The Walden Pond

Host Vincent Walden goes solo as he shares his story of changing careers and discusses the direction he plans to take his new company in. Vincent is using his 20+ years as a legal, compliance and investigation technology innovation expert to lead Kona AI as its new CEO. Kona AI is the most innovative, AI-driven, cost effective and easy-to-use compliance and anti-fraud technology solution to mid and large companies on the market. In the last months of his role as Managing Director at Alvarez & Marsal, he came to the realization that the Kona AI platform, which they had been using to help companies find improper payments, needed to be scaled. Now, he and his colleague Matt Galvin are collaborating with MIT to build an algorithm-sharing consortium of leading companies. Resources To learn more, and contact Vincent Walden, please visit Kona AI

Andi McNeal is Vice President of Research with the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, a membership association serving more than 90,000 anti-fraud professionals globally. As a CFE, she specializes in fraud prevention, detection and investigation, education and training, research and analysis, corporate culture and leadership, and association management. Andi discusses the ACFE's 2022 Report to the Nations and its insights on occupational fraud. Download the report here! The ACFE's study focuses on occupational fraud, Andi shares. They were not attempting to get a snapshot of every type of fraud that occurs - only cases perpetrated by employees against the organizations they worked for, specifically between 2020 and 2021. In the 2100 cases they observed, over $3.6 billion was calculated in losses, which is just a small portion of the fraud committed globally. Fraud isn't an accounting problem, it's a human problem.  Resources Andi McNeal on LinkedIn  To learn more, and contact Vincent Walden, please visit Alvarez and Marsal

Marta Cadavid is co-founder and CEO at NoFraud, an organization dedicated to fighting fraud by using technology to anticipate criminal behavior. NoFraud specializes in forensic audit, cybersecurity, and investigations of economic crimes. As a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS), Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), AML Anti-Money Laundering Certified Associate (AMLCA), Marta possesses valuable experience that sets her a cut above the rest. She is also Consultant and International Coach of Auditool. Marta discusses how fraud triangle theory can be used to improve fraud detection. Fraud, corruption, waste, corporate abuse and other misbehaviors destroy an organization's value. They are the silent enemy that kills companies, Marta shares. This enemy was the driving force behind the conception of NoFraud; their goal was to be one step ahead of these misbehaviors. They now help corporations build value through the prediction, prevention, and detection of undesirable conduct at the workplace. According to Marta's research, 15-25% of people are never involved in unethical actions. Unfortunately, the larger percentage of people are prone to behaving according to the moment. NoFraud combines fraud triangle theory with artificial intelligence, data analytics and semantics to monitor patterns of keystrokes or communications from an individual.  Resources Marta Cadavid on LinkedIn Email: marta.cadavid.a@gmail.com  NoFraud.la | MartaCadavid.com To learn more, and contact Vincent Walden, please visit Alvarez and Marsal

Margot Cella is a research and public policy analyst, and Vice President of Research and Anti-Fraud Initiatives at the Center for Audit Quality (CAQ). The CAQ is dedicated to enhancing investor confidence and public trust in the global capital markets. Margot shares how the CAQ is intersecting the accounting and legal compliance professions to improve corporate culture and financial reporting. The CAQ was founded post-Sarbanes-Oxley era by the largest accounting firms, who thought it was necessary to have an organization to serve as the voice of the profession. As a non-partisan, public policy organization, the CAQ frequently works with the PCAOB and the SEC. A notable initiative they carry out is convening capital market stakeholders to advance the discussions of critical issues affecting either audit quality or public company reporting.[4:08] One thing that should be recognized is that professionals in finance are skilled with data, processes and controls. They are always innovating ways to build systems that detect or monitor enterprise and fraud risks, and raise a red flag when something goes beyond what should be a normal transaction or activity. Compliance professionals should be part of these conversations, as their work is impacted by these systems.   Resources Margot Cella on LinkedIn AntiFraudCollaboration.org To learn more, and contact Vincent Walden, please visit Alvarez and Marsal 

Malcolm Wright is the founder of InnoFi Advisory. As a former Chief Compliance Officer at a large cryptocurrency exchange, Malcolm now advises companies on ensuring responsible innovation in digital finance. All companies, and their compliance officers, need to be familiar with cryptocurrencies and the trend towards decentralized finance. Malcolm describes how current compliance concepts such as “Compliance by Design” and “Know Your Customer (KYC)” are still applicable in the crypto space and gives practical advice to legal and compliance professionals on how to navigate in the crypto future.  The year 2021 brought with it an explosion of different non-fungible tokens (NFTs) used for funding projects of all shapes and sizes, which often happens in decentralized finance where the whole ecosystem is run by smart contracts - automated contracts driven by code. Having an NFT is basically a digital certificate of provenance. The emergence of these NFTs and their uses has heralded the creator economy, and will revolutionize the way culture, finance, and our societies work. For the last few years in crypto, there has been significant focus on centralized exchanges and custodians, but recently focus has shifted towards other areas of risk. At InnoFi, they consider how risks can present themselves not only from an anti-money-laundering perspective, but also a consumer protection perspective.  Resources Malcolm Wright on LinkedIn To learn more, and contact Vincent Walden, please visit Alvarez and Marsal 

Chian Boen is Senior Manager with Johnson & Johnson's Global Audit & Assurance Group. He is experienced in government and AML investigations, law enforcement, and forensic accounting. He joins Vince Walden to discuss Johnson & Johnson's strategy for data-driven assurance. Two of the things Chian relies the most on to help him conduct anti-corruption audits and investigations are his team and heavy analytics. If you're not using certain analytics tools, such as Tableau data visualization, you're not leveraging as much as you can in terms of investigations. As for investigations, while it is always great to have face-to-face conversations, software like Zoom and Microsoft make things more flexible, as you can use resources on-screen to help you identify body language tells.  The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated innovation and technology, Vince says. People were forced to adapt and improve in such a short time that everything progressed at a much faster pace than it would have otherwise.

