Podcasts about compliance department

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Best podcasts about compliance department

Latest podcast episodes about compliance department

Law You Should Know
NGO's - Non-Government Organizations

Law You Should Know

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 26, 2025 26:26


Ken Landau talks with attorney James M. Black II, who discusses, NGO's - non-government organizations. They are essentially not for profits and charities and can have many different charitable purposes. He is a partner in the Corporate and Compliance Department of Falcon, Rappaport & Berkman, with offices on Long Island and New York City.

Land Line Now
Land Line Now, Feb. 19, 2025

Land Line Now

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 20, 2025 49:36


A court ruling means small businesses again are required to file beneficial ownership information with federal officials – at least for now. Also, are the conditions right for a freight recovery? Trucking software maker Motive says its economic analysis points that direction. Then, Tom Crowley and Aron Lynch of OOIDA's Compliance Department discuss requests by carrier-vetting services for information off truckers' ELDs. And we're into a transitional month for the spot market. Rates are down a bit, but Brent Hutto of Truckstop says they should come back soon. 0:00 – Beneficial ownership information is back – again 09:46 – Freight recovery ahead? Motive says the signs are good 24:24 – Carrier-vetting outfits asking for ELD data 39:23 – Rates down a bit but should come back soon

Land Line Now
Land Line Now, Jan. 15, 2025

Land Line Now

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 16, 2025 49:51


Two truckers are suing Minnesota over the state's refusal to recognize their concealed carry permits. Also, we'll report on what happened at the confirmation hearing for Sean Duffy, the president-elect's pick to run the Department of Transportation. Then, Tom Crowley and Aron Lynch of OOIDA's Compliance Department explain the basics of factoring and offer some advice on when to use it. And the spot market is expected to heat up this year. Brent Hutto with Truckstop says overall freight market rates are expected to increase. 0:00 – Sean Duffy spells out his vision for the DOT 09:46 – Truckers sue state over concealed carry refusal 24:24 – The upsides and downsides of factoring 39:23 – 2025 may be a hot year for the spot market

Crypto Hipster Podcast
Optimizing the Crypto Trading Experience with Perpetual Futures for Bitcoin, Altcoins, and Meme Coins, with Mohd Kifa @ Flipster.io

Crypto Hipster Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 30, 2024 33:39


Mohd Kifa leads the Compliance Department at Flipster ensuring that the business stays on top of things when it comes to Rules, Risks and Controls. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/crypto-hipster-podcast/support

Lawyer on Air
Continuous Learning and Adaptability: Keys to Success in the law in Japan with Yuko Kaneko

Lawyer on Air

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 23, 2024 54:47


Yuko Kaneko is Director and Corporate Counsel of the Business Legal Department at Renesas Electronic Corporation. Yuko discusses her career journey, starting as an attorney at Nishimura Asahi before transitioning to in-house roles. A career can span many years and so we discuss career longevity, the importance of continuous learning, and balancing professional and personal life. If you are looking for a role model of how to do a legal career in Japan then please listen to Yuko's story. If you enjoyed this episode and it inspired you in some way, we'd love to hear about it and know your biggest takeaway. Head over to Apple Podcasts to leave a review and we'd love it if you would leave us a message here! In this episode you'll hear: How Yuko left Iwate for Tokyo and found her way to a legal career Her tips for lawyers transitioning from private practice to in-house How she spends her time and makes exercising a priority even with a family Her favourite saying and other fun facts  About Yuko Yuko Kaneko is Director & Corporate Counsel, Business Legal Department of Renesas Electronic Corporation. She graduated from Tokyo University, and after attending the Legal Training Research Institute of the Supreme Court as a Legal Trainee, she started her career as an attorney-at-law at Nishimura & Asahi in 2000. In June 2010, Yuko changed her career path and switched to become an in-house legal counsel. She served as the Manager of Legal Affairs Office at Nippon Otis Elevator Company for over five and a half years. Thereafter, she moved to Alconix Corporation, where she served as the General Manager of the Legal and Compliance Department for just under 6 years. Yuko obtained an L.L.M. from the Florida Coastal School of Law through e-learning while raising three daughters. Yuko is also a Certified Fraud Examiner and volunteers for the Executive Board of Women in Law Japan. In her spare time she loves to get involved in her hobbies, which are golf, running, skiing and playing the koto. Connect with Yuko  LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/yuko-kaneko-019188132/  Links Hakone Pola Art Museum: https://www.polamuseum.or.jp/en/  Connect with Catherine  Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/oconnellcatherine/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawyeronair YouTube: https://youtube.com/@lawyeronair 

Land Line Now
Land Line Now, July 25, 2024

Land Line Now

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 25, 2024 51:36


OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh told Congress this week that to fix issues like speed limiters, AEBs and more, legislators need to listen to truckers. OOIDA Director of Federal Affairs Jay Grimes offers some analysis of the hearing. Also, Tom Crowley and Aron Lynch of OOIDA's Compliance Department discuss ways you can avoid having problems with brokers in the first place. And Delaware and California have legislation in the works to limit what can be done with autonomous vehicles. 0:00 – Pugh to Congress: It's time to listen to truckers  10:22 – Analysis: Congress drills down on high-interest trucking regulations 25:15 – How to avoid problems with brokers in the first place 40:23 – Two more states working to limit autonomous vehicles

98.5 ONE FM Podcasts
Geoff Maynard from the GS Heritage Committee on the Biennial Bruce Wilson Memorial Heritage Lecture

98.5 ONE FM Podcasts

Play Episode Listen Later May 28, 2024 6:31


This interview first aired on Tuesday the 28th of May, 2024 on ONE FM 98.5 Shepparton. One FM fill-in breakfast announcer Plemo interviews Geoff Maynard from the Greater Shepparton Heritage Committee about the upcoming biennial Bruce Wilson Memorial Heritage Lecture. The 2024 Lecture will be held at the Riverlink Eastbank, 70 Welsford Street, Shepparton on Wednesday 5 June 2024 across two sessions at 1pm and 6pm. This year the topic of the Greater Shepparton Bruce Wilson Memorial Heritage Lecture will be ‘A town talks about itself: the heritage and future of country newspapers,' presented by Ross McPherson AM, Chairman and Editor in Chief of the McPherson group of newspapers, and prominent community figure. If the medium is the message how will our community conversation, first forged in the days of bullock drays and hand-set lead type, remain a cohesive influence in the era of algorithm-driven messages, artificial intelligence and social media distraction? Come and hear veteran newspaperman Ross McPherson reflect on the history and value of local newspapers to rural areas, and the future for such publications in a rapidly-changing media environment. For more information, contact Council's Building, Planning and Compliance Department via email: council@shepparton.vic.gov.au (attn: Planning and Building Support) or telephone: (03) 5832 9730. Contact the station on admin@fm985.com.au or (+613) 58313131. Listen to One FM Breakfast weekdays on 98.5 One FM 6am-9am. The ONE FM 98.5 Community Radio podcast page operates under the license of Goulburn Valley Community Radio Inc. (ONE FM) Number 1385226/1. PRA AMCOS (Australasian Performing Right Association Limited and Australasian Mechanical Copyright Owners Society) that covers Simulcasting and Online content including podcasts with musical content, that we pay every year. This licence number is 1385226/1

Pro Bono Happy Hour
2/22/24 GSK Empowering New Beginnings: Pro Bono Efforts to Secure Identity and Support for the Homeless

Pro Bono Happy Hour

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 22, 2024 14:44


In 2023, 148 members of GSK's Legal and Compliance Department global pro bono program served 160 clients,providing over 1200 hours of service. Since 2015, GSK has partnered with Homeless Advocacy Project (HAP), an organization that provides free legal services to individuals and families who experience or face homelessness in Philadelphia. GSK lawyers and legal professionals assist with securing birth certificates for clients which addresses homelessness and enables them to apply for housing. GSK also participates in HAP's SOAR (SSI, Outreach, Access, and Recovery) project to obtain expedited rulings on Supplemental Security Income and SSDI cases to help provide income to individuals who are unable to work due to a disability. We spoke with GSK Assistant General Counsel, Andy Boczkowski, for this special edition of the Pro Bono Happy Hour Podcast. Listen to how GSK got involved with HAP.

The Wealth Flow
EP56: Invest, Diversify, Retire | How To Boost Your IRA Returns - Dana Udumulla

The Wealth Flow

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 14, 2023 45:31


Financial autonomy meets retirement savings in today's episode featuring Dana Udumulla as we dive into the dynamic world of self-directed individual retirement accounts. Tune in to discover how to transfer your 401k into a self-directed IRA, along with the importance of reflecting, researching, and having a clear sense of your retirement goals in securing your financial future.     Key Takeaways To Listen For Madison Trust Company: Their services and the advantages of working with them How to use your self-directed IRA to invest in real estate What is UBIT and why do investors need to be aware of it Alternative ways to fund your retirement savings account Reasons you should invest in a self-directed IRA vs. a traditional IRA How do you keep track of your IRA-funded investments?     Resources/Links Mentioned In This Episode Charles Schwab Fidelity Investments Merrill Lynch Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki | Kindle, Audiobook, and Paperback     About Dana Udumulla Dana Udumulla is an investment manager at Madison Trust Company, specializing in alternative investments and self-directed IRAs with a portfolio exceeding $4 billion. She joined the company in February 2020, and as the manager of the Investments and Compliance Department, she is dedicated to improving departmental procedures, streamlining investment processes, and exploring innovative ventures. Furthermore, Dana holds a Master of Science in Financial Analysis from Rutgers University and a Bachelor's degree in Finance from Ramapo College of New Jersey.     Connect with Dana  Website: Madison Trust Company LinkedIn: Dana Udumulla Mobile Number: 845-400-8454     Connect With Us If you're looking to invest your hard-earned money into cash-flowing, value-add assets, reach out to us at https://bobocapitalventures.com/.     Follow Keith's social media pages LinkedIn: Keith Borie Investor Club: Secret Passive Cashflow Investors Club Facebook: Keith Borie X: @BoboLlc80554

Own The Build
Making Health and Safety a Profit Centre, not a Compliance Department. (EP 140)

Own The Build

Play Episode Play 58 sec Highlight Listen Later Oct 23, 2023 41:06


In the studio today, I am joined by Gavin Coyle, CEO of Coyle Group, a Group of Companies serving the safety sector in the construction industry. Gavin is a thought leader, speaker, and safety mentor and holds a level 9 MBS in workplace Safety from DCU, a Diploma in Safety, a Certificate in Law, and a Diploma in Corporate Governance.In today's conversation, Gavin talks about his experience in the Construction Industry, the regular pushback from Commercial and Procurement teams regarding Health and Safety and how he believes you can make Health and Safety a Profit Centre, not a cost. Gavin is uber passionate about this topic and is a keynote speaker at many high-profile events. His views on Health and Safety will absolutely change your perspective.Your free OTB downloadAs promised at the top of the show - I've shared a link to the download below: Late Payment Notices - What do you do?--C-Link is software built by Quantity Surveyors for Main Contractors. We save 600 hours of Quantity Surveying time per project in automation. We can make your QS' so much more efficient.Book a demo to learn more by clicking here.Support the showWant to connect with Paul?Paul is on Linkedin here and would love to talk. You can also connect with Paul at paul@c-link.com.To learn more about C-Link, Watch the Video, or book a demo by clicking here.

Association of Insurance Compliance Professionals

Join Sam Garro, Senior Vice President of the Compliance Department at Philadelphia Insurance Companies, as he sits down with Lou Penn to discuss the Affordable Care Act and how it can provide health insurance to those who don't otherwise have access to a health plan. This podcast explores the purpose of the ACA, the various levels of plans that are offered as well as other key features. Featuring: Lou Penn Hosted by: Sam Garro, Senior Vice President of the Compliance Department, Philadelphia Insurance Companies

Association of Insurance Compliance Professionals
Planning for a Catastrophe to Happen? Yes for Insurance Companies

Association of Insurance Compliance Professionals

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 24, 2023 13:05


When catastrophes happen, insurance companies are expected to respond quickly to assist insureds who have suffered a loss as a result of the catastrophe.  Many states require that these companies have plans in place prior to the event and that these plans are filed with the state, including contact information. Join Sam Garro, Senior Vice President of the Compliance Department at Philadelphia Insurance Companies, as he sits down with James Bryant, Sr. Manager of Business Continuity Management for Tokio Marine North America Services, to discuss those requirements and how insurance companies get ready for the next catastrophe whether it is a hurricane, earthquake, flood, or any other catastrophic event. Featuring: James Bryant, Sr. Manager of Business Continuity Management, Tokio Marine North America Services Hosted by: Sam Garro, Sr. Vice President, Compliance Department, Philadelphia Insurance Companies

Career Notes
Gabriela Smith-Sherman: Thriving in the chaos. [Cyber governance]

Career Notes

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 5, 2023 10:05


Gabriela Smith-Sherman, Director of the Governance Risk and Compliance Department at MindPoint Group, sits down to share her journey. A former federal agency CISO with over 15 years of experience in leading and implementing comprehensive enterprise cybersecurity programs and initiatives, she is also a disabled US combat veteran who understands the importance of mission and is dedicated to delivering high-quality results and value to customers through innovative solutions. Gabriela shares about her time in the military and how being part of the service was one of her best decisions, dedicating all her hard work to her time in the armed forces. She also explains how it was tough falling away from military routine, and the difficulties behind her transition to civilian, but notes that she thrives in the chaos of the IT world, saying "I think my military experience has prepared me, uh, to be in those kind of chaotic positions and be very calm about the approach." We thank Gabriela for sharing her story with us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Association of Insurance Compliance Professionals
Surplus Lines – Insurance for the Difficult to Insure

Association of Insurance Compliance Professionals

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 18, 2023 25:31


What happens to those insurance customers who have difficulty getting insurance because of their size or the nature of their business, such as a company that manufactures explosives? They may be able to find coverage in the surplus lines market. Join Sam Garro, Senior Vice President of the Compliance Department at Philadelphia Insurance Companies, as he sits down with Andrew Adams, President at River Valley Underwriters, Inc., and Nicole Zayac, counsel in Willkie Farr and Gallagher, LLP's Corporate & Financial Services Department and a member of the Insurance Transactional and Regulatory Group, to discuss thismarket, how it operates, why it differs from standard insurance and describe the unique way in which it is regulated. Surplus lines is a multi-billion dollar business. Find out what it's all about in this exciting podcast. Featuring: Andrew Adams, President, River Valley Underwriters, Inc. Nicole Zayac, Counsel in Willkie Farr & Gallagher, LLP's Corporate & Financial Services Department Hosted by: Sam Garro, Senior Vice President, Compliance Department, Philadelphia Insurance Companies

Compliance That Makes Sense
106 - How To Select Compliance Tools And Why Not Pricing?

Compliance That Makes Sense

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 10, 2022 12:01


Yana is recording from one of her favorite cities, Dusseldorf. She's talking all about compliance tools, compliance tool selection, and why you shouldn't select your tools based on pricing alone.  We go through a list of questions to ask about the tool to really understand the metrics and amount of false positive checks created. Choosing the lowest price per check can cost you more if the tool creates excessive false positives. You could end up wasting a lot of time and money.  If you found value in this episode, I would really appreciate it if you could leave a review!  My mission is to help and support as many FinTech startups as possible, and when you leave a positive review, more people can find this podcast and help their companies!  If you are on Apple, just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and tell me what your favorite part of the podcast is.    Today's episode: [02:11] The purpose of adding any compliance tools to your compliance toolkit should be to improve the experience of internal and external users. [03:43] How many false positives does this tool generate? Ask how many false positives versus true hits I can expect. [04:43] What can the tool do automatically to help reduce the number of false positives? What will make the settings more accurate and improve the number? [06:41] Ask if there is machine learning in place that can help adapt the performance of fraud management.  [07:05] Ask how many customers get approved by this tool at the first attempt. How does the tool differentiate active versus inactive accounts? [09:10] How long on average does it take for an agent or your compliance analyst on an alert or flag to dismiss the alert or come to a decision about the customer?  [10:26] Even if you choose the lowest price per check, if the tool creates a lot of false positives, you will end up paying more.   Show links: Interested in FinTech compliance? - consider investing in the FinTech Compliance Self-Starter Package! I would love to invite you to sign up for my newsletter. If you are interested, please click here. 103 - How AML and Other RegTech Tools Became the Candy Crush Office Game for the Compliance Department  

Compliance That Makes Sense
103 - How AML and Other RegTech Tools Became the Candy Crush Office Game for the Compliance Department

Compliance That Makes Sense

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 19, 2022 10:48


Adding more features, data, and analytics capabilities to your RegTech tools may sound like a worthwhile effort, but it actually does more harm than good in the FinTech world. Tune in today to hear why this trend is more like a Candy Crush office game than an effective business strategy.  If you found value in this episode, I would really appreciate if you could leave a review! My mission is to help and support as many FinTech startups as possible, and when you leave a positive review, more people can find this podcast and help their companies! If you are on Apple, just click here to review, select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” and tell me what your favorite part of the podcast is.    Today's episode: [01:02] The dangerous trend that is taking place in the RegTech industry.  [01:41] How RegTech companies are trying to differentiate themselves.  [02:35] The main purpose of compliance tools.  [02:49] Why I don't think the strategy that RegTech companies are using is going to work.  [03:13] One of the biggest compliance inefficiencies within FinTech companies.   [05:15] Why compliance professionals often incorrectly believe they need more data. [07:54] The mission of most RegTech companies.  [08:27] Why adding unnecessary data is like a Candy Crush office game for compliance teams.  [09:21] Advice for founders who are thinking about adopting additional RegTech tools. [10:03] Let me know about your experiences with this topic!    Show links: Interested in FinTech compliance? - consider investing in the FinTech Compliance Self-Starter Package!   I would love to invite you to sign up for my newsletter. If you are interested, please click here.  

