PAUL SARBANES
At the beginning of the 21st century, corporate scandals involving
Enron, Worldcom, Tyco, and many other firms, rocked the American
business landscape, ruined the lives of many workers and stockholders,
and caused the world to lose confidence in American business. In order
to regain investor confidence, and monitor corporations and their
activities, Paul Sarbanes, Maryland's senior senator, led the charge to
reform the business world. His work in creating the Sarbanes-Oxley Act
has transformed the business world, and restored public confidence in
Wall Street by holding companies liable for unethical actions.
The principles of fairness and opportunity instilled in Mr.
Sarbanes by his parents from a very early age led to his life of public
service. In 1966, he ran for the Maryland House of Delegates in
Baltimore City and won. During his four years as a state legislator in
Annapolis he served on the Judiciary and the Ways and Means Committees.
He was then elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, followed by
his five terms in the U.S. Senate.
In response to the failure of Enron Corporation in 2001,
which, at the time, was the 7th largest corporation in the United
States, he held a series of comprehensive hearings resulting in the
passage of Sarbanes-Oxley. The act was designed to reform the
accounting industry and restore the investor confidence that had been
eroded following the collapse of Enron and subsequent corporate
scandals.
"The Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection
Act" was signed into law on 30th July 2002, and has been referred to as
"the most far-reaching reforms of American business practices since the
time of Franklin Delano Roosevelt." The law is now known as the
"Sarbanes-Oxley Act," named for Senator Sarbanes and his House
co-sponsor Michael Oxley. It creates a strong independent oversight
board to oversee the auditors of public companies and enables the board
to set accounting standards, and investigate and discipline
accountants. It addresses conflicts of interest, ensures auditor
independence, strengthens corporate governance, by requiring corporate
leaders to be personally responsible for the accuracy of their
company's financial reports, and establishes safeguards to protect
against investment analysts' conflicts. As a result of his work in
shepherding this historic legislation through the Congress and into
law, Paul Sarbanes was honored in June 2003 with the prestigious Paul
H. Douglas Ethics in Government Award from the University of Illinois.
The award was designed to honor individuals who have made a substantial
contribution to promoting ethics.
Sarbanes work has created a lasting impact on the world of business.
Through his actions and legislation, ethical behavior must now be
standard practice for all companies, creating a positive business
environment for employees and the public.
MICHAEL OXLEY
After 34 years, Congressman Michael Oxley recently retired from a
career in public life. His 25 years of distinguished service in the
U.S. Congress included chair positions on several committees that
accomplished countless legislative achievements, including the
Sarbanes-Oxley Act.
In 1972, Mike Oxley was elected to the Ohio General Assembly. He
represented the 82nd District until July 1981, when he won a special
election to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In January of 2001, Mr. Oxley was chosen by the House leadership to
chair the Financial Services Committee. Among the pane's many
legislative achievements under his chairmanship are the Sarbanes-Oxley
Act to respond to the era of corporate corruption, the Terrorism Risk
Insurance Act to resolve the post-9/11 insurance crisis, the anti-money
laundering provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act to help track terrorist
financing, and the FACT Act that brought consumers the free annual
credit report.
As the Vice Chairman of the Subcommittee on Telecommunications,
Michael Oxley was the father of the spectrum auction, which made new
portions of the spectrum available to communications companies. He was
also a key player in the 1996 Telecommunications Act, legislation to
increase competition among the telecommunications industries. In 1995,
Mr. Oxley was named Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on
Commerce, Trade, and Hazardous Materials. He successfully pressed for
stock prices to be quoted in dollars and cents, leaving the fraction
system behind and saving investors billions of dollars.
Michael Oxley has dedicated himself to promoting the core beliefs and
policy goals he shares with his constituents: economic prosperity,
family values, lean government, low taxes, free trade, energetic
competition, and a strong defense and intelligence capability. In the
tradition of Ronald Reagan, he has championed the U.S. as the world's
light of economic freedom and individual liberty.
In 1966, Michael Oxley received his B.A. from Miami University,
Oxford, Ohio, where he was student body president. In 1969, he earned
his law degree from the Ohio State University College of Law. After law
school, he became a special agent of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, assigned to Boston and New York.
Speakers and panelists include:
ANTHONY ROOT
ANTHONY ROOT is the head of Milbank’s corporate practice in Asia and is based in the firm’s Hong Kong and Beijing offices. He has over 25 years of experience working with corporations, underwriters and financial investors in public and private corporate financings, private equity, public M&A and restructurings. He worked on deals in the United States, Europe and Australia in the 1980s and early 1990s before coming to Asia permanently in 1993.
