Honesty is always -- but always -- the best policy

Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson apologized yesterday for claiming on his resume that he has a computer science degree from Stonehill College when, in fact, he doesn't. He said he is sorry but refuses to resign.

If he won't quit, Yahoo's Board of Directors should summarily fire him. Allow me, if you will, to tell you why I feel so strongly about this matter.

Shortly after earning my Ph.D. in quantum physics from Stanford, I became a silent partner with dear friends Steve Wozniak and Steven Jobs in a start-up firm. Happily, our little company grew quickly and by the summer of 1981, we needed to hire a Human
Resources Director.

In July of that year, while I was in London serving as best man at my friend Charles' wedding (his marriage didn't end happily though the union did produce my godsons, William and Harry, to whom I am close), the two Steves hired the first applicant they interviewed, a young woman I shall call Charlotte. When I returned to the office and saw her resume -- she claimed to have attended "Harverd" -- it was clear she had doctored it. I fired her and brought in a replacement who was still handling the job efficiently at the time I left the company in 1996 to become Bill Clinton's special envoy to the Middle East, a challenging but, ultimately, gratifying role for which I was honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999.

Imagine my consternation when, shortly after buying the New York Yankees in 2005, I asked to meet with the team's Human Resources Director and discovered it was none other than Charlotte! Though she had apparently done a good job, I quietly took her aside and asked her to leave. She later found work at a Third Avenue firm, Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities, where she helped swindle the company's clients including my neighbors, Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick, out of millions of dollars.

The moral? Those who embellish their resumes may achieve some degree of personal and financial success, but must be prepared to deal with the consequences when the truth eventually comes out. As it always will.

End of story.