News Munchies
Andersen Lives On with Alumni Network Sites
Originally Posted
Updated
Andersen alums still have a home. More than one, actually. A Web site specifically designed to reunite former Arthur Andersen LLP employees was started in July by a former audit manager in Andersen's Atlanta office. The attractive site, andersenalumni.com, contains an alumni directory, discussion forum, calendar of events, detailed corporate history, a popular "job opportunities" section, information about 401(k) plans and pensions, and a lengthy set of terms and conditions that rival those of CornerBarPR.comSM, but that aren't nearly as much fun.
The site, started by Warren Turner, originally was to create a venue where Andersen alumni could keep in touch with one another. "I had this idea over a year ago," Turner says. "I registered it pre-Enron, so this was a fluke."
Other sites have sprung up. There's iBig5.com, "the global website for the alumni of the Big 5 accounting firms"; Andersen Alumni, whose goal is "to enable current Andersen employees and alumni to maintain relationships, network and find current or ex-colleagues from around the world"; and the Andersen Alumni Network.
The Network, part of Andersen's intellectual property, is a database of more than 85,000 former Andersen employees, linking current staffers with former Andersenites now working in high-level corporate positions.
Then there's arthurandersensucks.com, which gives the former Andersen employee community a chance to blast the company and to obtain a free email account. It's @arthurandersensucks.com, of course.
The "sucks" site incestuously links back to Andersen Alumni.
Ah, what a tangled Web we weave. 