TEI's response to September 11 attacks--an update.

• Position: Recent Activities

On December 15, 2001, TEI President Robert L. Ashby released the following statement, which elaborates on remarks he made during the Institute's Annual Conference:

No one was left untouched by the terrorist attacks that claimed lives in New York, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. So it is not surprising that many of us know people who perished on September 11. Three members of the Institute who worked for Marsh & McClennan died when the World Trade Center collapsed, and two of their colleagues in the tax department were also lost.

The New York State Tax Department had more than 220 employees assigned to the World Trade Center, and several other department employees were visiting the office on September 11. It is nothing short of miraculous that all but 1 visitor and a total of 185 of the assigned staff escaped. But 39 department employees did not.

Similarly, one senior IRS technical adviser was injured by falling debris, and remains (three months later) in critical condition. And the wife of a well-known and well-respected tax economist was aboard the flight that crashed into the Pentagon.

Many businesses and their tax departments were disrupted by the attacks. For example, one Big Five firm, Deloitte & Touche, lost its entire New York operation. Housed adjacent to the Twin Towers in the World Financial Center, the firm's offices were rendered uninhabitable on September 11.... leaving 15 percent of its worldwide workforce--5,000 people or so--homeless. And there are countless more people in the tax community who will never board another plane or hear another siren or otherwise conduct our lives without thinking back to September 11.

Given the breadth and depth of the loss, TEI decided it should simply not proceed with our planned entertainment of a comedian and impressionist at our Boston metting. By adjusting its conference program, the Institute was able to give proper recognition to those who died in the attacks. Accordingly, on October 20, TEI's Board of Directors unanimously adopted the following resolution:

WHEREAS, Tax Executives Institute, Inc. ("TEI") is a non-profit organization of persons employed by business enterprises in an executive, administrative, or managerial...