Principled

PULL QUOTE: “We just seem to be in a time where...society has in many ways normalized unethical behavior, and for future business leaders, that’s not good.”   Cindy Moehring talks to LRN's Ben DiPietro about taking what she learned after working for 20 years to build and develop Walmart's worldwide ethics and compliance program, and going to the University of Arkansas to embed ethics into the curriculum at the Sam M. Walton School of Business.   Cindy Moehring is the founder and executive chair of the Business Integrity Leadership Initiative for the Sam M. Walton College of Business, at the University of Arkansas. Moehring shifted to academic life following a 20-year career with Walmart, Inc., where she helped to build the company’s ethics and compliance program, and worked with the board and senior leadership on global strategy, corporate governance, and cultural initiatives.

Moehring spearheaded the transformation of Walmart’s global culture of integrity in the wake of Walmart’s foreign corrupt practices act investigation, developing and implementing a global ethics program in 27 countries for more than two million employees. She has served as the immediate past chair of the Board of the Ethics and Compliance Association, and as a director for the Ethics Research Center. She is a member of the National Association of Corporate Directors, and has served locally on the board of the Ruth I. Kolpin Family Foundation, and as a board member of the Northwest Arkansas chapter of Girls on the Run.

Moehring graduated with a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University Law Center, and graduated from the University of Missouri with a Bachelor of Science degree.

David Greenberg, who leads LRN's Office of the CEO, and also serves as a board member of International Seaways Inc., and earlier in is career served as a chief compliance officer, shares his insights into how each of the people in those positions is handling the COVID-19 crisis. He talk with LRN's Ben DiPietro about why companies that emphasize ethics and purpose are likely to do better in this trying time than those that don't.

PULL QUOTE: “The focus of the D&I programs are to bring people that are different--that think differently, that look differently, that have different backgrounds and experiences-and then create a work environment where all those people can succeed...That, to me, goes hand in hand with what we want from an organization that is focused on ethics, compliance, and integrity.”

Antonio Fernandez of PSEG discusses with LRN's Ben DiPietro his approach to building an ethics and compliance program, and how his coming out as gay helps him serve as a leader for diversity and inclusion.

Antonio Fernández was named PSEG’s chief compliance officer in April 2016 and is responsible for overseeing its compliance program, which involves managing PSEG’s ethics and compliance group and its NERC compliance group.

Fernández joined PSEG from General Electric, where he served as GE Power’s global ombuds leader, and as executive counsel. Fernández started his career at the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s Office of the General Counsel, through its Honors Program. He then served as nuclear counsel for Pacific Gas and Electric Co., where he oversaw all legal matters related to PG&E’s nuclear power plants. After PG&E, he joined NextEra Energy as a senior attorney.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of Dayton; a Juris Doctor degree (Order of Barristers) from St. Mary’s University School of Law; and a Master of Laws in international and comparative law from Georgetown University Law Center.

What You’ll Learn on This Episode:

• [0:48] Antonio talks about his path to the field of ethics and compliance and how that journey took you the PSEG
• [3:22] What is Antonio’s philosophy when it comes to creating an operating an ethics and compliance program? What are the pillars upon which he builds the program
• [6:06] How Antonio use tools to get messages about ethics, compliance, culture, and behavior to all levels of the organization?
• [7:47] Antonio talks about the effectiveness of engagement efforts and whether the right analytics exists in the world today. Do the right set of measurements still needed to be identified?
• [9:40] What are some actions PSEG is taking on issues of diversity and inclusion? How did Antonio’s personal story and the experience of coming out as gay shape the way he approaches D&I issues?
• [13:09] What does Antonio wish someone had told him when he first starting out and how he might have navigated his personal situation? How would the situation gone differently if he didn’t have to go through the experience of learning for himself and maybe fumbling along the way?

Driving cultural change in Latin America, Gabriela Gutierrez of Chile-based extractive company Grupo CAP talks to LRN's Ben DiPietro about her 20-year career in ethics and compliance in Latin America, and the unique challenges that come with working in the region.

PULL QUOTE: “A good way to incentivize cultural change is by bringing all employees and collaborators under one message of why a culture of compliance is important, and that employees feel they and their company will be at an advantage if they reveal an issue than if they do not.” - Gabriela Gutierrez

Gabriela Gutierrez is the chief compliance officer for Grupo CAP, a Chile-based holding company with interests in mining, steel, and extractive resources. She is responsible for the establishment of standards, and the implementation of procedures to ensure the company’s compliance programs are effective and efficient in identifying, preventing, detecting, and correcting noncompliance with applicable laws and regulations. Gutierrez has extensive executive-level experience at multinational companies in Chile, with more than 20 years in the banking, securities and extractive industries. She has a proven history of building and maintaining excellent working relationships, based on respect and diversity with collaborators of all levels and from different cultural backgrounds.