Bob Mascola is a global legal and compliance executive and educator. He is Senior Director of the Program on Corporate Ethics and Compliance at Fordham University School of Law, as well as Senior Counsel at Compliance Systems Legal Group. He joins Vince Walden to discuss compliance from an academic perspective.  Fordham University's program on Corporate Ethics and Compliance is a 30 credit Master's degree program full of students from different professional backgrounds. Most of the students are working professionals, so they bring real-life experience and insights to enrich classroom discussions. The curriculum is designed to meet the needs of each student, regardless of how diverse their specialties are. The program is helpful in equipping students to add value to the organizations that they're with. In addition to acquiring knowledge about different regulatory frameworks, it teaches skills like legal research, risk assessment, technology training, communications memo writing, and how to conduct investigations.  Being familiar enough with data to work with it is essential for future success in compliance. The DOJ and other enforcement authorities are raising their expectations of companies regarding the use of data analytics. If you want to show that you are leading industry expectations, you've got to be the best in data analytics. Resources Bob Mascola on LinkedIn | Twitter 

Jay Leib is Executive Vice President of Innovation and Strategy at Reveal, an eDiscovery review company. Jay was previously the Chief Strategy Officer at kCura before he founded NexLP, a pioneering AI company in Chicago that was acquired by Reveal. He joins Vince Walden to talk about the work Reveal has been doing, and investigation and eDiscover programs. By the year 2010, data had become much larger than human beings could get through in an efficient manner. It was for this reason that Reveal was founded, as well as to perform as an alternative to Relativity. Reveal's mission is to help end users, law firms, in-house corporations, investigators and international consultancies “get through whatever their obligation is, as far as data goes, as fast as possible, while finding the key insights and key stories as fast as possible.” After acquiring a company called Brain Space, Reveal created what they call an ‘AI model library.' Their data science team has built AI models to target specific issues within data to get important documents into the hands of investigators as quickly as possible. AI models have also been built to look for issues surrounding unethical and fraudulent behaviors.  Resources Jay Leib on LinkedIn | Twitter NexLP.com

Alan Gibson is Director of Legal and Compliance Innovation at Microsoft, where he identifies and incubates market-making opportunities for legal and compliance solutions. With over 20 years of cumulative experience in law, business and compliance, he currently serves as a change agent to revolutionize the way companies measure program effectiveness and manage compliance risks. He joins Vince Walden to define the three horizons of compliance innovation, and what they entail. Alan's mission is to find new ways that technology can help transform both the business and practice of law and compliance. He spends his time discussing the art of what's possible with customers and at Microsoft to incentivize foundational technology investments and frame those sorts of conversations.  The first horizon of compliance innovation involves solving immediate, important issues, building foundational capabilities, and managing discreet risks within your department. The second involves thinking about the midterm objectives of your overall digital transformation strategies, creating multi-point solutions, and taking advantage of the ability to combine. Finally, the third horizon involves looking at the long-term innovative solutions that can cause disruption and using them as the North Star for the first two horizons.  Resources Alan Gibson on LinkedIn Microsoft

Bryan Judice is Senior Director of the Office of Ethics and Compliance at Panasonic Avionics Corporation. With over 22 years of experience specializing in conducting forensic investigations and large, complex litigation matters, he has provided financial and business advisory services to clients in a variety of industries, including aerospace, aviation, and financial services. He joins Vince Walden to talk about data-driven compliance, and why it's more effective. Compliance processes best suited for analytics are available, self-contained, and have few different touchpoints in order to ensure the data isn't dispersed across too many different systems. Singular compliance initiatives are painless to digest, pull apart and examine, which makes it easier to create analytics to identify where the risks are in your programs.  Bryan shares what business processes he has seen work effectively for monitorships in today's landscape. He also discusses the five things everyone should know before they secure buy-in and budgets for data-driven compliance.  Resources Bryan Judice on LinkedIn

Dheeraj Thimmaiah is Global Director of Ethics and Compliance, heading Compliance Analytics at AB InBev. He is data-driven and passionate about innovation. Dheeraj is dedicated to spending close time with AB InBev's users and customers because even if you have the best tools, your organization will not get far without an audience. He joins Vince Walden to share insights about his role and work at AB InBev. BrewRIGHT is AB InBev's advanced data analytics program, which has 15 different apps and compliance workflows in 60 different countries. BrewRIGHT continuously monitors compliance (which has been especially useful during the pandemic), assists in managing investigations, and allocates resources effectively.  Dheeraj shares tips on how to get started on the analytics journey for compliance: ask yourself how you can control the uncertainties, identify the problems, and find a way to use technology as an enabler in building impact.  Resources Dheeraj Thimmaiah on LinkedIn  AB-InBev.com

