Quote of the Day: from CFO to lawnmower man
After such a mighty fall, how do you deal with the awkward question of, “So, what did you do before lawnmowing?”
Some background. In 2002-2003 one of the largest healthcare services providers in the United States, HealthSouth, was involved in a corporate accounting scandal in which its Chief Executive Officer, Richard M. Scrushy, was accused of directing company employees to falsely report grossly exaggerated company earnings in order to meet stockholder expectations.
At the time Aaron Beam was the company’s CFO. He has gone from a CFO earning $500,000 a year to running his own one-man, lawn-care business in Alabama.
“Before the fraud broke, people would ask me what I did before I retired and I’d say I was founder and former CFO of HealthSouth. But today when people ask me what I did before I retired I kind of look away and say I was an accountant and hope they don’t ask me any other questions.”
~ Aaron Beam, former CFO of HealthSouth, at the University of Texas-Dallas Fraud Summit, earlier this month.
Via Going Concern
