Victoria White started her career as a trainee solicitor at Dentons in London. Now, two decades later, as she becomes the firm’s global compliance officer, White reflects on what she’s learned and what’s next for compliance and risk professionals in this Q&A with CCI’s Jennifer L. Gaskin.
Regulations that seem ever-changing. Constant, disruptive technological advances. Combatting the perception that you’re a wet blanket. Compliance and risk professionals deal with a lot, and their jobs can feel isolating.
But for Victoria White, the new global compliance officer at Dentons, that doesn’t mean risk and compliance professionals need to be heroes. A well-functioning organization, White says, is one in which everyone assumes responsibility for managing risk and ensuring regulatory compliance.
“People have a great tendency to want to throw their body over the bomb,” White said, “and I love this imagery that a GC once gave me: You wanna go in, protect everybody else — throw yourself over the bomb. You’ve blown yourself up in the process, everybody else can sit back and let you do that.”
A better way forward, White says, is for the entire organization to adopt a risk management culture.
“Maintain the…
