- Sherron Watkins
Sherron Watkins (born
August 28 ,1959 , inTomball, Texas ) was Vice President of Corporate Development at the Enron Corporation. She is considered by many to be thewhistleblower who helped to uncover the Enron scandal in 2001.It has been remarked that her actions cannot be considered whistleblowing in a strict sense, because she only wrote a concerned internal email message to Enron CEO
Kenneth Lay warning him of potential whistleblowers in the company and pointing out that there were misstatements in the financial reports. Her memo did not reach the public until five months after it was written. Dan Ackman [ cite web | url=http://www.dackman.homestead.com/ | title=Dan Ackman ] argued inForbes Magazine and in the Wall Street Journal that, for this reason, her actions did not constitute whistleblowing and actually helped provide legal cover for Lay. [cite web | url=http://www.forbes.com/2002/02/14/0214watkins.html | first=Dan | last=Ackman | title=Sherron Watkins Had Whistle But Blew It | publisher=Forbes | date=2002-02-14 ]She testified before the U.S. Congress and Senate at the beginning of 2002 and was selected as one of three "People of the Year 2002" by "Time". (The two whistleblowers who joined her as "People of the Year" were Cynthia Cooper of
WorldCom andColeen Rowley of theFBI .)She had joined Enron in 1993, having worked for
Arthur Andersen the previous eight years. She departed from Enron in November 2002. Since then she has been giving speeches at management congresses and has co-written a book about her experiences at Enron and the problems of the US corporate culture.Watkins holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the
University of Texas , where she was a member ofAlpha Chi Omega sorority, [cite web| url =http://www.alphachiomega.org/about_axo/notable_alumnae.asp| title = About ΑΧΩ Notable Alumnae| publisher =Alpha Chi Omega | accessdate =2007-09-20] and a Masters of Professional Accounting. She is aCertified Public Accountant (CPA).Books
*Mimi Swartz with Sherron Watkins: "Power Failure. The Inside Story of The Collapse of Enron", ISBN 0385507879 (March 2003)
Film
* "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room". 2005. [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0413845/ IMDB] Includes personal interviews with Sherron Watkins.
* "". 2003. Portrayed as a staff accountant who nervously alerts Lay of the misstatements.References
*
External links
* [http://www.itmweb.com/f012002.htm Sherron Watkins eMail to Enron Chairman Kenneth Lay, August 2001]
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