The Compliance Life details the journey to and in the role of a Chief Compliance Officer. How does one come to sit in the CCO chair? What are some of the skills a CCO needs to success navigate the compliance waters in any company? What are some of the top challenges CCOs have faced and how did they meet them? These questions and many others will be explored in this new podcast series. Over four episodes each month on The Compliance Life, I visit with one current or former CCO to explore their journey to the CCO chair. This month, my guest is Ellen Smith, who has sat in the chair of a Director of Trade Compliance.

Ellen graduated from Dickinson College in central Pennsylvania in 1989 with a double major in Political Science and International Policy & Management Studies, spending her junior year abroad in Bologna, Italy.  Her first job was  at a family-owned freight forwarding company. After a couple of years, she started night law school in NYC, eventually graduating from John Marshall Law School. Ellen started her family and then moved into the law firm world, starting at a plaintiff’s med mal firm where she learned how to strategically work through a case in a team. Eventually, Ellen switched practice focus back to her trade roots and went to a boutique International Trade firm in Chicago, where she got her feet wet in the International Trade legal space working on many different customs and export issues.

Favorite Adopted Saying “In all due respect…”