LEVICK | September 12th, 2020
Event: The Role of Whistleblowers in America

In an exclusive event hosted by the Wake Forest University Center for the Study of Capitalism, Enron whistleblower Sherron Watkins joins John Kostyack, Executive Director of the National Whistleblower Center and Kobre & Kim partner Bill McGovern with hosts Christina Elson and Richard Levick. The panel will take place Tuesday, September 22 at 1pm EST.
Since 1778, the United States has protected whistleblowers. Behind virtually every major fraud investigation in the United States is a whistleblower. In 2001, whistleblower Sherron Watkins now famously warned that Enron could “implode in a wave of accounting scandals.”
After the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, the federal government initiated more protections and financial incentives for whistleblowers in the private sector so they could safely and effectively expose financial fraud and protect investors. Yet by 2019, whistleblowers in the federal work force watched as the President of the United States appeared to violate whistleblower protection laws by trying to unmask a government whistleblower who filed a complaint that led to his own impeachment.
Are whistleblowers heroes or villains? How do whistleblowers protect themselves while serving the public interest in exposing unscrupulous corporate and government executives? How should companies protect themselves from financially incentivized whistleblowers?
The Center for the Study of Capitalism brings together:
Sherron Watkins, the former Vice President of Enron Corporation who alerted then chairman Ken Lay in August 2001 to accounting irregularities within the company, warning him that Enron ‘might implode in a wave of accounting scandals.’ She has testified before Congressional Committees investigating Enron’s demise from both the House and the Senate. Sherron received national acclaim for her courageous actions and TIME magazine named Sherron along with two others, Coleen Rowley of the FBI and Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom, as their 2002 Persons of the Year, calling it “The Year of the Whistleblower.”
In recognition of her outstanding demonstration of ethics in the work place, Ms. Watkins has received numerous honors, including the Court TV Scales of Justice Award and its Everyday Hero’s Award, the Women Mean Business Award from the Business and Professional Women/USA Organization, and the 2003 Woman of the Year Award by Houston Baptist University. Glamour Magazine named her one of its 2002 Women of the Year, and Barbara Walters included her as one of the 10 Most Fascinating People of 2002. In 2003, the National Academy of Management presented Ms. Watkins with their Distinguished Executive Award and the Women’s Economic Round Table honored her with the Rolfe Award for Educating the Public about Business and Finance. Ms. Watkins is co-author, along with Texas Monthly journalist, Mimi Swartz, of Power Failure, the Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron, published by Doubleday in March 2003.
John Kostyack, a nonprofit executive and attorney with a track record of successfully building and leading dynamic,
William McGovern, a partner at Kobre & Kim, a firm focused exclusively on disputes and investigations, where he handles
Before joining Kobre & Kim, Mr. McGovern served as Branch Chief in the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington DC and New York, and as an Assistant District Attorney in New York City where he was designated as a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York. A Hong Kong solicitor and a New York-admitted lawyer, Mr. McGovern is often called upon to discuss and write about his work on global enforcement matters and investigations, specifically focusing on the interaction between the U.S. and Asia.
Hosts,Richard Levick (Chairman & CEO of LEVICK, the international crisis firm) and Christina Elson (Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Capitalism) will lead the discussion on trends, regulation, whistleblower protection, monetization, and what’s next for this critically important function.
LEVICK | September 12th, 2020
Event: The Role of Whistleblowers in America


In an exclusive event hosted by the Wake Forest University Center for the Study of Capitalism, Enron whistleblower Sherron Watkins joins John Kostyack, Executive Director of the National Whistleblower Center and Kobre & Kim partner Bill McGovern with hosts Christina Elson and Richard Levick. The panel will take place Tuesday, September 22 at 1pm EST.
Since 1778, the United States has protected whistleblowers. Behind virtually every major fraud investigation in the United States is a whistleblower. In 2001, whistleblower Sherron Watkins now famously warned that Enron could “implode in a wave of accounting scandals.”
