared with just 28 percent of all survey respon...

    By Stephen Taub • June 8, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    S&P Warns of Benefit Underfunding

    Corporate earnings have been strong for several years, but you couldn’t tell just by looking at corporate pension plans, according Standard & Poor’s.Traditional pension plans remain only 90.4 percent funded, S&P found, receiving minimal contributions despite 16 consecutive quarters of dou...

    By Stephen Taub • June 7, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    Moody’s: Backdating is a Credit Risk

    Backdating stock options could negatively affect a company’s credit rating, says a report issued Monday by Moody’s Investor Services. The report lists several credit risks associated with backdating, including financial and reputational risk, which figured into a ratings action announced last mon...

    By Marie Leone • June 6, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    Job Cuts at Sun, Heinz, Schering-Plough

    At least three major companies announced large layoff plans on Thursday.Sun Microsystems, which has been struggling since the tech-Internet bubble burst in 2000, announced that it plans to cut 4,000 to 5,000 jobs, or roughly 11 percent to 13 percent of its 37,500 employees worldwide.Heinz, under ...

    By Stephen Taub • June 1, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    CFOs on the Move

    • Safeco has named Ross Kari executive vice president and chief financial officer, effective June 21. He succeeds Christine Mead, who left the property and casualty insurer in December. Since 2002, Kari has served as executive vice president and chief operating officer of the Federal Home Loan Ba...

    By Marie Leone • June 1, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    Test Your Contractor IQ

    FedEx is currently facing a class-action suit by drivers who say that while they are paid (and taxed) as contractors, they really function as employees. They are demanding the rights and benefits of regular employees. So far, one California court has agreed with workers, and if FedEx eventually l...

    By CFO Editorial Staff • June 1, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    Making Finance Tick

    Ed Cordell was in a tight spot. As CFO of Gravograph Inc., he was telling his board about the company’s quest to capture 8 percent of U.S. sales for its engraving equipment. But the members were not happy. “We had signed a $3 million distribution agreement with a retail company and our board had ...

    By Laura DeMars • June 1, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    What Women Want

    Lynn Calpeter had to choose. At 34, a veteran of General Electric’s elite Financial Management Program (FMP), she was offered a shot at the brass ring: the CFO slot at GE’s plastics division in Europe, a seat Keith Sherin had occupied before becoming CFO of GE Corp. But moving to Europe would mea...

    By Alix Stuart • June 1, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    Portland General Electric’s Jim Piro

    Jim Piro is an Enron survivor. As CFO of Portland General Electric, he helped steer the 116-year-old utility — purchased by Enron in 1997 for $3 billion — through the massive scandal at its parent company. To do that, Piro, 53, had to reassure banks, creditors, ratings agencies, and customers tha...

    By Joseph McCafferty • June 1, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    Suspicious Minds

    America’s trust in its leaders is at a low ebb. Fewer than half of those surveyed in recent polls characterized President Bush as trustworthy, while Congress fared no better. The Catholic Church continues to reel from its clergy abuse scandals. The Supreme Court, union leaders, and the news media...

    By Edward Teach • June 1, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    A Cubist Heeds the Call of the Orb

    David McGirr, CFO of Cubist Pharmaceuticals, has a crystal ball in his office. When it turns red, staffers know not to walk in and ask for a raise.The CFO is not practicing wizardry on company time; he owns a Stock Orb. The ostrich-egg-shaped device can be programmed to summarize real-time market...

    By CFO Editorial Staff • June 1, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    Options Probe Delays Annual Meeting

    On Wednesday, the occasion of its annual meeting, semiconductor maker Applied Micro Circuits announced that it had postponed the meeting until June 30.The company stated that its audit committee, assisted by outside legal counsel, would review Applied Micro’s historical stock-option practices and...

    By Stephen Taub • May 31, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    Options Probes Return from Long Weekend

    Anti-virus software maker McAfee announced on Tuesday that it fired general counsel Kent Roberts after becoming aware of an episode in 2000 involving “improper” stock-option grants.McAfee added that it has retained independent counsel to aid in the company’s internal review, and that it has discu...

    By Stephen Taub • May 30, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    Battle Lines Drawn on Executive Pay

    In the increasingly contentious national debate over whether executives are being paid too much, the battle lines are becoming clear. At a House Financial Services Committee hearing held Thursday, Democrats and shareholder activists continued to call for increased disclosure and accountability, w...

    By Marie Leone • May 26, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    McAfee Talking to SEC about Options

    McAfee, Inc. announced that it is “in dialogue with the Securities and Exchange Commission on an informal basis” regarding its option granting practices in the late 1990s and early 2000s, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday.The software company known for its anti-virus programs also said...

    By Stephen Taub • May 25, 2006
  • Coworkers sitting around laptop at office table
    Image attribution tooltip
    Dantes, Edmond. "Man and Woman Sitting on Chair Using Laptop" [Photograph]. Retrieved from Pexels.
    Image attribution tooltip

    Option Timing Probes Snare More Firms

    Five more companies announced Wednesday that they are targets of investigations of either the Securities and Exchange Commission or the US Attorney or both as a result of the timing of option grants. The companies include KLA-Tencor, Medarex, Cnet Networks, Analog Devices, and Power Integrations....

    By Stephen Taub • May 25, 2006