Maurice L. Crescenzi, Jr., President of ECI Compliance Week, appeared this week at its flagship national conference in Washington, D.C.

Crescenzi brings more than three decades of professional experience spanning ethics and compliance roles in Fortune 500 corporations, global consulting firms, and academia to the role.

His career began in regulatory compliance before evolving into senior ethics and compliance leadership roles. Later in his career, he led the ethics and compliance consulting practices at some of the world’s largest professional services firms – providing ethics and compliance consulting services to some of the world’s most recognizable brands.

In parallel, he spent nearly 20 years teaching business ethics at the university level, experiences he described as “invaluable and irreplaceable.”

“I am excited, humbled, and grateful to have been appointed president of ECI Compliance Week,” Crescenzi told attendees.

He recognized the important role that ECI Compliance Week plays in the ethics and compliance ecosystem – in the areas of news, insights, advocacy, membership, credentialing, and benchmarking.

“And I’m keenly aware of the visionaries and luminaries who’ve come before me – those who’ve had a profound impact on this profession, some of whom are in this room,” he said.

Crescenzi also acknowledged one of the unique attributes of the ethics and compliance profession: Collaboration.

“I’m looking forward to collaborating not just with my team internally, but with you,” referring to ECI Compliance Week attendees, ECI Fellows, board members, and sponsors. “If you have questions, concerns, or ideas, I welcome them. We’re all in this together.”

Jim Lindstrom, CEO of Verdian Insights (the parent company of ECI Compliance Week), said in the April 21 announcement of Crescenzi’s appointment that he brings a “rare combination of leadership-level practitioner experience, commercial discipline, and genuine standing across the profession.”

“With his strong leadership style, deep subject-matter knowledge, and professional network, he is exactly the leader to evolve our trusted ecosystem and expand our global reach,” Lindstrom said at the time.

“Risk and technology are moving faster than our programs can keep up with, and the work is on us to close that gap.”

Maurice Crescenzi, jr.

On the final day of the National Conference, Crescenzi took the stage to deliver closing remarks that synthesized three days of sessions into a single through-line.

“If I had to come up with the through-line for this conference, it would be: risk and technology are moving faster than programs can keep up with, and the work is on us to close that gap,” he said.

Artificial intelligence was, by Crescenzi’s accounting, the dominant thread of the conference.

The data he presented underscored the urgency:  83 percent of compliance functions have already deployed AI tools, according to a recent Compliance Week and konaAI study on AI and compliance, yet only 25 percent of leaders feel confident in their oversight of those tools.

This gap represents the work of the next twelve to eighteen months, Crescenzi observed.

In his remarks, Crescenzi listed five themes and other highlights that pervaded the National Conference’s sessions.

Artificial Intelligence

Crescenzi noted that compliance is often held accountable for AI risk, but in most organizations, compliance does not own AI oversight. This will be an area of focus for compliance professionals in the year ahead.

Third-party risk has evolved

“The U.S Department of Justice considers third-party risk management (TPRM) as a core programmatic element of an effectively designed ethics and compliance program,” Crescenzi stated. “And the remit to know with whom you’re doing business has expanded beyond anti-bribery and anti-corruption into many other areas of compliance risk, including beneficial ownership, sanctions, human rights, illegal shell companies, and TCOs. And for this reason, the right data is key when conducting due diligence.”

Enforcement is shifting in source, not volume

“The ‘deregulation’ headline misstates what is happening,” Crescenzi said when speaking to the global regulatory trends. “Organizations are taking the long view on managing compliance risk – and continuing to leverage international regulation and directives for the baseline.” In addition, when noting other enforcement trends, Crescenzi highlighted that healthcare fraud cases are up, the False Claims Act is being applied in new ways, and state-level enforcement has increased.

Culture is measured in behaviors, not values

“We heard this in many rooms,” Crescenzi shared. “Training completion rates, hotline volume, and survey scores are now often seen as vanity metrics. Real culture lives in what gets incentivized and rewarded.

And with regard to the organizational culture of ethics and compliance, Crescenzi stated, “Speaking up is not enough. It has to be matched with listening up. And that work belongs to middle managers. “The mood in the middle,” as Crescenzi refers to it, “has long been an important key to an effective speaking up program.”

Compliance has to reframe itself, again

“Many of you told us your budgets are flat or shrinking. Yet, the cost-center framing continues to wear thin,” Crescenzi relayed, alluding to the sessions on the importance of board reporting, and on building a culture of integrity – all of which came back to the same point: Compliance has to continue to position itself as a strategic partner.

Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva

From the fireside chat with Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva, Crescenzi reminded that the Criminal Division’s first-ever corporate enforcement policy is designed to remove the guesswork.

“If you self-disclose early — even with an incomplete picture — fully cooperate, demonstrate a robust program, and remediate, you can potentially secure a Part One declination,” Crescenzi said, echoing Assistant Attorney General Duva’s guidance.

Duva’s advice “was practical: Think like a trial lawyer. Bring witness lists, exhibit lists, and documents. Help the DOJ help you. Cooperation is a relationship, not a transaction.

Crescenzi reminded the audience that Duva used just one word in response to the question, “Should organizations cut compliance resources?”

“Don’t.”

Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner Hester Peirce

From a fireside chat with Hester Peirce, SEC commissioner, Crescenzi heard a message on restraint.

“The SEC should regulate through clear rules and collaborative rulemaking — not through enforcement. She was direct about off-channel communications cases as an example of regulating an industry-wide issue through individual punishment,” he said.

Peirce renewed her calls for a compliance advisory committee at the SEC, for CCOs to have a formal seat at the rulemaking table. 

The signal for CCOs: Clarity from the SEC is coming, and the agency is willing to engage where firms self-disclose and cooperate.”

Crescenzi wrapped up with three final parting thoughts:

“One — you will not solve all of this when you get back to your office on Monday. The point of this week is not a to-do list. The points are sharper instincts and the right people in your contacts.

Two — the relationships you built here are the real deliverables. Most of the hard problems we discussed do not have a clean answer yet. The next best thing is a peer who is one or two steps ahead of you.

Three — thank you. To our attendees, members, speakers and panelists, fellows, sponsors, exhibitors, and board members. And thank you to the ECI Compliance Week team for all of the hard work planning and executing this outstanding event. You are the heart and soul of this operation.”

Crescenzi closed, “Happy Mother’s Day to you and yours. Safe travels home. We’ll see you next year.”