In this episode, Vince Walden goes one-on-one with Sergio Moro, former Minister of Justice of Brazil and Managing Director of Disputes & Investigations at Alvarez & Marsal. With over two decades of legal and investigative experience, Sergio specializes in leading high-profile and complex anti-corruption, white-collar crime, money laundering, and organized crime investigations. They talk about his fascinating career journey from a federal judge to Minister of Justice, as well as some of the landmark cases he presided over, such as Operation Car Wash, which greatly impacted the corporate culture of Brazil. This was not the case only five or six years ago.  The normal behavior of corporate culture in the past was to deny everything and refuse to cooperate whenever issues arose, but various operations led by Sergio caused Brazilian companies to drastically change the way they did compliance. Many compliance systems were previously used by third parties to channel bribes to public officials. It's not enough just to have policies and procedures written down; they must be implemented and operationalized.  Resources Sergio Moro on LinkedIn

Ernest Brod is Managing Director with Disputes and Investigations services and head of the Global Investigations and Intelligence practice at Alvarez & Marsal. For 30 years, Ernest has worked with top law firms, corporations, and financial institutions to reduce clients' risk of fraud, corruption, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act issues, and anti-money laundering and terrorism concerns. He joins Vince Walden to discuss new technologies that are redefining how due diligence is done. The traditional practices of third-party due diligence involve public record searches supplemented by dumpster diving and surveillance. However, advancements in technology have allowed Alvarez and Marsal to do deeper, more advanced and efficient due diligence. Alvarez and Marsal provide intelligence services such as web, bank, contact, and location intelligence which have incredibly dynamic applications and reduce the risk of fraud and corruption. Some of the providers of these types of intelligence are shady and often push the envelope where legality is concerned. Acquiring these services through recognized firms like Alvarez & Marsal is the safest way to conduct the advanced due diligence that they provide as their practices are filtered through ethical concerns.  Resources Ernest Brod on LinkedIn | Twitter AlvarezandMarsal.com

Shub Nandi is the co-founder and CEO of PiChain Innovations Pvt Limited, a RegTech company that researches and develops DeepTech systems to proactively learn, solve, and automate complex problems. Shub joins Vince Walden to discuss PiChain's use of AI and blockchain to help with the automation of customer onboarding.  Roughly 1 trillion USD is laundered yearly in the US, yet only 1% of those illicit transactions are uncovered, Shub cites. This occurs despite the existence of regulations and compliance, suggesting that the implementation of these measures is lacking. Shub comments that many financial institutions view compliance as a “black box that is yet to be solved.”  PiChain is bridging the gap between the unbanked population and financial institutions via easy, simple, and convenient interfaces that are easily accessible through smartphones. Onboarding the 400+ personas in this population requires enhanced KYC and advanced programming like artificial intelligence to create ideal financial products for their needs. In addition, PiChain uses blockchain in conjunction with AI technology to ensure that their processes are compliant, and their models are fair and explainable.  Shub advises financial service companies to focus on understanding their customers rather than just their financial details.  Resources Shub Nandi on LinkedIn  PiChainLabs.com

Sam Eastwood is a litigation partner at Mayer Brown's Litigation Practice in London and a member of the firm's White Collar Defense & Compliance practice. He joins Vince Walden on this week's episode to discuss the risks and trends related to global compliance and data analytics. Sam expresses that companies need to disclose more about their compliance programs operations. Transparency into the data analytics itself is a good way to conduct audits, he adds. Data protection and the way data is collected, processed, and transferred is getting more challenging. As such, Sam stresses that the fraud detection process is in need of an upgrade.  Corruption is a human rights issue. It is important for clients within the compliance field to have an effective human rights compliance program. As things progress, Sam states that human rights due diligence laws are soon to be passed. When these laws are eventually introduced, companies will be expected to conduct human rights due diligence on the impact of their business activities. Monitoring legislative developments and carrying out human rights assessments are two of the ways Sam says that companies can do this. Resources Sam Eastwood | LinkedIn

Andrew Levine is a partner at Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, who specializes in white-collar regulatory defense and internal investigations. He joins Vince Walden to discuss the compliance journey, what initiatives compliance professionals should take in 2021, and the recently updated DOJ compliance journey. The DOJ guidance that came out in June 2020 is a step in the right direction in terms of understanding how prosecutors incorporate compliance programs into their decision-making, Andrew says. It offers real, actionable advice for building a framework for analyzing a computer program. The guidance is centered around three critical questions: Is the program well designed? Is it adequately resourced and empowered to function effectively? And, does it work in practice?  As prosecutors' expectations for what makes up an effective compliance program continue to rise, leaders should think about enhancement opportunities. “Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” Andrew counsels. “Develop a reasonable plan, think about resourcing for implementation, think about a timetable that works, and then execute while understanding that the compliance journey is a never-ending one.” Resources Andrew Levine on LinkedIn

