Iris Mack, Former Harvard Derivatives Whistleblower, Tells How She Leveraged Her Firing to Create New Business and Life Opportunities

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va., Feb. 2 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Dr. Iris Mack will tell consulting psychologists how she turned a career crisis battling Harvard University and the Harvard Management Company (HMC) into life lessons and a new business, and will discuss implications for businesses in today's global economy.

Dr. Mack will share rich experiences about the liabilities of closed organizational systems like she encountered at HMC.  There, her verbal and written warnings of risky investment practices – based on her previous derivatives and investment experiences at Enron, London Investment Banque BNP Paribas, Salomon Brothers and Charles Schwab – not only went unheeded but led to her firing.  She will tell how the traumatic aftermath fueled her resiliency and desire to overcome adversity, leading her to develop a new and rewarding career.

"In 2002, when I corresponded with Larry Summers' office about my concerns over derivatives use in the endowment, I was just trying to do my job," Dr. Mack said.  "It's a bit surreal what we are experiencing today: loss of billions of dollars in Harvard's endowment, a global recession, high unemployment, millions of home foreclosures, IRS auditing Harvard, etc. – all due to the use of financial WMDs [Weapons of Mass Destruction]!"  She also notes that "experiences such as Katrina and the recent earthquakes and aftershocks in Haiti help one put his/her problems in perspective and to deal with adverse situations."

Raised in a New Orleans housing project, Dr. Mack learned early lessons on overcoming adversity.  She became the second African-American woman to receive a Ph.D. in Applied Mathematics from Harvard.  Her vita includes experience as an investment banker, an Enron energy trader, an M.I.T. mathematics and business school professor, and she was a semi-finalist in NASA's Astronaut Program.  She was recently appointed to the National Academy of Sciences' Research Advisory Board.  A strong advocate of math and finance education for children, she authored a children's book, Mama Says, "Money Doesn't Grow on Trees!" She founded Phat Math, Inc., an "edutainment" firm that offers a mathematics social network site – www.phatmath.com – for students in grades K through college to obtain free 24/7 online math tutoring.  She is currently writing a book on her experiences in the derivatives markets.

Dr. Mack will deliver her 8 a.m. keynote address to the Society of Consulting Psychology on Saturday, Feb. 6, at the Hilton Scottsdale Resort and Villas in Phoenix.  The conference theme is:  Overcoming Adversity and Creating Value in the Global Economy.  The Society's members are psychologists who provide varied business services including executive coaching, training, and organizational consulting for non-profit, for-profit, and government organizations.

SOURCE Society of Consulting Psychology