RICHARDSON, Texas (Sept.13, 2005) – The importance of director effectiveness and the future role of the corporate board member as a full-time professional position will be the focus of a day-long seminar Oct. 6 sponsored by the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance (IECG) at The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) School of Management.

IECG Director Dr. Constantine Konstans, who is also a UTD professor of Accounting and Information Management, explained that the program of “Compliance and Beyond: Developing Effective Directors” is designed to help members of corporate boards acquire the knowledge they need to meet the increasing demands of being a professional director.


Dr. Constantine Konstans, a UTD professor of Accounting and Information Management, is director of the Institute for Excellence in Corporate Governance.

“We are also looking at the educational needs of senior officers and institutional investors, as the current trend continues to develop. We believe this trend will result in a new alignment of the role of the board of directors in the corporate governance process,” Konstans said.

“Our programs anticipate the needs of these three groups as the time constraints and knowledge demands placed on corporate directors continue to increase and the role of director becomes more and more professionalized.”

James E. Copeland, Jr., senior fellow for corporate governance with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and former CEO of Deloitte, leads the list of speakers for the day-long Oct. 6 seminar.

The seminar’s other key speakers include Holly Gregory, a partner in the New York office of the leading corporate governance law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP, and Ron Haddock, chairman and CEO of Prisma Energy International and a member of the boards of directors of five publicly traded companies. Haddock is also a director of post-bankruptcy Enron Corporation.

 “A comprehensive and continuing education program for boards and their key committees has become imperative to ensure board effectiveness as well as to enhance shareholder value,” Konstans explained.

UTD School of Management Dean Dr. Hasan Pirkul agreed with Konstans, pointing to the increasing responsibilities of corporate board members. “Boards of directors of public companies can no longer be content to simply comply with the minimum requirements imposed by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Increasing board responsibilities demand a deeper knowledge of the organization and its industry and a broader ongoing review of detailed information,” Pirkul observed.

IECG’s seminars are accredited by Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) and are designated as official ISS “Preferred Boardroom Education Programs.” Programs with such designation offer director participants special continuing education credits.

The seminar series is co-sponsored by IECG strategic partners Bank One Corporation; Deloitte; Haynes and Boone, LLP; and Marsh & McClellan Companies.

Reservations are now being taken for the Oct. 6 session. The cost of each seminar in the series is $895 with a discount for early registration. Registration information is available at 972-883-4925 or http://som.utdallas.edu/iecg. IECG’s next seminar, “Compliance and Beyond: What You Need to Know About Earnings Management,” is scheduled for May 2006.

About The UTD School of Management

Based on publications in the top 22 business journals spanning all areas of business, The University of Texas at Dallas School of Management faculty ranks 37 th in research productivity among business school faculties nationwide, and U.S. News and World Report ranks the school’s Cohort MBA program among the top 35 full-time MBA programs at public colleges and universities nationwide.

Housed in a new 204,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art building, the School of Management is the largest of UTD’s seven schools, with an enrollment that has doubled over the last eight years to about 4,400 students. The UTD School of Management is fully accredited by AACSB International – The Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business.

About UTD

The University of Texas at Dallas, located at the convergence of Richardson, Plano and Dallas in the heart of the complex of major multinational technology corporations known as the Telecom Corridor®, enrolls more than 14,500 students. The school’s freshman class traditionally stands at the forefront of Texas state universities in terms of average SAT scores. The university offers a broad assortment of bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degree programs. For additional information about UTD, please visit the university’s web site at www.utdallas.edu