Compliance Week's annual conference provides a perfect opportunity to hear from leading figures attending the three-day event. Our interviews cover a range of topics, including: new developments in the industry like artificial intelligence; shifts in skills and experience levels expected of compliance professionals; recent stories of corporate scandal and other major compliance failures; and trends in deregulation. See below for interview transcripts. We'll be updating throughout the event, and will post video footage in the coming days.

Darin Goodwiler - CFA Institute

Q: What is the big compliance challenge that really keeps you up at night? And on the flip side what’s the biggest opportunity that gets you going in the morning?

Goodwiler: Well, the biggest challenge I see is pushing compliance ownership through the entire organization. Historically you have the compliance owners that have the specific ownership. It’s somewhat cliché to say, for example, that safety is everybody’s responsibility, and what we’re trying to do is migrate to the point that compliance is everybody’s responsibility, for everybody to take ownership of it. That’s the most difficult challenge—to push it through the organization, to push it through the culture, so when you see something you say something.

And what gets me up in the morning is the fact that it’s working. I think compliance is becoming part of the day-to-day conversations. You’re seeing in strategic plans, people put compliance ownership as part of the forefront. You’re starting to see a lot of it go up to the regional ownership. When you look at a globalization model as we decentralize into emerging markets, you see a lot of people historically in compliance now taking ownership.

Q: How much would you say that your success as a compliance professional involves turning challenges into opportunities?

Goodwiler: It’s critical. Having the opportunity to step back and look at it strategically, and … aligning with the business so it’s not just about pushing the operation forward. I heard an analogy being brought up the other day where they talked about compliance is somewhat analogous to fast cars… You know you want this great engine in a supercar, but in that supercar, you also need to have a great set of brakes. Compliance is that wonderful set of brakes that are there to ensure that while everybody is trying to go as fast and as furious as possible, that we keep an eye on the ethics and compliance of an organization.

Michael L. Shaw - GSK U.S. Pharmaceuticals

Q: What is the big compliance challenge that really keeps you up at night? And on the flip side what’s the biggest opportunity that gets you going in the morning?

Shaw: I’m often asked how to build an ethical corporate culture based on values and compliance. After doing compliance in various roles for about 23 years, I would tell you it doesn’t come down to any kind of fancy forensic testing, monitoring, auditing, or internal investigations. It comes down to simply culture. And often … culture is driven by senior leadership’s commitment to driving practices based on values and ethical decision making. You can’t just take that for granted—management has to continue to ask for good business practices aligned to the strategy and mission of an organization, but make sure those practices are based in values and compliance as well. It’s got to be in the same breath, they need to ensure that an organization has capabilities to do informed decision making. And you need to inspect; you need to ask the organization how they’re doing on these practices. That’s what builds an ethical and sustainable compliance culture

Pilar Caballero - Ryder System Inc.

Q: When you see big stories in the news of a corporate scandal or some other major compliance failure, what does that make you think of as a compliance professional yourself? And does it ever make you wonder that maybe you could be doing something a little bit differently at your own organization?

Caballero: That’s a good question. I always try to learn from these “scandals.” One of my latest learnings is ensuring that we’re not operating our program in silos. It’s very easy to just analyze your helpline data or just look at what information your program is picking up. I’ve been focusing on leveraging information captured in departments outside of the compliance function, such as human resources, internal audit, and legal department. For example, it is interesting to follow a case after it leaves the compliance department – are there red flags that we might not otherwise find. It’s important to try to look across the organization and ensure that we’re not missing really important points of information.

Q: To drill down on that question a little further, when you see a big story that’s been in the news for a long period, do you find that is helpful to use as kind of a spur to get other people to understand what proactive compliance is all about?

Caballero: Absolutely. These real-life stories make great training material. Board of directors are also interested, they read the news, they know what’s happening. These real-life situations really bring it home, people can relate to it so it’s very helpful.

Q: What do you most get out of Compliance Week in terms of coming to this event and perhaps looking at our publication?

Caballero: This event is one of my favorite compliance seminars... I enjoy meeting compliance professionals and networking. The content is fabulous and the speakers are great. It’s a wonderful opportunity to get a refresher on what’s happening. Having it here in D.C. is great because it attracts government regulators - it’s a great experience.