Two more financial executives inducted into FEI's Hall of Fame.

• Position: The Research forum

On Sunday., Nov. 11, 2007, Thomas E. Jones, vice chairman of the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB), and Samuel Siegel, the former vice chairman, CFO, treasurer and secretary for Nucor Corp., were inducted into the Financial Executives International Hall of Fame. Like the members of the FEI Hall of Fame inducted before them, they have epitomized performance, leadership and integrity throughout their careers.

Tom Jones has dealt with multiple accounting standards for most of his 52-year finance career, including senior positions at ITT Corp. and Citicorp, so it is understandable why he has devoted the past 10 years with the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and its predecessor organization, the International Accounting Standards Committee (IASC), to a converged set of accounting standards. "We are within view of comparable standards worldwide," he predicted in his acceptance speech.

Jones was introduced by former Federal Reserve Board Chairman Paul Volcker, who brought Jones to IASC during his term as chairman of IASC's board of trustees. "Tom has played an enormously important role over many years in the development of international accounting standards," Volcker said.

Samuel Siegel began his career with what later became Nucor Corp., in 1961. He became the controller in 1964, and was named CFO the following year. When he retired in 1999, he was honored in a closing-bell ceremony at the New York Stock Exchange. He served the company for 38 years, and is credited with reorganizing the company into what is now the largest steel producer in the U.S.

Nucor Corp. was featured as a case study in the 1998 Financial Executives Research Foundation (FERF) research publication, Changing Roles of Financial Management: Integrating Strategy, Control, and Accountability, (authored by Steve Jablonsky and Pat Keating), when Nucor was the U.S.'s number two steel producer. In that case study, Dan DiMicco was vice president and general manager of the Nucor-Yamato Steel jointly owned facility. Today, Dan DiMicco is president and CEO, and he introduced Siegel at this Hall of Fame ceremony.

Siegel's acceptance speech was brief and to the point, and he emphasized that "culture matters--people and relationships matter." What he did not mention, but what is described in the FERF case study, is that Nucor operates one of the leanest corporate organizations in the nation. According to the Nucor website: "A typical Fortune 500 company has a...