After the financial crisis of 2008 and 2009, the federal government initiated more protections and financial incentives for whistleblowers in the private sector so they could safely and effectively expose financial fraud and protect investors. Yet by 2019, whistleblowers in the federal work force watched as the President of the United States appeared to violate whistleblower protection laws by trying to unmask a government whistleblower who filed a complaint that led to his own impeachment.
Are whistleblowers heroes or villains? How do whistleblowers protect themselves while serving the public interest in exposing unscrupulous corporate and government executives? How should companies protect themselves from financially incentivized whistleblowers?
The Center for the Study of Capitalism brings together:
Sherron Watkins, the former Vice President of Enron Corporation who alerted then chairman Ken Lay in August 2001 to accounting irregularities within the company, warning him that Enron ‘might implode in a wave of accounting scandals.’ She has testified before Congressional Committees investigating Enron’s demise from both the House and the Senate. Sherron received national acclaim for her courageous actions and TIME magazine named Sherron along with two others, Coleen Rowley of the FBI and Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom, as their 2002 Persons of the Year, calling it “The Year of the Whistleblower.”
In recognition of her outstanding demonstration of ethics in the work place, Ms. Watkins has received numerous honors, including the Court TV Scales of Justice Award and its Everyday Hero’s Award, the Women Mean Business Award from the Business and Professional Women/USA Organization, and the 2003 Woman of the Year Award by Houston Baptist University. Glamour Magazine named her one of its 2002 Women of the Year, and Barbara Walters included her as one of the 10 Most Fascinating People of 2002. In 2003, the National Academy of Management presented Ms. Watkins with their Distinguished Executive Award and the Women’s Economic Round Table honored her with the Rolfe Award for Educating the Public about Business and Finance. Ms. Watkins is co-author, along with Texas Monthly journalist, Mimi Swartz, of Power Failure, the Inside Story of the Collapse of Enron, published by Doubleday in March 2003.
John Kostyack, a nonprofit executive and attorney with a track record of successfully building and leading dynamic,
William McGovern, a partner at Kobre & Kim, a firm focused exclusively on disputes and investigations, where he handles
Before joining Kobre & Kim, Mr. McGovern served as Branch Chief in the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Washington DC and New York, and as an Assistant District Attorney in New York City where he was designated as a Special Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York. A Hong Kong solicitor and a New York-admitted lawyer, Mr. McGovern is often called upon to discuss and write about his work on global enforcement matters and investigations, specifically focusing on the interaction between the U.S. and Asia.
Hosts,Richard Levick (Chairman & CEO of LEVICK, the international crisis firm) and Christina Elson (Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Capitalism) will lead the discussion on trends, regulation, whistleblower protection, monetization, and what’s next for this critically important function.
- Brand
- Meet Nancy Pelosi
- Delta Airlines and the Georgia Voting Controversy
- Richard Levick on Volkswagen’s April Fool’s
- The Final Episode of M*A*S*H
- Should Companies Consider Appointing Chief Paranoia Officers to Combat Disinformation?
- Can Capitalism Really Be “For Humanity?”
- The Fifth Estate: A Business Guide for Surviving “The Troubles”
- Here We Come
- Corporate Revolt Over Campaign Donations Shakes Political World
- What Happens Next?
- CSR & Sustainability
- Public Perception & the Biden Transition
- Communications
- Corporate Leadership in an Age of Unrest
- Ten Rules For Corporations And Social Issues
- Delta Airlines and the Georgia Voting Controversy
- Developing a Crisis Management Program
- “I Never Felt as Unsafe as I Did That Day”
- How America Scores Changes Youths Through Soccer and Poetry
- Everyone Gets Disrupted
- The Politics Industry
- Look
- The Final Episode of M*A*S*H
- The Regulatory Hall of Fame
- Should Companies Consider Appointing Chief Paranoia Officers to Combat Disinformation?
- Company News
- The Final Episode of M*A*S*H
- Reflections on a Turbulent Year: 2020
- Here We Come
- Recent Awards & Recognition
- Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
- What’s a Director to Do?
