Andrew Fastow

We live in the Age of Corporate Disasters. From Enron to the financial crisis to Purdue Pharma, J&J, 3M, General Electric, Boeing, and Silicon Valley Bank today, and hundreds of companies in between, seemingly great and iconic companies have been harmed or destroyed by self-inflicted wounds. What has changed? Are we worse at Compliance? Are we less Ethical? Has Culture changed so significantly? The leaders at these organizations did not set out to do harm; their challenges arose from an inability to lead their teams through and to the right decisions in the Gray Area – that place where creative application of complex and ambiguous rules allow us to get to a technically correct answer that may be the wrong answer. The Gray Area is where leadership is needed most, but it is the area where leaders have the least amount of training.

Andy Fastow spent five years in prison thinking about his role as CFO at Enron. He is now a sought-after public speaker and he consults with Boards of Directors on ways to help leaders better identify, price and manage these unseen Gray Area risks in their businesses (and in their lives).