Anthony focuses on private and public M&A and capital markets. He has two decades of private equity experience in the United States and Asia. Since the early 1990s, he has worked with Citigroup Group Venture Capital, Farallon Capital, Goldman Sachs, CCMP (formerly JP Morgan Partners), Morgan Stanley and Olympus Capital in pioneering private equity and LBO investments throughout Asia. He represented China Construction Bank in its strategic sales to Bank of America and Temasek Holdings. He also represented Morgan Stanley in the formation of China International Capital Corporation (CICC).
He has worked on capital markets offerings throughout Asia, including China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. He works regularly with leading investment banks, including Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Lehman, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS. His experience includes large equity and debt deals, with a particular focus on high yield.
Anthony graduated in 1982 from New York University Law School, where he was a senior editor of the Journal of International Law & Politics. He graduated with honors from Haverford College in 1975 and joined Morgan Guaranty Trust Company of New York, where he was an officer in the International Banking Division.
He has been designated as one of the "World's Leading Capital Markets and Corporate Finance Lawyers?and “World’s Leading Private Equity Lawyers" by several publications, including IFLR, IFLR1000, AsiaLaw2005, and the Asia Pacific Legal 500. He is also listed in the “Who’s Who of International Lawyers?and Chambers Global for Hong Kong, in Chambers Asia, and in the U.S. Legal 500 for his work on China M&A. He was cited in a recent Asiamoney poll of top lawyers.
ASHLEY ALDER
Ashley is based in Hong Kong with a practice focused on M&A and ECM
transactions involving listed companies. He also specialises in private
equity, financial services, venture capital and direct investments, as
well as regulatory and compliance work.
Ashley returned to the firm in October 2004 after completing a
three-year appointment as a Board member and Executive Director,
Corporate Finance at the Securities and Futures Commission.
Whilst at the Commission, Ashley was responsible for key aspects of
listed company regulation, including the Takeovers Code, company
prospectuses and the regulation of various aspects of corporate
conduct. He was also closely involved in important policy initiatives.
These included new regulations for IPO sponsors, new corporate
governance standards under the Listing Rules, stabilisation rules for
equity offerings, new statutory rules for prospectuses, amendments to
the Takeovers Code and a major reform of the regulatory regime for
listed companies. He also worked on cross-border issues and was closely
involved in the law making process in Hong Kong's Legislative Council.
CHRISTOPHER LOW
Christopher is the President of Protiviti’s Greater China practice. He has extensive experience in providing Business Advisory Services, Internal Audit, Transaction Services and Financial Statements Audit to diversified clientele across Asia. Christopher’s area of specialization also includes capital market advisory work, having led initial public offering projects of numerous Asian enterprises in the United States of America, Mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore as well as spearheaded varying scale of private equity deals.
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Christopher holds an Honors Bachelor of Accountancy Degree from Nanyang Technical University in Singapore. He is a Certified Public Accountant, a Certified Internal Auditor and an Accredited Quality Assurance Reviewer.
EMILY CHAN
Emily Chan is a CNBC’s Hong Kong Correspondent ?providing live, up to the minute reporting on breaking business and financial stories from Hong Kong markets. Based in the CNBC Hong Kong bureau, Emily will be providing hits into all our morning programs. She will also be giving a round up of the North Asian markets for the European programs, as well as Worldwide Exchange.
Chan has had more than 10 years experience in the media industry on and off the camera. Prior to joining CNBC, she was a member of the news team at Hong Kong's Television Broadcasts Ltd. (TVB), anchoring nightly newscasts and covering local daily assignments as one of their senior reporters.
Chan returns to financial news and the CNBC network after having been an Assistant Producer in the Hong Kong Bureau. She has also worked at Bloomberg and CNN.
Chan has a degree in Broadcast Journalism from the University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication.
GARY SEIB
Mr Seib is based in Hong Kong and leads the firm’s Dispute Resolution practice in the Asia Pacific region. He is a commercial litigation specialist with experience in corporate governance, compliance and regulatory matters, fraud investigations, asset tracing claims and recovery actions. He also practices in other areas of corporate law and commercial disputes, including insolvency matters, employment and employee claims, professional indemnity claims and other insurance work, as well as IT and communications disputes. He also has extensive experience in alternate dispute resolution techniques, particularly in arbitration and mediation.
Mr. Seib practiced as a barrister in Australia for a number of years before returning to Baker & McKenzie as a partner in 2004. Mr. Seib also has accounting qualifications and practiced as an accountant in a major practice in Australia before becoming a lawyer.
