Look
Before You Leap:
Identifying Red Flags Before You Commit
Presentation
Subject
Whether
a business partner, major client, a vendor, or an acquisition target, the wrong
business association can be costly. Through case studies, this presentation
demonstrates how red flags detected through online investigative intelligence can reduce legal risk and avert costly mistakes. It addresses
situations in which companies missed available, but obscure, warning signs—and
ended up in litigation as a result. It describes how to gauge reputational,
financial, legal, and operational risks before investing in a more traditional
and all-inclusive due diligence effort. This type of research is used
during investigations and disputes; in the early stages of a deal to frame the
full due diligence effort; before major high-profile appointments; to develop
brief profiles of potential jurors during jury selection; and to locate
individuals.
Presenter
Maribeth
Vander Weele is President of the Vander Weele Group, a Chicago firm that
provides corporate investigations and investigative intelligence. The former
President of the Illinois Association of Inspectors General, Maribeth has
managed thousands of investigations and due diligence projects in both the
public and private sectors. Her firm has provided consulting services onsite in
China, Malaysia, Singapore, Mexico, and the United States and remotely in the
Middle East, South America, Canada, Indonesia, and Europe. The firm has
provided more than 170 investigative projects for a Fortune 500 manufacturer
and served as the outsourced Inspector General for the Public Building
Commission of Chicago. A former award-winning journalist for the Chicago Sun-Times and former Inspector
General of Chicago Public Schools, Maribeth has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and other
publications. She is a Certified Protection Professional and a Certified
Inspector General. In 2009, Illinois Governor Patrick Quinn appointed Maribeth
to a special investigatory panel to address abuses in the University of
Illinois admissions process. Maribeth also served on the Illinois Gaming Board
and the Cook County Board of Ethics. Maribeth
has lectured at seminars at the World Bank, Harvard University, the National
Business Roundtable, the local chapter of the American Society for Industrial
Security, the Association of Inspectors General, the National Association of
Local Government Auditors, the Illinois CPA Society, the Chicago Chapter of the
Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the University of Chicago Graduate
School of Business, Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University, and in many other
forums nationwide and in Canada. She is
author of the past book, Reclaiming Our
Schools, the Struggle for Chicago School Reform, and the upcoming book, The Joy of Job, An Investigator's
Perspective on the Most Righteous Man on Earth.