Monday, March 23, 2009

Concur Board Defends CEO After Degree Flap

Redmond, Washington-based Concur, a developer of employee spending and reimbursement management software, said over the weekend that its board of directors supports the firm's CEO, after the disclosure that the firm's Chairman CEO, Steve Singh, did not have the degree he claimed in the firm's financial filings. Singh said he had attended the University of Michigan in filings of the firm until 2007. The fact that Singh did not have a degree was the result of a discovery by Barry Minkow and his Fraud Discovery Institute, who has been uncovering executives who have disclosed false educational backgrounds. According to a statement from Concur, the board said it had "complete confidence" in Singh, and that the error was "mistakenly reported prior to 2007." The revelation is at least the second from Minkow for a Washington firm this month; Minkow exposed Peter Christothoulou, COO and co-founder of Seattle-based Marchex earlier this month, saying Christothoulou also did not have the degree he claimed to have on his bio.