Association of Insurance Compliance Professionals
Special Events Insurance – Coverage for Those “Special” Events

Association of Insurance Compliance Professionals

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 3, 2022 24:24


Most of us have either planned or attended a special event such as a wedding, baby shower, concert, conference, fair, etc. But did you know there is special insurance coverage for these events? Because these events are limited in time, scope and variety, there is special insurance coverage available to insure them. Join your host Sam Garro, Senior Vice President of the Compliance Department at Philadelphia Insurance Companies as he sits down with Dan Cotter, Attorney and Counselor at Howard & Howard Attorneys PLLC, who also currently serves as the AICP's General Counsel, to discuss this type of insurance, how it is underwritten, how it has changed over the years and why it may be needed to cover these events. Featuring: Dan Cotter, Attorney and Counselor, Howard & Howard Attorneys PLLC Hosted by: Sam Garro, Senior Vice President of the Compliance Department, Philadelphia Insurance Companies This presentation is only intended to provide a general educational overview. The statements contained herein are not intended - nor should they be construed - to provide specific legal or regulatory guidance. The content of this presentation and any related discussion represent the views and perspectives of the speakers and do not in any way constitute official interpretations or opinions of their respective employers. Legal or regulatory counsel should always be consulted to review specific questions or issues of regulatory compliance.

Hurricanes Weekly
Amy Deem with Joe Z 5-18-22

Hurricanes Weekly

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2022 10:04


Amy Deem, who has spent the previous 31 seasons coaching the Hurricanes, is the Director of Track and Field/Cross Country at the University of Miami. Deem was promoted to her current position in 2008 after serving as the head women's coach since June 1990. At the time of her promotion, she became just the sixth woman to oversee both the men's and women's track and cross country programs at a Division I school. In her 29th year with the Canes, Deem coached the women's team to a second-place finish in the ACC indoor Championships, featuring Debbie Ajagbe who won both the women's weight throw and shot put to earn ACC Field MVP honors. It's the second time in two years Miami earned the award. Freshman Jacious Sears earned 14 points for the Canes in her first ever conference meet finishing second in the 60 and third in the 200. The Canes sent three women to the 60m finals, and three to the shot put finals, which scored 21 points. Deem coached Miami's 17th national track and field champion as Michelle Atherley claimed the NCAA Indoor Pentathlon title with a program record and ACC record point total at 4,547. Miami earned its fourth title in four years at the ACC Indoor Championships, with the likes of Brittny Ellis, Kayla Johnson, Debbie Ajagbe, Selina Dantzler, Tiara McMinn and the 4×400 all taking the podium. Atherely was also named ACC Field MVP of the Indoor Championships. Later in the season, Atherley went on to defend her outdoor ACC heptathlon title and finished third at Nationals in the event. Debbie Ajagbe, Tiara McMinn, the 4×400, Kevin Arreaga, Raheem Chambers, Samantha Gonzalez all made their way to Nationals for the outdoor season to close out yet another successful track campaign under Deem. Deem guided a youthful team to the 2018 ACC Women's Outdoor Championship, Miami's first since 2006. This was the third conference title in three years after claiming the Indoor Championship in both 2016 and 2017. She was named the 2018 ACC Women's Outdoor Track and Field Coach of the year for the third time, her seventh overall ACC coaching honor. Under Deem's guidance, Symone Mason was named the 2018 ACC Women's Track MVP, while Michelle Atherley was named the ACC Women's Field MVP for 2018. The pair won six of Miami's seven individual events conference titles at the 2018 ACC Outdoor Championships. Miami totaled 11 total medals at the Outdoor Championships: seven gold, one silver and three bronze. The Canes also picked up 21 All-ACC awards, including 17 spots on the All-ACC first team and saw eight Canes make their way to the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. The Canes women were ranked as high as No. 15 nationally during the season and earned nine USTFCCCA All-American honors. The Indoor season also produced 12 different student-athletes earning 13 All-ACC honors. Atherley finished sixth at the NCAA Indoor Championship in the pentathlon and was named a first team All American.  The indoor season saw Kayla Johnson break the Top 5 list in UM history in both the 600 meters and 800 meters, while Anne den Otter broke Latrice Shaw's 1000m time set in 1998. Amy Taintor finished her final season with the Canes' third-best Pentathlon finish with 3,967 points. The 2016 track and field season was monumental in Hurricanes history, as the Miami women won their third ACC Indoor Championship. Deem was named ACC Coach of the Year and USTFCCCA Regional Coach of the Year for the 2016 indoor season. The Canes had six women qualify for the 2016 NCAA Indoor Championships, with Alysha Newman and Dakota Dailey-Harris earning First Team All-America honors and four other Canes being named to the second team. Shakima Wimbley was named ACC Women's Indoor Track Most Outstanding Performer after winning the 200m, 400m and 4x400m at the ACC Indoor Championships. Dailey-Harris was one of several ACC Champions during the indoor season, winning the high jump title. She was joined by Wimbley (200m and 400m) and the 4x400m relay team of Wimbley, Aiyanna Stiverne, Brittny Ellis and Destiny Washington. There was more success outdoors for Miami's women, as they finished second at the ACC Outdoor Championships, securing a top three finish for the third consecutive year. Wimbley was named ACC Women's Outdoor Track MVP after winning the 200m, 400m, 4x100m and 4x400m conference titles. She was joined by Stiverne, Ebony Morrison and Carolyn Brown on the 4x100m, and Stiverne, Washington and Ellis on the 4x400m. Newman was the ACC women's pole vault champion for the 2016 outdoor season. Fourteen women qualified for the NCAA East Preliminary, with 11 advancing to the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Newman was the national runner-up in the pole vault, while Wimbley finished third in the 400m. The women's 4x400m relay placed seventh to round out Miami's First Team All-America performers. Miami earned three First Team All-America honors, four Second Team All-America honors and one All-America honorable mention after its performance at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Miami's men also had a stellar 2016 season, scoring the most points at both the ACC Indoor and Outdoor Championships since joining the conference in 2004-05. Freshman Andreas Christodoulou won the men's decathlon at the ACC Outdoor Championships. Carlos Mangum qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships in the weight throw. The ACC runner-up in the weight throw placed 14th, earning Second Team All-America honors. The Hurricanes had three men qualify for the NCAA Outdoor Championships: Isaiah Simmons and Gian Piero Ragonesi in the shot put and John-Patrick Friday in the triple jump. Ragonesi and Friday earned Second Team All-America honors. Six men competed at the NCAA East Preliminary: Simmons, Ragonesi, Friday, Mangum, Jaalen Jones and Henri Delauze. In 2015, Deem's Hurricanes thrived as Miami had 19 student-athletes competed at the NCAA East Preliminary and 11 advanced to the NCAA Outdoor Championships, while seven Canes qualified for the NCAA Indoor Championships. In recognition of Miami's success in 2015, Deem was named the USTFCCCA South Region Women's Head Coach of the Year. The Hurricane women had an impressive showing in 2015, led by two-time First Team Outdoor All-American Shakima Wimbley. The sophomore, who ran the fastest 400m time in the NCAA in 2015, was named USTFCCCA South Region Women's Track Athlete of the Year. Wimbley also earned First Team All-America honors with the 4x400m relay. Wimbley was named the ACC Women's Outdoor Track MVP after an outstanding showing at the ACC Championships. The sophomore won the 200m and 400m individual titles and set ACC records in both events, while helping the 4x400m relay place third. The stellar sophomore also was a star during the indoor season, qualifying for nationals in the 400m and as a member of the 4x400m relay. She also set an ACC Championship records in the 200m, running a time of 23.08 seconds to win gold. Hurdler Kelsey Balkwill also qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships, placing ninth in the women's 400m hurdles to earn Second Team All-America honors. Pole vaulter Alysha Newman, thrower Precious Ogunleye and the women's 4x400m relay rounded out Miami's competitors at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. The women's team also had a stellar showing at the ACC Outdoor Championships, placing third with 93 points. In addition to Wimbley's outstanding showing at the conference meet, Precious Ogunleye earned an ACC title in the women's hammer. On the men's side, Artie Burns and Christian Cook qualified for the NCAA Outdoor Championships in the 110m hurdles, while John-Patrick Friday represented Miami in the triple jump. Cook ran a personal-best 13.78 at the NCAA Outdoor Championships and was the ACC Indoor Champion in the men's 60m hurdles, earning First Team All-ACC honors. Burns earned a silver medal at the ACC Outdoor Championships in the men's 110m hurdles, running a time of 13.70 seconds that ranks third in school history. The standout hurdler earned First Team All-ACC honors, while Cook was named to the second team after placing fourth in the 110m hurdles and scoring in the 400m hurdles. Sprinters Henri Delauze, Jaalen Jones and Josh Johnson all scored at the ACC Indoor Championships, while the men's 4x400m relay scored at both the indoor and outdoor conference meets. The men's 4x100m relay of Burns, Cook, Johnson and Robert Grant earned a bronze medal at the ACC Outdoor Championships. The 2014 season was filled with success for the Canes as Miami had 20 student-athletes compete at the NCAA East Preliminary and 10 advance to the NCAA Outdoor Championships, while five Hurricanes represented UM at the NCAA Indoor Championships. The Canes won six ACC outdoor individual titles and picked up another six individual championships at the ACC Indoor Championships. Ten student-athletes earned All-ACC honors in 13 outdoor events, while 11 were named All-ACC during the indoor season. Alysha Newman was a two-time All-America, first team honoree. The pole vaulter earned her spot among the best in the country after finishing fifth at the NCAA Indoor Championships and seventh at the NCAA Outdoor Championships. Other notable performers in 2014 include Shakima Wimbley, who was named the ACC Freshman of the Year for both the indoor and outdoor seasons, and Isaiah Simmons, who claimed his second straight Field MVP at the ACC Outdoor Championships. In 2013, Miami had 13 different student-athletes qualify for the 2013 NCAA Division I Men's and Women's Outdoor Track and Field Preliminary Championships. On the women's side, Samantha Williams (triple jump) and Amber Monroe (discus) qualified for the NCAA East Preliminary for the second consecutive year. Alyssa McClure (100m), Alaine Tate (800m), Taneisha Cordell (800m), Lea Johnson (hammer) and the women's 4×100 relay team of McClure, Jokira Jiles, Jasmyne King and Kelsey Balkwill also qualified for the NCAA East Preliminary. The men had four student-athletes qualify in six events. Isaiah Simmons (shot put and discus), Christian Cook (110m hurdles and 400m hurdles), Timothy Richardson (long jump) and John-Patrick Friday (triple jump) combined to form the largest group of males to qualify for an NCAA Regional in program history. Prior to the 2013 track and field season, Deem helped guide the women's track and field team to one of the most dominating performances in USA Olympic track and field history. The team won 14 medals, including six gold, four silver and four bronze. Overall, she was part of Team USA who won more medals and gold medals than any other nation at the Games. Three of her former athletes – Murielle Ahoure, T'erea Brown and Lauryn Williams – competed in the Games. Ahoure (100m, 200m) and Brown (400m hurdles) reached the finals of their events, while Williams earned gold as part of the 4x100m relay pool. In June 2012, Thandi Stewart (400m hurdles) and Samantha Williams (triple jump) both earned All-America status at the NCAA Championships under the direction of the veteran mentor. It was the 21st season in a row in which one of her student-athletes received All-America honors. Deem, elected to the UM Sports Hall of Fame in 2006, has been responsible for building the women's track and field program from very modest beginnings into an NCAA powerhouse. Prior to her being named head coach in 1990, the Hurricanes had never had an athlete record an NCAA qualifying mark. Since then, Deem has guided 57 student-athletes to a combined 173 First Team All-America honors and 14 national championships. Behind Deem, Miami proved its national dominance in the hurdle events in 2010. At the NCAA Outdoor National Championships the Hurricanes became the first program in history to have three women compete in a 400m hurdle championship race. T'erea Brown placed second, while twin sisters Tameka and Takecia Jameson placed third and eighth, respectively. Each woman earned All-America accolades. As a team, the Miami women finished the championship in 11th-place – the highest result for UM since a seventh-place outcome in 2006. Brown earned a total of three All-America distinctions on the year – increasing her career total to five – with her runner-up performance in the 100m hurdles and a third-place showing in the 60m hurdles at the NCAA Indoor Championships. Brown also did something that no student-athlete had ever done at Miami. She became the first to win a U.S. Championship when she won the 400m hurdles in 54.84 seconds on June 27, 2010. Tameka Jameson also competed in the race – placing fifth. The 2009 track season brought a total of six individual All-America honors and an indoor national title. Sprinter Murielle Ahoure came to Miami for her senior season to train under Deem and was rewarded greatly for her decision. Under Deem, Ahoure raced to the Indoor 200-meter National Championships and earned All-America honors in the indoor 60-meter dash and the outdoor 100 and 200-meter dashes. In addition Ahoure broke UM legend, Lauryn Williams' indoor 60-meter dash record, was a four-time ACC Champion and earned the ACC's Indoor Track Performer of the Year Award. As in years past, the Hurricanes hurdlers had a stellar season under Deem's direction. Sophomores Takecia Jameson and T'erea Brown advanced to the finals of the 400-meter hurdles, with Brown crossing the finish line as the national runner-up. In her first season at the helm of the men's program in 2009, Deem saw Mikese Morse claim All-American status in the indoor long jump with his fifth-place finish at the national championships. Also, junior Cory Nelms (indoor 60-meter hurdles) was the first male track athlete to claim an ACC Title that wasn't named Tim Harris since Lance Leggett in the 400-meter hurdles in 2006. In 2008, Deem saw Krista Simkins win a NCAA National Title in the indoor 400-meters. Also, during the indoor season, Viktoria Andonova took home All-American honors as she tied for ninth in the high jump at the Indoor NCAA National Championships. During the outdoor season, freshmen hurdlers, Takecia Jameson and T'erea Brown finished third and eighth respectively to earn All-American accolades in the 400-meter hurdles. In July of 2008, Jameson ran for the United States in the Junior World Championships in Poland, where she claimed two world titles, in the 400-meter hurdles and the 4×100-relay. The Hurricanes have had at least one student-athlete earn All-America honors in each of her 21 seasons and are perennial contenders for conference championships and top-10 national finishes. In Miami's first two seasons in the ACC (2004-05 and 2005-06), Deem led the Hurricanes to consecutive indoor and outdoor conference titles. In addition, she was honored as the league's indoor and outdoor Coach of the Year both seasons. Miami finished tied for fifth at the 2006 NCAA Indoor Track and Field Championships marking the program's second consecutive top five finish while the team placed seventh at the NCAA Outdoor Championships marking the highest outdoor finish in school history. The 2005 season saw Miami reach unprecedented heights. The Hurricanes finished a program-best third at the 2005 NCAA Indoor Championships, which included a school-record 12 All-America honors. Miami finished ninth at the 2005 NCAA Outdoor Championships, also the highest finish at the time in school history, notching another 14 All-America honors. The Hurricanes placed second at the 2005 NCAA East Regional Championships marking the highest finish and most points scored (81) in the program's history. In 2004, the Hurricanes concluded their final season of BIG EAST competition by posting one of the best seasons in school history. Miami recorded 17 All-America honors, won both the BIG EAST Indoor and Outdoor Championships for the second consecutive season, including the school's sixth BIG EAST Outdoor Championship, and placed 10th at both the NCAA Indoor Championships and NCAA Outdoor Championships. That season, Miami recorded 12 All-America honors at the NCAA Outdoor Championships including Lauryn Williams' NCAA National Championship in the 100-meters. Williams posted a winning time of 10.97 seconds, the fifth-fastest time in NCAA history. In three seasons under Deem, Williams developed into one the top sprinters in the world. For most of 2004, Williams had the top time in the world in both the 100-meter and 200-meters. She went on to win a silver medal in the 100-meters at the Olympic Games in Athens, and at just 20 years of age became the youngest sprinter in 32 years to medal in the event. Williams competed in the 2008 Beijing Olympics and continues to train under Deem. In 2005 Williams captured the gold medal in the 100-meters and also anchored the USA 4×100-meter relay to the gold medal at the IAAF World Championships in Helsinki, Finland. During Deem's tenure the Hurricanes developed into the premier track and field program in the BIG EAST winning a combined 79 BIG EAST individual and relay titles. Miami's team title at the 2004 BIG EAST Outdoor Championship marked the fourth consecutive for Deem's Hurricanes making UM the only program in BIG EAST history to win four straight outdoor team titles. Under Deem the Hurricanes have become a fixture at the NCAA Championships scoring at 14 of 15 NCAA Indoor and Outdoor Track and Field Championships since 1992. Both in the state of Florida and around the nation Deem is recognized as one of the best developers of talent in the coaching ranks. Deem, who served as President of the United States Track Coaches Association from 2003-05, has won numerous coaching awards and been appointed to various national coaching positions. In 2007, she served as the Head Coach of the United States team at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan where the Americans won the 4×100 and 4×400-meter relays Deem has been honored four times as the USTCA South District Coach of the Year (2001, 2002, 2004, 2005), and in 1998 was named the USA Track and Field Florida Coach of the Year. In 2002 she was honored as the United States Olympic Committee Developmental Coach of the Year for Track and Field. In addition, Deem served three seasons (1998-2000) as the Event Coordinator for Sprints and Hurdles for the USA Track and Field Coaches Education Program, and in 2001 served as head coach of the USATF Junior National team that competed in England and Scotland. In the summer of 2003, Deem served as the Explosive Events Coach (sprints and hurdles) for the United States at the Pan American games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic guiding Lauryn Williams to the gold medal in the 100-meters. In addition the United States swept the gold medals in the 4×100-meter relay and 4×400-meter relay for the first time since 1987. In 2002 Deem guided Williams to the gold medal at the World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica. In addition to Williams, Deem has coached numerous other top sprinters and hurdlers including five-time NCAA Champion Gillian Russell, 1999 NCAA Champion Yolanda McCray, two-time Olympian Patrina Allen, and Debbie Ferguson, a two-time Olympic medalist. Russell, who competed for the Hurricanes from 1992-95, won the NCAA National Indoor title in the 55-meter hurdles in 1992 and 1995, as well as the NCAA 100-meter hurdle championship in 1993, 1994 and 1995. Russell is a two-time Olympian having competed for Jamaica in 1992 and 1996. Russell was ranked among the World's top-10 in the 100-meter hurdles from 1995-1998 reaching a career-best ranking of sixth in 1998. McCray, a six-time All-American, won the 100-meter hurdles at the 1999 NCAA Championship and, in 1997 and in 1999 was ranked as high as sixth in the United States in the event. Allen, a teammate of McCray, was also a six-time All-American. She competed for Jamaica at the 2000 and 2004 Olympic Games in the 400-meter hurdles. In 2002, Deem began coaching Bahamian sprinter Debbie Ferguson. Ferguson went on to post one of the best seasons of her career winning gold medals in the 100-meters, 200-meters and 4×100-meter relay at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, setting meet records in all three events. She went on to win championships in the 200-meters and 4×100-meter relay at the 2002 World Cup, and ended the season ranked second in the world in the 200-meters and fifth in the world in the 100-meters. At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Ferguson captured the bronze medal in the 200-meters and reached the final of the 100-meters where she placed seventh. She competed in the 200-meter event at the 2008 Olympics and again be coached by Deem. Originally from Parkersburg, West Virginia, Deem first came to Miami in 1988 as an intern in the Compliance Department to complete her degree at Ohio University. While fulfilling her internship she simultaneously served as assistant track coach. In what could be termed as perfect timing, in the Spring of 1990, Deem decided to stay in the Miami area and the head women's track coach position opened up. Deem, who is a Level III coach and instructor as certified by USA Track and Field, was hired as the head women's track coach on June 26, 1990.

