Cultivating Conscience and Courage

By Carolanne Roberts

Photo by Beth Wynn

When Dividends last visited with 1986 accounting graduate Cynthia Cooper, it was a few years after her whistle-blowing groundwork resulted in the demise of Mississippi-based telecom giant WorldCom. Once the state’s Fortune 500 crown jewel, WorldCom’s Cinderella story had turned nightmare upon discovery of a $3.8 billion fraud. Cooper had written the book Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower and been featured as 2002’s Person of the Year on the cover of Time magazine. Additionally, Cooper had begun to present programs on ethical leadership, risk management and the importance of a speak-up culture.

Over the ensuing years, many things could have happened to Cooper professionally – a major role at another company, perhaps, or a retreat from the glaring public eye. Or, as it actually turned out, using the negative experience for the good.

For starters, she addresses corporations, executives, and boards about anti-fraud programs, recognition of warning signs, and common threads among companies that have experienced similar scandals. These talks have taken her in person or, more recently via Zoom, to audiences as far away as Uganda and Ecuador.

Cooper also speaks to college students too young to remember the 2002 WorldCom reality. It is here, standing before the next generation – those poised to take the reins of businesses in the near future – that Cooper finds connection and an opportunity to use her own experiences to guide the way forward.

In her talks, Cooper neatly lays out the context, saying, “WorldCom was constantly setting record after record. The acquisition of MCI, a company three times the size of WorldCom, was the largest acquisition in corporate history. Our CFO at one point was the highest-paid CFO in the country. Our CEO was on the cover of BusinessWeek, dubbed ‘The Telecom Cowboy,’ and he was listed on Forbes’ list of Wealthiest Americans in the Country.

“Before the dotcom and telecom bubbles burst in 2000, WorldCom had acquired more than 60 companies in a decade. In the first six years I was there, starting as head of internal audit [growing the group to 40 auditors and becoming a vice president], the company grew from several billion dollars in revenue to $38-plus billion.”

She definitely has the students’ attention with this better-than-textbooks knowledge. Cooper uses the rapt interest to engage them in thought processes and role-play.

Among her messages, laced with personal experiences, are “You can’t skip trauma or the grief process, but you can equip your identity and self-worth to weather life’s storms with greater strength, fortitude, and resilience.”

And “Don’t tie yourself to things that change.”

Encouraging students to write personal mission statements of their own, she continues with, “Go on a journey of self-discovery, knowing what you stand for and what your core values are.”

The well-read speaker weaves in quotes that resonate with audiences.

From Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl comes, “In some ways, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning…,” and, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

The students listen, often on the edges of their chairs—especially when Cooper thrusts them into the narrative, posing ethical questions and discussing their variety of answers.

“I say, ‘Put yourself in the shoes of the managers who became complicit in the WorldCom fraud,’” she relates. “‘Imagine that you were on the senior executive team or were a member of my internal audit team as we identified and reported the fraud. What decisions would you have made along the way? How would these decisions have impacted other people, including yourself?’

“We also discuss the story of Betty and Troy, two mid-level managers who became complicit, and the drivers that can lead some people to white collar crime – pressure, pride, greed, fear and misguided loyalty.”

Cooper also offers the painful story of being a whistle blower herself.

“I talk about the ripple effect of fraud, tens of thousands of innocent employees who lost jobs and the shareholders who lost millions in retirement,” she remarks. “And I share my personal struggles, some of the challenges I’ve faced along the way – like questioning my own identity – and how I was able to move forward. We talk a lot about ethics, leadership, how to define success and how to find our courage when facing ethical dilemmas. My mother told me from childhood to ‘never allow yourself to be intimidated,’ and I explain how that helped me find courage even in the face of fear.”

Cooper spoke about ethical leadership last spring at MSU Insurance Day, hosted by the COB Risk Management and Insurance program.

Photo by Beth Wynn

It is evident that these lessons can apply to us all, no matter where we find ourselves on our journeys, yet Cooper likes reaching the younger, formative audience.

“I talk to them about self-care and being your own best friend and about practicing gratitude,” she says. “And that life has seasons. Look at me – I have been an accountant, an auditor, a speaker, an author and am now a teacher. The more avenues you have, the more resilient you’ll be in the long run. Another topic we discuss is surrounding yourself with positive relationships.”

These elements eloquently form the backbone for Cooper’s new book-in-progress, this time centering on lessons learned – motivational nuggets gleaned from her life experiences and WorldCom.

“I’m concentrating on what I wish I’d known at an earlier age, as if I were reaching back to my younger self,” she says.

Cooper, now a grandmother of three, maintains a non-stop, fully committed schedule, serving on the Executive Advisory Board for the MSU College of Business and previously on similar boards at Louisiana State University and the University of Alabama. She also serves on the Board of Directors for the National Association of State Boards of Accountancy Center for the Public Trust (NASBA CPT), whose mission it is to develop, equip and empower ethical leaders.

Just last year, Cooper was instrumental in establishing a student CPT chapter in the College of Business, saying, “I am so excited to have helped establish the MSU student chapter to bring greater awareness to business ethics and ethical leadership by reaching as many students as possible. This program provides leadership opportunities, allowing students to attend an annual ethical leadership conference, to participate in ethics case competitions and to volunteer for community service projects.”

A Certified Fraud Examiner, she has served as Chairman of the Board of Regents for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners. In 2020, Cooper’s previous selection as Time Person of the Year led to her inclusion as one of the magazine’s 100 Women of the Year, a list of the most influential women from each of the last 100 years. She is also the first woman to receive the American Accounting Association’s Accounting Exemplar Award for making notable contributions to professionals in accounting education or practice.

And in a story about how doors open in unlikely ways, Cynthia Cooper volunteers her time and caring nature to Mission Mississippi, a Jackson-based organization whose vision is to equip and empower the next generation to build relationships across racial lines, to work together with better understanding and to build greater respect and trust. Her commitment to the cause was born during a moving conversation with Dr. Dolphus Weary, a minister with social conscience, on a flight back to Mississippi years ago during tense moments in the WorldCom saga. At the time, Weary was Executive Director of Mission Mississippi.

“He explained that he was a bridge builder,” she says. “His life and words have inspired me to strive to be the same.”

Clearly Cooper makes an impact on all she touches. Her upcoming schedule includes speaking to faraway audiences in the Asia-Pacific region and traveling domestically to colleges and universities in Nebraska, Kansas and New Mexico, with more to come. At each stop, she gives the WorldCom background, then turns to helping out with her tips and questions.

“It has been very rewarding and healing to do this work,” she says. “WorldCom is a timeless story, really, since you hear about new frauds and scandals in the news every day. I am taking that tragic story and hoping to make a difference for the next generation of leaders.”