Wake Forest University's MBA School Hosts Corporate Governance Forum: Keeping it Above Board

Business Wire, Oct 30, 2003

Business Editors/Education Writers

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 30, 2003

Wake Forest University's Babcock Graduate School of Management will host a forum, "Keeping it Above Board: Corporate Governance, Compensation and Conflicts of Interest," from 2-4:45 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 13, 2003 in Room 1312 of the Worrell Professional Center on the Wake Forest campus in Winston-Salem. Following the forum, John Mackey, chairman and chief executive officer of Whole Foods Market, will deliver the Babcock Leadership Series lecture. The forum, which is sponsored by Duke Energy, and the lecture are free and open to the public.

Forum panelists include Andrew Schindler, chairman and chief executive officer, R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Holdings, Inc.; Richard W. Blackburn, chief administrative officer, executive vice president and general counsel, Duke Energy; John Mackey, chairman and chief executive officer, Whole Foods Market; Clifford W. Smith, professor of business administration, finance and economics, University of Rochester's Simon Graduate School of Business Administration; and Martin Garcia, managing director, Pinehill Capital Partners. Chris William, senior executive consultant, Wachovia Securities, and executive producer/moderator of the southeast regional PBS series, Carolina Business Review, will serve as moderator.

The costs of ethical lapses and lack of judgment in business are pervasive. Recent examples have involved Enron, WorldCom and the New York Stock Exchange. Companies large and small face unprecedented public scrutiny in setting appropriate levels of executive compensation, meeting high financial reporting standards and avoiding scandalous conflicts of interest. This panel of business experts will address the challenges of governing a company while maintaining the trust of shareholders, stakeholders and the public.

More information is available at www.mba.wfu.edu/news/corpgovforum.htm

At 5 p.m., following the forum, Mackey will deliver the Babcock Leadership Series lecture, "Creating a New Business Paradigm." Mackey has lived in a vegetarian co-op, studied yoga and meditation, and is a leading practitioner of empowerment management. As chairman and CEO of Whole Foods Market, Mackey built a $2.7 billion Fortune 1000 company that is one of the top 25 supermarket companies in the country. A 1998 Business Week profile of Mackey was titled: "Peace, love, and the bottom line." Mackey took Whole Foods Market public in 1992 and embarked on an aggressive campaign of expansion and acquisition through the '90s as the entire natural products industry expanded. Whole Foods Market now has 145 stores in 26 states, Washington, D.C., and Canada, and aspires to be a $10 billion company by 2010.

The Babcock Leadership Series, organized by Wake Forest MBA students, focuses on current issues affecting business.

The Babcock School is ranked among the world's best graduate business schools in surveys by Business Week, the Financial Times, Forbes, U.S. News & World Report and The Wall Street Journal. Information is available at www.mba.wfu.edu.

NOTE TO MEDIA: Journalists interested in attending the forum must contact Dusty Donaldson at the Babcock School. Seating is limited. A press section will be designated for registered media representatives.