This was printed on our board in 2014. I believe she was appointed to the position during our "crisis". I don't recall a demotion. Also include is a previously post about her and crisis management. Please promise not to fall off your chair laughing.
"Praising Ms. Peetz - What a joke!
Bank boss shares lessons from two crises
By
Patricia Sellers Fortune Magazine February 26, 2014: 10:18 AM ET
FORTUNE --
Karen Peetz occupies a unique perch to learn lessons from crises. She is president of Bank of New York Mellon (BK), a Fortune 500
company that weathered the financial crisis well but had its reputation
tarred along with the rest of the industry. Peetz is also on the board
of trustees at Penn State University, where, in the wake of the Jerry
Sandusky scandal, she raised her hand to become chairman and helped her
alma mater recover from the havoc and shame wrought by the former
assistant football coach who was convicted of molesting young boys. Last
week, PSU named a new president, Florida State University president
Eric Barron, and coincidentally, the U.S. government released
transcripts from the 2008 financial crisis -- prompting the world to
reexamine lessons from both crises. No leader is better equipped to
reflect on lessons learned from these two crises than Peetz. This is an
edited version of remarks that she's given to audiences around the U. S.
I did my undergrad work at Penn State. I played lacrosse and field
hockey as a student athlete. During my freshman year, Joe Paterno led
our team to an undefeated season and a victory at the Orange Bowl. To me
and so many others, Joe Paterno walked on water. He wasn't just a good
coach -- he was a man who espoused high ideals about how to live one's
life. Which, fairly or not, made the whole sequence of events that much
more shocking. When the Sandusky crisis hit, Penn State, the
administration and the board were in crisis. The presiding chairman of
the board decided not to run for election. Somebody had to step up and
say we accept responsibility to make changes. So when the position was
offered, I accepted.
The late and disgraced PSU football coach Joe Paterno.
The lessons I learned were invaluable. And I realized that they
applied to both educational and commercial institutions. Here are three
of the most critical lessons:
Face reality. It's during a crisis that
organizations develop a greater willingness to challenge tradition, to
question sacred cows. Leaders have to seize on those moments. In the
case of Penn State, we needed an early-warning system and governance
that allowed us to identify and resolve problems. That meant including
students and faculty members on our trustee committees. That meant
accepting an array of sanctions imposed by the NCAA -- sanctions which,
frankly, were not easy to swallow. Accepting them was a vital part of
the moving-forward process. We also had to retool the leadership of the
university. Yes, we want to bring in the best talent available. But no
matter their pedigree, we want leaders who recognize the critical need
to manage risk.
Rethink the definition of "good teamwork."
Organizations need to learn ways to foster healthy dissent. If we're all
harmonious and aligned in our thinking -- which feels good in the
moment -- what are we missing? What is the price we will pay? Diversity
is no longer about being cosmopolitan or altruistic. It's a necessity. I
think we've undersold a central argument for greater diversity -- that
ensuring that teams have people who think differently and challenge
convention is critical to identifying contrary facts. They help save us
from ourselves. Lehman Brothers (
BCS)
could have used more of those voices. Penn State is an incredibly
strong institution, financially and culturally, but we could have used
those voices too.
Accept responsibility. It took our industry a long
time -- too long -- to accept that the game had changed. Many of our
actions, collectively, precipitated the financial crisis. We have to
move past denial and put the client at the center of our decision-making
process. We have to show we understand that the world in which we
operate has changed and that we embrace new ways of thinking and
operating. In other words, we have to prove ourselves -- prove ourselves
worthy of trust.
http://postcards.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2014/02/26/karen-peetz-penn-state/
http://www.stevensilvers.com/.../penn-states-response-to...
THE PENN STATE SCANDAL IS A CASE STUDY IN BAD CRISIS MANAGEMENT
By The Denver Post
Staff and wire reports
Steven
Silvers, a principal at Denver-based GBSM, Inc., regularly counsels
corporate and nonprofit clients on how to handle public
relations and crisis response.
Mr.
Silvers, an expert in crisis management, would not agree that Ms. Peetz
should be advising anyone about ways to handle problems. As a trustee,
her most important fiduciary duty is to protect the reputation of the
university which she represents. Instead, Ms. Peetz and her cohorts on
the Board pressed the panic button and took action to appease the media
and the public. They rejected due process by firing Joe Paterno and
Graham Spanier; they assumed responsibility for Sandusky's crimes,
accepted the Freeh Report before even reading it and embraced the unfair
and illegal NCAA sanctions unchallenged. In so doing, Ms. Peetz and the
other trustees irreparably damaged the reputation of Penn State and the
legacy of a man who had more integrity than all of them together.
Anyone who would look to Ms. Peetz for advice on crisis management is
either uninformed or a fool. "
