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Paul Volcker '49, former Chair of the U.N. Oil for Food Commission, and Jeffrey Meyer, former Senior Counsel to the U.N. Oil for Food Commission, will present a public talk at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs titled, "Reform at the United Nations? Lessons from the Oil-for-Food Program in Iraq," at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, September 28, in Dodds Auditorium, Robertson Hall, on the Princeton University campus.

Volcker and Meyer will discuss their new book, "Good Intentions Corrupted: The Oil for Food Scandal and the Threat to the U.N.," (PublicAffairs, 2006), a detailed account of the investigation into the Oil for Food scandal. Led by Volcker, former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman, the Independent Inquiry Committee revealed the program's flaws and the urgent need for U.N. reform. Copies of the book will be available at the event.

Volcker served as chairman of the Board of Governors of the U.S. Federal Reserve under Presidents Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, from 1979 to 1987. In the earlier stages of his career Volcker served at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Chase Manhattan Bank, and the U.S. Treasury Department.

In 2004, he was assigned by the United Nations to research possible corruption in the Iraqi Oil for Food program. Volcker was a director of the UN Association of the United States of America from 2000-2004 prior to being appointed to the Independent Inquiry.

Volcker did his undergraduate work at Princeton and earned a M.A. in political economy at Harvard. He went on to attend the London School of Economics as a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Fellow. In 1975 Volcker become a senior fellow in the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

Jeffrey Meyer most recently served as senior counsel to the UN's Independent Oil for Food Inquiry Committee. He was previously an assistant U.S. attorney in New Haven specializing in environmental, financial and civil rights crimes. He was the two-time recipient of the Department of Justice's Director's Award for Superior Performance.

Meyer earned a bachelor's degree in economics and history from Yale College in 1985. After graduating he studied rural development economics as a Fulbright scholar in Ecuador. He returned to the U.S. and earned his law degree from Yale Law School in 1989.

This lecture is sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. It is free and open to the public.