- LEVICK Announces Partnership with BCG
- A New Look
- Albert Krieger, 1923-2020
- LEVICK Announces Partnership with Jipyong
- Speaking to In-House Counsel
- Childhood Lessons
- Crisis
- Corporate Leadership in an Age of Unrest
- Ten Rules For Corporations And Social Issues
- Meet Nancy Pelosi
- It’s War: The New Dilemma for Corporations and Social Issues
- Matt Gaetz’s Strategic Struggle Makes Him a Target
- Delta Airlines and the Georgia Voting Controversy
- A Call for Elected Officials to Protect Voting Access
- Richard Levick on Volkswagen’s April Fool’s
- Developing a Crisis Management Program
- Standing In Awe
- “I Never Felt as Unsafe as I Did That Day”
- Richard Levick on Top 2020 Crises
- Finance
- The World of Financial Crimes with Tom Ajamie
- Can Capitalism Really Be “For Humanity?”
- GameStop: The Buck Starts Here
- Here We Come
- The Threat to Free Markets
- Advisory & Insurance Services
- WATCH: Revolutionizing Litigation Finance
- Litigation Finance: Revolutionizing Litigation
- Consumer-Focused Solutions for Financial Health
- Event: Consumer-Focused Solutions for Financial Health
- Sports: Power and Money in a New Age of Social Justice
- The Balancing Act: The Role of Whistleblowers in American Commerce and Government
- Guest Column
- Guest Blog: The Mainstream Media Gets an A for Intellectual Arrogance, an F for Journalism
- Buckle up Directors: Cybersecurity Risk and Bankruptcy Risk Are Not Mutually Exclusive
- Buckle up Directors: Cybersecurity Risk and Bankruptcy Risk Are Not Mutually Exclusive
- South Africa: The Slow Decline of the ANC
- Why CSR Fails and How to Fix It
- What to Expect Following the European Elections?
- Buhari Inaugurated. What Now for Nigeria?
- Marketing- It’s Up To You…
- Crisis Management lessons from the air-crash investigation model
- The Future of War
- Health
- Reflections on a Turbulent Year: 2020
- Food Issues & the Biden Administration
- Covid-19: The Pandemic that Never Should Have Happened
- Pharma’s Post-Pandemic Policy Outlook
- Keeping Hope Alive
- Real Herd Immunity
- The Fiction of College Sports Amateurism
- Mac Summit: Crisis Communications in a Post-Covid, Post-Election World
- Travel Industry Communications in the Age of Covid-19
- Track of Time
- Is C-19 Taking Women Lawyers’ Careers Back to the 1950s?
- Post-Pandemic PR Strategy
- In Memoriam
- Snider’s Super Foods: Locally World Famous
- Speak Truth With Love, Not Anger
- In Memoriam: Stephen Susman
- Letter to the Movement
- John Lewis’ Life Bridged the Best of America
- Albert Krieger, 1923-2020
- In Memoriam of Marcia Horowitz
- Jim Lehrer Passes Away
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
- Harold Burson Passes Away
- Interviews
- CommPRO: Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s Life & Legacy
- Richard Levick on “My Wakeup Call”
- Primerus Webinar: Into the Wind
- The Future of Baseball Post-Pandemic
- Webinar: The End of Brand Neutrality
- Thought Leadership & Organic Growth
- Man & Superman
- LEVICK Announces New Webinar Series with Turbine Labs
- Navigating Coronavirus Challenges in the Insurance Industry
- VIDEO: How to Anticipate & Avoid a Crisis
- What’s Next? with Julie Chase
- What’s Next?: California Electoral Behavior
- Law Firms
- Digital Upskilling in Legal: More Than Just New Technology
- An Insider’s View of the Legal World
- Fighting for the Rule of Law with Marshall Harris
- Why Should I Apologize? Lawyers vs. Communicators
- You Took a PPP Loan. Now Get Ready to Talk About It.
