Top 10 Chief Compliance Officers - 2022

Enterprise ethics and compliance executives represent a young, but rapidly maturing profession one that began to emerge in the late 1980s when several government initiatives and high level commissions began recommending that specific senior-level personnel should have responsibility for overseeing an organization's compliance and ethics program. These key business leaders are responsible not only for maintaining compliance, but also for safeguarding what is arguably an organization’s most valuable asset its reputation.

The Chief Compliance Officer, is one of the most important members of the management team, is primarily responsible for overseeing compliance within an organization, and ensuring compliance with laws, regulatory requirements, policies, and procedures. As the compliance leader and subject matter expert, the CCO is responsible for establishing standards and implementing procedures to ensure that the compliance programs throughout the organization are effective and efficient in identifying, preventing, detecting, and correcting non-compliance with applicable laws and regulations. The CCO has to provide reasonable assurance to senior management and the Board that there are effective and efficient policies and procedures in place, well understood and respected by all employees, and that the company is complying with all regulatory requirements. The CCO must report directly to the Chief Executive Officer. He must also inform the Board about important issues and material violations.

The Chief Compliance Officer's specific responsibilities are to define the necessary level of knowledge on existing and emerging regulatory compliance requirements across the organization, to develop the annual compliance work plan that reflects the organization's unique characteristics, periodically revising the compliance plan in light of changes, guiding in a productive, professional way, the compliance teams, overseeing and monitoring the implementation of the compliance program, providing guidance, advice, and training, providing strategic direction to the management team on compliance, preparing and presenting clear and concise compliance reports to the board, interacting with regulators on compliance issues, coordinating efforts related to audits, reviews, and examinations, developing policies and programs that encourage managers and employees to report suspected fraud and other improprieties, and so on.

In this issue of the CEO Insights magazine, a list of 'Top 10 Chief Compliance Officers - 2022', crafted by a team of industry veterans, CEOs and VCs and the CEO Insights editorial team, delivers detailed information about the leadership journey and the inspiring stories.