Our Meeting was called to order by President Kelley Krueger
The club sang “The Iowa Fight Song” led by Devin van Holsteijn and Anna Moyers Stone.
INTRODUCTIONS:
There were no Visiting Rotarians
Guests: Ellen Fox (Rtn. Anna Moyers Stone)
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Rtn. Kelley Krueger met William McMillan at an alumni event in Des Moines. He is a member of the District 6000 Board of Directors. His one question to her: “How do you send so many people to RYLA?” and Kelley gave the credit to the great Youth Leadership Committee.
Rtn. Linda Farkas credited her committee for their good work. They are looking for someone with connections in the community to work with Laura Portier-LaLumiere to help with fundraising for the cause. Let Linda know if interested.
From Rtn. Mark Ruggeberg, they are looking for volunteers for an outdoor clean up on Sat. Oct. 17 beginning at 8:30 am at the Open Heartland building at 3 East Benton Street. Duties will include pruning shrubs, removing ivy, and basically sprucing up the landscaping around the building. Please bring your garden gloves and tools such as loppers, etc.
Rtn. Margaret Reese announced that there will be a free-will fundraising event this Sunday, October 11 at Tavern Blue from 4-6:30 pm. In addition to food and drink, guests will enjoy Pete Damiano’s band. This will raise funds for the building of playgrounds at the Neighborhood Centers of Johnson County’s new Towncrest facility.
PROGRAM
Rtn. Barb Thomas introduced our speaker Erik Lie. Erik is a professor of finance at the Tippie College of Business. He is well known for his discovery of the Options Backdating Scandal. In recognition of his work, TIME magazine named him one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2007. He is the author of the book Catching Cheats: Everyday Forensics to Unmask Business Fraud.
Through his presentation, he highlighted many ways that data can be used to determine fraudulent behavior. The stock options backdating scandal was highlighted given examples of how CEOs were routinely given stock options but were able to choose the past date that the options were awarded. This gave them a huge financial bonus. He notified the SEC and the Wall Street Journal and this became big news and won the Wall Street Journal the Pulitzer Prize.
He also highlighted the ways that such activities can be found – through benchmarking against others as well as looking at distribution hiccups. It was a fascinating presentation and his book can be found on Amazon.
President Kelley Krueger thanked Erik Lie for joining us and shared that our club will make a donation to Rotary International’s Polio Plus Program in his name.
Next week’s meeting will feature Andrew Sherburne and John Kenyon who will highlight the Iowa City Book Festival and the Refocus Film Festival.
Program: Rtn. Haley Rosendahl; Attendance: Rtn. Nancy Droll
Please forward any newsworthy items and/or photos to Janice Baldes to include in the weekly slide decks emailed to members prior to each meeting and shown just before Rotary meetings at the Club. You can send information to: Rtn. Devin van Holsteijn.
For questions related to Club administration, please contact us at secretary@iowacitynoonrotary.org.