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Recent Columns By Former FEI CEO Colleen Cunningham

Colleen Cunningham
Compliance Week columnist Colleen Cunningham is the former president and CEO of Financial Executives International. An internationally recognized expert on corporate financial reporting and accounting, Cunningham previously served as chief accountant of AT&T. She was also a CFO of Havas Advertising (North America), which was, at the time, the fifth largest advertising holding company in the world. In June 2007, she was named managing director of the New York tristate area for Resources Global Professionals. Her most recent columns can be found below:

  Title & Description Date Type of Article
1. How to Handle FASB’s Unfair Value Standard
I had planned to write a completely different column for this month—but, much like the Treasury Department, was inspired by recent events regarding the credit crisis to change course.
 By Colleen Cunningham
11/04/08 Columns & Editorials
2. Convergence Coming, but at What Pace?
In case you haven’t heard, International Financial Reporting Standards are coming to the United States—so it’s not IFRS, it’s WHENRS!
 By Colleen Cunningham
07/29/08 Columns & Editorials
3. How Fair Value Works When Liquidity Dries Up
My name is Colleen Cunningham, and I weigh 7 pounds, 2 ounces—at least, I do if you go by historical cost accounting.
 By Colleen Cunningham
05/28/08 Columns & Editorials
4. Preparing Yourself for the XBRL Wave
Once upon a time, I was a young auditor dutifully carrying around my audit bag filled with hand-written green ledger sheets (written with my Pentel, of course). I got on planes to Washington, D.C., to deliver filings to the Securities and Exchange Commission on their due date and walked across New York City to give a client some much-needed document.
 By Colleen Cunningham
02/26/08 Columns & Editorials
5. What Comes Next for Merger Accounting
Any time now, we are expecting both the Financial Accounting Standards Board and its global counterpart, the International Accounting Standards Board, to issue final standards on accounting for business combinations and non-controlling interests. These standards are the culmination of a joint project between FASB and the IASB, and staffs of both boards have participated on the project team since it was added to their agendas in 2002. In fact, the business combinations project was part of the now-famous Memorandum of Understanding that outlined the “Roadmap of Convergence” between International Financial Reporting Standards and U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles to occur by 2009.
 By Colleen Cunningham
11/27/07 Columns & Editorials
6. Mark to Market, or to Myth? FAS 157 Worries
The Bear Stearns hedge fund meltdown put “fair value” on the front pages. Now, Financial Accounting Standard No. 157 is going to put it on your books, and soon.
 By Colleen Cunningham
09/25/07 Columns & Editorials
7. Bear Stearns, Enron, And Warnings On Fair Value
As has been widely reported in the business media, New York-based Bear Stearns recently announced a $3.2 billion bail out of two of its hedge funds, due to investments in subprime mortgage loans (basically, home loans to borrowers with bad credit). Although the funds had been using fair value accounting to calculate the assets’ worth, the collapse caught many by surprise—largely because it is extremely difficult to value assets that do not have a ready liquid market. The funds ran into trouble when a downturn in parts of the housing market negatively impacted the funds’ investments in complex securities backed by subprime mortgages; since the securities are not frequently traded, the “fair value” is difficult to determine. Borrowed money was used in an attempt to save the funds.
 By Colleen Cunningham
07/10/07 Columns & Editorials
8. An Overzealous Definition Of Materiality?
Few concepts involving the preparation of financial statements in conformity with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles are as difficult to address as “materiality.” This is an issue that has been covered by Compliance Week extensively over the last few months; in May, the publication was the first to break the story that the SEC was indeed considering an update to its views on materiality, and former SEC deputy chief accountant and Compliance Week columnist Scott Taub recently penned a column on materiality as it pertains to restatements.
 By Colleen Cunningham
05/30/07 Columns & Editorials
9. Addressing Financial Reporting Complexity
Compliance Week is pleased to introduce Colleen Cunningham as its newest columnist. A former chief accountant of AT&T and former CFO of global advertising giant Havas, Cunningham was most recently CEO of Financial Executives International. Her column will appear in Compliance Week every other mont
 By Colleen Cunningham
03/27/07 Columns & Editorials
10. Getting Control Over Internal Control Rules
The March 16 deadline for public companies to complete an audit of their internal controls over financial reporting under the requirements of Sarbanes-Oxley Section 404 has come and gone. Now that we have gone through the first run of this mammoth compliance effort, it’s time to review what we have learned and identify ways to improve the annual certification process going forward.
 By Frank H. Brod and Colleen Cunningham
05/17/05 Columns & Editorials
11. Top 10 Financial Reporting Challenges For 2005
Last week, the CEO of Financial Executives International, Colleen Cunningham (formerly Sayther), crafted for members a list of the "top 10 financial reporting challenges for 2005." Though there aren't many surprises in the list, it is a nice compilation of the key issues that should be on companies' radar screens during the new year. We're reprinting the list, below, with permission from FEI, along with links to related rules, coverage, or guidance for each topic.
 By Colleen Cunningham
01/11/05 Compliance Week Coverage

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