Virginia Tech announced the appointments of Suzanne Griffin as its first chief compliance officer and Sharon Kurek as vice president of audit, risk, and compliance and chief risk officer.

Griffin will be responsible for leading the university’s institutional compliance program and coordination of the distributed processes that support university-wide compliance.

Her career includes more than 25 years of in-house legal, executive leadership, and management experience, including domestic and international matters. Most recently, she served as senior vice president, general counsel and chief risk officer at Butterball, according to her LinkedIn profile, with responsibility for the company’s legal affairs, workplace safety, health, environmental, sustainability, and corporate governance.

Kurek, who currently serves as executive director of the office of audit, risk, and compliance, will continue to report to the compliance, audit, and risk committee of the Virginia Tech board of visitors and have dual administrative reporting to university President Tim Sands and Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Amy Sebring.

Prior to joining Virginia Tech in 2008, Kurek worked at the University of California, Berkeley, serving in roles with increasing responsibility in the audit and risk management functions. She began her professional career at the Georgia Department of Audits conducting external audits of state entities, including colleges and universities for the State of Georgia.

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