Former HealthSouth executive Aaron Beam will discuss corporate fraud as the featured speaker of the Del Alamo/Hogan Symposium on Business Ethics, hosted by the Pamplin College of Business

Beam's talk, titled “Fraud, Lies, and Hermes Ties,” is scheduled for 5 p.m. on Oct. 20 in room 2150, Torgersen Hall. The talk is free and open to the public, and no tickets needed. Find parking information online. The talk will also be video recorded.

Beam is a founder of HealthSouth Corp., a Birmingham, Alabama-based owner and operator of inpatient rehabilitation hospitals. He served as its first chief financial officer from 1984 to 1997. 

The company was involved in an accounting scandal in 2003 when its then CEO Richard Scrushy was accused of directing employees to falsely report company earnings. Beam was among the five successive CFOs at HealthSouth who were charged with and pled guilty to the fraud and spent time in federal prison. 

Beam, who began his public speaking career in 2009, has spoken to groups that include universities, associations, companies, and civic organizations. His primary message is about corporate frauds: who is responsible, how they take place, and what can be done to prevent them.

He has authored two books: “HealthSouth: The Wagon to Disaster,” published in 2009, and “Ethics Playbook: Winning Ethically in Business,” in January 2015.

During his visit, Beam will also participate in a joint class on business law and business ethics and in an informal seminar with graduate students and faculty. 

The symposium is sponsored by the Business Leadership Center of the Department of Management and by Pamplin accounting alumni Robert F. Hogan Jr., who earned his bachelor’s degree and his master’s degree in accounting, and Jorge Del Alamo Jr., who earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting, and his wife, Lin.

Additional support for the symposium has been provided by the Department of Accounting and Information Systems at Virginia Tech, Target Corp., and Grant Thornton LLP. 

Previous symposium speakers have included academics, authors, government officials, and executives from SAIC, Tyco, Enron, Arthur Andersen, and Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. 

Questions about the speaker and other ethics-related events should be addressed to management professor Richard Wokutch

If you are an individual with a disability and desire an accommodation, please email Cindy Gautier or call 540-231-6353 during regular business hours at least 10 business days prior to the event.

 

 

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