Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRKA, BRKB) took an accounting charge to reflect the declines of three stocks in its investment portfolio after regulators asked about the company’s policy for writing down investment losses. But Berkshire Chief Financial Officer Marc Hamburg complained that the current stock prices don’t reflect the worth of the shares, and predicted in a letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that “each security’s market price will grow to at least the intrinsic value that existed” when Berkshire made the investments. [Dow Jones]
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CFO: Philips’ Efforts Have Company Moving Up the Outsourcing Ladder
- GoingConcern
- May 25, 2010
This story is republished from CFOZone, where you’ll find news, analysis and professional networking tools for finance executives.
As a follow-up to last week’s blog on Molson Coors’ experience with outsourcing, the CFO of the Latin American division of Dutch comglomerate Philips provided a different perspective Thursday morning at the Hackett Group’s best practices conference in Atlanta.
While Molson Coors’ CFO Stewart Glendinning expressed disappointment over high turnover rates at the outsourcing company the beer company signed up with, Philips’ Latin American CFO Ronald Eikelenboom said he planned on high turnover when he inked a deal with Indian outsourcer Infosys in late 2008 to expand the two companies’ relationship to Brazil, where Philips’ Latin American operations are based.
Eikelenboom told the audience (and me in a follow up video interview that will be posted shortly) that high turnover was central to Infosys’ business model, as the outsourcer keeps salary costs low by rotating from older to younger workers. But that turnover was priced into the terms of the deal, which at $250 million (for, I believe, the global contract, not just the Latin American part) is considered one of the largest of all such transactions. Too, the terms set a minimum level of performance, so it’s up to Infosys to manage the downside of high turnover.
Infosys had few qualms about Philips’ demands, said Eikelenboom, because the company was eager to expand into Brazil and the Philips deal gave it an entrée. So the CFO had enough leverage with the outsourcer to reassure himself about the potential risks.
“We’re building something together with Infosys,” he told the gathering. “We share the same aspirations.”
For that reason, Eikelenboom also expressed less concern than Glendinning did about outsourcing complex financial processes. And he said that was important for Philips as labor cost advantages in emerging markets dwindle over time as wages rise, and innovation and process improvement thus become more critical to the value that outsourcing creates.
“We’re moving up the ladder in BPO,” he said, referring to business process outsourcing.
With outsourcing, as with everything, I suppose, it’s different strokes for different folks.
Compensation Watch ’19: CFOs
- Jason Bramwell
- February 19, 2019
Some of you grinding away in public accounting might have “champagne wishes and caviar dreams” […]
Nun-cum-former CFO, Who May Have a Gambling Problem, Allegedly Made Off with Some Iona College Cash
- Caleb Newquist
- December 14, 2010
We’re a few days late to this story so save the indignation, it’s still worth mentioning.
Sister Marie E. Thornton (aka Sister Susie) was doing the Lord’s work as the CFO at Iona College in New Rochelle, NY and it appears that she was embezzling around $80k a year for nearly 10 years to fund a wee bit of a gambling problem. She surrendered to authorities last week over said embezzlement of ‘more than $850,000,’ according to Talk of the Sound, a New Rochelle blog, that quotes a DOJ press release.
The school fired Sister Suz last year, along with another employee, in relation to the embezzlement and the DOJ got around to charging her last week.
The story got picked up by several outlets, including Fox News who reported that Sister Suz had been blowing the money on trips to Atlantic City:
As chief financial officer at Iona College in New Rochelle, N.Y. from 1999 to 2009, Sister Marie Thornton, 62, bet her six-figure income and school money away during frequent trips to Atlantic City, federal prosecutors said.
Thornton was arrested Thursday and pleaded not guilty in federal court in Manhattan. She was released without posting bail. Sources confirmed to MyFoxNY that a former Iona basketball coach has said that Sister Marie definitely had a gambling problem.
Now why the former coach, Jeff Ruland (who was fired from his job, according to the Post), felt obligated to dish on the gambling issue is not clear, although it does provide a motive for Sister Susie’s (alleged!) stealing, which would have probably come out of the investigation. Odd revenge theories aside, the good news is that Sister Suz had seen the error of her ways and has been “cloistered at the Sisters for St. Joseph Order, near Philadelphia,” according to the Fox News report.
However, that is a lot closer to AC, so maybe we’re jumping the gun on repentance.
BREAKING: Sister Susie Arrested, U.S. Attorney Charges Former Iona College VP of Finance in $1.2 Million Embezzlement [Talk of the Sound]
Nun Accused of Embezzling $850,000 From College, Then Gambling It Away in Atlantic City [Fox News]
Nun charged with embezzling $1.2M from Iona [NYP]
