Blair, Cooper, and Ford Elected to ACFE Board of Regents

Lt. Col. Robert J. Blair, CFE, CGFM; Cynthia Cooper, CFE, CISA; and Joseph L. Ford, CFE have been elected to the ACFE Board of Regents. Members chose them from a list of nine candidates.

The three new Regents, who hold two-year terms, will take office at the Board's February meeting at the ACFE headquarters in Austin, Texas. They replace retiring members Peter R. Callaway, CFE, CAMS; Bert F. Lacativo, CFE, CPA; and Delena D. Spann, CFE, CCA.

Lt. Col. Robert Blair is the chief investigator for the Inspector General under Gen. David Petraeus at U.S. Central Command. He is the senior Air Force representative for non-criminal investigations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan and the rest of the CENTCOM Area of Responsibility in Southwest Asia.

He graduated from the University of South Carolina with a bachelor of science in business management in 1986, and the University of Oklahoma with a master of psychology (magna cum laude) in 1993. In his 24 years of experience in the Air Force, he has worked as a budget, finance, and cost analysis branch chief; as a comptroller; and as a fraud investigator for the U.S. Defense Finance and Accounting Service (the accounting firm for the Department of Defense).

Before his current position, he was the deputy Inspector General for the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, the eighth-largest U.S. retailer with 45,000 employees worldwide, at which he worked on fraud, waste, and abuse issues.

Blair earned his Certified Government Financial Manager certification in 1995 and his Certified Fraud Examiner credential in 2001. He has had the opportunity to deploy multiple times in support of USAF combat activities to include Sarajevo, Bosnia and Southwest Asia. His 37 military awards include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal.

Cynthia Cooper is CEO of The CooperGroup, LLC, a firm that provides professional services including fraud prevention and detection. She has more than 20 years of diversified corporate and consulting experience. At MCI, she helped the company move forward and successfully emerge from bankruptcy.

Cooper is the recipient of the American Accounting Association’s Accounting Exemplar Award bestowed for contributions to professionalism and ethics in accounting practice or education. Along with Sen. Paul Sarbanes and Rep. Michael Oxley, she received the Maria and Sidney E. Rolfe Award by the Women’s Economic Round Table for contributions to educating the public about economics, business, and finance. Cooper was named one of TIME magazine’s Persons of the Year for her role in uncovering the WorldCom fraud. She was inducted to the AICPA Hall of Fame, and in 2004 was featured as one of 25 influential working mothers in Working Mother magazine.

Cooper served as a member of the Standing Advisory Group of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board. She previously worked in public accounting for Deloitte & Touche and PricewaterhouseCoopers. Cooper is author of “Extraordinary Circumstances.” She has donated profits from her book to further ethics education for college students. Cooper serves on advisory boards for Lehigh University, Louisiana State University, and Mississippi State University.

Joseph L. Ford retired last year as the No. 3 ranking official in the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation – associate deputy director. He’s now the chief security officer for the Bank of the West, at which he supervises fraud investigations and security matters for the $62 billion institution.

During his 30-year FBI career, Ford led the investigations of many major fraud cases including Enron and Arthur Andersen. He helped author anti-fraud legislation and developed the FBI’s national program in combating health-care fraud. Ford was the lead official in the Columbia/HCA health-care fraud, which resulted in convictions and a record $1.6 billion in criminal and civil fines and penalties. He was also the chief of the FBI’s Economic Crimes program.

Ford led the FBI’s fraud investigation of National Medical Enterprises, which resulted in guilty pleas and fines of $379 million. Following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, he helped form a team focusing on developing financial evidence related to fraud and money laundering by international terrorists. Ford is the recipient of the Director’s Award for Excellence in Investigation, the Attorney General’s Award for Exceptional Service, and the Presidential Rank Award for Distinguished Service.

Read more about the ACFE Board of Regents.