Association of Insurance Compliance Professionals
Insuring the Entertainment Industry – Coverage “Behind the Scenes”

Association of Insurance Compliance Professionals

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 8, 2022 14:50


The entertainment industry has coverage needs that are very different than other industries. Movie sets, concerts, off-site filming locations, and entertainers all need special coverages. What are these special coverages and how do they differ from traditional insurance for homeowners and offices? Join your host Sam Garro, Senior Vice President of the Compliance Department at Philadelphia Insurance Companies as he sits down with Adam MacLeod-Roth, Senior Product Counsel at Intact Insurance Specialty Solutions, to discuss this special area of insurance and explain why the entertainment industry needs unique coverages. So, get out the popcorn and enjoy this podcast! This presentation is only intended to provide a general educational overview. The statements contained herein are not intended - nor should they be construed - to provide specific legal or regulatory guidance. The content of this presentation and any related discussion represent the views and perspectives of the speakers and do not in any way constitute official interpretations or opinions of their respective employers. Legal or regulatory counsel should always be consulted to review specific questions or issues of regulatory compliance. Featuring: Adam MacLeod-Roth, Senior Product Counsel, Intact Insurance Specialty Solutions Hosted by: Sam Garro, Senior Vice President of the Compliance Department, Philadelphia Insurance Companies

Scribble Talk
Scribble Talk Episode 141 with - Hailey Cox ( Membership Director for the APMP California Chapter, 40 Under 40 Winner, Flying over an Active Volcano, Exercises, Refurnishing Old Furniture, Stay in Russian Villages)

Scribble Talk

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 11, 2022 50:19


Hailey Cox was born and raised in Huntsville, AL, and is the third generation in her family to work in the Defense industry. She is currently a Capture & Proposal Senior Analyst at Aerojet Rocketdyne (AR), where she provides proposal leadership, training and hands-on process support in the development of competitive new business proposals for AR's Defense Business Unit. She provides both virtual and cross-site proposal guidance to proposal managers and teams on critical national defense programs, resulting in strategic wins for the company. She is experienced in delivering proposal management and process Just-in-Time (JIT) training. In just over two years at AR, Ms. Cox has received four Mission Success Awards for superior proposal leadership and support. She provides strong support in helping the Capture & Proposal group improve processes and performance, including maintaining data and analyzing proposal process health metrics , contributing to win/loss analyses, working process improvement initiatives, and developing useful proposal templates and worksheets. In addition to her regular job duties, Ms. Cox was selected by AR leadership to serve on three special projects/teams – (1) Ethics Liaison for the Ethics and Compliance Department, (2) Team Lead of the Strategy and Business Development Employee Engagement Team, and (3) AR Business Operating System (ARBOS), Huntsville Headquarters Leadership Council. She began her career as a Program Support Analyst at a small business and was then promoted to Business Development Manager. Ms. Cox earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Political Science and Philosophy and a BA in Russian Language and Literature from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. She is certified at the Foundation level (CF APMP) through the Association of Proposal Management Professionals (APMP) and is the Membership Director for the APMP California Chapter. She is starting her second year of being mentored by a proposal expert through APMP.  Hailey Loves to spend time with her animals and constantly engages herself with animal welfare. She is also into fitness through many means including lifting weights, Pilates and martial arts. Hailey busies herself by giving make-overs to old furnitures and also nurtures a hobby for shooting.  Hailey can be found volunteering for her church's kitchen ministry and is fully into American muscle cars, especially the one she owns. Support the show (https://pod.fan/scribble-talk)

Our Two Cents with MBA
2022 Hot Topics in Compliance

Our Two Cents with MBA

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 7, 2022 48:39


In this episode, we discuss compliance hot topics in 2022 with MBA's Compliance Department. Senior Vice President Carol Barnett, Vice President Gina Jolly and Vice President Bryan Bradley dive into a wide range of topics, including overdraft protection, the explosion of buy now pay later, Reg E, Fair Lending and HMDA. They also discuss what they're hearing from examiners and recent issues cropping up in bank reviews around the state. For references provided during the podcast, check out the links below.CFPB Prioritizing Resources Against Racial Bias in Home Appraisals | Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (consumerfinance.gov) Federal Housing Administration “HUD Reinforces Appraisal Fair Housing Compliance and Issues Updated General Appraisal Requirements” SFH_FHA_INFO_21-101.pdf (hud.gov) 

The Political Life
Throwback: How to Outsource your Compliance Department

The Political Life

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 11, 2021 23:50


On this throwback episode of The Political Life, Jim interviews Elizabeth Bartz of State and Federal Communications - helping companies and lobbyists comply with ethics rules in all fifty states and globally. About Elizabeth Bartz Borrowed money and bought the compliance department of State and Federal Associates in 1993. She moved the department to Akron, Ohio, and bought it over a series of year, ultimately spinning it off into "State & Federal Communications." She can be seen at all of the major legislative conferences across the country. She works with contract lobbyists and in-house government affairs professionals, giving her a unique perspective on the industry. What are State and Federal Communications' main services? Compliance for lobbying and campaign finance. They will start handling lobbying and compliance for European countries soon. Many European political candidates are hiring American political consultants. How many companies does State and Federal Communications work with? 100+. Their compliance department has about 12 people. Company-wide, it has about 12 attorneys on staff. Resources Mentioned: State and Federal Communications NCSL Council on Governmental Ethics Laws CSG East Help us grow! Leave us a rating and review - it's the best way to bring new listeners to the show. Don't forget to subscribe! Have a suggestion, or want to chat with Jim? Email him at Jim@ThePoliticalLife.net  Follow The Political Life on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter for weekly updates.

Association of Insurance Compliance Professionals
Cyber Insurance – Insurance for Technology!

Association of Insurance Compliance Professionals

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 17, 2021 19:12


Cyber insurance was thought to be only for companies in the technology business. But most companies now use some form of technology as part of their business. Use credit cards in your business and store the credit card data? Run a website that allows customers to order your products from that website? Have data that could subject you to a ransomware attack? Then you may need cyber insurance. This episode will explore what cyber insurance does, who may need it, and how it is a unique form of insurance coverage. Featuring: Sam Garro, Senior Vice President of the Compliance Department at Philadelphia Insurance Companies

Compliance Perspectives
Donna Abbondandolo on Redesigning Your Compliance Department [Podcast]

Compliance Perspectives

Play Episode Listen Later May 11, 2021 12:50


Post By: Adam Turteltaub “How should my compliance program be designed?” It’s a question many are now asking in the wake of the pandemic, and it’s a question Donna Abbondandolo, Chief Compliance Officer of Bon Secours Mercy Health asked even before it. In her case the compliance team was divided functionally. One team was focused on revenue cycle. The other for general compliance. While that likely made sense at one point, it no longer did, and, adding to the need for a change was the fact that compliance was moving out from enterprise risk management and was about to report to the CEO and the audit & compliance committee of the board. Bottom line: it was time for something new. When setting goals for redesigning your program she recommends first understand the strategy of your organization, where it is going and how you can align compliance best to support the strategy. Also, be sure to have a good handle on the risk profile. What are the high-risk areas? How do you identify what is high risk? How do you support leadership in managing risks? The latter can be a very difficult question in a geographically- dispersed organizations. Even with these considerations in mind and the best intentions, she warns that there will be bumps along the way. That’s when it’s important to have already cultivated relationships with operational leaders to help smooth things over, dispel the notion that compliance is a roadblock, and build trust. In terms of structure, she took a functional approach to the redesigned program as a way to address compliance concerns both by function and across the enterprise. She developed key leads for various areas to help support the operating units. Within the compliance team, she met with staff, took the time to understand their skillsets and then leveraged their strengths to help create a strong, functional model. She also worked with HR to leverage the organization redesign principles they had, including developing a purpose statement for the compliance team. Listen in to benefit from her experience. It could help you when it’s time to redesign your compliance program, or just to kick the tires a bit on your current one.

Principled
Pick Your Own Song: Tiffany Archer’s Mission to Advance DE&I at Panasonic Avionics

