Human Capital: Page

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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    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
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    CFOs on the Move

    • ITT Industries has named Janice Klettner chief accounting officer. Klettner joins the technology manufacturer from Avon Products, where she was corporate controller and vice president of enterprise risk management; she began her career at Coopers and Lybrand.• Monarch Casino and Resort, owner o...

    By Marie Leone • May 25, 2006
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    Pension Funds Sue UnitedHealth

    Two Ohio state pension funds are suing UnitedHealth Group, Inc., charging that the health care insurer allowed chairman and CEO William McGuire to “dictate his own compensation through the secret manipulation of the company’s stock option plans” for nearly a decade.The suit, brought as both a der...

    By Stephen Taub • May 24, 2006
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    Hard-drive Maker Frees Up Desk Space

    Seagate Technology, the largest manufacturer of computer hard-disk drives, announced that it will lay off about half the employees of recently acquired rival Maxtor.According to Reuters, about 6,000 jobs will be cut, mostly in Europe and the United States. In a press release, Seagate stated that ...

    By Stephen Taub • May 23, 2006
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    CFOs on the Move

    • General Motors announced the departures of company controller Paul Schmidt and chief accounting officer Peter Bible. Schmidt will step down later this year after 37 years with the company; Bible has resigned “to pursue other career options,” effective June 1. GM plans to combine the two positio...

    By Marie Leone • May 18, 2006
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    GM Shakes Up Finance Department

    General Motors said two key finance executives are leaving the company as part of a sweeping restructuring of the corporate controller’s office.The auto giant, whose accounting practices are currently being investigated by regulators, said controller Paul W. Schmidt will retire later this year at...

    By Stephen Taub • May 18, 2006
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    Managing the Distributed Workforce

    While ATMs and the Internet have enabled banks and other financial institutions to pare down the size of their staff, employee expenses remain a significant bottom-line burden. Just ask Steve Schreiner, a business analyst at the New Mexico Educators Federal Credit Union in Albuquerque.For Schrein...

    By John Edwards • May 18, 2006
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    Options Timing May Waylay UnitedHealth

    UnitedHealth has disclosed that it may need to restate earnings by as much as $286 million over the past three years.The health insurer also announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission is conducting an informal inquiry into its stock-option practices. In addition, the company’s board ha...

    By Stephen Taub • May 11, 2006
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    CFOs on the Move

    • Goodrich Petroleum has named David Looney executive vice president and chief financial officer. He succeeds D. Hughes Watler, who resigned to pursue other interests. Looney has twenty-five years of experience in the energy finance business, most recently as CFO of Energy Partners. Previously, h...

    By Marie Leone • May 11, 2006
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    Fresh Start

    They are the once-and-future CFOs, finance executives who may have thought they’d left the position behind but find themselves back in the saddle — and loving it. Some gave up their CFO posts to assume senior (nonfinance) jobs, others to run their own businesses, and others to take time off, only...

    By Scott Leibs • May 8, 2006