Mr. Seib has written a number of articles in journals and other publications both in Australia and Hong Kong on topics ranging from litigation practice, corporate management and compliance issues, fraud risk, insider trading, securities litigation, banking, international trade and remedies. He is also a frequent speaker on those topics.
JOHN BRADFIELD
John Bradfield is the Director of Compliance for Nortel Networks in Asia. He is also the President of the Asia Competition and Compliance Practitioners Forum, a member-based organization which, amongst other things, aims to provide a platform for compliance and competition practitioners in Asia to network and share experiences. John has extensive experience in competition, administrative and regulatory law in the Asia Pacific region. Prior to Nortel, John was the General Manager of Regulatory Affairs at PCCW. John has also worked as a consultant for Hong Kong’s Telecommunications Authority, OFTA, and as the Head of Telecommunications Enforcement group at the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. John has lived in Hong Kong for over 7 years. He holds a law degree and has trained as a journalist with News Corporation prior to taking up law.
LINDA LEE
Linda Lee is a much sought-after communications consultant and
executive coach. She has counseled and coached CEOs, heads of
state, government officials and many senior executives throughout the
Asia-Pacific region.
Prior to starting her own consultancy, Linda was a Director at Burson-
Marsteller Asia-Pacific. In that capacity, she provided media strategy
and senior communications counsel for many corporations and
governments in the region. Linda also has significant issues and crisis
management experience including working such areas as labor
negotiations and strikes, corruption and other scandals, employee
deaths, and animal rights issues.
Before Burson-Marsteller, Linda had an extensive career in broadcast
journalism. She was the Shanghai Correspondent for CNBC, the
global financial and business news network. She was also a part-time
show host on the network’s celebrity talk show ‘Talk of Asia? Prior to
CNBC, Linda worked for Hong Kong broadcaster, TVB, where she was
a billingual reporter covering political and general news.
Fluent in English, Cantonese and Putonghua, Linda has conducted
training for companies in financial, telecommunication, hotel, consumer goods, mining
and quasi-government organisations.
Linda holds an Honors Bachelor of Arts Degree in Political Science
and French from the University of Western Ontario in Canada.
MAHADEVAN NATARAJAN
Mahadevan Natarajan is a Chartered Accountant with about 15 years of experience in the financial software space. He has been a finance manager, transformed into a software functional consultant in the areas of finance. He has sold and implemented financial & management reporting solutions, planning and budgeting solutions for many large conglomerates all over Asiapac. He carries a vast amount of experience in improving ways to streamline reporting process through the use of technology, minimize the risks of mis-statements and in improving the performance of an organization.
MAN TO SHUM
Mr. Shum assumed office as the inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the FRC on 1 February 2007. He is a certified public accountant and had been working with the HKSAR Government for 25 years until he retired as the Director of Accounting Services in 2003. He has served as an ex-officio council member of the then Hong Kong Society of Accountants for over four years.
MARTIN ROGERS
Martin Rogers is a partner with international law firm Clifford
Chance. He is Co-Head of the firm's Regulatory Group and Head of the
Litigation & Dispute Resolution practice in Asia. He is
independently recognised as one of Hong Kong's leading financial
services regulatory lawyers with over 17 years' experience in Asia.
Martin leads a combined Clifford Chance team of about 60 litigation and
regulatory lawyers across Asia, advising all of the major investment
banks, commercial banks and increasingly the leading hedge funds and
private equities houses to develop and implement risk management and
compliance systems and procedures. He also regularly advises the Hong
Kong Stock Exchange on market development initiatives. The Clifford
Chance team covers India, Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong, the PRC and
Japan, and also advises on strategic issues arising out of Korea and
Taiwan.
MAURICE NGAI
Maurice is a Director and Head of Listing Services of KCS Limited (formerly the corporate services department of KPMG HK and the commercial division of Grant Thornton) responsible for managing and monitoring services to a portfolio of listed clients. Maurice has over 18 years of commercial experience coving a diverse range of areas from acting as company secretary, executive director to chief financial officer in listed companies. He also serves as an independent non-executive director of a number of leading H shares and red chip companies and as a chairman/member of their audit committees. He has expertise in corporate governance and internal control issues.
Maurice is the Vice President of Hong Kong Institute of Chartered Secretaries (“HKICS?, a leading professional organization in Hong Kong.
He is a fellow of Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators in UK and HKICS, a member of Hong Kong Institute of Certified Accountants, a member of Institute of Chartered Certified Accountants, a member of Hong Kong Institute of Directors and a member of Hong Kong Securities Institute. He earned his M.B.A. and LL.B. in early 90s and more recently a Master in Corporate Finance from The Hong Kong Polytechnic University and is now pursuing a PhD at Shanghai University of Finance and Economics.
