Women Executives Bring Stories of Workplace Ethics to BGSU

More than 650 attendees from across the region filled the Lenhart Grand Ballroom on April 3 to listen to six highly successful women executives tell their stories about how they have dealt with ethics in the workplace.

The keynote speaker of this highly successful event was the former vice president of corporate development at Enron, Sherron Watkins, whose topic was “The Courage of Your Convictions.” She engaged the audience with her personal story about the tough journey she faced in being the whistleblower of accounting irregularities at Enron. She told of the intimidation she and others experienced for questioning improper practices with top executives that included an investigation into ways to fire her. Watkins walked the audience through the timeline of her attempts to make top executives aware of what was going wrong at Enron back in 2001 and the eventual bankruptcy of the company.

The panel discussion at the second annual Women in Leadership event was entitled “Ethical Issues Facing Women in Business” and featured moderator Amy Shore ’80, senior vice president, field operations at Nationwide Insurance. Panelists included the following executives:

• Marianne Ballas, Owner, Ballas Buick-GMC
• Stephanie Imhoff '82, CPA and Independent Finance and Accounting Consultant
• Andrea Price, Former President and CEO at Mercy Health Partners North
• Sandra Rich, Senior Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer at Nationwide Insurance

This luncheon event was hosted by the College of Business with Platinum sponsor Huntington.