February 22, 2005 Dean Olson, Professor Miller, Mr. Mark Dowdell '87, Professor Ligo Mark Dowdell '87, speaker Philadelphia Branch Chief, SEC "Mark Dowdell is a Thiel alumnus who joined the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in 1987. Although he left for a few years to work at Merrill-Lynch, Mark has spent more that 10 years working at the SEC. Starting out as a Securities Compliance Examiner, he has earned several promotions at the SEC, including Branch Chief." - Ryan Berkheimer, senior accounting & business administration major "Mark grew up just south of Youngstown, OH. He came to Thiel College after talking with the accounting and business department's teachers. After hearing about Thiel and their programs he knew this was the place to be. Twenty years later, Mark is the head officer of one branch that performs audits with the government. In total there are four branches that perform audits for the government. With this branch of the government he also works very closely with SEC filings. The SEC gives his department briefings and updates on what is going on around the nation with fraudulent transactions. These transactions can range from small to large amounts of money, and anything from industrial companies, accountants, mutual funds, publicly traded stock companies and school districts." - Paul Stibich, senior accounting & business administration major "Probably the most influential item of interest I received from this evening was how he started at the bottom and worked his way up. He diligently studied the area he worked in, got to know his clients and came up with methods that would help him in his field of study. He made lists at the beginning of his career so that he wouldn't forget anything from one client to another." - Tim Holland, senior accounting & business administration major "Dowdell explained that it is essential that you treat all co-workers with respect no matter what the position. Also, Dowdell stressed that one must keep emotions to themselves and relax before addressing a conflict; not only does it benefit the other individual , it also makes your life at work much easier." - Julia Marraccini, senior business administration major "At dinner Mark talked about Martha Stewart. He also talked about the Pharmor fraud and a few other frauds he has worked on. When he posted the list at the presentation I found it surprising that almost all of the cases on the list involved someone going to jail." - Matt Rowlands, senior accounting & business administration major