WorldCom whistleblower Cynthia Cooper to speak at UAH

WorldCom whistleblower Cynthia Cooper

WorldCom whistleblower Cynthia Cooper will be the guest speaker for The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) College of Business Administration's Distinguished Speaker Series on Tuesday, Sept. 23.

Cooper's talk "Ethical Leadership for the 21st Century," will begin at 5:30 p.m., in the Chan Auditorium (located in the Business Administration Building). The UAH College of Business Administration will award 1.5 hours of CPA continuing professional education credit for seminar attendees. The talk is free and open to the public.

Cynthia Cooper was vice president of the internal audit department when her team of auditors uncovered nearly $4 billion in fraud at WorldCom in 2002. At the time, it was the largest account fraud in American history. Later that same year, Cooper was one of three people named "People of the Year" by Time magazine.

Today, Cooper is an internationally recognized speaker, best-selling author and consultant. She has been featured in national periodicals such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, CFO Magazine and Business Week. Cooper consults with organizations around the world. Her clients include Dell, Bell South, PepsiCo, Walmart, and Raytheon.

She also served as vice president for MCI where she and her team helped the company move forward and successfully emerge from bankruptcy. Prior to joining MCI, Cooper worked in Atlanta for public accounting firms PricewaterhouseCoopers and Deloitte & Touche.

Cooper earned an undergraduate degree in accounting from Mississippi State University, and a graduate degree in accountancy from The University of Alabama. She is a certified public accountant, certified systems auditor and a certified fraud examiner. Cooper is the author of the 2008 book, Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower.

For more information about the UAH College of Business Administration's Distinguished Speaker Series featuring Cynthia Cooper, please email: vre0001@uah.edu.