MICHAEL YU
Michael Yu is a US licensed attorney in the corporate department at Kim & Chang. His primary areas of focus include cross-border mergers and acquisitions (concentrating on private equity driven translations) and joint ventures. At the same time, reflecting a growing interest among multinational corporations doing business in Korea, Mr. Yu’s practice has grown to encompass criminal defense and corporate compliance matters, particularly focused on Korean affiliates of multinational corporations, including planning and oversight of internal compliance audits, representing companies in the course of criminal investigations, and defense of corporate entities in criminal prosecution procedures in areas of improper accounting, customs operations, environmental liabilities, foreign exchange dealings and other regulatory aspects of business operations. Apart from his career at Kim & Chang, he worked at Morrison & Foerster LLP in New York (1996-1998) and also worked at International Labor Office, office of the legal advisor in Geneva, Switzerland (1995). Michael Yu received his BA from University of California, Berkeley (1992), a Masters in Law & Diplomacy from the Fletcher School, Tufts University (1995) and a JD from Cornell University School of Law (1996). He is a member of the Bar of the State of New York.
RICHARD WILLIAMS
Richard George Williams is the Head of Listing of HKEx. He joined HKEx
in October 2002 and became HKEx's Head of Listing and secretary to the
Listing Committees in June 2003. Mr Williams was the head of Listing
Policy and Compliance at the Financial Services Authority in the UK
between 2000 and 2002. He has also served as the head of Listing Policy
at the London Stock Exchange ("LSE"). Before moving to the LSE, Mr
Williams was with PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Mr Williams is a fellow member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.
RICHARD WINTER
Born in England in 1952, Richard graduated from Edinburgh University with B. Commerce Hons. (2.1) and qualified as a chartered accountant with Deloitte Haskins and Sells in 1980.
After periods with Deloittes in Nairobi and Edinburgh, he arrived in Hong Kong in 1985 to work as a manager in the Corporate Advisory Service Department of Ernst & Whinney. In 1987 he joined Standard Chartered, where he worked for 12 years, to become Managing Director, Investment Banking in charge of North East Asia. In January 2000, he joined Deloitte & Touche Corporate Finance Limited as Managing Director, with responsibilities to establish and develop their corporate finance capability.
Richard is currently Deputy Chairman of Quam Limited, a Main Board listed financial services group, and Managing Director of Quam Capital Holdings Limited.
He is a member of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange listing committee, Securities and Futures Commission Takeovers and Mergers Panel and Takeovers Appeal Committee, director of the Hong Kong Securities Institute where he chairs the Research Committee, sits on the Events and Examinations Committees and represents the Institute as Adjudicator on Hong Kong Management Association Best Annual Reports Awards. He is Deputy Chairman of the Corporate Finance Committee of the Hong Kong Institute of Certified Public Accountants. He is also a fellow of the Hong Kong Institute of Directors.
Richard is an executive member of the Outwardbound Trust of Hong Kong and is Treasurer of the Living Islands Movement.
RICK CACCIA
Rick Caccia is Vice President of Product Marketing at ArcSight, a leading provider of compliance and security monitoring solutions. Mr. Caccia has spent over a dozen years designing and managing corporate infrastructure systems, with a special focus on security and identity management. Prior to ArcSight, he led product management for the Messaging and Web Security business unit at Symantec, where his products included email, Web, and instant messaging security technologies. Prior to Symantec, he was at Oblix, a leading Identity and Access Management company that was acquired by Oracle in 2005. At Oblix, he led product management and marketing for identity management, access control, and web services policy products. Earlier in his career he worked in the management consulting groups at Deloitte and Touche and Accenture. He has a BA and MBA from University of California, Berkeley.
SIRISHA GUMMAREGULA
Sirisha has over thirteen years of experience advising boards of directors, corporate and other clients on a variety of corporate matters and has worked closely with directors and executives of major multinational corporations. She has advised US and multinational clients on corporate governance issues, Sarbanes-Oxley, M&A transactions, securities laws as well as on strategic and business-oriented matters. Prior to joining QuisLex, Sirisha was the Assistant General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for Quest Diagnostics, where she was responsible for corporate governance matters, securities laws, business development, commercial contracts, regulatory matters and Six Sigma. Sirisha also spent nine years at Shearman & Sterling where she advised clients on corporate matters, including M&A and corporate finance transactions. Sirisha was also a litigator for a year in the High Court of Tamil Nadu. Sirisha received her Masters in Law degree from Northwestern University School of Law and her Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Madras.
