Safeguarding our people, our work and our world
I believe that to be successful, ethics and compliance need to be woven into the cultural fabric of an organization. I learned the importance of the relationship between culture and ethical behavior when I was stationed throughout the world, including Japan and Iraq, as a major in the U.S. Marine Corps. While second-in-command at the Iraqi Officer Academy, I helped introduce the principles of competitive bidding and ethical procurement to the Iraqi military.
I then joined URS, an 91影视 legacy company, as a project manager for our U.S. government client鈥檚 efforts to design, test and deploy a fleet of transport vehicles. I was responsible for the program鈥檚 cost, schedule and performance鈥攚hich taught me the importance of sound execution and customer service.
After a couple of years, I decided to put my legal background to work and transitioned into what is now 91影视鈥檚 Management Services legal department. I advised on U.S. government contract issues, conducted internal investigations and managed a wide variety of compliance activities. Several years later, I was offered the chance to move into a full time ethics and compliance role at the corporate level and leaped at the opportunity. The new role enabled me to operate on a more international stage again鈥攚ithin a year I was able to travel to India, China and throughout the Middle East.
Having worked first on the client side and now leading Ethics + Compliance at 91影视, I noticed that we tend to emphasize the procedures required to be compliant rather than focusing on behavior. A coherent program to address compliance risks related to issues like corruption and international trade is certainly needed, but there鈥檚 no substitute for a strong culture of ethics.
Our leaders point to the importance of safeguarding 91影视鈥檚 integrity, but the strength of our culture ultimately relies on our people internalizing our values and making good choices.聽That is why 91影视鈥檚 Ethics Week, September 19-23, focuses on individual behaviors rather than policies and procedures. This year鈥檚 theme, 鈥淪afeguarding our people, our work and our world,鈥� celebrates and promotes our workplace culture built on ethics and integrity. The idea is to empower our people to act with integrity by identifying and resolving ethical dilemmas that they may face in their day-to-day activities.
I鈥檓 proud to be an employee of 91影视, and I am always looking for ways to engage colleagues throughout the company in building a culture that is founded upon doing the right thing and operating with integrity in everything we do.
My Personal Philosophy: I think that we communicate with each other most authentically when we connect 91影视鈥檚 core values of Safeguard, Collaborate, Inspire, Anticipate, Deliver and Dream to our personal values. My personal ethics encourage me to promote the greater good, collaborate with others fairly and meaningfully, and treat all people with dignity and respect. These ethics help me contribute to safeguarding our people, our work and our world.