Contact: Kim Weaver Spurr [email protected] 919-962-8951
Web site: www.bschool.unc.edu
Kenan-Flagler Business School MBA graduation:
May 16, 1999, 7 p.m., Dean Smith Center, Chapel Hill
Graduation speaker: Crandall Bowles, chairman of the board and CEO of Springs Industries
Bowles is the fifth generation of her family to lead Springs Industries, a Fort Mill, S.C.-based company which has grown from its founding in 1887 to today from a single mill to a corporation with manufacturing facilities in 10 states and marketing and distribution subsidiaries in Canada and Mexico. With annual sales of $2.2 billion, Springs is a leading manufacturer and marketer of home furnishings including bed, bath and window fashions. Springs markets these products under popular brand names such as Wamsutta, Springmaid, Dundee, Bali and Graber.
Bowles was named president and chief operating officer of the company in January 1997 and appointed chief executive officer in December 1997. She became the company's chairman in April 1998.
She earned a bachelor's degree in economics at Wellesley College in 1969 and an MBA from Columbia University in 1973. (She studied her second year at Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and currently serves on the school's Board of Visitors.)
Bowles is the wife of former White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles.
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Kenan-Flagler Business School Master of Accounting (MAC) Program graduation:
May 27, 1999, 10 a.m., Maurice J. Koury Auditorium, McColl Building
Graduation speaker: Olivia Kirtley, the first woman and first person from industry, not public accounting, to become chairman of the board of directors of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
Kirtley is the first woman to head the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) at a time when the profession is seeing more women interested in the CPA field. Kirtley spent 10 years in public accounting, but has worked for the last 20 years at the Kentucky-based Vermont American Corp. She has risen to the top of the company, the world's largest manufacturer and marketer of power tool accessories, and is now the vice president of finance and CFO.
In her new leadership role, Kirtley has several key initiatives on her agenda.
She is working to reposition the profession to meet the challenges of the new millenium. She wants to increase the Institute's activity in the international arena: Major efforts are under way to harmonize accounting and auditing standards internationally. She wants to increase diversity in the profession, and she wants to examine the educational training CPAs undergo to make sure that schools are turning out broad-based business professionals, with strategic thinking, communication and leadership skills.
The CPA profession is going through some changing times, which makes it an interesting and challenging time for Kirtley to take over the helm of the Institute. The Tax Restructuring Act is changing the way many CPAs practice, the profession is examining the way CPAs get their training and U.S. standard setters are facing pressure from both critics at home and supporters of international standards worldwide.
And Kirtley believes the profession must be involved in public policy issues where CPAs' professional knowledge and competencies can make a contribution, for example in Social Security reform.
With more than 330,000 members, the AICPA is the premier national professional association for CPAs in the United States.
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