Prior to joining CAP in June 2019, Gutierrez worked as ethics and compliance manager, Minerals America, for BHP; was the chief compliance officer for China Construction Bank in Chile; and served as head of compliance and operational risk management for Deutsche Bank’s Chile business. She is a CPA from Universidad de Santiago de Chile, has a Master’s Degree in corporate law from Universidad Adolfo Ibañez, a Master’s in humanities from Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez, and an International Compliance & Anti-Corruption Certification,  from the Institute for U.S. Law, George Washington University Law School. 

What You’ll Learn on This Episode:

• [:56] Gabriela tells us about your career path and how she worked her way to becoming chief compliance officer at Grupo CAP and what cultivated an interest in ethics and compliance?
• [2:53] What does CAP do? What are Gabriela’s goals there as head of the compliance program? How far along is she in implementing those goals and what still needs to be done?
• [4:48] Before joining CAP, Gabriela worked for BHP as their Latin America CCO. What was that experience like for her and how has it informed what she is doing now?
• [6:47] How much risk does regional politics present to Gabriela when designing and carrying out the E&C program?
• [11:17] How hard is it to enact cultural change in Latin America given the way people have been acting and doing business there? What has Gabriela tried to do so far in this to impact the culture at CAP? How successful has she been? What else would she like to accomplish?

Jorge Dajani is the chief ethics officer of the World Bank Group, and has been in the position since June 2018. Dajani directs the Ethics and Business Conduct Department, which promotes the development and application of the highest ethical standards by staff members. He provides overall strategic leadership on ethics and business conduct, ensuring ethics and values are fully incorporated into the strategy of the entire World Bank Group.

Dajani possesses a deep knowledge of multilateral development banks, a proven track record in corporate strategy and development, and a reputation for effective stakeholder engagement. He is widely recognized for his management skills and stewardship of policies and procedures within international financial institutions with a focus on strategy, ethics and governance. 

Prior to his current role, Dajani was alternate executive director at the International Monetary Fund. Previously, he served as director general for macroeconomic analysis and international finance at the Ministry of Economy of Spain. He has served on the boards of several multilateral banks, including the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, CAF-Development Bank of Latin America, and the African Development Bank.

He was Spain’s chief negotiator for the establishment of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Green Climate Fund, and has been a member of the economic policy committees of the European Union and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

 

What You’ll Learn on This Episode 

• [0:49] How did you come to find yourself in a career in ethics? What was the path that's taken you to this point?
• [1:54] How did he get to the World Bank? Where did he start his career?
• [2:50] What are his main priorities s chief ethics officer? What is he trying to accomplish?
• [4:46] How often is ethics training offered? What types of trainings are offered? How can technology improve the engagement and knowledge retention of employees and stakeholders? What are some new ways he is using to send ethics messages, beyond training?
• [6:58] What is the World Bank doing to educate about sexual harassment and issues similar to that?
• [10:20] World Bank has taken an innovative step by adopted a reporting system where people can file the complaint, but then they can choose when and with whom they want to share it at their time. What’s the benefit of that?
• [12:34] What does Dajani look at when he measures to decide if what he is doing is successful, or not?

PULL QUOTE: “Sometimes, success can block scrutiny. It’s not always intuitive to say, ‘Oh, things are good in the organization, let’s turn that rock over and see what’s underneath. Sometimes a dangerous silence can develop between the front lines of business and headquarters.” - Richard Bistrong

Richard Bistrong is founder and chief executive of Front-Line Anti-Bribery LLC, a consultancy that works with organizations to enhance their compliance efforts beyond a set of rules and procedures. Bistrong is a recognized consultant, blogger, and speaker in the field of anti-bribery compliance, reflecting on front-line issues that impact international business teams and compliance personnel. In this episode, Bistrong shares his journey from pleading guilty to bribery, to serving 15 months in prison for conspiracy and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. He then explains how this led to him becoming a major contributor in the field of ethics and compliance. He also discusses his work as a confidential human source and cooperating witnesses for prosecutors in the U.S. and U.K.

What You’ll Learn on This Episode

[00:38] Ben DiPietro introduces Richard Bistrong, founder and chief executive of Front-Line Anti-Bribery LLC.

