Pace University Establishes Center for Global Governance, Reporting and Regulation

At a time when European financial uncertainty is underscoring the impact of international businesses and economies on the U.S., the Lubin School of Business at Pace University has established a Center for Global Governance, Reporting and Regulation.

John Alan (Jack) James, a Lubin professor and major proponent of the teaching of comparative corporate governance, has been named the center’s inaugural executive director. James brings the center over 40 years of experience as an author and consultant in Europe, Asia and the U.S., and as an instructor at leading European business schools including INSEAD (Institut Européen d'Administration des Affaires, near Paris), CEI (Centre d'Etudes Industrielles in Geneva, Switzerland), IMD (International Institute for Management Development in Lausanne, Switzerland), and the Northwestern Kellogg European Management Program (Lausanne). In the United States, he has been a guest lecturer at The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Cornell and Northwestern.

Beginning February 2, the new Lubin center is offering a six-month program leading to a new Certified Compliance and Regulatory Professional (CCRP™) certificate. The center also is planned to be an academic setting for professional organizations, business leaders and policymakers to exchange views on key issues facing world economies. It will provide thought leadership on current and emerging issues, conducting independent research and disseminating the findings, sponsoring guest speakers, hosting special events and participating in academic and industry conferences.

“At no time in history have international governance and regulation been more important to the business, government and public sector than they are today,” said Neil S. Braun, the former President of the NBC Television Network and Chairman of Viacom Entertainment who is Lubin’s dean.

“Changes in the already-complex regulatory system are occurring daily in nations around the world,” Braun added. “The European Union is requiring new and tighter regulations, and the meetings of the G-20, the IMF and the Bank for International Standards, Basel, are introducing numerous new ideas for achieving convergence and establishing a level playing field across the globe. Future business leaders must be prepared for a global regulatory labyrinth, and Lubin is building upon its track record in teaching comparative governance.”

James, an international expert on how corporations are governed, founded Management Counsellors International, S.A., a Belgian corporation, where he advised clients including 50 of the U.S. Fortune 100 major multinational corporations and foreign companies like Fiat, Henkel and Siemens on market entry strategies and operating in “foreign” regulatory environments. He is also the author of over 80 articles and 52 publications. These include what are believed to be the first publications in English on how corporations are governed in Europe, detailing the stakeholder/workers’ voice approach used by all countries outside the U.S. and the British Commonwealth.

Recalls James, “These loose-leaf text books were published in a series of three constantly updated versions entitled Company Law and Governance, Labor Law and Industrial Relations, and Employment Law and issued by my own publishing company in Brussels, which in 1979 was sold to Management Centre Europe, the European headquarters of the American Management Association. These ‘best-sellers’ became an important source of information for firms investing in Europe and a basis for integrating governance policies and regulations at the level of the European Commission (EC) -- the executive body of the European Union (EU) -- and national governments.”

The new center’s first instructional program, a collaborative venture with the Association of International Bank Auditors (AIBA), leads to a certificate as a Certified Compliance and Regulatory Professional or CCRP™. The comprehensive six-month, 75-hour, 25-session course -- www.pace.edu/lubin/ccrp -- will provide intensive regulatory strategy and compliance training to professionals in global financial services. The first students will include AIBA internal audit, compliance and internal control employees from the association’s membership in nearly 100 branches and agencies of foreign banks doing business in the United States.

James said developing the new CCRP™ program took four professors and eight industry professionals nearly 1,000 hours, adding that it is “the first collaboration by the AIBA with an academic partner.”

International governance expert, author and global educator

James began his management consulting career with Hewitt Associates in Chicago and McKinsey & Co. in New York City. While consulting in Europe, from 1976 to 1980, he was appointed by Governor Ella Grasso as the State of Connecticut’s first Director of International Business and Economic Development, a part-time position. His activities resulted in moves of a dozen major European firms to build important subsidiaries in the state.

A frequent guest lecturer at business meetings around the world, James co-chaired the first UN conference on multinational companies and multinational trade unions at the International Labour Organization in ILO in Geneva in 1978. He was also an early contributor to the functions of the European Management Forum, now the World Economic Forum (WEF), in Davos.

A resident of Fairfield County, Connecticut, James earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Northwestern University and an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business. In 2003, James joined Lubin as a Professor of Management, creating one of the first graduate business school courses in Comparative Corporate Governance Systems. He also teaches a course on Regulatory Strategy.

In recent years he has been quoted as an expert source on corporate governance and regulation in such business publications as The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times and Investor’s Business.

Evolution from accounting standards

The new Center for Global Governance, Reporting and Regulation is an outgrowth of Lubin’s Center for the Study of International Accounting Standards, itself an outgrowth of Lubin’s 105-year record as a leader in the teaching of accounting.

The earlier Center sponsored major conferences between 2008 and 2010 on the impending convergence of U.S. and international accounting standards, and developed curriculum segments for Lubin courses on the global spread of such standards. That, in turn, led to a realization that knowledge of international reporting standards alone is not sufficient in the current business environment and that grounding in governance and regulatory compliance also is essential.

“This is one of the essential expertises of the future,” James underscored.

About the Lubin School of Business at Pace University: Globally recognized and prestigiously accredited, the Lubin School of Business integrates New York City’s business world into the experienced-based education of its students at Pace’s suburban and downtown campuses, implemented by the region’s largest co-op program, team-based learning, and customized career guidance. Its programs are designed to launch success-oriented graduates toward upwardly mobile careers. www.pace.edu/lubin

About Pace University: For 105 years Pace has produced thinking professionals by providing high quality education for the professions on a firm base of liberal learning amid the advantages of the New York metropolitan area. A private university, Pace has campuses in New York City and Westchester County, New York, enrolling nearly 13,000 students in bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral programs in its Lubin School of Business, Dyson College of Arts and Sciences, College of Health Professions, School of Education, School of Law, and Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems. www.pace.edu.

About The Association of International Bank Auditors (AIBA): The AIBA membership consists of internal audit, compliance and internal control professionals of nearly 100 U.S. branches and agencies of foreign banks. The mission of the AIBA is to foster the professional standing of its members by increasing their knowledge and capacities to carry out their responsibilities with respect to international banking.