Goalsetter
Tanya Van Court, CEO of Goalsetter, learned the hard way how important a good financial education can be.
Van Court, who holds a master’s degree in industrial engineering from Stanford University, served as an executive at Covad Communications, a fast-growing high-speed internet provider that went public in January 2000, raising more than $140 million. The shares she received from Covad’s initial public offering made Van Court a millionaire, but she failed to take an elementary step that might have protected some of that hard-earned dot-com wealth.
Van Court never diversified. She held on to all her stock and stock options. For a time, that seemed like a wise decision as Covad shares, valued at $18 in the Jan. 22, 2000, IPO, rose to nearly $21 a few months later. In February 2001, however, Covad disclosed internal control weaknesses that would cause it to delay filing its annual 10-K and other financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission. By July 2001, Covad shares were trading at 33 cents. The company filed for bankruptcy in August, erasing what…