- Beyond Black Swan: Positioning the law firm for the new normal
- A Salute to Personal Courage and the Rule of Law
- Cyber Risk Institute Expands Its Profile
- When a client becomes a law firm’s PR nightmare
- The General Counsel’s Dilemma
- A First Look at the Google Antitrust Suit
- The Latest Top Class Actions
- Litigation
- An Insider’s View of the Legal World
- Buyers’ Guide to In-House Tech
- Fighting for the Rule of Law with Marshall Harris
- Why Should I Apologize? Lawyers vs. Communicators
- A Conversation with Abbe Lowell
- Leveraging Legal Expertise in Communications
- You Took a PPP Loan. Now Get Ready to Talk About It.
- Beyond Black Swan: Positioning the law firm for the new normal
- A Salute to Personal Courage and the Rule of Law
- Cyber Risk Institute Expands Its Profile
- When a client becomes a law firm’s PR nightmare
- The General Counsel’s Dilemma
- Our Work
- Bridging the “Preclinical Gap” in Childhood Cancer Research
- Recent Awards & Recognition
- The Cyber Bad Guys Are Getting Worse
- Crisis Communications & The Age of Cancel Culture
- Standing on the Shoulders of Giants
- Video: Conversations with American Legends
- Staying Ahead of the Crisis
- A New Era of Insurance Marketing
- Infographic: Judgment Free Zone
- Infographic: Barriers to Entry
- Infographic: History Meter
- Assistance for Law Firms Engaged in Pro Bono
- Public Affairs
- You’re the Media and You’re Going to Die
- The Politics Industry
- The Politics Industry with Katherine Gehl
- Real Washington with Former White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart
- From Shareholders to Stakeholders with Don Springer
- The Regulatory Hall of Fame
- Richard Levick on U.S.-China Relations
- The Price of Courage
- Can Capitalism Really Be “For Humanity?”
- GameStop: The Buck Starts Here
- Impeach, Indict, Heal? A Discussion of Post-Trump Washington
- “Crooked Dominion Machines,” Impeachments, Insurrections & The First 100 Days
- Risk
- Should Companies Consider Appointing Chief Paranoia Officers to Combat Disinformation?
- The Price of Courage
- Ingredients of Decency
- ESG Performance and Credit Markets
- The Coronavirus Saga is Just Beginning
- No. 1 Risk of the Decade
- The Risk Evolution of Corporate Risk
- Extend Risk Management Reach
- Collective Action
- Risk Identifying Software
- The New Risk of Doing Nothing
- Political Unrest In Hong Kong
- Social
- A Call for Elected Officials to Protect Voting Access
- How America Scores Changes Youths Through Soccer and Poetry
- Look
- Should Companies Consider Appointing Chief Paranoia Officers to Combat Disinformation?
- The Price of Courage
- Bridging the “Preclinical Gap” in Childhood Cancer Research
- The Ministry of Common Sense
- How to Stop the Madness
- A Remembrance of Tommy Raskin
- No ‘justice’ in rep’s vote
- A Call for Orderly & Peaceful Transition of Power
- Recovering from the Greatest Sacrifice
- Technology
- Digital Upskilling in Legal: More Than Just New Technology
- Should Companies Consider Appointing Chief Paranoia Officers to Combat Disinformation?
- Bridging the “Preclinical Gap” in Childhood Cancer Research
- 3 Tech Lessons Businesses Must Learn From COVID-19
- Constella Intelligence Announces Hunter for Improved Investigation Capability
- Cyber Risk Institute Expands Its Profile
- Digital Politics: The Future of Voting Technology
- Ethics in Electronics
- The Cyber Bad Guys Are Getting Worse
- A First Look at the Google Antitrust Suit
- The Pause
- Cybersecurity Incidents of the Summer
- This Week
- A Remembrance of Tommy Raskin
- A New Year’s Resolution
- Over the River and Through The Woods
- Dropping the Mic
- Won’t You Be My Neighbor?
- The Cyber Bad Guys Are Getting Worse
- What We Hear
- Track of Time
- Video: Conversations with American Legends
- Conversations with American Legends
- A New Era of Insurance Marketing
- American Legend