From 2016-2019, Compliance Week recognized the best and brightest thought leaders in the fields of governance, risk, compliance, and ethics each year with the Top Minds award.
What separates a Top Mind?
Effectiveness: Demonstrating ROI is a hallmark of a strong compliance program.
Collaboration: Working across silos to create holistic risk management programs.
Communication: Making sure everyone understands expectations and values.
Constructiveness: Building value for the business, not holding it back.
Vision: These folks are true believers in the value of an ethical business model.
What is Top Minds?
From 2016-19, Compliance Week highlighted the best and brightest in the governance, risk, ethics, and compliance profession each year with the Top Minds award. Recipients participated in in-depth interviews with fellow leaders of the GRC community.
Top Minds Podcast - Hosted by Tom Fox
Joseph Agins on compliance fallout from ‘Operation Varsity Blues’
Joseph Agins, institutional compliance officer at Sam Houston State University, explains how the “Varsity Blues” college admissions scandal provided a value proposition for enhancements to compliance at higher education institutions.
Max Roche on grant money management compliance
Max Roche, compliance manager of direct funding at the World Economic Forum, discusses his role in making sure grant money received by the organization is spent in the way intended.
Bob Ward on pros of targeted sanctions
Bob Ward, director of trade compliance at Wesco International, explains to columnist Tom Fox the benefits of targeted sanctions and how compliance practitioners can properly respond to such.
Cécilia Fellouse-Guenkel on France’s compliance community
Cécilia Fellouse-Guenkel, executive secretary at Le Cercle de la Compliance in Paris, discusses with columnist Tom Fox how compliance is viewed in France and touches on the country’s new anti-corruption law, Sapin II.
Vanessa Rossi on operationalized compliance done right
Vanessa Rossi, senior compliance counsel at Baker Hughes, explains to columnist Tom Fox the benefits of operationalized compliance and how to ensure it is properly in place.
Doug Walter on how a new HQ can drive engagement
Doug Walter, chief compliance officer at Phillips 66, explains to columnist Tom Fox how the energy company’s new headquarters has been a valuable tool for employee engagement and recruiting.
Mary Shirley on traveling in compliance
Mary Shirley, senior director of ethics and compliance at Fresenius Medical Care and a 2019 Top Minds recipient, details to columnist Tom Fox the adjustments she’s made in working in compliance across the globe.
Scott Sullivan on compliance lessons from news
Scott Sullivan, former chief compliance officer at Flowserve, explains to columnist Tom Fox how he incorporated the publicized misdeeds of other companies into his compliance training program.
Brian Beeghly on defining ethical leadership
Brian Beeghly, former chief compliance officer at Johnson Controls, explains to columnist Tom Fox the steps taken in designing a leadership model in the wake of an FCPA investigation.
Rod Hardie on FCPA lessons, navigating foreign risk
Rod Hardie, chief compliance officer at Exterran, discusses with columnist Tom Fox what he learned and experienced as an investigator with Baker Hughes during its FCPA investigation in the early 2000s.
Marcel de Chermont: ‘no person left behind’
Marcel de Chermont, founder and principal of Caledonia Consulting, Inc., discusses with columnist Tom Fox how to tailor a risk-based compliance program to different groups of employees while getting the same message across.
Katie Smith on compliance at a growth company
Katie Smith, chief compliance officer at Convercent, shares with columnist Tom Fox the challenges she’s faced as a CCO at a growth company.
Kathy Self on achieving global compliance
Kathy Self, chief compliance officer and data protection officer at Universal Weather and Aviation, explains to columnist Tom Fox the hurdles a small, global company must overcome when approaching compliance.
Kim Yapchai on engaging compliance training
Kim Yapchai, chief ethics and compliance officer at Tenneco, explains to columnist Tom Fox her approach of using interactive games in compliance training.
Marianne Ibrahim on conducting a third party audit
Marianne Ibrahim, director of global compliance at Baker Hughes, offers several best practices for the auditing of third parties.
Kate Murtagh on sustainable investment
Kate Murtagh, chief compliance officer at the Harvard Management Company, discusses the university’s three-pronged approach to sustainable investment with columnist Tom Fox.
Cédric Dubar on tone at the middle
Cédric Dubar, chief compliance & ethics officer at Volvo Car Group, details to columnist Tom Fox how tone at the middle can benefit the leadership structure of a company.
Alison Taylor on CEO activism, social responsibility
Alison Taylor, managing director at Business for Social Responsibility, discusses with columnist Tom Fox the importance and implications of CEO activism in today’s political environment.
Hilary Wandall on U.S. data privacy priorities
Hilary Wandall, senior vice president, general counsel, and chief data governance officer at TrustArc, explains to columnist Tom Fox why U.S. companies should address data privacy now, regardless of their motivations.
Mary Gentile on values-driven leadership
Mary Gentile, director and creator of Giving Voice to Values, joins columnist Tom Fox to discuss the benefits of a values-driven approach to leadership development.
Russ Berland on addressing culture in training
Russ Berland, former chief compliance officer at BearingPoint, details to columnist Tom Fox the success a training video series designed in the vein of “The Office” had in bridging culture gaps at his company.
Ellen Hunt of AARP on compliance at board level
Ellen Hunt, the senior vice president, audit, ethics, and compliance officer at AARP, joins columnist Tom Fox to explain the benefits she feels having a compliance expert on the board of directors at a company provides.
Baker Hughes’ Jay Martin on regional compliance coverage
Jay Martin, the associate general counsel and chief compliance officer at Baker Hughes, discusses the positive effect regionalized compliance coverage has had at the worldwide company.
David Bunker on assessing conflict of interest
David Bunker, the compliance officer at Seattle-based nonprofit Vulcan, explains the process he implemented to better assess threats of conflict of interest while maintaining employee freedom.
Timur Khasanov-Batirov on ‘Compliance Man’
International compliance officer Timur Khasanov-Batirov joins Tom Fox to explain the inspiration behind his illustrated series, “Compliance Man,” which is designed to help communicate potentially complex compliance topics in a simple manner.
Kristy Grant-Hart talks publishing, women in compliance
Compliance practitioner and author Kristy Grant-Hart chats with Tom Fox about her three books and offers her advice to women of all ages in the compliance field.
Dan Chapman talks FCPA investigations
Former CCO Dan Chapman chats with Tom Fox about how to approach an FCPA investigation and come out stronger after remediation.
Louis Sapirman on holistic compliance messaging
In our inaugural episode, former CCO Louis Sapirman chats with Tom Fox about his 360-Degrees of Compliance Communication model, which takes an all-encompassing approach to compliance messaging.