Principled

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 9, 2021 22:57


Compliance executive and board and executive advisor Tiffany Archer of Panasonic Avionics shares how her study of psychology underpins her approach to ethics and compliance; what the differences are between diversity, equity, and inclusion, and why those distinctions matter; and how a company needs to look “below the iceberg” to find its true culture.   “It’s critical that we take time to get to know and understand our employee base, to uncover their values and beliefs that underlie they behaviors. When you’re armed with that information, you’re able to stand up meaningful, relevant, and actionable plans to advance an organization’s diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.” - Tiffany Archer   Tiffany Archer is a board and executive advisor, ethics and compliance officer, regulatory attorney, and D&I nonprofit advisory board/faculty member with 18+ years in Fortune 500 companies and AmLaw 100 law firms. Today, she is on the compliance leadership team for Panasonic Avionics Corporation, the global leader for in-flight entertainment and communications, providing solutions to 300+ airlines. At PAC, Tiffany, a strategic and practical business leader, is the lead ethics and compliance attorney for the Americas and Europe. Tiffany has been a compliance lead for teams up to 500+ internal stakeholders (Audit, Finance, Trade Compliance, IT, and HR), outside counsel, and vendors. She has led the design of global compliance programs impacting 10+ countries, as well as cross-border internal investigations. Her focus includes the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Bank Secrecy Act (BSA), U.K. Bribery Act, and Anti-Kickback Statutes. As part of her regulatory relations and enforcement actions work, she has developed legal strategies and navigated inquiries from DOJ, SEC, FDA, FINRA, OFAC, and others. Tiffany is a co-chair of NYCBA’s General Corporate Ethics and Compliance Sub-Committee, and a member of NYCBA’s Compliance Committee. She was a 2020 Finalist in Compliance Week’s Excellence in Compliance Award for Anti-Corruption and featured in Modern Counsel. She is an active speaker and author, with 7+ events by Ethisphere: The Global Ethics Summit, CenterForce USA, LEC Experience LATAM (Brazil), and others, as well as 5+ articles in International Financial Law Review, New York Law Journal, and more. She has been a guest lecturer at 3 law schools. Before law school, Tiffany served in world-class financial services and consulting institutions, where she worked at the intersection of data, risk management, and operations at the inception of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence (AI). She draws passion and excitement from analyzing the ever-evolving legal, ethics and compliance space through a behavioral science lens, in her efforts to combat financial crime and mitigate risk.   What You’ll Learn on This Episode: [1:22] How has Archer’s career path led her to her current position at Panasonic Avionics? [3:29] What does Panasonic Avionics do and what kind of work does the E & C program do to promote their culture? [6:01] What is Archer’s perspective on diversity, equity and inclusion? [9:58] What are some things that companies can do to improve their diversity, equity and inclusion programs? [12:56] What role do company boards play in forwarding the discussion on diversity, equity and inclusion [13:56] What are the next steps for advancing racial justice from a business perspective? [17:33] How has Covid impacted Archer’s work and what is her focus moving forward? [20:33] Who are the mentors in Archer’s career path and what advice would she give to someone wanting to get into the E & C field?   Find this episode of Principled on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Sound Cloud, Podyssey, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.   Transcription: Speaker 1: Welcome to the Principled Podcast brought to you by LRN. The Principled Podcast brings together the collective wisdom on ethics, business and compliance, transformative stories of leadership and inspiring workplace culture. Listen in to discover valuable strategies from our community of business leaders and workplace change-makers. Ben DiPietro: Hello everybody, and welcome to another episode of season five of LRN's Principled Podcast. My name is Ben DiPietro. I'm the editor of LRN E&C Pulse newsletter. You can find that by going to lrn.com, clicking on the resources tab, and then clicking on the newsletters tab, if you can subscribe we'd love to have you. With us today is Tiffany Archer. She's a board and executive advisor and ethics and compliance officer, a regulatory attorney, and a faculty member with more than 18 years experience in Fortune 500 companies, and AmLaw 100 law firms. Today, she's on the compliance leadership team at Panasonic Avionics Corporation, global leader for in-flight entertainment and communications. Welcome, Tiffany, glad to have you with us today. Tiffany Archer: Thank you so much, Ben. I'm really excited to be here. Ben DiPietro: So tell us a little bit about how you became interested in ethics and compliance. Then take us through your journey that's led you to your current role at Panasonic Avionics. Tiffany Archer: First, I've always been a people person and incredibly fascinated by what it is that makes them tick. So while in college, I chose to major in psychology to learn more about human behaviors, motivations, mental states, decision-making processes. Later went on to law school and after graduating, I joined a major international law firm where I specialized in white collar crime and securities enforcement. So of course, my cases focused on corruption, bribery, money laundering, and other heavily regulated conduct. I was always interested in digging into the why, behind the decisions that these individuals or corporations made. And also to look a little more into what it is that really motivated the behaviors that led them down the path of wrongful conduct. So after nearly six years in private practice, I decided to switch gears and I moved in-house and have since held multiple compliance roles. The passion that I've always had for psychology and for connecting with, and understanding people is a key pillar of my personal compliance practice. Interestingly, many people consider compliance officers as police officers of sorts. Frankly, it's not unusual for the compliance function to be referred to as the department of no. With that in mind, I prefer to take a people centric and empathetic approach to compliance. My priority is to connect with people, learn more about their values and their beliefs, and really use that information to guide their behaviors so that they can make ethical decisions, and do the right thing even when no one else is looking. So ultimately on my compliance journey, I landed at Panasonic Avionics, where I'm currently the regional ethics and compliance officer and corporate counsel for our Europe and Americas regions. Ben DiPietro: Tell us a little bit about Panasonic Avionics and what it does? Then how your compliance team works to help create that culture you're talking about. Then how do you measure the success of your team in that particular area? Related Article: 6 Ways Compliance Training Can Measure Employee Performance Tiffany Archer: Sure. So Panasonic Avionics manufacturers in flight entertainment systems. Essentially those are the TV screens that you see on the seat backs of airplanes. We also provide connectivity services and then on the ground engineering support. Our focus is on innovation and most importantly, providing the best possible passenger experience. To bridge the chasm between compliance and culture within Panasonic, we partner very closely with our chief culture officer. One of the tools I would want to highlight here today is to measure the culture, we use anonymous pulse surveys, which are sent out quarterly. Essentially the purpose of those is to check the vitals on our employee population, find out how they feel about the culture of the company. Then we take those actionable data points from the surveys and use them to address concerns that intersect with the company culture. And we formulate ways to make improvements. Our chief culture officer does an incredible job of keeping our employees informed. I think it's quite clever actually. After each survey she sends out what's called a "So what, now what?" message. Essentially, what she's communicating is through this survey you've identified, "So what are the issues or the problems that you'd like addressed?" And "Now what?" is how she plans to put into effect initiatives or procedures to address those concerns. Panasonic's Compliance Department's mantra is compliance is our foundation. So not only do we measure our success by the implementation of the data points from the surveys, but we also measure it through our stakeholder satisfaction with our responsiveness to their needs. Ben DiPietro: That “So what, now what?” is really interesting because it shows the people that you're listening to them. That's so much more important to building that trust. That's going to get you to create the culture you're trying to achieve. Tiffany Archer: It's really about keeping those lines of communication open. I think our chief culture officer's initiative with the “so what, now what?” really makes people not only see that she's listening and that we're listening, but that we're actively responding. So it's really important to keep that dialogue open and to continue to show forward progress. Related Article: Building A Speak-Up Culture Ben DiPietro: So I know you have a big interest in matters of diversity, equity, inclusion. We both last year we're part of an LRN Consero round table on that topic. At the time I asked you about the differences between the D, the E, and the I, in that equation. I thought your answer was really excellent, and I think our audience would love to hear what you have to say about that. Tiffany Archer: Thank you, Ben, for highlighting this. Diversity equity and inclusion is such an important initiative and movement for me. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to talk a little bit more about what those letters mean to me, specifically. So not only are there differences in what the D diversity, E equity, and I inclusion pillars represent, each word also has a distinct impact on an organization's initiatives. Starting first with diversity, right? The focus is on creating an environment that's representative of the intersectionality between gender, race, sex, age, LGBTQIA, and many other identities. In my view, this pillar is particularly important because what many organizations I've seen do is have a one-dimensional perspective as it relates to that. For many of them, historically, everyone in the institution for the most part looks the same. They come from the same backgrounds, they belong potentially to the same country club. They went to the same schools I could go on but I think you get what I'm driving at. The thing is it's not too late to attack this root cause. No doubt it will be challenging to make the shifts since people are so used to the status quo. What the leadership of these organizations should recognize is despite the rocky road ahead, having to pivot towards a more diverse culture should not be considered a penalty. In fact, it's an opportunity for growth and expansion, and new or different ideas and perspectives, which can ultimately lead to a transformative experience for the organization. Now, under the equity pillar, the focus is more on fostering an environment where all employees have fair and equitable opportunities, right? They're looking for fairness when accessing resources, despite being amongst the majority who may not look like them. I thought it would be salient to use myself as an example here. I've spent much of my life competing with those who don't look like me, and for the listeners here today who may not know, I'm a Black woman of Jamaican descent, and I've always had to be the best and focus on not othering myself. There've been occasions where particular outcomes made me sit back and wonder, "Did I miss this opportunity or was I not selected? Or was I not appropriately rewarded because I don't look like the person that I was being compared against? I've definitely... I'll share a personal story here, walked into interviews where the interviewer was questioning whether I was in fact Tiffany Archer, because they didn't expect me to look- Ben DiPietro: This is true. Tiffany Archer: ... [crosstalk 00:08:52] but true. Sad, but true. But ultimately it shouldn't matter. You look like or what you sound like. The comparison should be on more substantive qualities and merit and what you bring to the table. Lastly, with the I. Inclusion, which is the practice of providing equal access to opportunities and resources for people who might otherwise be excluded or marginalized. The goal here is to create an environment where employees feel welcomed as a member of the organization. And that should be the priority. They want to be appreciated and recognized for who they are. And organizations, policies, and procedures should be carefully drafted to ensure that employees have that opportunity to feel that sense of belonging. One of my favorite quotes in this DEI realm is by Verna Myers, where she says diversity is being invited to the party and inclusion is being asked to dance. I like to add that equity would be allowing everyone the opportunity to actually pick the songs. Ben DiPietro: So now that you've laid that out as the framework, what are two things companies can do to improve their D, E, and I programs? How does the company get started on this process? Tiffany Archer: So first and foremost, leadership buy-in is paramount. Without a commitment from an involvement by leadership, employees will question how serious the organization is about undertaking this transformational process. Then secondly, companies have to commit to not applying a one-size-fits all approach or an off the shelf solution to address the myriad of D, E, and I issues that may exist. How does one get started? How does an organization tackle this? Frankly, we could probably have an entire podcast on this topic. But seriously Ben, many companies I'm seeing now they're forming task forces D, E, and I committees, retaining consultants all in an effort to kick off their transformational processes. I think these are helpful solutions, but only so long as that they're tailored for the company and its specific culture and values. Related Article: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Cannot Be Just An Internal Intitiative On the topic of culture, I want to highlight Edward Hall's culture, iceberg theory. I'm a huge proponent of his work. He was an anthropologist and a cross-cultural researcher who came up with this theory in 1976, on how you can address organizational culture. It's really quite simple, this theory. Basically, an organizational cultures like an iceberg, a very small portion of the culture, roughly 10% is exposed on the surface, right? Making these areas really easy to identify, and you can address in quick time any sorts of issues or problems you might see. But where the real work and the important cultural data points lie are below the surface. That's around 90%. These include things like cultural beliefs, people's ideas, thought patterns, their unconscious biases. So the real onus is on the D, E, and I team to engage their stakeholders in meaningful discussions, right? Gathering qualitative and quantitative data around behaviors, customs, core values, religious beliefs, and other characteristics. An iceberg model shows that you can't judge a book by its cover or that 10% of the iceberg that's exposed. It's critical that we take the time to get to know and understand our employee base, to uncover their values and beliefs that underlie their behaviors. When you're armed with that information, you're able to stand up meaningful, relevant, and actionable plans to advance an organization's diversity equity and inclusion initiatives. So the big takeaway is digging deeper into the layers of the iceberg will allow the team to learn the challenges and pain points in the diversity equity inclusion program, and begin that longer journey of creating an action plan that specifically meets the needs of the employee population. Ben DiPietro: That sounds like where maybe the board needs to get in. So what role does the board play in folding this discussion and getting deeper down into that iceberg?   Tiffany Archer: Well, again, as I said earlier board involvement and commitment and buy-in is key. We need board members to echo the same sentiment and messaging. We need the board to acknowledge that this process may be a long, arduous, challenging process, but we're committed to that process. I think also the board needs to echo the sentiment that it's going to take a lot of work, and despite the obstacles we're going to commit to moving forward. So I think, not only should leadership be doing that but the board should also have an active role in making sure that there's continuous forward progress in connection with these initiatives.   Ben DiPietro: Pushing forward all this D, E, and I discussion too has been the support for racial justice that poured out into the streets all over the world last year, after the killings of George Floyd and so many others. What are the next steps to advance this issue from a business perspective and how can organizations help do their part here? Related Article: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Cannot Be Just An Internal Intitiative Tiffany Archer: This is a sad topic. These tragic events have put a spotlight on the importance of addressing a long-standing crisis affecting people of color. You know, you raise George Floyd. We all know he died because we watched as an officer kneeled on his neck until he could no longer breathe. Breonna Taylor, another person of color was wrongfully shot dead while asleep inside of her home. Rayshard Brooks, another person of color was shot in the back as he was approaching his vehicle where his children were sitting. These are all circumstances where police officers prioritized power over judgment or procedure. These killings amplified the deaths of people of color at the hands of police and elevated the prominence of racial inequality and disparity in policing. Each of these were victims of racial profiling and they each suffered unjust and untimely deaths. With that, I think it's so very important that we don't allow the passing of these events and individuals to become the passing of an opportunity to proactively address and work towards a solution to this historical problem. As far as how businesses can help, they can play a key part in this by keeping these issues alive in front and center, and at top of mind. Again, we don't want the passing of these events to be a passing of an opportunity. I think they can leverage this opportunity by standing up as ambassadors of change. I would say that the reliance on two key guideposts would be really helpful in this realm. So the first one would be acknowledgment, right? And going back to leadership. It's paramount that leaders, the board, et cetera, are vocal about their commitment to the fight for racial equality, and enterprise-wide messaging would be the first step. Then secondly, action. You have to walk the talk if you truly have any interest in moving the needle. Even if the movement are just small steps, that forward cadence is critical. Related Article: Showing Up: LRN Launches New Anti-Racism Course So I advocate that businesses need to reassure employees that by really doing the work, not just through activities, like issue specific training on unconscious bias or diversity or sensitivity, but also focusing on developing equitable opportunities for growth and advancement, and not penalizing marginalized employees when they speak out. Again, as I said earlier, these will be difficult conversations and change will not happen overnight. But I think the most important thing that organizations need to demonstrate is that they're committed to the cause. Not only from the perspective of what is happening in the streets, but also from the perspective of what's happening within the walls of their offices. Ben DiPietro: Also, I believe they have a role to play in helping to reform police as well. We had an excellent podcast at the beginning of season four, with Florence Chung. [Listen to the episode] She's a member of the Hetty Group. Her job is to make a bridge between communities and police departments and try and rebuild some of that trust. She was talking about how business can be such a great mentor for departments that don't understand how to execute change management and all these things that businesses do very well. So there's a definite tie in and a role for them to play. Tiffany Archer: Yeah, absolutely. Ben DiPietro: The other topic dominating our world is COVID-19. It's obviously having a big impact on companies and their ENC programs and cultures. What have you learned about your program as a result of the pandemic, and what should the focus be on as you move forward? Tiffany Archer: A key theme that has come from this pandemic is the level of resilience our program has demonstrated. I know I'm proud of it, and I'm sure my colleagues would say the same thing. The aviation industry sadly suffered a tremendous blow between the travel bands, reduced flight capacity and routes, people's fear of flying because of COVID protocols. It's really been a challenging time, but nevertheless, our program's commitment to compliance has been unwavering. As I said earlier, compliance is our foundation. We've adapted to this new normal, and we've remained connected to our stakeholders. We make connecting virtually and regularly an absolute priority, and continue to reassure them that we are here to help. We've really tried our best to turn a dark and dreary time into something lighter and more personable and relatable. So for example, we've created a number of communication initiatives. One of which includes vignettes, where we have compliance character avatars work through COVID related or other challenging scenarios that our staff may face during this time. And kind of walk them through how best to deal with the circumstances or challenging decisions that they're confronted with. We've also focused on reminding employees that PAC's culture is rooted in honesty and integrity. There really should be no fear of speaking up if there are any questions, or concerns or something just doesn't feel right. For me personally, I found that the most success is in reminding my stakeholders that I'm a confidant and a business partner. I spoke earlier about not just being the department of no. I really do, do my best to be empathetic, and compassionate, and understanding, that everybody is going through a different circumstance, and one person's challenge might be very different from another's. But it's critical to continue to have these discussions and these dialogues to instill trust. When they trust me, I know that if the need arises, they'll come to talk to me to work things through. My role isn't to be a bottleneck it's to assess the facts, determine how to facilitate the outcome that they're looking for, but in a way that comports with our policies and procedures. Finally, I've spent a lot of time encouraging my stakeholders to consider their mental health, and their self-care regime, and to try to keep their spirits and mental fortitude up. We are all in this together. We are embracing the worst of times. But the key to getting to the other side is going to be through persistence and resilience, and that's the message that I try to communicate regularly. Ben DiPietro: That is such an important topic, and it's going to be with us for years to come I believe as the fallout from all this. Now let me ask you one last question. I want to thank you so much for your time today. This has been so much fun. Tell me about one or two of your mentors who have helped you work your way up in this profession? Then offer a piece of advice to young people, looking for a career in ENC. Tiffany Archer: One key mentor in my life is Marcia Narine Weldon. She went to Columbia University and is also a Harvard Law School grad. She's an attorney and a University of Miami Law School professor. She was formerly a chief compliance officer and deputy general counsel. She's played an integral role in really guiding me towards overcoming imposter syndrome, encouraging me to push past my internal boundaries. To continue to learn, to strive, to grow towards things that maybe I didn't think I was capable of, but because of her push and her encouragement I kind of stepped out and tried to do more. The second part of your question you asked me, one tip I could give younger people who are looking for a career in ethics and compliance? I would say that for those who are looking to foster a culture of compliance and have a successful career in compliance, they need to keep in mind that their emotional quotient trumps their intelligence quotient, or their IQ every time. So you may have gone to the best school, or you may be the smartest person in the room, or have the most experience in a particular industry but if your emotional potion is weak, or if you lack the ability to demonstrate empathy and emotional intelligence, and develop strong relationships, and diffusing conflict, and building trust with your teams, all of that may prove to be a very challenging feat. So I would say EQ trumps IQ every time. Ben DiPietro: That's a great way to end. Thank you so much, Tiffany. This was wonderful. I had such a good time talking with you. I look forward to working with you again in the future. Best of luck until then stay safe. Hopefully, we'll see you when we can all come outside and play. Tiffany Archer: Thanks so much, Ben, and same to you. Stay safe and I'll see you on the other side. Speaker 1: We hope you enjoyed this episode. The Principled Podcast is brought to you by LRN. At LRN, our mission is to inspire Principled Performance in global organizations, by helping them foster winning ethical cultures rooted in sustainable values. Please visit us at lrn.com to learn more. If you enjoyed this episode, subscribe to our podcasts on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen. Don't forget to leave us a review.        

