 Under
the towering ceiling of Comcast Center, 780 undergraduates,
300 MBA students, 50 EMBA students, and 12 doctoral students
received their Smith School degrees on May 21, 2007.
Delivering the keynote address was Teresa Iannaconi, MBA
’78, partner with Big Four accounting firm KPMG and member
of its Board of Directors. Iannaconi spoke from her
extensive experience in regulation and compliance, including
nearly 20 years with the Securities and Exchange Commision
(SEC).
Iannaconi remembered the gender bias she experienced as a
woman in a traditionally male-dominated industry, as well as
the difficulty of negotiating the work-life balance “before
it was even called the work-life balance.” While employed at
the SEC she pursued an MBA, and had actually begun work for
a PhD when the opportunity came to live in Italy for a few
years, courtesy of her husband’s job. Despite the fact that
it derailed her academic career, Iannaconi jumped at the
chance to spend some time abroad. “Don’t pass up the
opportunity for adventure,” she advised students.
After her return from Italy, Iannaconi used her network
to get a job at the SEC again, and went on to hold the
highest-ranking accounting position ever held by a woman at
the SEC.
Later, at KPMG, Iannaconi became founding chairman of the
KPMG Ethics and Compliance Committee, which allowed her to
influence the corporate culture of this giant accounting
firm on a subject dear to her heart. “Ethics means more to
me than job security. Ethics involved doing the right thing,
in the right way, at the right time, because I’m a member of
a broad community, and I want that community to thrive, and
not merely survive.”
No one involved in the recent, highly-publicized
accounting scandals woke up one morning thinking that today
would be the day they’d cook the books or steal corporate
funds, said Iannaconi. “The moral of the story is simply
don’t start to compromise, even a little. Because once one
that begins, it is impossible to control.”
View the video of Iannaconi’s speech and see photo
highlights of commencement on our Web site. |
