CNBC journalist scrutinizes corporate scandals

CNBC journalist Tyler Mathisen, right, chats up scholarship recipient Rachel Maisler, left, and SCAT dean Concetta Stewart, center, before his presentation on recent corporate scandals.

When big business gets busted, who should take the fall?

On April 30, veteran CNBC journalist Tyler Mathisen shared his views on the recent corporate debacles in his presentation, “Corporate Scandals: What Went Wrong in Corporate America.”

“At the highest echelons of American corporate life, it often used to be: I’ll serve on your board if you serve on mine,” said Mathisen, describing how questionable ethical situations could creep in at those top levels of management. “Better yet, I’ll serve on your compensation committee if you’ll serve on my compensation committee, and so on and so forth.”

Mathisen spoke before students and faculty at Temple’s Fox School of Business and Management and the School of Communications and Theater, noting that investment firms involved in the scandalous activity on Wall Street are settling with the government.

Mathisen was rankled by the fact that some of the key players, Jack Grubman, Salomon Smith Barney telecom analyst; Sandy Weill, Citigroup’s chairman; and Henry Blodget, the Merrill Lynch Internet analyst, may not face criminal prosecutions.

Addressing the media’s role in corporate scandals, Mathisen explained he felt the media, who often play a dominant role in unraveling scandalous activity, had their focus diverted to other things, including IPOs that quadrupled, Internet stocks that skyrocketed and 401K plans that made the man next door a millionaire.

“While the media knew of abuses, few of us bothered to search them,” Mathisen said. “We were getting rich, too; so what if some of the big players were fudging it?”

But who is ultimately responsible for corporate governance? According to Mathisen, citing Jack Bogle, founder of The Vanguard Group, it lies with the shareholders.

“Bogle felt that the ultimate responsibility for good corporate governance lies not with the board, not with accountants, not with regulators and certainly not with management,” Mathisen said. “It lies with companies’ real owners: their shareholders.”

Mathisen stressed to students and faculty that honesty and integrity are very important concepts for up-and-coming professionals to grasp.

The lecture ended with a question-and-answer session and the presentation of the third annual Tyler Mathisen Business Communications Scholarship Award.

The $5,000 scholarship was awarded to School of Communications and Theater student Rachel Maisler, who currently works for the Engineering News Record and aspires to be an international correspondent.

“Our faculty and students benefit greatly from Tyler Mathisen’s insights, as business and business ethics have been at the forefront of national newscasts since these scandals broke,” said M. Moshe Porat, dean of the Fox School. “This forum provides a better understanding of the impact these scandals have had, and how we, as business educators and future leaders, can work to change our corporate culture.”

Mathisen’s work has earned him recognition and awards nationally. In 1993, he won the American University/Investment Company Institute Award for Personal Finance Journalism for a televised series on “Caring for Aging Parents,” which aired on ABC’s Good Morning America.

He also won an Emmy Award for a report on the 1987 stock market crash that aired on New York’s WCBS-TV, and the Harry E. Fuller Award from the National Foundation for Consumer Credit.

— Heather Collins, Fox School Public Relations