In this episode, Vincent Walden welcomes back Jason Lee, CEO of DailyPay to the Pond to discuss the earned-wage access business model and how major employers like Kroger, Target, Dollar Tree and many others are rethinking how employees get paid in an efficient, compliant manner. Covid has changed how we think about work and the people who do it, and Jason Lee believes that this new understanding of our reliance on the hourly workforce is going to create the impetus to serve and honor them more effectively. One of the ways this is going to be happening is through the earned-wage access. Rolling this out is a meaningful and valuable benefit for employees, but there are compliance issues that companies need to be aware of. Jason says that it is incumbent upon employers to make sure that they are in compliance on three key issues: when taxes are owed and paid, wage and hour compliance and payroll deductions, and the issue of whether earned-wage access is being treated like a loan. Resources: Jason Lee at DailyPay / LinkedIn

Aaron Nicodemus is a staff writer and reporter at Compliance Week. He joins Vince Walden to discuss the recent report authored by COSO and to share new recommendations for managers and executives to manage compliance risks. Internal audit professionals would be the compliance professionals most familiar with COSO, as they set the guidelines for Sarbanes-Oxley internal controls compliance. The report, titled “Compliance Risk Management: Applying the COSO ERM Framework,” was like a collaboration between accountants and attorneys, according to Vince.  Compliance should not be viewed as a low level function, Aaron remarks. Rather, it should be viewed as a strategic partnership with a business to run their operations and initiatives according to the rulebook, in order to avoid missteps and minimize risk.  Resources Aaron Nicodemus on LinkedIn | Twitter ComplianceWeek.com COSO report: Elevating compliance leads to more informed decision-making

Vincent Walden talks about the importance of gratitude in this solo episode of The Walden Pond. He encourages listeners to pause and count their blessings. We don't need material possessions to be thankful, he says, only a sense of existence. Vincent expresses his gratitude to listeners, colleagues and friends for their contributions to his personal and professional growth.

Jennifer Saperstein is an Anti-Corruption and White Collar Partner and the Vice Chair of the Anti-Corruption Practice Group at Covington and Burling LLP. She joins Vince Walden to discuss why companies need to be smart about resourcing, compliance technology trends, and the compliance industry post-COVID. Having a risk-based documented plan for effective compliance programs before consulting any external advisory service is beneficial for companies. Being able to demonstrate where they have focused their limited resources is always helpful. It is now even more important for companies to make smart, risk-based decisions about where to spend their time due to the current pandemic.  A recent survey of over 30 companies revealed that in the last 10 years, there has been a significant transformation in compliance technology trends. Almost 70% of respondents say they use technology for third-party due diligence and 100% saying they use an LMS system to train employees. However, many companies still rely on manual processes for certain parts of their compliance programs.  Resources Jennifer Saperstein on LinkedIn  Cov.com

Steve Spiegelhalter is the North American Investigations Practice Leader and Managing Director at Alvarez & Marsal. As a former federal prosecutor with the US Department of Justice's Criminal Division, Fraud Section, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) Unit, Steve has intimate experience in investigating complex criminal and civil affairs and implementing compliance programs. He joins Vince Walden to discuss the future of conducting internal investigations. Steve talks about the improvements GCs and CCOs have made in internal investigations over the last five years. They have evolved their in-house skills and resources. Additionally, they have gotten better at interacting with external counsel to solve matters more efficiently.  COVID-19 has highlighted that foreign corrupt practices and corruption are long-term risks that are becoming more prominent. There has been a rise in fraud issues since the workplace has shifted to remote. Behaviors of malpractice that would have gone unnoticed are now being laid bare.  Resources Steve Spiegelhalter on LinkedIn AlvarezandMarsal.com

Peter Grossman is the co-founder and Chief Strategist of Labyrinth Training, a leading compliance, innovation, and training company that is redefining how compliance and code of conduct training is delivered to employees. They are dedicated to training employees through captivating storytelling. Labyrinth uses award-winning interactive design to bring their clients' policies to life, which engages the audience and imparts knowledge when they are paying full attention. He joins Vince Walden to discuss the impact storytelling has as a teaching method, and the importance of abandoning the right-wrong answer narrative. Labyrinth makes each training video specific to each client's needs and circumstances. Custom-made content has a higher chance of reaching the audience and capturing their attention, as well as ensuring that the delivered training is being retained. A Stanford study showed that creating mini-narratives to memorize something works much better than rote learning.  Labyrinth has made videos about data privacy, compliance, anti-harassment, and even human rights training like debt bondage. There is no magic path your employees can walk through where they won't encounter threats of corruption, says Peter. If you're trying to teach a lesson where there's a good path and a bad path, you're teaching the wrong lesson.  Resources Peter Grossman on LinkedIn LabyrinthTraining.com

Anil Kona is the CEO of Vertical Discovery Corp, a tech company dedicated to the evolution of eDiscovery. He is also the CEO of Spectrum Analytics. He joins Vince Walden to discuss global fraud and what Spectrum is doing to eradicate it.  According to the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners, the projected global loss due to fraud is estimated to be $3.5 trillion by 2020. Organizations worldwide lose 5% of their revenue to fraud, Anil cites. Now more than ever, he points out, the market needs a fully integrated automated forensic data analytics platform that has a low entry barrier and can carry out internal audits to identify fraud.  Spectrum Analytics was built to address various risk areas, including regular financial fraud and online fraud. Spectrum has developed an automation that lowers the barrier to entry by dividing it into four categories.  Resources Anil Kona on LinkedIn | Twitter RapidSpectrum.com

