Best known as the “Accountant Who Beat Halliburton,” Anthony Menendez is widely recognized for his courageous whistleblower efforts in a decade-long legal battle with Halliburton. The forensic consulting expert will be visiting Culverhouse as part of the College’s J. Craig Smith Endowed Chair of Business Integrity Ethics Lecture Series on Monday, April 22 at 7:00 p.m. in the College’s Alston 30 lecture hall. The lecture is hosted by the J. Craig Smith Endowed Chair of Business Integrity and the Academic Honor Council. The lecture is open to all students, faculty, and staff.
More About Anthony Menendez
Despite having no formal legal training, he represented himself during the appeals process and ultimately prevailed in the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals. The ruling has had a positive impact on corporate whistleblower law under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and has led to significantly increased protections for all corporate whistleblowers.
Menendez is a recognized expert in financial accounting and SEC reporting. For more than two decades he has been identifying, researching, and resolving complex accounting and business transactions. He is a former top controller at General Motors, where he was responsible for accounting and reporting for more than $100 billion in annual revenues. He played a key role in GM’s historic effort to emerge from bankruptcy and complete one of the largest IPO’s in history. Menendez also worked as an audit executive with Ernst & Young, where he focused on entrepreneurial and emerging growth companies. Throughout his career, he has trained professionals around the world on business ethics, fraud, professional standards, and SEC reporting rules. As a forensic consulting expert, he works with attorneys representing shareholders in complex nationally litigated cases involving allegations of improper financial reporting and auditing.
About the J. Craig Smith Endowed Chair of Business Integrity and Lecture Series
The J. Craig Smith Endowed Chair of Business Integrity established to support the study of ethics and develop projects to nurture social responsibility and reflective, thoughtful citizenship. Learn more about Culverhouse’s approach toward ethics here.
From 1951-1970, James Craig Smith was President and CEO of Avondale Mills, a textile company founded in Birmingham by his grandfather, Braxton Bragg Comer, in 1865. Mr. Smith was considered an innovative leader in the textile industry – the recurring themes throughout his work at Avondale were honesty, integrity, and compassion.
J. Craig Smith’s legacy continued after his death. His daughter, Mignon C. Smith, made a generous donation to The University of Alabama in 2005 to establish the J. Craig Smith Endowed Chair of Business Integrity and the Center for Ethics and Social Responsibility. Dr. William E. Jackson III, Professor of Management and Professor of Finance, currently holds the Smith Foundation Chair.