Screening and discussion - 'Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room'

Birmingham Business School are delighted to invite staff and students to a film screening of Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, followed by a drinks reception, on Monday 18 March at 5pm. 

Schedule

• 17:00 – Guests take their seats, are welcomed to the event and introduced to the documentary
• 17:10 – Film screening
• 19:00 – interactive discussion led by Professor Ian Thomson, Director of the Lloyds Centre for Responsible Business (exploring themes such as ‘who else was to blame?’, and ‘Were Enron pushed into an irresponsible position?’)
• 19:30 – drinks reception

Further information on the film

This documentary explores the fall of the Enron Corporation, arguably the most shocking example of modern corporate corruption. The company is linked with several illegal schemes, including instigating the California energy crisis as a way to drive up utility prices at the expense of the average American. In a hyper-competitive environment, Enron traders resort to all kinds of underhanded dealings in order to make money at any cost and keep their high-paying jobs.

Based on the best-selling book of the same name by Fortune reporters Bethany McLean and Peter Elkind, Alex Gibney incredibly reveals how top executives of America’s seventh-largest company walked away with one billion dollars leaving investors and employees with absolutely nothing. The film comes to a harrowing denouement as we hear Enron traders ringing hundreds of millions of dollars in profits out of the California energy crisis and as a result, we come to comprehend how the unimaginable excess of the Enron hierarchy had such a shocking and profound domino effect that may shape the face of the economy for years to come.