Taylor Twining is the Director of Sales at ethiXbase, an organization dedicated to helping clients in every stage of their third-party compliance lifecycle. He joins Vince Walden to discuss how companies are taking a risk-based approach to third-party due diligence.  ethiXbase helps compliance professionals reduce corruption and bribery risks by providing an end-to-end risk management platform which they can configure and customize to suit their needs. There are two categories of background checks: screening, which is instantaneous and involves inputting a name into a software program designed to monitor compliance watchlists; and enhanced due diligence reports, which is an in-depth analysis report done by humans, with a reduced risk of false positives.  DDQ's, or due diligence questionnaires, are tools which provide information for risk assessment; they are becoming more widely used in the compliance industry. This information is a critical part of understanding the risks third-parties may bring to your organization.  Resources Taylor Twining on LinkedIn  ethiXbase.com

Keith Laska is the CEO of Hanzo, co-founder and partner of EUX, and an advisor at Lilt. He joins Vince Walden to discuss Hanzo's approach to cloud computing enterprise communications. Hanzo is dedicated to helping legal and compliance teams save billions of dollars in litigation costs by supplying them with critical applications to regain control of their corporate data. They offer legal hold software for companies struggling with enterprise collaboration tools. Their mission is to make the complex simple when it comes to managing dynamic data. Collaboration tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams are challenging for legal and compliance teams to perform audit trails related to communication, due to their complex and unstructured nature. Emails, on the other hand, have clear and direct pathways of communication.  Applications that enable work-from-home environments are being adopted at an aggressive pace, so much so that the CEO of Slack has publicly stated that the pandemic has accelerated the anticipated evolution from emails to messaging apps by at least 18 months. Keith predicts that 30-40% of the working US population will be working remotely post-COVID, a huge jump from the previous 18%. Additionally, he believes that over the next few years, companies will be able to proactively identify problems before they occur, transforming data management into insight management.  Resources Keith Laska on LinkedIn | Twitter Hanzo.co

Sylvain Mansotte is the co-founder and CEO of Whispli, and this week's guest. Whispli is a Boston-based company focused on innovating how corporate whistleblower programs are delivered. Sylvain joins Vince Walden to discuss what makes Whispli different from traditional hotlines, the importance of trust and anonymity, and how their programs work. Traditional whistleblowing hotlines are bureaucratic and anxiety-inducing. In most cases, the lack of anonymity causes employees to hesitate in reporting misconduct, and some do not report it at all for fear of losing their jobs or suffering harsh consequences. Sylvain estimates that companies will miss 90% of reports because of a lack of anonymity in whistleblowing programs. Whispli is an innovative alternative to the traditional compliance hotlines, that promises complete anonymity with secure two-way communication channels.  Trust is the ultimate human currency and the foundation of all relationships. Whispli offers a level playing field for employees and higher-level workers to have conversations about difficult topics in a safe environment. It builds trust, which makes employees more inclined to speak up and report misconduct. Whispli allows users to change their avatar for each conversation to further maintain anonymity, and the system delivers all reports to their respective departments. Whispli is primarily a written communication channel, but if employees wish to call in, there is a hotline available in the program. They have also developed a mobile app, whose features include real-time voice modification. Resources Sylvain Mansotte on LinkedIn Whispli.com

Jordan Domash is the General Manager of Relativity's Trace product, and this week's guest. For 6 years, he has worked with Relativity in the fields of product and marketing, communications, and tactical projects. He helped build the early versions of Trace and grew it to where it is now. He joins Vince Walden to discuss how Trace works. Communications are an important medium that add context to structured data, as high-risk behaviors like collusion usually occur over communication vehicles. Trace is a compliance monitoring platform that proactively surveys all communications in near-real time and allows compliance officers to configure rules that alert them of suspicious content. It monitors investment management compliance, trade, and looks out for bribery and corruption. Trace enables organizations to detect high-risk behaviors by normalizing a wide range of data and file types into a large database and quickly sifting through it with AI empowered by human reviewers.  Trace has automated integrations with over 40 different data sources and carries out a set of small batch processes incrementally throughout the day. Additionally, it supplies tools to manage data volumes so users can focus only on what's relevant to them. Rather than for general monitoring, Trace is built for identifying a specific set of configured risks.  Resources Jordan Domash on LinkedIn Relativity.com | Trace

Lisa Ventura is the Practice Lead in the Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI) with the World Economic Forum, and this week's guest. For over 6 years, she has worked with the Forum, focusing on business, human rights, and combining profit with purpose. She joins Vince Walden to discuss how the Forum deals with global corruption and promotes integrity. The World Economic Forum is an international organization for private-public cooperation whose goal is to bring businesses, governments and civil societies together to address a wide array of issues. PACI is a platform in the global anti-corruption arena that puts emphasis on public-private cooperation, responsible leadership, and technological advances. Their agenda is to leverage the tone from the top to change how companies operate and build a corporate culture of ethics and integrity.  There are four pillars of the agenda for business integrity: commitment to ethics and integrity beyond compliance; the strengthening of corporate culture and incentives to drive continuous learning and improvements; the leveraging of technologies to reduce the scope of corruption; and the supporting of collective action to increase scale and impact. Global corruption levels are expected to rise as a result of the rising pressure caused by the pandemic. Lisa recommends appointing leaders who think of integrity as essential as a way to combat it. Resources Lisa Ventura on LinkedIn | Twitter WEForum.org https://www.weforum.org/communities/partnering-against-corruption-initiative https://www.weforum.org/communities/global-future-council-on-transparency-and-anti-corruption Agenda for Business Integrity - http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GFC_Overview_Agenda_for_Business_Integrity.pdf Hacking Corruption in the digital era: http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GFC_on_Transparency_and_AC_Agenda_for_Business_Integrity_pillar_3_2020.pdf

