Rock and a Hard Place: Maintaining a Successful Ethics Program in Times of Transition

Maria Conner, Ethics Officer, United Space Alliance
Lani De Benedictis, Ethics Officer, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Charles Giesting, Corporate Ethics Manager, Rolls-Royce North America
Brian Sears, Director, Ethics Outreach and Training, Lockheed Martin Corporation

Are you engaged in a period of major corporate change? Are uncertainties in your environment causing susceptibility to increased legal risks and misconduct with potential negative impacts to business viability, community reputation and corporate culture?  Start-ups and downsizings, acquisitions and divestitures, mergers, entries into new business relationships, markets and locations - all of these present unique challenges, directly impacting call volume and issues raised to the ethics office.

In this session, our panelists will share experiences gained while leading ethics programs through varying corporate and industry transitions. Their success stories and lessons learned will give attendees multiple examples of strategic approaches and tactical tools to navigate through times of change. The panel discussion will identify commonalities in philosophies and program components applicable for differing business transitions which promote legal/regulatory compliance and a cultural foundation that infuses ethical behaviors in business practices.