Marshaling Integrity - John Lenzi

These excerpts are taken from our interview of John Lenzi, who we asked about working as an assistant compliance officer.

Part of the responsibility of the compliance officer in our corporation is to make sure that we’re not the only ones responsible for compliance and integrity...we’ve built a team called the “Compliance Leadership Team” (it has representatives from each function) that is very similar to what each of our operating companies has done, so that when you undertake a department and company risk assessment, you and I aren’t doing it as outsiders to finance, or outsiders to HR. You have HR people working through the process that you developed, to identify risks for their department, and risks that are shared by everybody...

There’s a difference between program funding and Sarbanes-Oxley funding, which really might focus more on the finance systems and accountabilities therein to make sure that everything is proper and accurate when you file your quarterly and annual report. There you’ve seen a lot in the press where companies and executives are saying, “It’s too demanding on companies. It’s too difficult and too time consuming and too expensive,” and some companies are even suggesting it’s not necessary. But it’s the law, and the important point is to get it right in the end.

John Lenzi's interview is included in Working for Integrity: Finding the Perfect Job in the Rapidly Growing Compliance and Ethics Field.

(All interviewees spoke to us about their own personal experiences and opinions; interviewees were not acting as a spokesperson or otherwise representing their current or former employers.)