Matthew Madden is the Senior Director of Solutions Marketing at Alteryx, and this week's guest. With over 16 years of experience in sales and marketing, Matt possesses an in-depth understanding of the industry as a whole. He has been in the analytic space for 20 years. He joins Vince Walden to discuss insights about data blending and analytics.  Data is the key to getting the insights businesses need to drive their outcomes, Matt says. Alteryx revolutionizes businesses through the data science and analytics process by empowering members of the organization regardless of their skill set. Alteryx helps them to transform their data into something actionable, and provides the building blocks that enable them to go from one extreme of the analytic lifecycle to the next.  According to a study conducted with the Harvard Business Review, on average, analysts are using 3 to 5 different data sources to do their analysis. Alteryx gives users the ability to prepare and blend that data from those multiple sources within a drag-and-drop workflow environment. Being able to organize your data in one place reduces the risk of it being lost.   Resources Matthew Madden on LinkedIn  Alteryx.com

Jonathan Nystrom is the CEO of Intensity Analytics, and this week's guest. He joins Vince Walden to talk about his company's program, TickStream, which uses astronomical principles to protect virtual identity. Identity is the bedrock on which virtually everything in our world operates, Jonathan says. It affects every facet of a company, and while the IT department plays a big role, it is management's job to establish it. How we protect identity today is a conglomeration of rules that our adversaries will learn to break if we continue to do things the same way.  There are 300 billion passwords currently in use and most of them have no protection in terms of multi-factor authentication. More than 80% of breaches occur as a result of stolen credentials. Intensity Analytics has developed a solution that enables systems to recognize you based on your unique password typing frequency. It is an added layer of authentication security that proves your identity rather than proving you possess access to your account. The algorithms were developed using insights from astronomy, and are now patented as a part of a core of the technology. It doesn't even need to know your password, Jonathan says, just how you type it. Attempting to use other principles left it prey to a mathematical limitation called the Curse of Dimensionality, which comes up when comparing an infinite number of items to determine similarities.  This technology falls under the category of movement biometrics, which are more reliable than standard biometrics. Movement is being captured at a microscopic level, preventing the possibility of anyone else successfully impersonating you.  Resources Jonathan Nystrom on LinkedIn | Twitter IntensityAnalytics.com

Jerry Dent is the Practice Leader and Managing Director at Alvarez and Marsal. He joins host Vince Walden to talk about leadership and team communication during times of crisis. One positive thing that arose from the outbreak was that the US and Europe recognized they had a narrow window of preparation from studying the situation in China. Alvarez and Marsal were able to prepare to have an infrastructure that supported a remote environment. He gives examples of what his company is doing to maintain connectivity and productivity across all professional levels, and keep their employees engaged.  The challenge for those in legal and compliance would be the pivot from face-to-face meetings or sessions such as site inspections, interviews, and court appearances. Jerry has faith that quick adaptation will occur. Four risks that are critical due the switch to a remote environment are: cyber predators, social media and employee conduct, data protection and privacy, and employee engagement and connectivity.  Jerry stresses that we have all been dealt the same hand, businesses included, so no one business has any huge advantage over another. During a crisis, it comes down to a company's culture and communication to keep it afloat.  Resources Jerry Dent on LinkedIn  AlvarezandMarsal.com

Leslie Benton is the Vice President of Ethisphere Institute. She chats with Vince Walden about how her company helps businesses with anti-corruption, assessments and benchmarking. Leslie shares her background in the field of anti-corruption, and how she became Vice President of Ethisphere. She mentions that she has gained perspectives from both the private sector and NGOs.  Ethisphere has created a methodology platform for companies to internally assess their programs, which they can take to score the maturity of their programs in various areas such as corruption and cyber security. Ethisphere encourages companies to take a deep dive into their own programs with the platform's assessment tools, which allow them to address and identify areas of high and low performance. The maturity scoring provides metrics that can be tracked over time as they improve, and are used as benchmark data. The platform also has other tools and resources that help companies ensure their programs are in a cycle of continual improvement. Leslie advises companies to regularly monitor their third parties, as their involvement brings numerous risks.  Resources Leslie Benton on LinkedIn  Ethisphere.com