Prison Professors With Michael Santos
161: Fraud-Response Plan

Prison Professors With Michael Santos

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 23, 2020 18:26


ComplianceMitigation.com Previous modules offered insights we believe leaders should consider when designing an effective compliance program and risk-management strategy for their organizations. The more leaders customize their compliance and best-practice programs, the better they safeguard against intrusive investigations that could threaten the business and its team members. Regardless of what efforts team members make to protect a company, possibilities always exist for a breakdown, or for a rogue team member that could expose the organization to liability. For that reason, all companies should create a plan that would coordinate a team response in the event of an inquiry from regulators or law enforcement.   Lack of Planning Brings Vulnerabilities: In the absence of a structured response plan, team members may not know what to do if they learn that authority figures have taken an interest in the company or in a team member. Sometimes, leaders act rashly. People have gone to prison for their response to a government investigation, rather than for the underlying reasons behind the inquiry. Consider the case of the famous celebrity, Martha Stewart. Many people are familiar with her brand, which sells household products. In 2001, however, a personal scandal over a stock sale completely disrupted her life. Her response to a government inquiry led to criminal charges. According to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in late December 2001, her stockbroker at Merrill Lynch, Peter Baconovic, called her. Peter revealed that Sam Waksal, the CEO of ImClone Systems had placed an order to sell all of his shares in his company as a result of an adverse decision by the Food and Drug Administration. In response, Martha sold approximately 4,000 shares that she owned, avoiding losses of more than $45,000. When government investigators began making inquiries, Martha did not have a good plan. The responses she gave to the government investigators resulted in criminal charges. The fees and costs associated with the disruption likely exceeded several million dollars. Besides losing money for legal costs, Martha’s response to the investigation led to a prison term, a shareholder derivative suit against Martha Stewart and other directors at her company, and five months in prison. With a felony conviction, Martha endured lifelong complications, including bans on travel to some countries. Clearly, Martha Stewart did not have a principled plan that would guide her response to a government inquiry. Sadly, many people find themselves in the same predicament. Those who operate businesses without designing a response plan for government inquiries may leave themselves vulnerable to knee-jerk reactions that can exacerbate troubles. A lack of a plan can lead to confusion during the first few hours, days and weeks of an inquiry. The unfolding drama can distract team members, as everyone may worry about personal liability. If people don’t know what to do, they may make futile attempts at self-preservation, such as destroying incriminating evidence, or lying to government investigators. Either response would expose the individual, and potentially others, to criminal charges.   Risk Management: A good response plan will ensure that all team members have guidelines to follow. Whether government regulators inquire about business operations or potential fraud, everyone should know what steps to take. To protect both the business and the team members, corporate leaders should articulate the appropriate protocol any time an investigator makes an inquiry. Does everyone in your organization know how to respond in the event that an investigator asks a question? Leaders can easily get an answer to that question by creating a plan. Then, they should create a training exercise for all team members. The more transparency leaders bring to an investigation-response plan, the more they will strengthen arguments that the organization has made a genuine effort to act in compliance with all regulations and laws. Point for business leaders to consider: Regulators and judges are increasingly asking not just whether a company has an anti-fraud, anti-money laundering, or corporate ethics policy in place. They are also asking how well such programs work and whether their quality and results make sense. They are asking, in other words, how good are they? This trend raises the stakes for those charged with governance. An example of an effective “anti-fraud policy” may prove helpful to business leaders that want to create an organizational-specific plan. Our team at Compliance Mitigation offers the following as a template:   1.              INTRODUCTION Our company (the “Company”) has a commitment to high legal, ethical and moral standards. We expect all members of staff to share this commitment. The Board of Directors tries to ensure that a risk (and fraud) awareness culture exists in this organization. Fraud is an ever-present threat and hence must be a concern to all members of staff. Our Company views fraud as an extremely serious matter and is committed to the promotion of an Anti-Fraud Culture throughout the We created this document to provide direction and help to those who find themselves having to deal with suspected cases of theft, fraud or corruption. This document gives a framework for a response, advice and information on various aspects and implications of an investigation. It is not intended to provide direction on prevention of This Policy applies to any irregularity, or suspected irregularity, involving employees as well as consultants, vendors, contractors, customers and/or any other parties having a business relationship with the Company. Any investigative activity required will be conducted without regard to any person’s relationship to this organization, position or length of service. All managers and supervisors have a duty to familiarize themselves with the types of improprieties that might be expected to occur within their areas of responsibility and to be alert for any indications of     2.              DEFINITIONS – WHAT IS FRAUD? We define Fraud as “dishonestly obtaining an advantage, avoiding an obligation or causing a loss to another party.” The term “fraud” commonly includes activities such as theft, corruption, conspiracy, embezzlement, deception, bribery and extortion. It may involve: manipulation, falsification or alteration of records or documents; suppression or omission of the effects of transactions from records or documents; recording of transactions without substance; misappropriation (theft) or willful destruction or loss of assets including cash; and deliberate misapplication of accounting or other regulations or The criminal act is the attempt to deceive, and attempted fraud is therefore treated as seriously as accomplished Computer fraud arises where information technology equipment has been used to manipulate programs or data dishonestly (for example, by altering, substituting or destroying records, or creating spurious records), or where the use of an IT system was a material factor in the perpetration of fraud. Theft or fraudulent use of computer time and resources is included in this definition. Some illustrations of incidents which would be classified as fraud are contained in Appendix A to this     3.              PURPOSE OF THE FRAUD RESPONSE PLAN The purpose of the Fraud Response Plan (the “Plan”) is to ensure that effective and timely action is taken in the event of a fraud. The Plan aims to help minimize losses, reduce liability and increase the chances of a successful The Plan defines authority levels, responsibilities for action, and reporting lines in the event of a suspected fraud or irregularity. It acts as a checklist of actions and a guide to follow in the event of fraud being suspected. The Plan is designed to enable the Company to: prevent further loss; establish and secure evidence necessary for criminal, civil and/or disciplinary action; determine when to contact the police and establish lines of communication; assign responsibility for investigating the incident; minimize and recover losses; review the reasons for the incident, the measures taken to prevent a recurrence, and determine any action needed to strengthen future responses to   4.              COMPANY RESPONSIBILITIES The company will undertake fraud investigations where there is suspected fraud and take the appropriate legal and/or disciplinary action in all cases where that would be justified. Whether there is fraud (proven or suspected), the Company should make any necessary changes to systems and procedures to prevent similar frauds from occurring in the future. The Company should establish systems for recording and subsequently monitoring all discovered cases of fraud (proven or suspected). Responsibility for exercising disciplinary actions rests with the Director of Human Resources [or the Director of Compliance, for a company large enough to have independent compliance personnel], although this should be done in consultation with other Executives where   5.              MANAGING THE RISK OF FRAUD - RESPONSIBILITIES The Executives (CEO and CFO) of the Company are responsible for establishing and maintaining a sound system of internal controls that support the achievement of Company policies, aims and objectives. The system of internal controls is designed to respond to and manage the whole range of risks that the Company faces. Managing fraud risk will be seen in the context of the management of this wider range of Overall responsibility for managing the risk of fraud has been delegated to front line managers and an internal auditor (whose duties are defined below). Their responsibilities include: developing a fraud risk profile and undertaking a regular review of the fraud risks associated with each of the key organizational objectives in order to keep the profile current; designing an effective control environment to prevent fraud from happening; establishing appropriate mechanisms for: reporting fraud risk issues, reporting significant incidents of fraud to the CFO and Human Resources [or the Compliance Department]. making sure that all staff are aware of the Company’s attitude to fraud and know what their responsibilities are in relation to combating fraud; developing skill and experience competency frameworks; ensuring that appropriate anti-fraud training and development opportunities are available to appropriate staff in order to meet the defined competency; ensuring that vigorous and prompt investigations are carried out if fraud occurs or is suspected; taking appropriate disciplinary action against supervisors where supervisory failures have contributed to the commission of fraud; taking appropriate action to safeguard the recovery of assets; ensuring that appropriate action is taken to minimize the risk of similar frauds occurring in the future. Line Managers are responsible for: ensuring that an adequate system of internal controls exists within their areas of responsibility and that controls operate effectively; preventing and detecting fraud; assessing the types of risk involved in the operations for which they are responsible; regularly reviewing and testing the control systems for which they are responsible; ensuring that controls are being complied with and their systems continue to operate effectively; implementing new controls to reduce the risk of similar fraud occurring where frauds have taken The Internal Auditor is responsible for: delivering an opinion to the CFO and Audit Committee on the adequacy of arrangements for managing the risk of fraud and ensuring that the Company promotes an anti-fraud culture; assisting in the deterrence and prevention of fraud by examining and evaluating the effectiveness of controls commensurate with the extent of the potential exposure/risk in the various segments of Company’s operations; assisting management in conducting fraud Every member of staff bears responsibility for: acting with propriety in the use of Company resources and the handling and use of Company funds whether they are involved with cash or payments systems, receipts or dealing with suppliers or being conscious to the possibility that unusual events or transactions could be indicators of fraud; reporting details immediately through the appropriate channel, if they suspect that a fraud has been committed or see any suspicious acts or activities; co-operating fully with whoever is conducting internal checks, reviews or fraud investigations.     6.              FRAUD DETECTION Line Managers should be alert to the possibility that unusual events or transactions could be symptoms of fraud or attempted fraud. Fraud may also be highlighted as a result of specific management checks or be brought to management's attention by a third party. Additionally, irregularities occasionally come to light in the course of audit The factors which gave rise to the suspicion should be determined and examined to clarify whether a genuine mistake has been made or an irregularity has occurred. An irregularity may be defined as any incident or action which is not part of the normal operation of the system or the expected course of Preliminary examination may involve discreet enquiries with staff or the review of documents. It is important for staff to be clear that any irregularity of this type, however apparently innocent, will be   7.              ACTION FOLLOWING DETECTION When any member of staff suspects that a fraud has occurred, he/she should notify his/her Line Manager or Internal Auditor immediately. Speed is of the essence and this initial report can be verbal and must be followed up within 24 hours by a written report addressed to the Line Manager/Internal Auditor which should cover: The amount/value if The position regarding The period over which the irregularity occurred, if The date of discovery and how the suspected fraud was Whether the person responsible has been Whether any collusion with others is Details of any actions taken to Any other information or comments which might be   Before completing the report above, line management may want to undertake an initial inquiry to ascertain the facts. This enquiry should be carried out as speedily as possible after suspicion has been aroused: prompt action is essential. The purpose of the initial enquiry is to confirm or negate, as far as possible, the suspicions that have arisen so that, if necessary, disciplinary action including further and more detailed investigation may be initiated. The Internal Auditor is available to offer advice on any specific course of action which may be necessary.   As the gravity of each irregularity might be different, a reporting member of staff may wish to act in accordance with the "Policy on Reporting and Investigating Allegations of Suspected Improper Activities."     8.              CONSULTATION AND REPORTING WITHIN THE COMPANY On verbal notification of a possible fraud the Line Manager/Internal Auditor must immediately contact the CFO. He/She will inform and consult with the CEO (General Director) in cases where the loss is potentially significant or where the incident may lead to adverse The CFO will maintain a log of all reported suspicions, including those dismissed as minor or otherwise not investigated. The log will contain details of actions taken and conclusions reached and will be presented to the Audit Committee for inspection annually. Significant matters will be reported to the Board of Directors as soon as Where a member of staff is to be interviewed or disciplined, the CFO and/or Internal Auditor will consult with, and take advice from, the Director of Human Resources [or Director of Compliance]. He will advise those involved in the investigation in matters of employment law, Company policy and other procedural matters (such as disciplinary or complaints procedures) as     9.              INVESTIGATION / FURTHER ACTION If it appears that a criminal act has not taken place, an internal investigation will be undertaken to: determine the facts; consider what, if any, action should be taken against those involved; consider what may be done to recover any loss incurred; and identify any system weakness and look at how internal controls could be improved to prevent a recurrence.   After proper investigation, the Company will take legal and/or disciplinary action in all cases where leaders consider further action appropriate. There will be consistent handling of cases without regard to position or length of service of the perpetrator. Where an investigation involves a member of staff and it is determined that no criminal act has taken place, the CFO will liaise with the Director of Human Resources [or Director of Compliance] and appropriate Line Manager to determine which of the following has occurred and therefore whether, under the circumstances, disciplinary action is appropriate: gross misconduct (i.e. acting dishonestly but without criminal intent); negligence or error of judgment was seen to be exercised; or nothing untoward occurred and therefore there is no case to Where, after having sought legal advice, the CFO judges it cost effective to do so, the Company will normally pursue civil action in order to recover any losses. The CFO will refer the case to the Company’s legal advisers for Where initial investigations point to the likelihood of a criminal act having taken place, the Executives (CEO or CFO) will contact the police (or appropriate Federal agency, as the case may be) and the Company’s legal advisers at once. The advice of the police will be followed in taking forward the The investigations described above will also consider whether there has been any failure of supervision. Where this has occurred, appropriate disciplinary action will be taken against those responsible for this   10.           RECOVERY OF LOSSES The recovery of losses should be a major objective of any fraud investigation. To this end, the quantification of losses is important. Repayment of losses should be sought in all cases. Where necessary, the Company will seek external advisors and legal advice on the most effective actions to secure recovery of losses.     11.           MANAGERS’ DUTY OF CARE Managers conducting initial enquiries must be conscious that internal disciplinary action and/or criminal prosecution may result. If such action is later taken, then under proper procedure the member of staff concerned has a right to representation and may have the right to remain silent. Utmost care is therefore required from the outset in conducting enquiries and In addition, in order to protect the Company from further loss and damage from destruction of evidence, it may be necessary to suspend the member of staff concerned immediately after the allegation has been made or following the submission of the Manager’s initial verbal report. Specific advice should be sought from Human Resources [Compliance] before     12.           PROTECTION OF EVIDENCE If the initial examination confirms the suspicion that a fraud has been perpetrated, then to prevent the loss of evidence which may subsequently prove essential for disciplinary action or prosecution, the person heading up the investigation (“Head of Investigation”) should: take steps to ensure that all original evidence is secured as soon as possible; be able to account for the security of the evidence at all times after it has initially been secured, including keeping a record of its movement and signatures of all persons to whom the evidence has been transferred. For this purpose, all items of evidence should be individually numbered and descriptively labeled; not alter or amend the evidence in any way; keep a note of when investigators came into possession of the evidence. This will be useful later if proceedings take place; remember that all memoranda relating to the investigation must be disclosed to the defense in the event of formal proceedings against an employee, so it is important to carefully consider what information needs to be recorded. Particular care must be taken with phrases such as “discrepancy” and “irregularity” when what is really meant is fraud or theft;   ensure that electronic evidence is appropriately handled by certified     13.           HEAD OF INVESTIGATION 13.1     Executives of the Company will nominate in writing the Head of Investigation on a case by case basis depending on the gravity of issues and potential losses involved. The Internal Auditor will oversee and control the subsequent investigation, therefore for this purpose the Head of Investigation will report to the Internal Auditor. The Terms of Reference should be agreed between those involved in the investigation. The Head of Investigation should arrange for an action plan to be put in place with, as far as is possible, a set timeframe and regular reviews. He should call on the assistance of various sources of help at all stages (technical assistance, personnel, external audit, attorneys, etc.) but ultimate responsibility and accountability in progressing the case should remain with the Head of Investigation. The Head of Investigation should have the necessary authority (i.e. the appropriate rank and experience) to enable him/her to properly discharge these duties. Depending on the volume of work to be performed and the issues involved, this person might be released from his/her main duties in the Company on a temporary The Head of Investigation should also be independent from the matter in question. It is the responsibility of the Head of Investigation to keep the Internal Auditor abreast of developments and report all material developments promptly to facilitate onward reporting to the Executive Team and Audit     14.           LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE Following completion of the case, the Internal Auditor should prepare a summary report on the outcome and lessons learned circulating it to all other interested parties who must take the appropriate action to improve controls to mitigate the scope for future recurrence of the fraud. Where a fraud has occurred, Management must make any necessary changes to systems and procedures to minimize prospects for similar acts of fraud.   SUMMARY Deloitte, one of the world’s largest business consultants, offers the following guidance for businesses that want to begin a fraud-response plan: Create an allegation system: In what ways does the company systematically receive complaints? What process exists to assess the validity of complaints? How does the company train team members on what they should do if they suspect fraud? How does the company train team members on what they should not do if they suspect fraud? Allegation Triage: How does the company determine when to escalate a complaint to a formal investigation? How does the company document the criteria to determine which complaints get investigated? What protocols guide the investigator’s assignment? Case Investigation: What work plan exists to guide investigations? How do investigators handle evidence? What level of competency do investigators have? How does the company review case status? Who has access to case files? Communication and Reporting: How do investigators communicate with stakeholders? How does the company reveal investigations to team members?   Action List The following checklist of actions may guide a person that suspects fraud within the company. Do not act on emotion. It’s time to gather all the facts. Alert appropriate management within your organization. This, of course, heavily depends on who’s suspected of committing the fraud. Fraud discovered at the lower echelons of the company can probably be handled by the direct manager in association with the compliance supervisor. Things get a bit more complicated the higher you move up the corporate ladder. Accountability, though, goes straight to the President, CEO and Board of Directors. So, make sure compliance is amply prepared and authorized to do what’s necessary even upon discovery of high-level fraud with the company. Document date, time and details of initial report/discovery. This is important for both the reporting of the suspected fraud and ongoing investigation. Take notes (and/or pictures and video) of all observations and actions. Important information can quickly be forgotten or confused over time. Creating copious notes and/or documenting photographic evidence helps ensure you have all the information the company needs to maintain the integrity of the investigation.   Maintain confidentiality (only inform those people who need to know about the suspected act). Loose lips sink ships – and investigations. Prematurely alerting the suspect(s) leads to destruction of evidence and cover-ups. Do not confront the suspect. You could be putting yourself in danger, in addition to undermining the investigation. Write out in full the suspected act or wrongdoing in as much detail as possible, including: The alleged occurrence, Who was involved in the occurrence, Whether the activity is ongoing, Location of occurrence, The value of the loss or potential loss, and A list of who else may know of the activity.   Collection of evidence is critical for proving the crime. Corporate investigations can take months and legal ones even longer.   Identify all documentary and other evidence connected to the activity, such as:   Invoices, Contract and Agreements, Purchase orders, Checks, Computers, Laptops, Tablets, Cell phones, Cloud access accounts, Credit card statements, and Relevant social media accounts.   Immediately gather the evidence (only if doing so will not alert the suspects) and place it in a secure area. Bear in mind a need to maintain a legitimate chain of evidence in case it becomes necessary to bring in outside authorities. Protect the evidence from damage or contamination. This includes all confiscated electronic devices. You may need the evidence for civil or criminal proof, or even use it in a countersuit should you need to against a litigious fired employee. Identify all potential witnesses. This includes people within and without your organization. Certain people may even alternate from witness to suspect and vice-a-verse during the course of your investigation. If possible, secure and/or remove the suspect’s access to relevant computers and security systems. This decision is delicate and may need to be made at the highest levels of authority within the organization. There’s a fine balance between mitigating damages and continuing to collect evidence. You may want to consult outside legal and accounting firms and request an Opinion Letter regarding your decisions, depending on the situation. Ensure regular back-up of all files and secretly place additional security on all accounts the suspect(s) may have access to. Contact the company’s outside counsel and accountants for advice and recommendations. This should occur early on in the process but, typically, at the highest levels of management. Contact the company’s insurance carrier. You may or may not be covered for the type of fraud under investigation. Should you be covered, the insurer may have its own processes for conducting investigations and you may unwittingly forfeit certain rights or claims by not alerting them early enough. The insurer, moreover, may try to deny the claim and you might be forced to retain additional counsel to sue your insurer for coverage. You may need to retain a forensic accountant. Some frauds can be quite elaborate and complex, involve multiple jurisdictions and/or require advanced training in computer programming. A full investigation may require particular expertise. Continue to monitor suspicious personnel and activities to ascertain the full breadth and extent of the fraud.

