Thursday, May 23, 2013

Senwate Aide Michael Piwowar Is Nominated to SEC by Obama

Michael Piwowar, the chief Republican economist for the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, was nominated to the Securities and Exchange Commission by President Barack Obama.

His term would expire in 2018, Obama said today in a statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Dan Reichl in San Francisco at dreichl@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dan Kraut at dkraut2@bloomberg.net

Monday, May 13, 2013

Rutgers' two athletic director finalists each have one past issue to explain



Regardless of whether Rutgers introduces Sean Frazier or Julie Hermann as its next athletic director later this week – which the school appears bent on doing – the person who replaces Tim Pernetti likely faces further scrutiny for one red flag in his or her past.

Rutgers, which has accelerated the search for a new athletic director, has seen the original group of three finalists reduced to two after Fresno State athletic director Thomas Boeh withdrew from consideration Sunday night.

Barring an unforeseen changes, that leaves a bright light focused squarely on the professional histories of Frazier and Hermann -- particularly after it was revealed on Friday that new basketball coach Eddie Jordan never graduated from Rutgers even though he had been listed in official school releases and a bio on the Scarlet Knights' athletics website as having done so.

In the case of Hermann, the senior associate athletic director and senior woman administrator at the University of Louisville, a pregnancy discrimination lawsuit filed against the University of Tennessee when she was the head volleyball coach there is something Rutgers officials would have to reconcile if she is hired.

Assistant volleyball coach Ginger Hineline won her $150,000 suit against the school in 1997.

According to the Knoxville (Tenn.) News-Sentinel’s reporting on the suit, Hineline said she asked Hermann if she would lose her job if she became pregnant and that Hermann responded by saying “I hope it doesn’t come to that.”

“Julie and I had various conversations that discouraged me from becoming pregnant,” the paper quoted Hineline as saying.

For Frazier, the deputy athletic director at Wisconsin (making him the No. 2 athletic administrator at the school), there remains the issue of how much he knew about a 2012 Rose Bowl party in which there were allegations of sexual assault against athletic department administrator John Chadina, who allegedly made unwanted sexual advances to a student employee of the athletic department, according to the Wisconsin State Journal.

Neither athletic director Barry Alvarez nor Frazier attended the party, which had been a yearly bowl staple for the school. It prompted an internal investigation by the school, with the paper reporting that “issues about athletic department-sponsored underage drinking, a lack of oversight by athletic department officials and how long this behavior has been going on remain.”

Frazier was never linked to any of the wrongdoing, but he and Alvarez are ultimately responsible for the behavior of athletic department administrators.

Hermann may also have to explain why she is suddenly interested in becoming an athletic director for the first time after telling The Chronicle of Higher Education, in a 2011 story about female college administrators, that she enjoyed her role as “silent partner” to athletic director Tom Jurich.

The article said Hermann “relishes the responsibilities she has as the Cardinals’ No. 2.” She is in her 16th year at the school.

“I’ve never thrown my hat in the ring (to be an athletic director),” Hermann was quoted as saying. “I’m not interested in being a candidate.”

Now she is a finalist to assume command of athletic department awash in turmoil and red ink.

Hermann does supervise 20 of Louisville's 23 sports and oversees the school's marketing efforts and fundraising -- the latter two being essential as Rutgers prepares to join the Big Ten in 2014.

Frazier, who came to Wisconsin in 2007, has experience as an athletic director at Manhattanville College, Clarkson and Merrimack. He also deals with football, something Hermann would have to add to her responsibilities if she is hired by Rutgers.

Though Alvarez is listed as Wisconsin's athletic director, Frazier is largely responsible for the daily operation of the department.