Ishaan Nerurkar is the Founder and CEO of LeapYear Technologies. He chats with Vince Walden about his company, in particular, the technology that they have developed. Ishaan gives his background in the fields of data and research, and how it birthed LeapYear. He noticed that every heavily regulated industry had challenges with regards to sharing and using sensitive data, and that while there were solutions, they were unable to prevent the data from being compromised. His company, LeapYear, has created technology to answer the next-generation problem of how to make sensitive data available without exposing the raw data itself, what Ishaan calls “differential privacy.” He describes differential privacy as a lens with a gradient of transparency to opacity as isolation of data increases. Vince asks what separates LeapYear's technology from open source tools. Ishaan shares the key difference between their technology and open source libraries: open source libraries are designed primarily for research purposes, so they provide tools to obtain that research. They do not provide protection. LeapYear's technology, on the other hand, is a layer on top of your data whose purpose is to ensure that insights can be obtained without exposing the raw data underneath. LeapYear Technologies' other purpose is to educate the community on how they can protect their data. Resources Ishaan Nerurkar on LinkedIn LeapYear Technologies

Vince Walden welcomes Wendy Riggs and Kara Ricupero to the Walden Pond show. Wendy heads Information Governance and Legal Operations at Airbnb, and Kara is the Senior Global Director of Information Governance at Ebay. This week's discussion revolves around the new communication and collaboration tools such as Slack, which are now widely adopted by organizations, and the unique issues and challenges they pose for information governance and compliance.  The issue of data retention and review is one that is particularly problematic. With communication tools like Slack being used to share vast amounts of information, reviewing and holding on to potentially relevant data proves challenging. Kara says that it's an all or nothing conundrum unless you bring in a separate legal hold tool. You can't use the company's automated deletion policy because you don't know which channel may be relevant to litigation or an investigation. Wendy adds that putting governance around a tool like Slack is difficult from an architectural perspective. Finding an effective solution to these governance issues is a matter of understanding your business. Work with your people to find the best defensible position for your company that also makes you compliant, Kara advises.  Resources Wendy Riggs on LinkedIn Kara Ricupero on LinkedIn 

Sergio Kopelev is Vice-President of Engagement Management at Stroz Friedberg (an Aon Company). He joins Vince Walden on this week's show to share stories of the types of cyber threats companies face today. Sergio remarks that while threat actors have always been present, today they are becoming increasingly sophisticated. He describes several ways they hack businesses, including filing false income tax returns and installing ransomware in backup systems. It's not just that they are gaining access to systems, Sergio says, they are weaponizing that access and gaining from it. Moreover, the weaponization isn't only through sophisticated technology, they are patiently learning their target businesses, and then attacking them at the most advantageous time for themselves. Cybercrime currently costs companies approximately $4 million per year, but is estimated to reach $6 trillion by 2021. Vince and Sergio discuss the pros and cons of blockchain technology as a security precaution. Sergio agrees that it offers several benefits, once a threat actor does not gain access to someone's login credentials. If they do, it's all over. He comments that the risk lies in the two main areas of supply chain and employees. As such, companies should have comprehensive employee training and awareness and should invest in having a strong cyber insurance policy. Every business is being targeted, and threat actors know exactly what they are targeting, so be very careful, Sergio warns. Resources Sergio Kopelev on LinkedIn  Stroz Friedberg (an Aon Company)

This week's guest on The Walden Pond podcast is John Warren, General Counsel for the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners (ACFE). He has been working for several years with the Institute for Fraud Prevention (IFP), an academic research foundation that has provided financial and data support for over 50 studies in the areas of fraud, corruption and white-collar crime. The ACFE Foundation has now taken over the IFP operations. In addition to giving scholarships, the ACFE will support academic researchers to do serious studies on issues that would benefit CFEs and other anti-fraud professionals. As the world's largest anti-fraud organization, John says that the AFCE is well-suited to disseminate research findings to its 85,000 members who can make practical use of the information. In 2020 and beyond, researchers can compete for funding for projects they believe will drive practical results for anti-fraud professionals. If selected to proceed to the selection round, they must pitch their ideas before a Shark Tank-style selection committee. The committee will then decide on the projects they will support based on budget and the value they believe the project will bring to the industry. John points out that the ACFE prides itself on providing data support, since researchers are always looking for good data.  John tells Vince that going forward, he hopes to see corporations and government regulators working alongside academia to solve long-standing problems in the anti-fraud space. Resources ACFE.com Email John: jwarren@acfe.com 

Vince Walden welcomes Lie Tiedrich to the Walden Pond podcast this week. Lee is a partner at Covington and Burling where she co-chairs the firm's global and multidisciplinary artificial intelligence (AI) practice. AI is at the intersection of law and technology, she says. The technology is growing faster than the law, and Covington helps clients navigate the evolving legal landscape so they can capitalize on the opportunities presented by AI. Other aspects of their work include product counseling, advising clients how to improve their operational efficiency using AI, and advising clients about how to adapt their business based on the policy landscape. What is AI? Lee defines AI as using computing to automate, imitate or emulate human behavior. There are three key components to AI, algorithms and code, data, and hardware. Advancement in digital and hardware technology is greatly responsible for the enthusiasm for AI in the market. Lee predicts that the adoption and development of AI will continue to grow.  Compliance Professionals Need to Know If you're using AI or planning to, you should be aware of the key issues and policy developments, especially in your jurisdiction. The policy landscape is evolving rapidly. If AI is relevant to your business, become informed of where the policy is going and think about how that impacts your business and what type of changes you might need to make to your operations. Another issue that's relevant to compliance professionals is how to make AI trustworthy to enjoy its benefits while mitigating against unintended harms. Lee says that governance is an effective tool to help manage the data, development, and deployment of AI. Given the rapidly evolving landscape and the growing interest in AI, organizations should dedicate some resources to understanding the AI legal landscape. Resources InsideTechMedia.com Law 360 article: The 10 Best Practices For Due Diligence in AI Transactions