The Compliance Life
Kim Yapchai, In the CCO Chair

The Compliance Life

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 15, 2020 14:48


The Compliance Life details the journey to and in the role of a Chief Compliance Officer. How does one come to sit in the CCO chair? What are some of the skills a CCO needs to success navigate the compliance waters in any company? What are some of the top challenges CCOs have faced and how did they meet them? These questions and many others will be explored in this new podcast series. Over four episodes each month on The Compliance Life, I visit with one current or former CCO to explore their journey to the CCO chair. This month, my guest is Kim Yapchai, the Chief Counsel - Environmental, Social & Governance at Tenneco Inc. This encompasses both compliance and sustainability.  Kim calls herself a “businessperson with a law degree” and she has had a distinguished career in the in-house world. She held in-house positions at Ford Motor Credit Company and Masco before moving to Whirlpool to become the company's first Chief Compliance Officer. From there she moved to Tenneco to the CCO chair and then into her current role. Further, she is the company's first Chief Sustainability Officer. In this role, she is working to improve transparency of information shared with stakeholders, set goals, and promote the use of that information by investors, customers, and others. Kim has received numerous awards include the prestigious Top Minds in Compliance Award from Compliance Week. In this third episode, Kim discusses her move to the CCO chair at Whirlpool and then Tenneco. In the CCO role she had her first interactions with the Board of Directors and found they understood that compliance is a journey it is extremely hard to be perfect. She also worked to change the impression of the CCO as ‘Dr. No from the Land of No.' Have you thought about a Candy Station in your Compliance Department? Kim explains how she used this simple idea to help foster breaking through silos. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oyster Stew - A Broth of Financial Services Commentary and Insights
CCO - Behind the Scenes Episode 4

Oyster Stew - A Broth of Financial Services Commentary and Insights

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 7, 2020 4:20 Transcription Available


In this episode of CCO - Behind the Scenes, Jeffrey Hiller talks about what "Tone at the Top" means, and why it's important to embed the Compliance Department within the firm. Listen as, during these short discussions, Jeffrey shares his real experiences and lessons learned during his vast experience as both a CCO for several global investment firms and Senior Counsel for the SEC's Division of Enforcement. Being CCO is more than just checking boxes.

Forever Podcast
Forever's Commitment to Quality: A chat with the Compliance department

Forever Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 29, 2020 31:03


Our latest podcast is a chat with Stuart Kennedy, the head of Forever's UK & Ireland Compliance department! Take a peek at Forever's true commitment to quality as we cover topics like the Council for Responsible Nutrition, the importance of supplementation and why there's sometimes a difference between what one country can say about Forever's products versus another!

31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program
Compliance expertise on the Board

31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program

Play Episode Listen Later Aug 6, 2020 11:30


Every Board of Directors need a true compliance expert sitting at the table. Almost every Board has a former CFO, former head of Internal Audit or persons with a similar background and often times these are also the Audit Committee members of the Board. Such a background brings a level of sophistication, training and SME that can help all companies with their financial reporting and other finance-based issues. So why is there not such compliance SME at the Board level? This requirement was set out in 2017 in the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy, where one of the criteria to be evaluated in compliance program is “the availability of compliance expertise to the board;”. Finally, in the 2020 Update to the Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs, under the section entitled Oversight, it posed the following questions What compliance expertise has been available on the board of directors? The DOJ and Securities and Exchange Commission brought this concept forward into the FCPA Resource Guide, 2ndedition. This means that when your company is evaluated by the DOJ, under the factors set out in the 2020 Update and the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy, to retrospectively determine if your company had a best practices compliance program in place at the time of any violation, you need to have not only the structure of the Board-level Compliance Committee but also the specific SME on the Board and on that committee. Three key takeaways: Boards must have compliance expertise. Government regulators and shareholder groups have both called for greater compliance expertise at the Board. Compliance expertise at the Board works up and down as such expertise can be a resource to both the CCO and Compliance Department. This month's sponsor is Affiliated Monitors, Inc. 

31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program

Under Part 1, Section D. Confidential Reporting Structure and Investigation Process, it stated in part, Properly Scoped Investigation by Qualified Personnel –What steps does the company take to ensure investigations are independent, objective, appropriately conducted, and properly documented? Your company should have a detailed written procedure for handling any complaint or allegation of bribery or corruption, regardless of the means through which it is communicated. The mechanism could include the internal company hotline, anonymous tips, or a report directly from the business unit involved. You can make the decision on whether or not to investigate with consultation with other groups such as the Compliance Committee of the Board of Directors or the Legal Department. The head of the business unit in which the claim arose may also be notified that an allegation has been made and that the Compliance Department will be handling the matter on a go-forward basis. Through the use of such a detailed written procedure, you can work to ensure there is complete transparency on the rights and obligations of all parties once an allegation is made. This allows compliance to have not only the flexibility but also the responsibility to deal with such matters, from which it can best assess and then decide on how to manage the matter. Three key takeaways: A written protocol, created before an investigation, is a key starting point. Create specific steps to follow so there will be full transparency and documentation going forward. Consistency in approach is critical.

31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program
Specific benefits of a reporting system-a case study

31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 3, 2020 8:04


Is your hotline working for you? In an article, entitled “Promoting Effective Use of the Company Compliance Hotline”, José Tabuena provided an excellent example of the power of a hotline. He provided a case study of a company which had not integrated its IT function into its regular compliance and ethics training programs. As such there were zero calls into the hotline by IT employees. This dynamic was changed and IT was integrated into the company’s regular compliance and ethics training. Thereafter, the hotline received several calls from IT employees indicating where there were two major areas of complaints. The first area regarded family members who were hired and perceptions of favoritism. The second related to allegations that certain managers were manipulating data to maximize their bonuses. This case study demonstrates the power of a hotline. The company’s Compliance Department “established the credibility of the helpline as a resource to raise issues and report misconduct. The concerns regarding nepotism and conflicts of interest were taken seriously, and although the  violations were not as widespread as the calls indicated, the review went a long way to clear the air.” Equally important, the helpline proved to be a successful management tool as well. The company was able to manage potential compliance issues and improve employee morale.  Three key takeaways: Hotlines can be powerful tools for the compliance professional. Simply because you have no hotline complaints does not mean you do not have any compliance or ethics issues which need review and resolution. Adequate follow up is a key part of overall hotline effectiveness.

Great Women in Compliance
Sarah Hadden on Cross-Pollinated Project Groups

Great Women in Compliance

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 19, 2020 50:31


Welcome to the Great Women in Compliance Podcast, co-hosted by Lisa Fine and Mary Shirley. In episode 51, Mary Shirley, speaks with Sarah Hadden, the Editor of Corporate Compliance Insights (CCI). They visit about an innovation for compliance professionals, cross-pollinated project groups.  One of the best parts of the GWIC podcast for Mary and Lisa is when it has resulted into new ideas for other initiatives. During Sarah Hadden’s interview (check out Episode 36 if you missed it!), we touched on the Fresenius Medical Care North America’s Compliance Department sub-group, the Marketing Team. The idea stemmed from previous Chief Compliance Officer, Lisa Estrada and was brought to life by the cross-pollinated team of staff who would become responsible for department branding, delivering Compliance Week events to 66,000 staff and re-vamp of Compliance Action Line materials. In this conversation, we draw on Sarah’s significant subject matter expertise as a marketing and communications professional to highlight some of the key marketing techniques that Compliance Departments ought to consider when implementing similar teams within their own departments and Mary shares the success stories and hard lessons learned from two years leading the FMCNA Compliance marketing team. We walk through some of the key factors to think about when implementing your own cross-pollinated focus teams within your Compliance Department and touch on some of the subjects beyond marketing that you might benefit from creating specialist taskforces to work on. We dare you not to be inspired to create your own cross-pollinated project teams! Building anything should have architects, contractors, and inspectors, and we hope you enjoy thinking about your work and the role you and your colleagues play on your dream team. Join the Great Women in Compliance community on LinkedIn here.

31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program
Day 19 | The investigation protocol

31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 19, 2020 7:54


After the internal report comes in and you have properly triaged the matter, you need to scope out and investigate it, promptly, thoroughly and with competent personnel. Your company should have a detailed written procedure for handling any complaint or allegation of bribery or corruption, regardless of the means through which it is communicated. The mechanism could include the internal company hotline, anonymous tips, or a report directly from the business unit involved. You can make the decision on whether or not to investigate with consultation with other groups such as the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors or the Legal Department. The head of the business unit in which the claim arose may also be notified that an allegation has been made and that the Compliance Department will be handling the matter on a go-forward basis. Through the use of such a detailed written procedure, you can work to ensure there is complete transparency on the rights and obligations of all parties, once an allegation is made. This allows the compliance team to have not only the flexibility but also the responsibility to deal with such matters, from which it can best assess and then decide on how to manage the matter.  Three key takeaways: A written protocol, created before an investigation, is a key starting point. Create specific steps to follow so there will be full transparency and documentation going forward. Consistency in approach is critical.

FCPA Compliance Report
Day 19 | The investigation protocol

FCPA Compliance Report

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 19, 2020 9:24


After the internal report comes in and you have properly triaged the matter, you need to scope out and investigate it, promptly, thoroughly and with competent personnel. Your company should have a detailed written procedure for handling any complaint or allegation of bribery or corruption, regardless of the means through which it is communicated. The mechanism could include the internal company hotline, anonymous tips, or a report directly from the business unit involved. You can make the decision on whether or not to investigate with consultation with other groups such as the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors or the Legal Department. The head of the business unit in which the claim arose may also be notified that an allegation has been made and that the Compliance Department will be handling the matter on a go-forward basis. Through the use of such a detailed written procedure, you can work to ensure there is complete transparency on the rights and obligations of all parties, once an allegation is made. This allows the compliance team to have not only the flexibility but also the responsibility to deal with such matters, from which it can best assess and then decide on how to manage the matter.  Three key takeaways: A written protocol, created before an investigation, is a key starting point. Create specific steps to follow so there will be full transparency and documentation going forward. Consistency in approach is critical. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Menace 2 Sports with Zach Smith
M2Society #044 – OSU Compliance and Joe Burrow!

Menace 2 Sports with Zach Smith

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 11, 2019 45:03


A thorough analysis of the Chase Young saga and thoughts on the Compliance Department at Ohio State, an in depth analysis of LSU / Bama and the national ramifications!

ACA Cast
Part Three: Getting to Know the ACA Compliance Department

ACA Cast

Play Episode Play 20 sec Highlight Listen Later Oct 23, 2019 8:31


ACA International’s Minneapolis-based compliance department is the backbone of the association and will become increasing important next year when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s final rule updating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is released.The third episode of “ACA Cast: Getting to Know the ACA Compliance Department,” features Compliance Analyst Laura Dadd, who is interviewed by ACA attorney member Shaun Ertischek, associate general counsel for TRAKAmerica in Bonita Springs, Fla. Support the show (http://www.acainternational.org)

ACA Cast
Part Two: Getting to Know the ACA Compliance Department

ACA Cast

Play Episode Play 34 sec Highlight Listen Later Oct 17, 2019 10:35


ACA International’s Minneapolis-based compliance department is the backbone of the association and will become increasing important next year when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s final rule updating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is released.The second episode of “ACA Cast: Getting to Know the ACA Compliance Department,” features Compliance Analyst Andrew Pavlik, who is interviewed by industry expert Monica Littman, associate at Fineman Krekstein & Harris P.C. in Philadelphia.Support the show (http://www.acainternational.org)

ACA Cast
Getting to Know the ACA Compliance Department

ACA Cast

Play Episode Play 60 sec Highlight Listen Later Oct 14, 2019 25:34


ACA International’s Minneapolis-based compliance department is the backbone of the association and will become increasing important next year when the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s final rule updating the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act is released. Headed by Corporate Counsel Kari Barber, this team of industry veterans will help you understand nuances of the CFPB’s final rule or other state and federal regulatory policy issues so that you can avoid spending your time interpreting dense, confusing language.The first episode of “ACA Cast: Getting to Know the ACA Compliance Department,” features Barber, who is interviewed by well-known industry leader Wendy Badger, chief compliance officer, vice president, and corporate compliance at ECMC, in Minneapolis.Support the show (http://www.acainternational.org)

Health Care High Wire
Episode 81: Compliance and Ethics Program Part 10 of 10-Recap

Health Care High Wire

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 21, 2018 8:38


Laura Franco VP/Director of Post-Acute Regulatory Strategy meets with Beth Lori, Compliance Director and Corporate Compliance Officer for Life Care Services review do a review the requirements for a Compliance and Ethics Program which are part of the Phase 3 ROPs that go into effect on November 28, 2019. This is #10 in a 10-part series outlining the requirements of the program. As a reminder, any LCS employee who has listened to all 10 podcasts in this series by January 25, 2019, will receive a “Certificate of Completion” from the Compliance Department.

The Political Life
How to Outsource Your Compliance Department

The Political Life

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 12, 2018 21:38


On this episode of The Lobbying Show, host Jim O'Brien interviews Elizabeth Bartz of State and Federal Communications - helping companies and lobbyists comply with ethics rules in all fifty states and globally. Show Notes: ●     About Elizabeth Bartz ○     Borrowed money and bought the compliance department of State and Federal Associates in 1993. ○     She moved the department to Akron, Ohio, and bought it over a series of year, ultimately spinning it off into "State & Federal Communications." ○     She can be seen at all of the major legislative conferences across the country. ○     She works with contract lobbyists and in-house government affairs professionals, giving her a unique perspective on the industry. ●     What are State and Federal Communications' main services? ○     Compliance for lobbying and campaign finance. ○     They will start handling lobbying and compliance for European countries soon. ○    Many European political candidates are hiring American political consultants. ●     How many companies does State and Federal Communications work with? ○     100+. ○     Their compliance department has about 12 people. ○     Company-wide, it has about 12 attorneys on staff.   Resources Mentioned: State and Federal Communications NCSL Council on Governmental Ethics Laws CSG East   Help us grow! Leave us a rating and review - it's the best way to bring new listeners to the show.  Have a suggestion, or want to chat with Jim? Email him at: Jim@theLobbyingShow.com Follow The Lobbying Show on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter for weekly updates about the show, our guests, and more.

FCPA Compliance Report
Day 13 of 31 Days to More Effective Compliance Program

FCPA Compliance Report

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 13, 2018 12:34


In the Department of Justice’s Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs, Prong 8 Incentive and Disciplinary Measures it states: Incentive System – Consistent Application – Have the disciplinary actions and incentives been fairly and consistently applied across the organization? In the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy it states, “Appropriate discipline of employees, including those identified by the company as responsible for the misconduct, either through direct participation or failure in oversight, as well as those with supervisory authority over the area in which the criminal conduct occurred”. Under Hallmark Six of the Ten Hallmarks of an Effective Compliance Program it states: In addition to evaluating the design and implementation of a compliance program throughout an organization, enforcement of that program is fundamental to its effectiveness. A compliance program should apply from the board room to the supply room—no one should be beyond its reach. DOJ and SEC will thus consider whether, when enforcing a compliance program, a company has appropriate and clear disciplinary procedures, whether those procedures are applied reliably and promptly, and whether they are commensurate with the violation. Many companies have found that publicizing disciplinary actions internally, where appropriate under local law, can have an important deterrent effect, demonstrating that unethical and unlawful actions have swift and sure consequences. However, I believe that the 2012 FCPA Guidance’s best practices are more active than the ‘stick’ of employee discipline to make a compliance program effective and I believe that it also requires a ‘carrot’. This requirement is codified in the US Sentencing Guidelines with the following language, “The organization’s compliance and ethics program shall be promoted and enforced consistently throughout the organization through (A) appropriate incentives to perform in accordance with the compliance and ethics program; and (B) appropriate disciplinary measures for engaging in criminal conduct and for failing to take reasonable steps to prevent or detect criminal conduct.” One of the areas which Human Resources can operationalize your compliance program is to ensure that discipline is handed out fairly across an organization and to those employees who integrate such ethical and compliant behavior into their individual work practices going forward. This is more than financial incentives for ethical behavior but institutional objectivity for your employees. Institutional objectivity comes from procedural fairness. This is one of the things that will bring credibility to your compliance program. Today it is called the Fair Process Doctrine and this Doctrine generally recognizes that there are fair procedures, not arbitrary ones, in processes involving rights. Considerable research has shown that people are more willing to accept negative, unfavorable, and non-preferred outcomes when they are arrived at by, processes and procedures that are perceived as fair. Adhering to the Fair Process Doctrine in two areas of your Compliance Program is critical for you, as a compliance specialist or for your Compliance Department, to have credibility with the rest of the workforce. Finally, it is yet another way to more fully operationalize your compliance program. Administration of Discipline One area where the Fair Process Doctrine is paramount is in the administration of discipline after any compliance related incident. Discipline must not only be administered fairly but it must be administered uniformly across the company for the violation of any compliance policy. Simply put if you are going to fire employees in South America for lying on their expense reports, you have to fire them in North America for the same offense. It cannot matter that the North American employee is a friend of yours or worse yet a ‘high producer’. Failure to administer discipline uniformly will destroy any vestige of credibility that you may have developed. Similarly and as was re-emphasized in the FCPA Corporate Enforcement Policy, there must be real consequences to employee who violate your compliance program. If the regulators come knocking and you have not disciplined any company employees for Code of Conduct or compliance program violations in multiple years, the DOJ and SEC will conclude pretty quickly you are not serious about compliance. Fair process means that you must discipline those who engage in compliance violations no matter what their position is with the organization. Employee Promotions In addition to the area of discipline which may be administered after the completion of any compliance investigation, you must also place compliance firmly as a part of ongoing employee evaluations and promotions. If your company is seen to advance and only reward employees who achieve their numbers by whatever means necessary, other employees will certainly take note and it will be understood what management evaluates, and rewards, employees upon. I have often heard the (anecdotal) tale about some Far East Region Manager which goes along the following lines “If I violated the Code of Conduct I may or may not get caught. If I get caught I may or may not be disciplined. If I miss my numbers for two quarters, I will be fired”. If this is what other employees believe about how they are evaluated and the basis for promotion, you have lost the compliance battle. Internal Investigations The third area the Fair Process Doctrine is critical in, is around internal company investigations. If your employees do not believe that the investigation is fair and impartial, then it is not fair and impartial. Further, those involved must have confidence that any internal investigation is treated seriously and objectively. One of the key reasons that employees will go outside of a company’s internal hotline process is because they do not believe that the investigation process will be fair. This fairness has several components. One would be the use of outside counsel, rather than in-house counsel to handle the investigation. Moreover, if company uses a regular firm, it may be that other outside counsel should be brought in, particularly if regular outside counsel has created or implemented key components which are being investigated. Further, if the company’s regular outside counsel has a large amount of business with the company, then that law firm may have a very vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Lastly, the investigation may require a level of specialization which in-house or regular outside counsel does not possess. An often-overlooked role of any CCO or compliance professional is to help provide employees procedural fairness. If your compliance function is seen to be fair in the way it treats employees, in areas as varied as financial incentives, to promotions, to uniform discipline meted out across the globe; employees are more likely to inform the compliance department when something goes array. If employees believe they will be treated fairly, it will go a long way to more fully operationalizing your compliance program. Three Key Takeaways The DOJ and SEC have long called for consistent application in both incentives and discipline. The Fair Process Doctrine ensures employees will accept results they may not like. Inconsistent application of discipline will destroy your compliance program credibility. This month’s podcast sponsor is Convercent. Convercent provides your teams with a centralized platform and automated processes that connect your business goals with your ethics and values. The result? A highly strategic program that drives ethics and values to the center of your business. For more information go to Convercent.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Spot On Insurance
Ep.33: Insurance License Types: Getting it Right! Part 1 with Stefanie Cantu, ILSA, Inc.

