The most powerful thing about the ethics, governance, risk, and compliance profession is its people. This is a burgeoning area, and community, made up of a fascinating and influential group of professionals spanning all industries and geographies, incorporating a broad spectrum of disciplines, all in the name of ensuring best practices when it comes to obeying the letter and spirit of the law.

To the casual observer, compliance might seem like a thankless role to play: the hall monitor forever telling one’s peers to slow down, check their numbers, think twice, or to not engage at all in opportunities that seem otherwise foolhardy to pass up. In my time at Compliance Week, I have already met with people who have decried the role of compliance as little more than heavy manacles on the legs of commerce and who have also described the role as an ongoing example of the maxim that no good deed goes unpunished.

We aim to change that.

On June 14, Compliance Week is launching its inaugural issue of Top Minds, a series of in-depth profiles of some of the most respected, influential, and interesting professionals within the compliance profession and community. We will be speaking with corporate compliance officers, regulators, consultants, counsel, and anyone else who is helping to drive the GRC discipline forward to bigger and better things.

These will be frank discussions, in which we get to know our subjects not just as professionals, but as people for whom their career in compliance is not just something they do, it is something they are. We will be getting their take on what the biggest trends in compliance are today … and will be tomorrow. What they see as their greatest challenges, and greatest opportunities. What their biggest success stories are, and what takeaways they have learned so far that they would like to share with their fellow compliance professionals.

The editorial team is already hard at work lining up interviews for this very special project, but we also wanted to make this something that helps to bring together the compliance community at large. So we are opening up Top Minds to nominations for anyone who would like to suggest a likely interview source for us to consider. We will be accepting nominations throughout the month of April, and we will be announcing our lineup at the Compliance Week 2016 annual conference in Washington, D.C., which runs from May 23-25. (If you haven’t registered for that, already, please do! This is the biggest annual event in corporate compliance, and this year’s lineup is far and away our best yet.)

So, if you have a colleague who you think is a true thought leader in the compliance field, someone who makes a difference, who is advancing ethics, governance, risk, and compliance in important ways … we want to know about them. Are they established veterans in the field? Are they brilliant new minds? Are they leaders with bold vision? Are they deep thinkers who are developing a new understanding of this field? Are they … a Top Mind?

You can e-mail your nominations directly to me, at bill.coffin@complianceweek.com, from now through April 30. We look forward to hearing from you all!

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