Upcoming speaking engagements

I am not teaching at Wharton this term so I'm headed out to talk to others about the state of accounting, audit, regulation, and corporate fraud.

Being “unproductive” makes me anxious.

There were lots of good reasons for me to take the summer off, relax, take care of myself, and get ready for what’s next.

But there is a certain type of person who has to stay busy. I guess I get that from my parents. At 92, my mom, even with a broken arm right now and circulation problems, wants to be out in her garden, splitting the hostas and moving all the gnomes and decorative objects around or pushing rocks around at my brother’s house on the lake to shore up barriers to erosion.

Fellow Chicago journalist Peter Nickeas, who wrote about the impact of violence for the Chicago Tribune then CNN and is now teaching at University of Arkansas, is a fellow traveller.

The baby wasn’t sleeping at the time, so most of the winter and spring I stayed up at night to handle feedings, burps, diapers, teething, illness, transitions … which I could do without interruption or splitting responsibility because I didn’t have a job. I wasn’t “productive” during that time (basically only doing gym / chores / baby things – I know that’s a type of productive but also in journalism if you’re not producing you don’t exist, and I internalized that too, and felt insecure and unsure of myself during this period). And the insecurity over all that has a long half-life, really. 

So, I started the Pen & Pencil book talk series, spoke at a conference in Baton Rouge the week after having some surgery, and responded to several other requests to talk to students — such as teaching the KPMG/PCAOB case to Univ. of Michigan students in August in DC — crypto enthusiasts, and journalists all over the world.

Coming up…

I will be spending a few days at Stanford at the invitation of Professors Anat Admati and Maureen McNichols to talk to students, faculty and PhD students and maybe record some interviews. Professor Admati has a new edition of her book, The Banker’s New Clothes, coming out in January and has cited my writing on KPMG and the banks. She wants me to talk to undergraduates about the role of audit in the capital markets and latest “crisis” of pressure for the Big 4.

As most of you know I have seen that show before.

While I am on the west coast I will stop in at The University of California, Berkeley, School of Law to speak to new assistant professor of law Andrew Baker’s class on securities law. He’s asked me to talk about some of the recent auditor liability litigation and how the firms survive and thrive, despite the unrelenting pressure of “partner matters”.

I am also visiting the Masters in Accounting class at Ohio State University in October to give my regular guest lecture “Ripped From The Headlines: Professionalism and Professional Skepticism Lost in The Big 4”.

I just found out from my niece this weekend that one of her good friends — a former fellow Princeton ice hockey player now at Harvard Business School — saw one of my articles about Tesla accounting included as required reading for her financial reporting class. So even when I am not there live I am there, in many classrooms, in spirit.

If you would like me to teach, short or long term, for your accounting, journalism or law program, or just visit please get in touch!

I love teaching!

© Francine McKenna, The Digging Company LLC, 2022