California to Host National Conference on Restoring Corporate Integrity and Public Trust in Business

Wednesday, October 16, 2002
Contact: (916) 210-6000, agpressoffice@doj.ca.gov

(SAN FRANCISCO) – Next month, Attorney General Bill Lockyer, in partnership with corporate and civic leaders from across the country, will host a national conference on restoring corporate integrity and public trust in business. The conference was organized in response to the numerous recent revelations of corporate wrongdoing, and the resulting collapse of public confidence in financial markets.

Over the last year, dozens of corporate executives have been indicted or are actively being investigated for alleged malfeasance and violation of their fiduciary responsibilities. As a consequence of this corruption, tens of thousands of employees have lost their jobs and millions of Americans have suffered devastating losses in their retirement savings and other investments.

While federal lawmakers and regulators have enacted new rules and expressed a renewed commitment to enforcing existing laws, many workers and investors remain deeply apprehensive about the security and transparency of U.S. financial markets. The conference will allow participants to share information and stimulate ideas on how to prevent, identify and punish corporate malfeasance as well as restore consumer confidence in the marketplace.

The conference will feature a keynote address by Richard Grasso, Chairman & CEO of the New York Stock Exchange.

This event is being sponsored by Attorney General Bill Lockyer of California, Attorney General Carla Stovall of Kansas, The Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, Walter H. Shorenstein, Leon Panetta, The Conference Board, and the Wine Institute. Three panel discussions will feature several state Attorneys General, top business leaders, elected officials and academic experts. Leon Panetta, Director of the Panetta Institute, will moderate the conference.

The first panel will focus on the "new rules of the game" governing corporate responsibility. It will be moderated by David Gergen, Director of the Center for Public Leadership at the Kennedy School at Harvard University. The panelists include: Richard Cavanagh, President and CEO, The Conference Board; James Copeland, CEO, Deloitte & Touche; Christine Gregoire, Attorney General, State of Washington; Catherine Kinney, President, New York Stock Exchange; Robert C. Pozen, Professor, Harvard Law School; and, Larry Sonsini, Attorney, Wilson, Sonsini et al.

The second discussion will address the question of accountability and consequences for corporate wrongdoing. It will be moderated by Attorney General Bill Lockyer. The panelists include: Tom Campbell, Dean, Haas School of Business, UC Berkeley; Lydia Beebe, Corporate Secretary, ChevronTexaco; Joseph W. Cotchett, Attorney, Cotchett, Pitre, Simon & McCarthy; Arianna Huffington, columnist; Helane Morrison, District Administrator, US Securities & Exchange Commission; and, David Samson, Attorney General, State of New Jersey.

The final panel will look at the challenge of restoring public trust in financial markets. It will be moderated by Alex Jones, Director of the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at the Kennedy School at Harvard University. The panelists include: William Crist, President, CalPERS; John De Luca, President, Wine Institute; Milton Friedman, economist and Nobel Laureate; Rod Gillum, Vice President for Corporate Relations, General Motors; Joseph Grundfest, Professor of Law & Business, Stanford University; William Hambrecht, Chairman, WR Hambrecht; and, John Sweeney, President, AFL-CIO.

A wrap-up session will be moderated by Marvin Kalb, Senior Fellow at the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy in Washington D.C. Featured panelists include: Richard Lambert, Financial Times; Attorney General Don Stenberg, Nebraska; Attorney General Christine Gregoire, Wasington; and, Alan Sloan, Newsweek.

The Conference will take place on November 1, 2002 in the Auditorium of the Bank of America World Headquarters – 555 California Street, Concourse Level from 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m.

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