Following Enron and other related events, the task force is looking to strengthen the financial management, reporting and corporate governance processes. The group will issue recommendations within the next 60 days that address these issues, and forward them to Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The FEI Task Force identified four principal areas in which it plans to make recommendations:

• Strengthening financial management and commitment to ethical conduct
• Improving corporate governance and the effectiveness of audit committees
• Rebuilding confidence in the accounting industry and the effectiveness of the audit process
• Modernizing financial reporting, and reform of the accounting standard-setting process

The members of the FEI Task Force include:

• Phil Ameen, vice president and comptroller, General Electric
• Fred Corrado, vice chairman and CFO, The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company
• John Jessup, vice president and controller, DuPont
• Stephen Patrick, CFO, Colgate-Palmolive
• Dennis Powell, vice president and corporate controller, Cisco Systems
• Pedro Reinhard, executive vice president and CFO, Dow Chemical
• Bryan Roub, senior vice president and CFO, Harris Corporation
• David Shedlarz, executive vice president and CFO, Pfizer
• David Sidwell, CFO investment bank, JP Morgan Chase
• Frank Borelli, senior advisor, former CFO, The Marsh & McLennan Companies

Separately, FEI is currently reviewing its Code of Ethics with the intention of updating it in light of the Enron bankruptcy. The Code of Ethics is signed by every member of FEI upon joining the organization and emphasizes the unique and important role of financial officers in financial reporting and corporate governance.  The organization plans to publish this revised code within the next 60 days. SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt recently encouraged FEI to undertake this effort in the spirit of promoting strong ethical conduct among financial executives.

FEI encourages public comment on its Code of Ethics, submitted by March 1. Comments should be directed to FEI's Christine DiFabio at cdifabio@fei.org or 973.898.4671. The current code is available on the FEI Web site at http://www.fei.org/info/code.cfm

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