Cynthia Cooper is an American accountant who formerly served as the

Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...

Internal Audit Internal auditing is an independent, objective assurance and consulting activity designed to add value and improve an organization's operations. It helps an organization accomplish its objectives by bringing a systematic, disciplined approach t ...

WorldCom MCI, Inc. (formerly WorldCom and MCI WorldCom) was a telecommunications company. For a time, it was the second-largest long-distance telephone company in the United States, after AT&T. WorldCom grew largely by acquiring other telecommunicatio ...

. In 2002, Cooper and her team of auditors worked together in secret and often at night to investigate and unearth $3.8 billion in fraud at WorldCom which, at that time, was the largest corporate fraud in U.S. history. Cooper was named one of three " People of the Year" by ''Time'' magazine in 2002.

Education

Cooper earned her Bachelor of Science in Accounting from

Mississippi State University Mississippi State University for Agriculture and Applied Science, commonly known as Mississippi State University (MSU), is a Public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in Mississippi State, Mississippi, Un ...

and a Master of Science in Accountancy from the

University of Alabama The University of Alabama (informally known as Alabama, UA, the Capstone, or Bama) is a Public university, public research university in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States. Established in 1820 and opened to students in 1831, the University of ...

. She is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Certified Information System Auditor (CISA), Certified Internal Auditor (CIA) and Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).

Career

Cooper worked for the Atlanta offices of public accounting firms

PricewaterhouseCoopers PricewaterhouseCoopers, also known as PwC, is a multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the second-largest professional services network in the world and is one of the Big Four accounting firms, alon ...

and

Deloitte & Touche Deloitte is a Multinational corporation, multinational professional services network based in London, United Kingdom. It is the largest professional services network in the world by revenue and number of employees, and is one of the Big Four a ...

, and later became Vice President of Internal Audit at Worldcom. Cooper stayed with MCI (previously Worldcom) for two years following the fraud. She and her team helped the company successfully emerge from bankruptcy.

Later career

Since leaving what became MCI, Cooper started her own consulting firm to speak with both professionals and students sharing her experiences and lessons learned.

Writing

Cooper's book about her life and the WorldCom fraud, ''Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower'', was published in 2008. She has donated profits from her book to high schools and universities for ethics education.

Personal life

Cooper maintains an office in

Brandon, Mississippi Brandon is a city in and the county seat of Rankin County, Mississippi, United States. It was incorporated on December 19, 1831. The population was 25,138 as of the 2020 census. A suburb of Jackson, Brandon is part of the Jackson Metropolitan ...

. She married Lance Cooper in 1993; they have two children.

Honors

Cooper was named one of three " People of the Year" by ''Time'' magazine in 2002, along with fellow whistleblowers

Sherron Watkins Sherron Watkins (born August 28, 1959) is an American former Vice President of Corporate Development at the Enron Corporation. Watkins discovered and reported the 2001 Enron scandal to Enron's then- CEO Kenneth Lay. Watkins was selected as one ...

and

Coleen Rowley Coleen Rowley (born December 20, 1954) is an American former FBI special agent and whistleblower. Rowley is well known for testifying as to concerns regarding the FBI ignoring information of a suspected terrorist during 9/11, which led to a two- ...

References

External links

Cynthia Cooper website

Cynthia Cooper talks about her book, Extraordinary Circumstances
,

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American Cable television in the United States, cable and Satellite television in the United States, satellite television network, created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a Non ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cooper, Cynthia American accountants American women accountants Living people Mississippi State University alumni University of Alabama alumni American whistleblowers People from Clinton, Mississippi Women in finance Accounting scandals Year of birth missing (living people)