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 3, Ryan relates some of the skill sets he has used in his journey to the CCO chair and while he has been in that position. They include being what Rabalais calls “Compliance wise” that is knowing the nuts and bolts of compliance and compliance programs so that you are a subject matter expert. You should also under how to do compliance; that is, how to design, create and implement a best practices compliance program. You should be able to communicate up and down the chain (here he brings the wisdom of a Marine. Finally, he ends with some thoughts on worldliness.