Spot On Insurance

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 21, 2017 16:17


Stefanie Cantu is a Supervisor at ILSA’s Licensing and Compliance Department. She got her start back in 2008 in ILSA’s Intake team where her impressive skills got her transferred to the Renewals team. She excelled in Renewals and became part of the Licensing team, a group she eventually supervised. She’s been with the company for over eight years and was given the Outstanding Customer Service award four times plus an Employee of the Year nomination in 2013. Her responsibilities include being the go-to person for complex questions on compliance, and knowing where to look or who to contact for answers she doesn’t have.  Today, Stefanie shares her wisdom on three licenses: Producer, Adjuster, and Surplus lines. She explains the similarities and difference of each one, who should avail them, and some of their standard requirements. She also shares her insight on what it means to have the wrong license and common mistakes clients make when getting a license.   “Having the wrong license is like having no license at all.” – Stefanie Cantu  Today on Spot  On  Insurance:     What a Producer license is and what it allow you to do.  Who would need a Producer license?  Where do you need to be licensed as a producer?  What she says to those who say a producer license costs too much.  Difference between adjuster license and producer license.  The different types of adjuster license.  What happens when you have the wrong license?  Surplus lines licenses and the people who need them.  Mistakes most people make when getting a license.  Key Takeaway:  Having a producer license can increase your commission in a particular state.  If there's any little chance you might want to do business in that state, it's best to weigh out your options and make sure you're covered and compliant across the board.   Connect with Stefanie Cantu  Insurance Licensing Services of America  Email: scantu@ilsainc.com  Phone: 254 729-6139   This episode was brought to you by…  Spot On Insurance is brought to you by Insurance Licensing Services of America (ILSA), America’s Premier Insurance Compliance and Licensing experts. To learn more about ILSA and their services, visit ILSAinc.com.  Connect, Learn, Share  Thank you for joining us on this week’s episode of Spot On Insurance. For more resources and episodes, visit SpotOnInsurance.com. Subscribe so you never miss an episode. Love what you’re learning, Spot Light your review on iTunes and share your favorite episodes with friends and colleagues! 

SiCo Radio
EP 14 - How To Buy a Silencer

SiCo Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Sep 15, 2017 39:20


This one goes out to everyone who has ever thought that buying a silencer was difficult. This week on SiCo Radio Episode 14, we take you on a journey of enlightenment and discovery as we break down the ins and outs of silencer ownership. We sit down with SilencerCo's Compliance Department as they expertly guide us through the steps it takes to add a silencer to your arsenal whether you're buying as an individual or through a trust. If knowledge is power, then this is an episode to be reckoned with.

FCPA Compliance Report
Day 19 of One Month to Better Investigations and Reporting

FCPA Compliance Report

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 27, 2017 10:57


Is your hotline working for you? In an article entitled, entitled “Promoting Effective Us of the Compliance Hotline” José Tabuena provided an excellent example of the power of a hotline. He provide a case study of a company which had not integrated its IT function into its regular compliance and ethics training programs. As such there were zero calls into the hotline by employees from the IT department. This dynamic was changed and IT was integrated into the company’s regular compliance and ethics training. Thereafter, the hotline received several calls from IT department employees indicating where there were two major areas of complaints. The first general area was that there were conflicts of interests between IT department managers, family members who were hired and perceptions of favoritism. The second generally revolved around allegations that certain company managers were manipulating data to maximize their bonuses. The Favoritism Problem The Human Resources (HR) department led an investigation that included questioning all IT managers about their direct reports and employees of their unit. The company determined that there was only one instance of a manger hiring a family member (a brother-in-law), but that person did not report to the manager and was in a different section of the IT organization. This finding made clear that there were misperceptions in the IT department, which affected the department morale. To remedy this all IT managers received training on appropriate employment practices, communications were also delivered to all IT employees explaining policies and practices regarding the hiring of family members. Most satisfyingly, during follow-up with callers to the helpline, the callers stated that the work environment in the IT department had noticeably improved. They also expressed gratitude that their questions were answered and that their issues were addressed. The callers felt their concerns were taken seriously when they saw the communications on hiring practices and upon having discussions with managers during staff meetings. Staff retention started improving in the department. Manipulation of Data for Bonuses The company used the hotline to obtain more information from the callers on “isolating the metrics and the managers in question. It was determined that the bonuses of a select few IT managers were indeed influenced by a questionable data source, which was controlled by a non-manager with minimal oversight and controls. Following interviews with key individuals and review of the data file (including forensic analysis), it was determined that one IT manager had misrepresented information provided to the staff person maintaining the data. Notably, this staff person also reported to this manager. As a result, the IT manager's bonus compensation was inflated. He was subsequently terminated. Basic Tenets of an Effective Hotline This case study provided three key tenets of an effective internal reporting system. First, a helpline is of no value if the workforce is not aware of it. Although a helpline was in place, it became apparent that a segment of the company had not been informed. It was hotline data that revealed this gap. By reviewing data segmented by region, department, incident classification, and other criteria, it became obvious in comparison to the rest of the organization that the IT department had not used the helpline. Second, the ethics and compliance office obtained support from the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for making IT part of the helpline community and for designating a liaison within the IT function. The support of department leadership likely influenced the success of the training and communications delivered by the ethics and compliance staff. Third, the awareness of the helpline is not sufficient to ensure success. The company made sure that issues and allegations were addressed and investigated. Employees who choose not to report wrongdoing indicate a belief that nothing will be done anyway, so why take the risk? Employees also cite fear of retaliation as a reason for not reporting. This case study demonstrates the power of a hotline. The company’s Compliance Department “established the credibility of the helpline as a resource to raise issues and report misconduct. The concerns regarding nepotism and conflicts of interest were taken seriously, and although the   violations were not as widespread as the calls indicated, the review went a long way to clear the air.” Equally important, the helpline proved to be a successful management tool as well. The company was able to manage potential compliance issues and improve employee morale. Three Key Takeaways Hotlines can be powerful tools for the compliance professional. Simply because you have no hotline complaints does not mean you do not have any compliance or ethics issues which need review and resolution. Adequate follow up is a key part of overall hotline effectiveness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

FCPA Compliance Report
Day 3 of One Month to Better Investigations and Reporting

FCPA Compliance Report

Play Episode Listen Later Jun 5, 2017 11:31


Your company should have a detailed written procedure for handling any complaint or allegation of bribery or corruption, regardless of the means through which it is communicated. The mechanism could include the internal company hot-line, anonymous tips, or a report directly from the business unit involved. You can make the decision on whether or not to investigate with consultation with other groups such as the Audit Committee of the Board of Directors or the Legal Department. The head of the business unit in which the claim arose may also be notified that an allegation has been made and that the Compliance Department will be handling the matter on a go-forward basis. Through the use of such a detailed written procedure, you can work to ensure there is complete transparency on the rights and obligations of all parties once an allegation is made. This allows the Compliance Department to have not only the flexibility but also the responsibility to deal with such matters, from which it can best assess and then decide on how to manage the matter.  Indeed the SEC considers a variety of factors around giving credit to corporate investigations including: Did management, the board or committees consisting solely of outside directors oversee the review? Did company employees or outside persons perform the review? If outside persons, have they done other work for the company? If the review was conducted by outside counsel, had management previously engaged such counsel? How long ago was the firm’s last representation of the company? How often has the law firm represented the company? How much in legal fees has the company paid the firm?  In a presentation by Jay Martin, Vice President, Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) and the Senior Deputy Counsel for Baker Hughes Incorporated and Jacki Trevino, Senior Consultant, Advisory Services at SAI Global entitled, “FCPA Compliance Best Practices: Success Stories of Robust and Effective Anti-Corruption Compliance Programs in High Risk Markets” they presented the specifics of an investigation protocol. The five steps were: (1) Opening and Categorizing the Case; (2) Planning the Investigation; (3) Executing the Investigation Plan; (4) Determining Appropriate Follow-Up; and (5) Closing the Case. If you follow this basic protocol, you should be able to work through most investigations, in a clear, concise and cost effective manner. Furthermore you should have a report at the end of the day which should stand up to later scrutiny if a regulator comes looking. Finally, you will be able to document, document, and document, not only the steps you took but why and the outcome obtained.  Step 1: Opening and Categorizing the Case. This is the triage step and this first step, to categorize a compliance violation. You should notify the relevant individuals, including those on your investigation team and any senior management members under your notification protocols. After notification, you should assemble your investigation team for preliminary meetings and assessments. This Step 1 should be accomplished in one to three days after the allegation comes into compliance, either through your reporting structure or other means. Given the number of ways that information about violations or potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) can be communicated to the Department of Justice (DOJ) having a robust triage system is an important way that a company can separate the wheat from the chaff and bring the right number of resources to bear on a FCPA problem. A key consideration is making an initial determination of whether to bring in outside counsel to head up an investigation and a determination of the of the resources that you may want or need to commit to a problem.  Step 2: Planning the Investigation. After assembling your investigation team, determine the required investigation tasks. These would include document review and interviews. If hard drives need to be copied or documents put on hold or sequestered in any way, or relationships need to be analyzed through relationship software programs or key word search programs, this should also be planned out at this time. These tasks should be integrated into a written investigation or work plan so that the entire process going forward is documented. Also, if there is a variation from the written investigation plan, such variation should be documented and an explanation provided as to why there was such a variation. Lastly, if international travel is involved this should also be considered and planned for at this step. Step 2 should be accomplished with another one to three days.   Step 3: Executing the Investigation Plan. Under this step, the investigation should be completed. I would urge that the interviews not be effected until all documents are reviewed and ready for use in any interviews. Care should be taken to ensure that an appropriate Upjohn warning is issued and that the interviewee clearly understands that whoever is performing the interview represents the company and not the person being interviewed, whether they are the target of the investigation or not. The appropriate steps should also be taken to preserve the attorney-client privilege and attorney work product assertions. This Step 3 should be accomplished in one to two weeks.   Step 4: Determining Appropriate Follow-Up. At this step, the preliminary investigation should be completed and you are ready to move into the final phases. In some investigations, it is relatively easy to determine when the work is essentially complete. For example, if the allegation is both specific and narrow, and the investigation reveals a compelling and benign explanation for the conduct alleged, then the investigation typically is complete and you are ready to convene the investigation team and the relevant business unit representatives. This group would decide on the appropriate disciplinary steps or other actions to take. This Step 4 should be completed in one day to one week.  It must be cautioned that at this step, if there are findings of specific or discrete allegations of corruption and bribery, a decision must be made as how to handle such findings going forward.  Step 5: Closing the Case. Under this final step, communicate the investigation results to the stakeholders and complete the case report. Everything done in the above steps should be documented and stored, either electronically or in hard copy form together. The case report should be completed. This Step 5 should be completed in one day to one week.  Three Key Takeaways A written protocol, created before an investigation is a key starting point. Create specific steps to follow so there will be full transparency and documentation going forward. Consistency in approach is critical. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

FCPA Compliance Report
Day 13 of One Month to Better Compliance Through HR

FCPA Compliance Report

Play Episode Listen Later May 17, 2017 12:16


One of the ways to operationalize compliance and to drive it into the DNA of an organization is through a performance review. Indeed, the 2012 FCPA Guidance states, “DOJ and SEC recognize that positive incentives can also drive compliant behavior. These incentives can take many forms such as personnel evaluations and promotions, rewards for improving and developing a company’s compliance pro­gram, and rewards for ethics and compliance leadership. Some organizations, for example, have made adherence to compliance a significant metric for management’s bonuses so that compliance becomes an integral part of management’s everyday concern.” Most HR experts will opine that properly executed performance appraisals are crucial to organizational productivity as well as the development of employee skills and employee morale. Moreover, they can serve a couple of different functions for a best practices compliance program. First, and foremost, they communicate to each employee their job performance from a compliance perspective. However, one key is not to approach the performance appraisal review as an isolated event but rather a continual process. This means that instead of trying to play catch-up at the last minute, supervisors should provide feedback and assess job performance throughout the year so annual reviews are grounded in a year's worth of experience. This includes the compliance component of each job. The second area performance appraisals impact is compensation. As noted above, the DOJ and SEC expect that your compliance program will have both discipline and incentives. But those incentives need to be based upon something. The score or other performance appraisal metrics will provide to you a standard which you can measure and use to evaluate for other purposes such as employee promotion or advancement to senior management going forward. In an article in the Houston Business Journal entitled “6 Ways To Make Performance Reviews More Productive”; provided six points you should consider which I have adapted for the compliance component of an annual employee performance appraisal. Prioritize reviews in your schedule - You should schedule the employee performance appraisal at least several days in advance, rather than when a time slot suddenly opens up. You would make sure that you allot sufficient time for unhurried give and take between the reviewer and the employee. Review the entire year's performance - You should resist the attempt to focus the discussion on the latest compliance experience. This is called recency bias. If a compliance issue arose in the past month or so, you need to keep it in perspective for the entire review period. Moreover, by focusing a review on a recent problem you may obscure prior accomplishments and make an employee feel demoralized. Take care not to go too much in the opposite direction as recency bias can work both ways, and one should not let a favorable recent compliance event overshadow the full review period. Do not hesitate to critique - Be generous with praise where it is warranted, but do not hesitate to discuss improvements needed in the compliance arena. Many supervisors are reluctant to confront and indeed desire to avoid confrontation. However remaining silent about an employee's compliance shortcomings is a disservice to both the company and the employee. Do not dominate the conversation - Remember that you must give the employee time for self-appraisal and to ask questions or to comment about the feedback received from the compliance perspective. If there are specific questions or concerns raised by the employee you need to be prepared to address them as appropriate. Understand the employee's role - You need to understand and appreciate that if the recent economy has resulted in many employees assuming the responsibilities of more than one position. If relevant to the employee, acknowledge that fact and take it into account in the review. This is certainly true from the compliance perspective as many non-Compliance Department employees have cross-functional responsibilities. If they claim not to have the time to handle their compliance responsibilities you will need to address this with the employee and perhaps structurally as well. Anticipate reprisal - Although it is rare, you can face the situation where an employee who is very dissatisfied with a review may refuse to sign it. The employee may be offered the opportunity to add a statement to the review. Also point out that the employee signature is an acknowledgement of receiving the review and does not signify agreement. If the employee still refuses to sign, have a second supervisor come in to witness the refusal. This may be particularly important from the compliance perspective. The article ends by noting, “A proper annual review requires considerable effort from employee supervisors. It should be a full-year process involving regular guidance and feedback and perhaps several mini-reviews along the way. But rather than viewing it as onerous, supervisors should keep in mind that it is a tool for making their departments work more efficiently and yields better results for everyone involved.” I would add this is doubled from the compliance perspective. The potential upside can be significant from your overall compliance program perspective. Three Key Takeaways To incentivize compliance, you must be able to accurately appraise senior managers and employees around compliance. Clearly communicate your compliance expectations, then fairly evaluate employees on them. Consider an ongoing review as well. This month’s series is sponsored by Advanced Compliance Solutions and its new service offering the “Compliance Alliance” which is a three-step program that will provide you and your team a background into compliance and the FCPA so you can consider how your product or service fits into the needs of a compliance officer. It includes a FCPA and compliance boot camp, sponsorship of a one-month podcast series, and in-person training. Each section builds on the other and provides your customer service and sales teams with the knowledge they need to have intelligent conversations with compliance officers and decision makers. When the program is complete, your teams will be armed with the knowledge they need to sell and service every new client. Interested parties should contact Tom Fox. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

