Be a compliance advocate within your organization. Don’t be afraid of the unfamiliar or shy away from a challenge. Build relationships during good times so that when it’s time to deliver bad news—inevitably, that time will come—your colleagues will know and trust you.

These examples of career advice were offered by experienced compliance professionals during a panel discussion at Compliance Week’s 2023 National Conference in Washington, D.C. As part of the session moderated by John Rademacher, principal at consultant Charles River Associates, speakers included:

• Ellen Hunt, principal consultant and adviser at Spark Compliance Consulting and former senior vice president, audit, ethics, and compliance officer at AARP;
• Charles Reed, vice president, global compliance at Flex;
• Gerald Roy, vice president, chief compliance and privacy officer at Phoenix Children’s Hospital;
• Amy Schuh, partner at Morgan Lewis and a former chief ethics and compliance officer; and
• Charles Schwager, vice president and chief compliance and ethics officer at Waste Management.

Schuh said she enjoyed building up struggling or new compliance programs, but the job generated less enthusiasm in her once the program was functioning well. She recognized an unfilled need at some law firms for giving practical and legal advice to compliance programs, so she switched gears to pursue that role.