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 first episode, we discuss how Ryan started his journey to the CCO chair. Ryan has one of the most unique journeys to the CCO role. He joined the Marine Corp out of high school. He then went to college and law school. In 2003, while still in law school he answered an ad for a Spanish speaking law clerk at Baker Hughes. That started him down the road to work Baker Hughes through its FCPA enforcement action, DPA and monitorship. From their he moved to the other compliance positions at other companies culminating in the CCO chair.