[2:08] Bistrong describes what it was like to wear a wire for the government and whether he ever came close to being exposed while doing that?

[3:50] Did Bistrong think about the ethics of what he was doing, and did he feel bad at the time he was doing these things? If not, when did he get those feelings?

[6:30] At what point did Bistrong decide he was going to work to promote better corporate behavior, and not just settle his case and make amends?

[8:55] Bistrong responds to critics that say he is cashing in on his bad behavior?

[11:08] How much of his personal life was made public during the trials that you testified in, how did he handle that, and what was the impact it had on his relationships with family, friends, and colleagues?

[12:50] From the perspective of having been involved in corporate corruption, what are two or three of the biggest mistakes organizations make when it comes to the structure and operation of their ethics and compliance programs? What are they being blind to, what can they do better to uncover people like himself who are out there?

In today’s Principled episode, Page Motes shares her history at Dell Technologies as Senior Managing Director, Global Ethics and Compliance Officer and now as Strategy Lead of Sustainability. Motes discusses the difficulties and duties of overseeing and managing Dell’s ethics strategy and sustainability initiatives, and the impact of corporate activism, and she shares some advice for young people entering the E&C profession.

What You’ll Learn on This Episode

• [:50] What led you into ethics and compliance and how that has taken you into this new role as a strategy leader of sustainability at Dell? 

• [4:24] How does your E&C background help you in this new role, especially as E&C investor activism and ESG are coming together to push companies? 

• [6:34] How does your E&C background help you in this new role, especially as E&C investor activism and ESG are coming together to push companies?

• [11:53] What are two or three issues you're working on now in your new role in sustainability that is taking a lot of your time and focuses? 

• [14:32] What do you see now as one or two biggest drivers in this area that organizations need to prepare for, and how will these drivers impact E&C and sustainability teams and how they work? 

• [18:19] What advice do you have for young people, particularly women entering this E&C profession, and what do you wish someone had told you when you started that you didn't learn until later, maybe after a tough lesson?

This episode of Principled features Forrest Deegan, Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer for Abercrombie & Fitch, where he is responsible for enhancing the company’s corporate compliance program and third-party risk management program. Deegan has oversight of functional compliance activities, ownership of specific compliance policies, and works with internal partners to foster a speak-up culture throughout the business. He is also a lecturer in Law at the University of Chicago School of Law, and was selected by Compliance Week as a "Top Mind" for 2018. In this episode, Deegan shares his path to success, the relationship between compliance and legal, the importance of communication, the future of ethics and compliance, and how we can better equip students for careers in the field.

 

What You’ll Learn on This Episode

• [0:46] Tell our listeners about how you became attracted to ethics and compliance, the path you took to get to your present position as the CECO of A&F.
• [0:57] Forrest started in private practice about 15 years ago, and did work for many different types of clients. As he gained their trust, he began to do things that were a little more interesting, and ended up in a compliance career at a law firm. When he and his wife moved to Ohio, he came to Abercrombie & Fitch as their first director of corporate compliance, and finally that evolved into the “chief ethics and compliance officer” title.
• [2:56] What was behind the decision to add ethics into that title and how has that changed what you do? 
• [3:03] In in-house retail, people wear more hats, and A&F didn’t need to separate ethics from compliance. It was an easy transition to combine the two together.
• [4:08] As someone with a legal background, you’re well aware of the big debate that was taking place over the last decade in the NC community about whether compliance should be separate from legal and if so, how? And obviously, some companies have made that decoupling. Now that we’re about 10 years into that, what do you see? Are programs better when they’re disassociated from legal’s oversight and why do you feel that way?
• [4:34] The corporate compliance community is very collaborative; they get together and discuss issues like reporting and job responsibility. Forrest has seen a shift in the past couple of years back toward reporting to general counsels. He doesn’t think there is an issue with either as long as the work gets done.
• [5:50] What do you feel about how this has all played out? A lot of the concerns were around general counsels exercising too much control over compliance and not having it be as independent? Has that not really played out in the real world?
• [6:08] Even if you’re not in every meeting, if you have access to the board or audit committee, that can suffice. The communication between parties works well when there is independence and an open channel.
• [7:08] What would you say is the biggest change in the last five to 10 years as to how ethics and compliance is practiced at corporations?
• [7:18] Forrest is the first chief ethics & compliance officer at A&F and his peers at other retailers are the first there. The mindset of corporate compliance has shifted over the last 10 years, and people now understand that it is a broader field.
• [8:29] What do you see driving this profession forward through the 2020s?
• [8:36] There will be change on both the “want-to” and “have-to” sides. A big area of need for change is consistency in risk management and assessment. Forrest hopes to see increased collaboration with all of the lines of defense: hotlines, store health and safety, and a third-party monitoring program. He also wants to learn to have a more coordinated effort with those that help enforce the standards of conduct, the principles, and the value statement.
• [11:10] You also teach a compliance course at the University of Chicago. What does the class cover? How long have you been doing that? What are you trying to accomplish and what do you get out of it personally?
• [11:20] Forrest teaches a seminary called Corporate Compliance and Business Integration. It helps students see how many of the legal and regulatory regimes they’ve been studying play out in a corporate compliance program. Forrest’s class goes through anti-corruption, info stack and data breach rules, AML and OFAC, and employment-related harassment and discrimination issues. Forrest also brings in other speakers from the tech, entertainment, and banking industries to talk about their compliance journeys.
• [14:12] How do you weave in conversations about ethics and culture into all of this? Obviously, compliance doesn’t really work without those things and they’re a key component to this and I’m guessing that’s a part of the curriculum too?
• [14:23] The understanding of your business, evaluation of your risks, and use of your resources adds up to your culture of compliance. If everyone understands their role as an agent of the company, you will maintain a stronger culture of compliance.
• [15:38] How can universities and even high schools do a better job to incorporate lessons about ethics and compliance into their classes and get students ready for these issues that they’re going to have to deal with in their workforce?
• [15:55] The more chances that students have to see the skills in practice, the more concrete some of the concepts they’ve learned about in school become to them. Having access to practitioners and seeing how the things they’re learning apply in everyday life is the best way for students to learn.

