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 Ryan Rabalais, currently an Ethics and Compliance Officer at Bechtel Oil, Gas & Chemicals. Rabalais has been Vice President and CCO at both Rowan Companies and Paragon Offshore.
Ryan Rabalais has over two decades of legal and compliance experience in the oil and gas sector, including being a Vice President & Chief Compliance Officer for two different companies with global operations. Ryan has a history of providing practical solutions to the business and managing overall corporate and regulatory compliance programs. His compliance experience includes a particular focus on anti-corruption, sanctions, trade controls and US anti-boycott, with reporting responsibilities to senior management and the Board of Directors of large, publicly traded companies.
In this Episode 2, we discuss the evolution of the compliance role from that of a legal solution written by lawyers for lawyers to the CCO being seen as a part of the business solution. It began with employees seeing the compliance function as The Land of No, populated by Dr. No to something very different today. We also consider the Black Box problem of compliance.
Author: admin
Welcome to the newest addition to the Compliance Podcast Network, Compliance and Coronavirus. In this episode, I am joined by Gabe Hidalgo is a managing director at K2 Intelligence FIN. He has 20 years of legal, regulatory compliance, and AML experience working with wholesale and retail banks, FinTech companies, broker/dealers, and money services business entities. Hidalgo is a recognized subject-matter expert in the cryptocurrency and digital assets market. We discuss what Hidalgo sees as the top issues COVID-19 brought to light for financial entities, what should financial entities look out for as they begin to reopen and some core lessons learned that compliance programs can carry forward.
Tom Fox chats with President and founder of Simple SEO Group, Brendan Egan, in this week’s show. Brendan is a podcast host as well as a contributing author to Entrepreneur Magazine. His recent article entitled Marketing Dos and Don’ts During A Crisis is the focus of discussion on this week’s episode of Innovation In Compliance.
Marketing During A Crisis
“Your marketing is really what’s going to drive your business and drive your revenue and determine whether or not you’re successful,” Brendan tells Tom. In day to day business, and especially during a crisis, you need to look at marketing based on your short-, medium- and long-term objectives. Brendan points out that you shouldn’t make any knee-jerk decisions that would impact your long-term growth or integrity. Instead, make short-term alterations to your marketing during a crisis that demonstrates how you’re supporting and looking out for your customers. Your medium and long-term plans will most likely be unaffected, Brendan says.
Why Lawyers Need To Listen
Legal and compliance practitioners need to understand the importance of marketing, especially in these times. Brendan remarks that marketing is a grey area with a lot of overlap: marketing can overlap into a company’s culture, into the legal space, and even the compliance department. The most successful businesses take a company-wide approach to marketing. In addition, companies need to be fluid in order to respond proactively to a changing world. Tom comments that Simple SEO Group’s time horizon approach allows them and their clients to respond to ever-changing information in a productive manner.
Marketing Is Essential
Tom asks, “How are you helping corporations think through how they can effectively market in an economic dislocation?” Brendan responds that he started Simple SEO Group during a recession, so he is well versed in helping businesses make money in spite of the economic downturn. “During a recession, marketing becomes that much more important,” he says. “It almost becomes… an essential service.” More and more companies are turning to digital marketing because their usual marketing channels are drying up, he says. Survival is a matter of being open to new marketing opportunities, especially online, so you can continue to grow during COVID-19 and beyond.
Resources
SimpleSEOGroup.com
BrendanEgan.com
Article: Marketing Dos and Don’ts During a Crisis
Book: 101 Tips From The Marketing Masters
In the Episode, I am joined by Loren Steffy. I met Loren when he was the business columnist for the Houston Chronicle. Steffy now has his own consulting practice. He has been a long-time business journalist, author and commentator on business issues, generally focusing on energy issues. On the morning of April 19, 1995, he was working for Bloomberg in Dallas Texas and was called by a colleague who suggested he hop in his car and drive to Oklahoma City in the wake of the bombing at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. He talks about reporting live from Oklahoma City for the next five days, his reflection on that time 25 years later and how the actions of Timothy McVeigh presaged the issues of domestic terrorism from Oklahoma City to 9/11 to Charlottesville and Charleston. We conclude our podcast with a short discussion on Steffy’s latest book, co-written with Chrysta Castañeda, The Last Trial of Boone Pickens.
In today’s edition of Sunday Book Review:
- Golf’s Holy War: The Battle for the Soul of a Game in an Age of Science by Brett Cyrgalis
- Why We Drive by Matthew Crawford
- Old Tip vs. the Sly Fox by Richard Ellis
- Rivers of Power by Lawrence Smith
As peaceful protesters are attacked by the Army on the order of the Trump Administration, Tom and Jay ask “now that Trump has his wall around the White House, will Mexico pay for it?” Self-distancing Tom and Jay are back to consider some of the top compliance articles and stories on the new 2020 Update to the 2019 DOJ Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs.
- Tom Fox goes through a multipart deep dive. Part 1-Overall Themes, Part 2-Data and Continuous Improvement, Part 3-Third parties and M&A, Part 4-CCO and the Complaince Function, Part 5-Conclusion.
- Matt Kelly explores on Radical Compliance.
- Matt Kelly goes Pizza Pizza with another article in Navex Global’s Ethics and Compalince Matters.
- Dylan Tokar reports in WSJ Risk and Compliance Journal.
- Mike Volkov has a 3-part exploration on Corruption Crime and Compliance. Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.
- Dick Cassin explores organizational justice in the FCPA Blog.
- Jonathan Marks looks at it from the forensic perspective in Board and Fraud.
- Interested in moving to the CCO chair? Check out my latest podcast series The Compliance Lifewhere I interview one CCO type for a month on their journey to the CCO chair and beyond. In on this month’s edition I visit with Ryan Rabalais. In this Part 1, he details his journey into compliance and the winding road which took him to the CCO Chair. The Compliance Life is now available on iTunes.
- On Compliance and Coronavirus this week: David Wolf on using podcasting and audio white papers as communication tools during the time of Covid-19; James Green on operationalizing risk management during this health crisis; Eden Gillott joins me to discuss crisis communication during the time of Covid-19. Compliance and Coronavirus is available on iTunes here.
- On the Compliance Podcast Network, this month topic: internal reporting and investigations; all on 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program. This week’s offerings: Monday-intro to internal reporting and investigations; Tuesday-Advantages of an internal reporting system; Wednesday-Internal reporting case study; Thursday– Internal Reporting Best Practices; Friday- Answering DOJ questions on internal reporting. Note 31 Days to a More Effective Compliance Program now has its own iTunes channel.
Tom Fox is the Compliance Evangelist and can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com. Jay Rosen is Mr. Monitor and can be reached at jrosen@affiliatedmonitors.com.
In today’s edition of Daily Compliance News:
- Would you buy a used car from this man? (Houston Chronicle)
- BNY whistleblower gets $50MM award. (WSJ)
- In yet more idiocy, Trump expands trade war. (WaPo)
- Green business is good business. (NYT)
