MiB: Bethany McLean

In our latest Masters in Business podcast, we speak with Bethany McLean, Vanity Fair contributing editor, and author of numerous books, most famously The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron. In 2006, a documentary film based on her book was nominated for Academy Award.

A graduate from Williams College with a double major in math and English, she started her career as an M&A investment banking analyst at Goldman Sachs.

In 1995, she joined Fortune Magazine as a reporter. She rapidly became frustrated with being part of the Wall Street promotion machine, and started seeking out short sellers for more balance in her reporting. She wrote a now infamous column in March 5, 2001, titled Is Enron Overpriced?  It was the beginning of the end for the energy trading giant; by the end of the year, Enron filed what was then the largest corporate bankruptcy in American history, caused by “institutionalized, systematic, and creatively planned accounting fraud.”

You can stream the full podcast, or download it on Apple iTunesBloomberg, or SoundCloud. All of our earlier podcasts are at iTunesSoundcloud and Bloomberg.

McLean is also author of:

The Smartest Guys in the Room: The Amazing Rise and Scandalous Fall of Enron

Shaky Ground: The Strange Saga of the U.S. Mortgage Giants

All the Devils Are Here: The Hidden History of the Financial Crisis

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