Find this episode of Principled on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Sound Cloud, Podyssey, Spotify or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

“No matter how high your sales performance might be, or how wonderful of an employee you might be, you will never be excellent if you are not conducting yourself in a way that is full of integrity, and demonstrates ethical decision-making and leadership.” - Gwen Hassan This episode of Principled features Gwen Hassan, the chief compliance officer at CNH Industrial. CNH is a large equipment manufacturing company that is splitting into two companies in the upcoming year. Hassan shares her plans for creating a duplicate compliance program for the new spin company, and iterates the importance of adaptability in a changing organization. Though she attended law school later in life, Gwen has found her passion in compliance at CNH. She encourages young people and women starting off in their careers to take chances, stand up for their passions, and step out of their comfort zones to find a job they truly love. What You’ll Learn on This Episode [0:51] What is CNH, what does it do, and where does it operate? [1:43] What are the core values of the company? How does your ethics and compliance program project those values back to employees, stakeholders and anyone else who's interested? [4:12] How did you come up with a different form of messaging that incorporates all of that? [5:46] With CNH’s plan to separate into an on-highway and off-highway company, what are you dealing with and how are you tackling it and how does that all work out? [9:55] Will you be in charge of just one of those, then, or where does your role evolve into? [10:51] CNH does business in more than 100 countries, putting a large emphasis on supply chain risk. How important is training, communications, and tone from top in driving urgency about maintaining diligence over the supply chain? [14:01] What path did you take to wind up in a career in ethics and compliance? What do you find interesting still about the work that keeps you invested in it and passionate about it? What advice would you share with the younger professionals, especially women, who are just entering or looking to enter the E&C profession?

Dr. B. Sarah Haynes, chief executive of Bolt Mobility, a micro-mobility company with a mission to redesign cities and change human behavior, is hosted by LRN’s Dr. Marsha Ershaghi Hames in this episode of Principled. Haynes talks about how Bolt is entering the market and the impact its products offer in terms of access to education and healthcare. As a non-traditional CEO, with a Ph.D in neuroscience, Sarah brings a different skillset to the role, and describes how women need to have more conversations around putting themselves up for growth positions and embracing opportunities. What You’ll Learn on This Episode [0:53] What is Bolt Mobility’s purpose and mission? [2:10] What is micro-mobility? How is it transforming cities? [3:25] How is Bolt being brought into the market? [5:07] How does Bolt go into communities to provide a tangible transit solution to allow access to education and healthcare? [6:34] Was there a transportation dessert and did Bolt emerge to solve that problem, or is the company crafting a new cultural mindset around how we define the concept of access? [9:45] What skills from her career have helped Haynes in her current role as CEO? [12:36] What are the risks and opportunities facing the micro-mobility industry?