Bethany McLean came to US financial magazine Fortune from Wall Street, after spending three years working at Goldman Sachs. That background helped her break the Enron scandal.
McLean's book The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron (co-authored with Peter Elkind) brought acclaim from reviewers across the spectrum. The New York Times called it "powerful and shocking"; Entertainment Weekly called it "compelling". It has now been made into an acclaimed documentary film. In her address to CEDA, McLean sets out the deceit and self-delusion that drove Enron's rise and fall.
"Enron actually was the most innovative company in corporate America," she says. "Unfortunately we all had no idea just how innovative they were."
Downloads, links and media
- Bethany McLean's address to CEDA [PDF document] The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of
Enron, delivered in Sydney on 7 October 2005 - Listen to Bethany McLean at CEDA on how journalists can be seduced by storytelling and ignore hard numerical truths.
[Click arrow to play] - Enron's history at the online encyclopedia Wikipedia
- McLean's book The Smartest Guys in the Room reviewed and available via Amazon.com
- The film of The Smartest Guys in the Room reviewed via Metacritic.com