Compliance & Ethics Services
This was a new category in our Directory back in 2007 and we are not at all surprised to see how the attention being paid to both of these topics has continued to increase since then, pushed along, of course, by lots of regulatory changes and numerous carrots and sticks being brandished by federal and state regulators since then – not to mention those activist shareholders…and the always busy plaintiffs’ bar.
We have a considerable amount of advice to offer in this article, and in our 2017 Special Supplement on “Re-Tooling Your IR and Governance Tool-Kits” - and many excellent service-providers who can help you are listed in our Directory…
For starters, having memberships in industry organizations like the Society for Corporate Governance, and the Shareholder Service Association, are truly essential elements in terms of keeping up with regulatory changes and court decisions that will require changes and additions to your procedures, guidelines and internal communications programs.
Many of the best law firms also offer periodic regulatory updates, with advice and comment on what to do internally to stay on, and ideally stay ahead of the compliance and ethics curve.
Most of our readers are also avid followers of Broc Romanek’s blog – and they tune in to his many webinars by the thousands, at www.thecorporatecounsel.net.
We also think that our own 23-year-old publication, The Shareholder Service OPTIMIZER has earned a reputation for being way ahead of the curve when it comes to identifying emerging issues – and for providing very practical advice on “What to Do” about them if you are a public company officer.
We are great believers in having a robust annual compliance and ethics review process in place. And we are great believers in the value of bringing in an outside expert to help with the process – someone with objectivity and genuine expertise, with no pre-set point of view, ax to grind or position to defend – to make an initial evaluation of where you are, relative to the ‘best in class’ and what you need to do to get there yourselves.
We are pleased to have three highly talented experts in our Directory, all of whom we can recommend without reservation: Jane Ludlow, who offers “Custom Compliance Services for Corporations”, Denise Kuprionis, of Governance Solutions Group and Kristina Veaco of Veaco Group. These experts can also provide invaluable assistance with drafting and editing and ‘extra hands’ where any compliance, ethics or corporate governance issue or program is concerned.
Listings: Compliance & Ethics Services
Jane F. Ludlow, MBA, CPA provides customized consulting services to corporations in the areas of corporate policy development and implementation, improving the effectiveness of business ethics and compliance programs, board processes and overall corporate governance matters. Among her projects; developing a Conflicts of Interest Compliance Program, including corporate policies and an Internet-based training program for an international pharmaceutical company, developing concise corporate policies for a large publicly-held insurance company and a redesign of all Board and Committee processes for a university alumni association. Earlier, Ms. Ludlow was Executive Director - Corporate Governance of Bell Atlantic Corporation where she was responsible for development and communication of key corporate policies throughout the corporation, and where she managed governance activities related to Bell Atlantic’s merger with NYNEX. She has extensive experience in managing board processes, agenda planning, meeting content and logistics and board compensation, and for planning and managing shareholders’ meetings.
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