Amir Weinberg is the CEO of Valire Software, an innovative software company that specializes in anti-fraud technology. He talks to host Vince Walden about his company's origin, and their cognitive fraud detection software. Origin of Valire Software Amir has a background in software testing, having founded two successful companies before Valire. He saw the need for forensic technology that was efficient and affordable. The opportunity to commit fraud within an enterprise is prevalent, he says. Valire Software was Amir's response to this unmet market need. They focus on queue to pay, order to cash and Human Resources fraud schemes. Cognitive Fraud Detection Vince asks Amir to describe cognitive fraud detection. Amir responds that the idea is to adopt the machine learning cycle where you base your conclusion on the data findings, and still use human knowledge to determine what makes sense. Valire Software applies machine learning in a mission learning environment in order to improve the detection and recovery of funds. He gives two examples of how his company thwarted fraud schemes and recovered millions in cash. What Compliance Professionals Should Know If you are thinking about using Data Analytics in your business, Amir says that you should know how to extract and access data and incorporate it into your system. Then you need to be able to learn from the data, based on the common patterns and specific needs of your company. Vince adds that there's no one-size-fits-all solution across the industry. There's no magic bullet, he says. Flexibility is key. Resources ValireSoftware.com

Host Vince Walden welcomes this week's guest, e-discovery legend Henry Dicker to the podcast. Henry is the President of data privacy and forensic service consultancy firm, Franklin Data. Before that, he worked with ALM in legal tech for 20 years. Vince asks Henry to reflect on the heydays of legal tech. Henry describes the momentous strides made during those early years, including how today's ediscovery evolved from Boolean search.  The main issue, Henry points out, will always be preservation of data. No corporation or advisor can manage the vast amount of data without decent technology. As technology evolves and regulatory demands become greater, firms need to keep up with the times or get left behind. He advises CCOs to engage other departments, even board members, to do this successfully. He lists three questions a CCO should ask himself and other stakeholders: What do you believe is the greatest regulatory risk facing the company? What do you believe is the greatest business risk facing the company?What do you believe is the greatest geographic risk facing the company?Treat these questions like a math or statistical calculation: take the sum of all their answers and align them with your answers to the same question; aggregate them and now you have a starting point for where you should be going. Vince asks Henry about the innovations and technologies that excite him. Henry talks about four such technologies, including the rise of AI and its future implications. Resources Nexem Legal, formerly Franklin Data

Legal litigation management represents a multibillion-dollar cost for law firms and corporations. It is a labor-intensive process requiring multiple software applications. Vertical Discovery provides a complete end-to-end workflow automation solution to this problem, powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. Their software solution, Optimum, was developed by a collaborative team of forensic professionals, e-discovery subject matter experts, legal professionals, and product development specialists from Microsoft. CEO Anil Kona speaks with host Vincent Walden about how Optimum can help law firms and corporations reduce cost and increase productivity. Optimum allows you to manage your litigation matters from a single dashboard. You are able to choose best-in-breed applications for each aspect of litigation management - including HR, asset management and EDRM (Electronic Discovery Reference Model) - and Optimum integrates these tools so that they all speak to each other. In addition, Optimum is template-driven. Once you define the type of litigation matter, it automatically shows you the steps to take to meet requirements. This makes litigation consistent and repeatable across cases. You will also see ROI savings in the form of productivity increases of 55 to 60%, manual error reduction of 96 to 98%, and being able to predict the outcome of your case. Resources:Vertical Discoverysales@verticaldiscovery.com 

Host Vincent Walden talks with Jason Lee, CEO of DailyPay, a technology solution that lets employees control when they get paid. Fortune 500 companies like Kroger, Berkshire Hathaway, Adecco Staffing and McDonald's are DailyPay clients. Jason stresses that the daily pay industry and the payday loan industry are completely different. Whereas payday loans give loans to employees which they need to pay back with interest, DailyPay makes employees' own wages available to them, just like payroll. The business model is simple. When you work, your employer reports your hours to DailyPay via their software. Your hours are converted into an available balance which you can access whenever you want prior to payday. Whatever you take upfront gets netted out of your paycheck on payday. There is no cost to your employer, but you pay a one-time transfer fee whenever you request a payment. Making their wages available to employees when they need it helps to reduce cash shrinkage to almost zero. Jason has also found that time clock compliance shoots up when companies implement DailyPay. ResourcesDailyPay.com 

This is The Walden Pond - a podcast in the Compliance Podcast Network. Vince Walden has been in the forensic technology compliance and investigation field for over 2 decades, and in the Walden Pond, he is going to be exploring practical, timely and relevant information by talking to other experts in the field. Henry David Thoreau's focus reflecting upon simple living in natural surroundings. Our world isn't as simple as Walden's, and so in this Walden Pond, we'll be looking at business, technology and compliance trends that are complex - but necessary for doing business.