- Chief Compliance Officer and VP of Legal Affairs, Arrow Electronics
By 
Jaclyn Jaeger2021-11-23T19:49:00
Many chief compliance officers report directly to the board or chief executive officer. But what happens to the CCO when the CEO is the problem? Take Activision Blizzard as an example of what not to do.
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Activision Blizzard Chief Compliance Officer Frances Townsend, a central figure in the video game developer’s corporate culture scandal, stepped down from her position, according to multiple reports.
A federal judge gave final approval to a settlement reached last year between Activision Blizzard and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission regarding the video game company’s systemic culture of sexual harassment, pregnancy discrimination, and retaliation.
Rarely do cultural considerations play a role in M&A transactions, though they are often critical to the ultimate success of a deal. Microsoft’s planned acquisition of embattled video game developer Activision Blizzard offers a timely case study.
Top-of-mind issues addressed at Compliance Week’s Third-Party Risk Management & Oversight Summit, held June 3-4 in Atlanta, included safe deployment of artificial intelligence, assessing vendor viability and sustainability, understanding the role of procurement in risk ranking, the intersection (or lack thereof) between data privacy and cybersecurity, and many others.
Anne Morriss, co-author of “Move Fast and Fix Things,” advises compliance officers to tap into curiosity, communicativeness, and comfort with discomfort to build organizational trust, fast.
Regulators and government agencies often speak to the value of empowered corporate compliance programs to advancing their mission. Why not practice what they preach by empowering compliance among their own ranks?
