A Nov. 28 lecture and panel discussion at Sewanee: The University of the South will present "The HealthSouth Debacle: Four Different Perspectives." Aaron Beam, founder and former chief financial officer of HealthSouth, will give an insider’s perspective at 4:30 p.m. CST in Gailor Auditorium on the Sewanee campus. Following his presentation, he will participate in a panel discussion with a theologian, a philosopher, and the attorney who won a $2.
9 billion civil judgment against HealthSouth CEO Richard Scrushy.
The participating panelists are the Rev. Dr. Julia Gatta, professor of pastoral theology at Sewanee’s School of Theology, on “Forgiveness and Redemption;” Andrew Moser, visiting assistant professor of philosophy, on “Business Ethics;” and John Q. Somerville, attorney at law in Birmingham, Ala., on “Legal Damages and Collections.”
The lecture, panel discussion and following reception are free and open to the public. Preceding the lecture (4 p.m.) the Sewanee Fiddlers will play bluegrass music and Aaron Beam will sell and sign copies of his book on the scandal,HealthSouth: The Wagon to Disaster.
HealthSouth was one of the nation's three largest healthcare companies until a 2003 accounting scandal nearly drove the company into bankruptcy and sent several HealthSouth executives to prison. Aaron Beam, one of the Birmingham-based firm's founders and its first CFO, pleaded guilty to his part in the fraud and served three months in a minimum security prison. Mr. Beam will take the audience from HealthSouth’s humble beginnings through its meteoric rise to its disastrous revelation, subsequent trial and his incarceration.
The event is sponsored by the Babson Center for Global Commerce, The School of Theology, the Department of Philosophy and the Pre-Law Program at Sewanee.