BARUCH ALUM ARTHUR AINSBERG SERVES ETHICS ROLE AT MORGAN STANLEY

Arthur Ainsberg practices what his alma mater preaches.

As part of the $1.4 billion settlement reached last year between state and Federal regulatory agencies and ten Wall Street firms -- an agreement called the Global Research Analyst Settlement (GRAS) -- each of the settlement firms was required to select an independent consultant to find third-party research providers would be made available to clients. This agreement was in response to criticisms of the firms’ own research departments, which, it was alleged, had overvalued stocks during the boom times, serving to benef their firms.

The elite brokerage and banking firm Morgan Stanley chose Ainsberg to serve that oversight role earlier this year, and recently the firm announced the eight firms Mr. Ainsberg has chosen.

Says Ainsberg, “It’s an enormous privilege for me to have been chosen by Morgan Stanley and the securities regulatory community to play a significant role in the implementation of a historic securities settlement.”
The agreement as well as Ainsberg’s role fit perfectly with the mission and research of his alma mater. In particular it jibes with the work of a center at Baruch where Ainsberg has played a key role as alumni supporter -- the Robert Zicklin Center for Corporate Integrity, which was formed in 2000 to promote ethics and transparency in business, auditing, and corporate governance through public discussion and academic research.

Ainsberg has extensive experience in the securities markets and the accounting profession. A certified public accountant since 1971, he served as chairman of the New York State Board for Public Accountancy from 1998 to 2000 and was a member of the Board from 1993 to 2001. From 1997 to 2000, he was a member of the board of District 10 of the NASD. He was the founding chief financial officer of Odyssey Partners, one of the largest and most successful hedge funds in history.

For the past seven years, he has been a member of the Board of Directors of Nomura Securities, Inc., serving throughout that time as chairman of the audit committee and member of the compliance committee. In addition, he is a widely recognized expert witness who has testified in a number of accounting and securities fraud cases.

He holds a BBA degree from Baruch College (’68) in accounting and an MBA in finance (’72) and has been a trustee of the Baruch College Fund since 1995. At Baruch, he has endowed an annual entrepreneur competition, which in the past three years has provided over $200,000 to fund start-up businesses owned and managed by Baruch students.