W-Tech 2009

womenintechnology.co.uk and the British Computer Society would like to invite you to W-Tech 2009, a one day recruitment, career development and networking event for female technologists including students, postgraduates, experienced professionals and returners to work. The event is free to attend and there will be a recruitment fair running during the day alongside a packed programme of career development and technology talks, workshops and seminars covering topics such as managing your online profile, increasing your confidence and improving your influencing skills. Attendees will have the chance to attend up to six of these free career development sessions running between 12pm and 5.45pm. More information on the sessions available can be found here: https://www.womenintechnology.co.uk/upcoming-event

In the evening there will be a networking event (similar in style to the womenintechnology networking events we run) that’s going to be a ‘must attend’ networking opportunity for everyone interested in and involved with ‘Women in IT’. The evening part of the event will start with a reception at 6pm. The theme for the formal part of the evening will be ‘achieving in the technology profession’ and we are bringing together a panel of successful women working in IT who will share their own career experiences and take questions from the audience.

Confirmed speakers so far are Lis Astall, MD Public Service in Europe, Africa & Latin America at Accenture, Punita Gajree, Head of Programme Solutions for London 2012 and Kavita Oberoi – Managing Director, Oberoi Consulting (Kavita appeared on Channel 4’s hit show The Secret Millionaire in August 2008).People can attend during the day, for the evening networking or for both parts of the event – everyone is welcome but they need to register. Places on the free career development workshops can be reserved during the event sign up process so sign up soon to make sure you can attend the sessions you’re most interested in! You can register by clicking here: https://forms.bcs.org/w-tech/prog/index.php Please put the date in your diary, pass this invite onto other women (and men) who you think would be interested in attending W-Tech 2009 and we’ll look forward to seeing you there on the 3rd February.If you have any questions at all or if you are an employer who might be interested in being involved with the event, please don’t hesitate to contact me.

Thanks so much! Best wishes,

Maggie BerryDirector, womenintechnology.co.uk Direct line: 020 7422 9214 Email: mberry@womenin.co.uk

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Goldilocks in Reverse: The Making of the Current Financial Crisis

financialdecline.JPGContributed by Martin Mitchell, director of eLearning for the Corporate Training Group

Background – Everything is “Just Right”

It all began when the economy was in what was said to be a ‘Goldilocks’ scenario – the world’s developed economies, particularly the US and Western Europe, were neither too hot nor too cold, but were just right.

The benign economic backdrop of low inflation and low interest rates meant investors were keen to find investments with competitive yields, and were even willing to borrow to invest in them and ‘leverage up.’ So, the bankers came up with variants of the old securitization model to provide instruments paying high yields. They repackaged pools of loans, especially mortgage loans and sold bonds linked to these loans to investors. These ‘asset backed securities’ were supplemented by credit enhancements, like insurance to enable the bonds to get high credit ratings from the ratings agencies. Special purpose vehicles (SPVs) were set up to facilitate the issuance and were variously known as collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) or collateralized loan obligations (CLOs). This was the golden age of what became known as ‘structured credit.’

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Women in the City Winner: Kathryn Britten of BDO Stoy Hayward LLP

Kathryn_Britten_sml.jpgby Elizabeth Harrin (London)

What does a forensic accountant do all day? It’s a specialised – and largely male dominated – field, but Kathryn Britten has risen to the top of her profession as National Head of Forensic Accounting at BDO Stoy Hayward LLP. Kathryn won the Accountancy Category of the 2008 Women in the City Awards which recognizes her achievement in her field.

So, what is her field again? “A forensic accountant is an investigator who is trained to look beyond the numbers to interpret financial issues and assess their impact,” Kathryn explains. “We analyze, distill and present complex information in a way that is accessible and understandable, often in court.” Kathryn has acted as an accounting expert witness in over 200 commercial disputes, giving evidence under oath. In this role she is often aggressively cross-examined. She also works on cases that don’t go to court. “I favor meeting other experts to narrow the issues in disputes and to advise on settlement negotiations including mediation, which often leads to the successful settlement of disputes outside the courts,” she says. “The types of work that I have been involved with include allegations of accountant’s negligence, loss of profits calculations, contractual disputes and complex accounting investigations.”

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In Case You Missed It: News Round-Up

martin.jpgContributed by Martin Mitchell of the Corporate Training Group

In case you were too busy to have kept up with all the news, contributor Martin Mitchell has gathered some important market events from last week to help you start this week well informed:

Mergers and Acquisitions

  • As expected, pharmaceuticals group Pfizer unveiled a $68bn takeover of Wyeth.The bid is to be paid for using equal amounts of cash, equity and debt. The news will be good for the seven advising banks that could earn as much as $150m in fees. The lucky recipients are three lead financial advisers for Pfizer (Bank of America/Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase) plus another two financial advisers (Barclays and Citigroup), the advisers to Wyeth are Morgan Stanley and Evercore Partners.
  • Dow Chemical’s planned $15bn takeover of Rohm & Haas is in jeopardy since Dow does not have the funds to close the deal. The deal was struck last summer before valuations collapsed and Dow saw a potential cash infusion of $9.5bn from Kuwait for a planned joint venture vanish. However, the US Federal Trade Commission has now cleared the deal, which under the original terms means Dow should now complete the takeover. Dow is scrambling to get together the finance and is considering cutting its dividend. This would save around $1.6bn, but Dow has not cut its dividend since 1912! Rohm & Haas have asked a US court to enforce the transaction at the original price.
  • Swiss drugmaker Roche launched a surprise $42bn hostile bid for the 44% of Californian biotech company Genentech Inc that it doesn’t own. It bid $86.50 per share against an $89 per share bid that was rejected in August.

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