The Compliance Movement

This is the moment for compliance professionals to benefit from Washington’s expectations and translate their needs to their C-suites and boards. Many companies only become motivated to build best-in-class compliance programs after a major crisis. Compliance officers need to take the initiative and articulate their resource needs, and inform executives or board members of the need for cyberinsurance, more audits on the ground, or otherwise.

We interviewed four experienced compliance professionals—Henry Moniz of Viacom; Judy Perry Martinez, formerly of Northrop Grumman; Charles Senatore of Fidelity Investments; and Colin Owyang of Vermont Electric Power Company—to learn more about what they have learned and what it takes to succeed in this important field.

Since its emergence in the early 1990s, compliance work has grown from a set of tasks into a full-blown specialty, replete with specific training programs, professional associations and organizations, conferences, codes of conduct, academic research, and even lobbying. Indeed, compliance is now considered a critical component of how companies, organizations, and institutions function. Nevertheless, questions remain about who should manage this.

In his article, “Legal & Compliance Risk in a Global World,” from the Compliance Elliance Journal, Peter Kurer, the former general counsel and chairman of UBS, examines a paradox and offers some solutions for how the problem of compliance and legal risk can be better managed.