René Ricol, Founder, Ricol, Lasteyrie & Associés

Financial advising expert, former judiciary expert at the cour de cassation, René Ricol has been contributing for more than 35 years to the development and professionalization of corporate advising services for growth and performance. He is a Grand Officier de l’Ordre du Mérite and of the Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur. In 1987, he founded Ricol, Lasteyrie & Associés with Jean-Charles de Lasteyrie and Gilles de Courcel, currently one of the leaders in independent financial expertise and financial risk management in France. René Ricol has been active in national and international professional institutions: President of the Compagnie Nationale des Commissaires aux Comptes from 1985 to 1989; and founder and Honorary President of the Compagnie des Conseils et Experts Financiers; and President of the Conseil Supérieur de l’Ordre des Experts Comptables from 1994 to 1998. In 1997 René Ricol was elected to the board of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), which brings together professional organizations from 119 countries worldwide. He was President of IFAC from 2002 to 2004. During this time, learning lessons from the scandals that disrupted the financial markets, he initiated and resolved, together with international regulators and standard setters, a deep reform of the international accountancy profession and audit practices. For further biographical information, kindly consult: http://www.ricol-lasteyrie.fr/bio/RRicol.html Ricol Lasteyrie supports companies and investors in their analysis of the objectives and stakes in financial evaluation, strategic development or strategic financial analysis. Ricol Lasteyrie benefits from a unique positioning in the market, offering more than 25 years of the highest level experience at the intersection of financial evaluation and corporate finance. Teams of professionals bring experience from audit, merchant banks, financial analysis and stock exchange regulation and are led by 15 partners highly engaged in the firm’s various missions. They are all dedicated to providing clients with a personalized, custom-tailored, interactive and long-term relationship. For further information about Ricol Lasteyrie, kindly consult: http://www.ricol-lasteyrie.fr/ Read more →

Baroness Frances D’Souza

Baroness Frances D’Souza is Lord Speaker of the House of Lords Read more →

Dr Sania Nishtar, Founder and President, Heartfile

Pakistan’s first female cardiologist, Dr Sania Nishtar is a global health expert and a proponent of health reform. She is founder of many health institutions in Pakistan—the NGO think tank Heartfile, Pakistan’s Health Policy Forum and Heartfile Health Financing. Internationally, she is a member of many Expert Working Groups and Task Forces of the World Health Organisation, a member of the board of the International Union for Health Promotion, the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council, the Ministerial Leadership Initiative for Global Health, the Clinton Global Initiative and is Chair of GAVI’s Evaluation Advisory Committee. She has previously led many global initiatives, including the award wining Global World Heart Day campaign. She is a regular plenary speaker, chair or moderator at global health meetings and a part of organizing major international conferences. Sania Nishtar is a key health policy voice in Pakistan, the author of Pakistan’s first health reform plan, Pakistan’s first compendium of health statistics, and the country’s first national public health plan for NCDs. One of her books, an analysis of Pakistan’s health systems became the blue print for the country’s health policy. She has authored 6 books, more than 100 peer review articles and around the same number of op-eds. She is the recipient of Pakistan’s Sitara e-Imtiaz, a presidential award, Global Innovation award, the European Societies Population Science Award, and many accolades of the International Biographical Centre, Cambridge and the American Biographical Centre. Sania Nishtar holds a Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians and a Ph.D from Kings College, London. Read more →

The Ethics of Security: With Respect and Gratitude to the Victims of January 1, 2013

As initially posted on the Heartfile blog. Heartfile is a non-profit NGO think tank with a focus on policy analysis and innovative solutions for improving health systems in Pakistan.

It is a great privilege to contribute to Heartfile’s blog, particularly on a day when the only possible first words must honour the Pakistani aid workers brutally shot and killed only a few hours ago. They were leaving a community center with a primary school and medical clinic that press reports note took part in the polio vaccination campaign. Read more →

It’s Not About Perfection

Perfection is not possible … imperfection is not an excuse

The recently updated guidelines to the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices entitled A Resource Guide to the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (November 2012) offers myriad helpful principles, case studies, and clarifications to facilitate compliance and proactive engagement with the authorities on various issues potentially covered by the FCPA. However, perhaps the most useful and reassuring guiding principle appears late in the document in Chapter 5 “Guiding Principles of Enforcement”: neither the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) nor the Department of Justice (DOJ) seek perfection. Nor should you. Read more →