FCPA Compliance Report
Day 11 of One Month to Better Compliance Through HR

FCPA Compliance Report

Play Episode Listen Later May 15, 2017 12:55


In the Department of Justice’s Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs, Prong 8 Incentive and Disciplinary Measures it states: Incentive System – Consistent Application – Have the disciplinary actions and incentives been fairly and consistently applied across the organization?  In the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) 13 point minimum best practices compliance program, Item 10 states: Discipline. A Company should have appropriate disciplinary procedures to address, among other things, violations of the anti-corruption laws and the Company's anti-corruption compliance code, policies, and procedures by the Company's directors, officers, and employees. A Company should implement procedures to ensure that where misconduct is discovered, reasonable steps are taken to remedy the harm resulting from such misconduct, and to ensure that appropriate steps are taken to prevent further similar misconduct, including assessing the internal controls, ethics, and compliance program and making modifications necessary to ensure the program is effective. However, I believe that the DOJ best practices are more active than the ‘stick’ of employee discipline to make a compliance program effective and I believe that it also requires a ‘carrot’. This requirement is codified in the US Sentencing Guidelines with the following language, “The organization’s compliance and ethics program shall be promoted and enforced consistently throughout the organization through (A) appropriate incentives to perform in accordance with the compliance and ethics program; and (B) appropriate disciplinary measures for engaging in criminal conduct and for failing to take reasonable steps to prevent or detect criminal conduct.” One of the areas which Human Resources (HR) can operationalize your compliance program is to ensure that discipline is handed out fairly across an organization and to those employees who integrate such ethical and compliant behavior into their individual work practices going forward. Procedural fairness is one of the things that will bring credibility to your Compliance Program. Today it is called the Fair Process Doctrine and this Doctrine generally recognizes that there are fair procedures, not arbitrary ones, in processes involving rights. Considerable research has shown that people are more willing to accept negative, unfavorable, and non-preferred outcomes when they are arrived at by processes and procedures that are perceived as fair. Adhering to the Fair Process Doctrine in two areas of your Compliance Program is critical for you, as a compliance specialist or for your Compliance Department, to have credibility with the rest of the workforce. Finally, it is yet another way to more fully operationalize your compliance program. Internal Investigations The first area is that of internal company investigations. If your employees do not believe that the investigation is fair and impartial, then it is not fair and impartial. Further, those involved must have confidence that any internal investigation is treated seriously and objectively. One of the key reasons that employees will go outside of a company’s internal hotline process is because they do not believe that the process will be fair. This fairness has several components. One would be the use of outside counsel, rather than in-house counsel to handle the investigation. Moreover, if company uses a regular firm, it may be that other outside counsel should be brought in, particularly if regular outside counsel has created or implemented key components which are being investigated. Further, if the company’s regular outside counsel has a large amount of business with the company, then that law firm may have a very vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Lastly, the investigation may require a level of specialization which in-house or regular outside counsel does not possess. Administration of Discipline and Employee Promotions However, as important as the Fair Process Doctrine is with internal investigations, I have come to believe it is more important in another area. That area is in the administration of discipline after any compliance related incident. Discipline must not only be administered fairly but it must be administered uniformly across the company for the violation of any compliance policy. Simply put if you are going to fire employees in South America for lying on their expense reports, you have to fire them in North America for the same offense. It cannot matter that the North American employee is a friend of yours or worse yet a ‘high producer’. Failure to administer discipline uniformly will destroy any vestige of credibility that you may have developed. In addition to the area of discipline which may be administered after the completion of any compliance investigation, you must also place compliance firmly as a part of ongoing employee evaluations and promotions. If your company is seen to advance and only reward employees who achieve their numbers by whatever means necessary, other employees will certainly take note and it will be understood what management evaluates, and rewards, employees upon. I have often heard the (anecdotal) tale about some Far East Region Manager which goes along the following lines “If I violated the Code of Conduct I may or may not get caught. If I get caught I may or may not be disciplined. If I miss my numbers for two quarters, I will be fired”. If this is what other employees believe about how they are evaluated and the basis for promotion, you have lost the compliance battle. Three Key Takeaways The DOJ and SEC have long called for consistent application in both incentives and discipline. The Fair Process Doctrine ensures employees will accept results they may not like. Inconsistent application of discipline will destroy your compliance program credibility. This month’s series is sponsored by Advanced Compliance Solutions and its new service offering the “Compliance Alliance” which is a three-step program that will provide you and your team a background into compliance and the FCPA so you can consider how your product or service fits into the needs of a compliance officer. It includes a FCPA and compliance boot camp, sponsorship of a one-month podcast series, and in-person training. Each section builds on the other and provides your customer service and sales teams with the knowledge they need to have intelligent conversations with compliance officers and decision makers. When the program is complete, your teams will be armed with the knowledge they need to sell and service every new client. Interested parties should contact Tom Fox. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

FCPA Compliance Report
Day 12 of One Month to Operationalization of Your Compliance Program

FCPA Compliance Report

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 16, 2017 13:01


The operationalization of your compliance programs means how deeply is compliance integrated into the function of your company. Today, I want to consider another way to operationalize compliance through the Compliance Oversight Committee. The Compliance Oversight Committee sits between the CCO and the Board’s compliance committee. The role of this Compliance Oversight Committee is to provide oversight and review of high risk issues such as third party approvals and renewals, requests for payments from third parties and significant gift, travel and entertainment requests from employees. This committee’s oversight demonstrates not only a shared committee to compliance as required under the Justice Department’s Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs but also fulfills the requirement for engaged senior management oversight as a part of a company’s management of risk. As far back as January 2005, in the Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) entered into between the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Monsanto Company, it provided for “the establishment and maintenance of a committee to supervise the review of (I) the retention of any agent, consultant, or other representative for purposes of business development or lobbying in a foreign jurisdiction”, or a Compliance Oversight Committee. The scope of this Compliance Oversight Committee was not fleshed out in the DPA. While many have focused on the Compliance Oversight Committee to monitor agents and other third party business representatives, the role of the Compliance Oversight Committee should be broader than simply the issues of third party agents and representatives. A major purpose of a Compliance Oversight Committee is to act as redundant backup to the books and records internal controls systems, designed to prevent and detect violations of a company’s compliance program. It should be clear the role of the Compliance Oversight Committee is not to substitute its judgment for that of the CCO but rather to provide another level of review to make sure nothing slips through the cracks which might expose the company to unwanted risk. This can begin with a clear, written charter that sets out the functionality, goals, and parameters of the group. Moreover, the Compliance Oversight Committee should be reviewed on a periodic basis to determine usefulness and effectiveness. To this end, the Society for Corporate Compliance and Ethics (SCCE) Complete Compliance and Ethics Manual (2016 ed.) suggests the following language in its proposed form of Compliance Committee Charter: The compliance officer shall have ultimate responsibility for operating the compliance program, with the support and assistance of the compliance committee. The committee shall consist of ### members, representative of each major department or area. The committee may appoint ad hoc members, each to serve at the pleasure of the committee, to assist and advise the committee in carrying out this charter. While the ad hoc members of the committee are not entitled to vote on matters formally considered by the committee, the ad hoc members shall be entitled to call a meeting of the committee and, further, to have any matter included on the agenda of any meeting of the committee. The committee shall designate the proper manner for calling meetings and the setting of agendas thereto. Who should be on an Oversight Committee? The Monsanto DPA provides guidance on this point by stating, “The majority of the committee shall be comprised of persons who are not subordinate to the most senior officer of the department or unit responsible for the relevant transaction.” This indicates that senior management should be involved in the Compliance Oversight Committee. It also indicates that more than one department should be represented on the Compliance Oversight Committee. This would include senior representatives from the Accounting (or Finance) Department, Compliance & Legal Departments, IT, Finance and Business Unit Operations. The bottom line is that the CCO should chair a committee of peers/senior level officers who are in a position to make decisions and marshal resources. What Should the Oversight Committee Review? There are a variety of approaches that a Compliance Oversight Committee can assume. It can dive down deeply ‘into the weeds’ for transactions which the company has identified as high risk. This can be the review of agents or other representatives in high risk areas or transactions in high risk countries. The Compliance Oversight Committee can use techniques such as continuous controls monitoring to identify any outliers of payments or other indicia of financial information which would warrant additional investigations. In addition to this remedial review, the Compliance Oversight Committee should review all payments requested by agents and representatives to assure such payment is within the company guidelines and is warranted by the contractual relationship with the company. Lastly, the Compliance Oversight Committee should review company sales or business development requests to provide compensation and, as appropriate, reimbursement for gifts, travel and entertainment of foreign governmental officials.  The oversight of Foreign Business Partners is one of the key mechanisms that a company can use to prevent and detect any violation of its own Code of Ethics and Compliance and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). The proper structure of the Compliance Oversight Committee and its full engagement with all aspects of a company’s relationship with a Foreign Business Partner is one of the areas that the DOJ will look for in a successful FCPA compliance program. However, it is incumbent that each Compliance Oversight Committee should be designed to review the highest risks to your organization. If your company’s highest compliance risk is third party relationships, you should focus your compliance committee resources on that issue. My recommendation is that a company should incorporate both a pre-execution function and a post-execution management function in overseeing the full relationship with any third party. While this would most necessarily focus on FCPA compliance, there should also be a commercial component to this function. The Compliance Oversight Committee should therefore review all documents relevant to the five-step lifecycle management of third parties. Conclusion The Compliance Oversight Committee is a key tool which can be utilized by a company to manage its risks. The books and records component of internal controls is one level of prevention and detection. The review by a Compliance Department for requests for travel for and gifts and entertainment to foreign governmental officials and the lifecycle management of third parties is also an important step in the prevention process. However, the Compliance Oversight Committee is another step which operationalizes compliance and should be employed by companies as an additional protection against any type of compliance and ethics violation slipping through the cracks to become a much larger problem down the road. Companies should implement a Compliance Oversight Committee and review the systems they have in place to detect risky conduct.   Three Key Takeaways The Justice Department has long suggested an approach of operationalizing compliance through greater senior management oversight. A Compliance Oversight Committee allows for an increased set of eyeballs on your highest risk compliance risks. A Compliance Oversight Committee acts as another control mechanism for a best practices compliance program. This month’s podcast series is sponsored by Oversight Systems, Inc. Oversight’s automated transaction monitoring solution, Insights On Demand for FCPA, operationalizes your compliance program. For more information, go to OversightSystems.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

American Banker Podcast
Can AI Take the Place of a Compliance Department?

American Banker Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 11, 2016 22:55


David Weiss, senior analyst at Aite Group, weighs in on the IBM/Promontory deal and how humans and artificial intelligence programs will interact in the field of bank regulatory compliance.

Compliance Expert
Building Relationships for Effective Audit-Sonia Luna Intvs Anthony J. Smith

Compliance Expert

Play Episode Listen Later Jul 2, 2014 27:00


Anthony J Smith has 14 years of audit experience and currently leads the Audit and Compliance Department for Mitsubishi Electric Power Products.  He spent 9 years with PricewaterhouseCoopers Boston, Washington D.C. and Pittsburgh an Internal Audit Services Manager, where he worked with various Fortune 500 companies on internal audit and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance engagements. In 2009 he was hired by Mitsubishi Electric Power Products to start up their Audit and Compliance Department.  Anthony is a Certified Public Accountant in Pennsylvania and recently authored an article entitled, “Requests for Information” which was published in the April 2014 issue of Internal Auditor magazine.  

Dave & Gunnar Show
Episode 36: #36: “Totally on Board”

Dave & Gunnar Show

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 10, 2013 64:37


This week, Dave and Gunnar talk about: Audio hacking, Nexus 5 hacking, currency hacking, OpenShift Enterprise 2.0 hacking, lake monsters, and a new segment: the Security Dog House. Subscribe via RSS or iTunes. Red Hat Canada Thanksgiving greetings remind Dave of lessons learned from The Last Lecture Today in Audio Hacking: Scientist-developed malware prototype covertly jumps air gaps using inaudible sound D&G Beard of the Week: Matt Micene‘s first video interview including a Hellekson’s Law cameo Polarized sunglasses + horizontal Nexus 5 = navigation in darkness Lauren’s Republic Wireless Moto X seems really nice so far Unlocked 16 GB Moto G on Amazon for $200 Google dead man switch: Inactive Account Manager Google searches for thoughtcrimes Google releases always on voice search for Chrome Twitter Announces “Tailored Audiences” For Ad Retargeting D&G PSA of the week: Install AdBlock Plus and disable 3rd party cookies Build your own surveillance state Build your OWN Apple iBeacon with a Raspberry Pi Build Your Own GPS Car Tracking System UPDATE: Encrypt the Web Report: Who’s Doing What with missing column Comedy laden, target rich environment: “Hello Santa” Offers A Memorable, But Pricey, Video Call With A Real-Life Santa Dave writes movie script, Gunnar comes up with a fresh twist on an existing business idea A Prediction: Bitcoin Is Doomed to Fail, just like other non-government backed currencies such as gold and tulip bulbs Red Hat Summit registration now open! Gunnar makes annual pilgrimage to Vegas for Gartner Data Center boondoggle, December 9-12 Awesome Red Hat Support Tool video RHEL and Fedora security features matrix HT Frank Dachille: Red Hat and Google Compute Engine – Extending the Datacenter OpenShift Enterprise 2.0 coming December 11 NASA (in particular Rich Rinehart of NASA Glenn for his Mars Opera kickstarter FlightAware Misery Map ParkWhiz.com is awesome HT Dave’s wife: D&G Security Doghouse Company of the Week: National Center for Safety Initiatives for them asking clients to “email a photo of your driver’s license, passport, state ID”, looking like a government agency, and the web site’s autoplay of Charlie Brown funeral music You recently submitted a criminal background screening request to National Center for Safety Initiatives (NCSI). In order to continue with the review of your file, NCSI needs important information from you. Please submit a physical copy of ONE of the following forms of government issued ID documents to NCSI’s Compliance Department as soon as possible: 1.) Valid Driver’s License 2.) Passport 3.) State Issued Id You may scan the document, take a photo and upload it, or even take a photo with your cell phone and send it to us. We accept .jpg, .pdf, .doc, and .png file formats. The following are the contacts for electronic submissions: Upload: www.ncsisafe.com Email: compliance@ncsisafe.com E-mail and digital upload are preferred, as the image tends to come through more clearly and we are able to complete your screen more quickly. Please keep in mind that if you do not have a scanner, digital camera, or camera phone, many libraries have a scanner that is available to the public. If you are absolutely unable to submit your ID using any of the above methods, you may send your ID via fax to 1-(440) 542-9833. Please note that faxes can come through unclear, and faxing your ID rather than submitting electronically may cause your screening to be delayed. “If you are faxing the request please include a cover page with your name and daytime phone number. Also, if you choose to fax, please enlarge and/or brighten the image so it is clear to read. If we cannot read your ID and you do not provide your name and number, we do not know who to contact to request a clear copy. Your background screening cannot be completed until NCSI receives the required documentation from you. To avoid further delay, your prompt response to this request is necessary and appreciated. Please allow 2-3 days receipt and processing of your document. During this time, please continue to check your status at www.ncsisafe.com Yours in safety, Compliance Department National Center for Safety Initiatives (NCSI) Suitable for framing in your doomsday bunker: The Lake Monsters of America Bessie the Lake Erie monster Lake Erie Monsters minor league hockey team in Cleveland Lake Worth Monster goat man Almost related: Mothman and The Mothman Prophecies Cutting Room Floor Action Figure Resume NASA writes to Coke+Mentos Rocket Designer Cheese made from feet, belly buttons, and tears Venn menu The Largest Island in the Largest Lake in the Largest Island in the Largest Lake in North America Google BBS simulator Awesome airplane simulators. Awesome waiting-in-line simulators. We Give Thanks Red Hat Canada, Matt Micene, Frank Dachille, Rich Rinehart, and Mrs. Egts for giving us things to be thankful for and to talk about

Michigan Ethics Economy Initiative Podcast Series
Careers with an Ethics Portfolio: Anthony Tocco of DTE Energy

Michigan Ethics Economy Initiative Podcast Series

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 26, 2010 59:16


Join Bart and Jeanine from Downtown Detroit for a conversation with DTE Energy Chief Compliance Officer Anthony Tocco. The Ethics and Compliance Department is a fixture of many major corporations, and we find out how the ethics of a corporation and its employees stay in balance.For additional information referred to in this podcast, please follow these links:DTE Energy Way -- The company's core values.