Alabama PRSA

Ethics Month: Do you know where “the line” is?

Tuesday, September 14 at 11:45 am
Alabama Power Metro Auditorium
1313 6th Ave. North, Birmingham

To “toe the line” means to conform to a rule or standard. But what happens in your career when you’re asked to cross the line, even if it’s “just once”? Once you’ve proven your willingness to violate an ethical principle, it’s bound to happen again. Soon it’s a matter of business as usual and you don’t even remember there WAS a line—it’s indistinct and blurred into dust.

Weston Smith has been on both sides of the line...

Weston Smith is a graduate of the University of North Alabama with a Bachelors of Science degree in Accounting. He spent five years on the audit staff of Ernst & Young, where he earned his CPA license. In 1987, he was recruited to Healthsouth. During his tenure at Healthsouth, the company grew from 13 to over 2000 locations, located in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Canada, the UK, and Saudi Arabia. Smith eventually rose to the rank of CFO in 2001. While at Ernst & Young, he earned a Certified Public Accounting license.

Smith speaks about his role in the rise and fall of HealthSouth, and more specifically about what was going through his mind as the whistleblower behind the company’s $2.7 billion accounting fraud. He also speaks about the red flags of ethical malfeasance, and pleads to attendees about what their reaction should be when faced with breakdowns in integrity. For his part in the Healthsouth debacle, Smith paid deeply, losing everything and spending 14 months in Maxwell federal prison camp.

Smith has been featured on CNBC and as a guest of Neil Cavuto on the Fox Business Channel. At Healthsouth, he worked at a company whose public persona was sparkling, but whose internal operations were mired under a leadership of greed, pressure and corruption. His story is relevant because, unfortunately, bad decisions are made by people from all walks of life. While accepting responsibility for his own actions, Smith comments that “I hope that people will hear my story and perhaps either know what to look for in possible workplace financial deceit, or think twice about their own decision making processes with regards to such”. As the whistleblower of the fraud, he makes a compelling argument for courage and integrity within the workplace.

Those interested in knowing more about Weston Smith’s story can visit his website at www.westonsmith.biz.