Join Us For Hanson Wade’s Compliance Strategy Day

One of the best annual compliance and ethics conferences returns to Houston next month when Hanson Wade presents its 4^th Annual Oil & Gas Supply Chain Compliance Community Week from April 14-17. While one past participant labeled the conference as the “Best of the best compliance conferences I have attended in the past 3 years”, the company has expanded its offering to provide the compliance practitioner with a wide range of presentations tailored to a wide variety of needs.

As usual, the event features the best of Houston’s multi-talented compliance practitioners including Jay Martin, Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) from Baker Hughes Inc., Melissa Bohannon, Director of Logistics, Global Supply Chain – Weatherford International Inc., Kwesi Baiden, CCO at ENSCO Inc., Fred Ratliff, Senior Counsel, Anti-Bribery and Corruption – Shell Oil Company, Graham Vanhegan, Deputy General Counsel, Corporate and CCO from ConocoPhillips Co, Ron de los Santos, Regional Ethics and Compliance Manager – Americas at American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) and Kim Walker, Associate General Counsel & Deputy CCO – Transocean Inc.

In addition to the Houston talent, there will be a wealth of top compliance practitioners from outside the city of Houston; including, Arvind Sharma, Senior International Trade Counsel from Flowserve Corp, Mike Volkov of the Volkov Law Group, Bill Fischer, Vice President and Chief Legal and Compliance Officer from T.D. Williamson Inc., Bruce Thames, Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer from T.D. Williamson Inc. From the world of non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) working towards anti-corruption and anti-bribery there will be representation from the always popular and excellent speaker Alexandra Wrage and David Woodcock, Regional Director of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Fort Worth Regional Office. There are many other excellent and knowledgeable speakers who will be presenting the event.

Some of the topics over the two days of plenary sessions include the following: Ensure the ‘Tone from the Top’ meets the ‘Message in the Middle’ by hearing how ConocoPhillips, GE Oil & Gas, T.D. Williamson, Flowserve & Transocean embed a culture of compliance in their organizations. Understand how the compliance model has shifted and how you can develop more effective partnerships with your third parties with new collaborative insights from representatives from Weatherford. You will be shown how to overcome the inhibitors to effective risk management in a complex global supply chain by learning from Parker Drilling, Navex and Statoil. Learn how compliance can create added value that executives, middle management and employees can get behind by learning from in a very interesting, unique joint insight from T.D. Williamson’s COO and CCO. Discover what to do once you have opened Pandora’s box by looking at how National Oilwell Varco responded to issues when conducting a corporate acquisition. Discover how to get a better return on your compliance spend by learning how to deploy a risk-based due diligence program that is defensible and cost-effective with TRACE. Understand how to benchmark your compliance program with the best of the best by hearing industry-first insights from Fluor, Technip, Cameron and Shell compliance professionals.

There are two separate workshops that will provide specific insight into two keys areas. The first workshop is how to develop a blueprint to increase the effectiveness of your compliance training. It will be led by Arvind Sharma and Flora Francis, Senior Compliance Counsel, Global Compliance Leader at GE Oil & Gas. This workshop will address several different areas of concern such as: How you can continually manage compliance risk amongst your employees worldwide; understanding how often to refresh your programs and catching up with new employees; how you can more effectively identify and classify “at risk” positions and red flags. You will also obtain an understanding of how programs have been rolled out effectively across the supply chain; how to overcome the risk of training fatigue and increase the effectiveness of your training and finally how to develop your own blueprint to enhance the effectiveness of your compliance training.

In the second workshop you will hear about new approaches to ensure your trade compliance program does not leave your business exposed to charges of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations. It will be led by three noteworthy compliance practitioners: James Scott, Exports and Compliance Manager from Hydrasun Ltd., Ron de los Santos from ABS and Cindy Johnson, Global Trade Compliance Specialist from FMC Technologies Inc. In this session you will hear about keeping on top of evolving export control laws and managing programs across international borders; defining your export compliance for different departments, divisions and businesses with their implication for business growth; and installing the compliance ethos and training across cultures throughout an international organization. From these topics you will be able to identify your biggest risks and set in place an export control program to suit your business; develop an understanding of what you need to do to receive customs clearance more swiftly and effectively; and finally, you will discover the steps you need to take to ensure you are not leaving your business exposed in this critical area of compliance.

Hanson Wade has added a new feature this year, which I think takes this conference up to a notch above their usual excellent event. They have added a fourth day, entitled Compliance Strategy Day. Presentations on this day have been designed to give the attendee an interactive opportunity to explore the strategic considerations you need to be aware of when it comes to managing regulatory and enforcement risks over the next 12 months. On this day, attendees will have the opportunity hear directly from the SEC, as well as gain perspectives from those with experience at the Department of Justice (DOJ), and gain insights from both outside counsel and industry as to how to best manage these strategic risks.

I will be speaking on the Compliance Strategy Day, looking back, for some hindsight, at the compliance lessons we have learned over the past year and forward to how we can put those lessons to use. I will also provide an update of the current state of anti-corruption compliance in Latin America. So I hope that you can join us. 

You can find out more about this event, by clicking here. Readers of this blog are entitled to a discount to this event. To receive this discount, please enter the following code FOXLAW10.

This publication contains general information only and is based on the experiences and research of the author. The author is not, by means of this publication, rendering business, legal advice, or other professional advice or services. This publication is not a substitute for such legal advice or services, nor should it be used as a basis for any decision or action that may affect your business. Before making any decision or taking any action that may affect your business, you should consult a qualified legal advisor. The author, his affiliates, and related entities shall not be responsible for any loss sustained by any person or entity that relies on this publication. The Author gives his permission to link, post, distribute, or reference this article for any lawful purpose, provided attribution is made to the author. The author can be reached at tfox@tfoxlaw.com.

© Thomas R. Fox, 2014

FCPA Compliance in the Global Supply Chain

As readers of this blog know, one of the areas regarding liability under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act that we have written on is that of liability attaching to a company through its supply chain vendors. (See here, here and here). This issue was clearly at the forefront of the Panalpina settlements, which we also wrote about and the FCPA Professor named “CustomsGate”. There are usually a fair number of conferences and events where the FCPA is the lead topic but rarely do they focus on the Supply Chain so naturally we were intrigued when one such event, occurring in Houston, recently came to our attention. It is a conference entitled, “Compliance in the Global Supply Chain” and it is hosted by Hanson Wade. It will be held on April 26th and 27th in Houston, with Master Workshops both before and after the main conference.

The conference will primarily present industry-known FCPA practitioners, who will provide practical advice on topics specific to the Supply Chain and attendant FCPA liability. Some of the topics which will be covered are listed as:

• How to adapt your policies to comply with both the FCPA and UK Bribery Act: a discussion of the key differences between the two laws and how to reconcile them in your overall compliance framework.

• Clarifying confusion around facilitated payments: which nations allow them and where.

• Create an appropriate framework for conducting risk assessments and due diligence on multiple suppliers: the tangible steps required to create and implement a risk assessment program for vendors.

• Managing the relationship through your contracts: what compliance language to utilize to maintain good relations with your existing suppliers.

• What do you require of your suppliers: learn the nuts and bolts of introducing a supplier code.

• Risk Mitigation through other mechanisms: how to mitigate your exposure to the risks of import/export compliance and ensure you comply with local, regional and international laws.

You can register or find out more about the conference by going to the website address – www.compliance-supplychain.com – as the channel for people to register, and also mention that if they do want to register, to quote the code: FCPA1. There is also an early booking discount of $500.

If you are in Houston, you simply cannot afford to miss this event. If you are in the Supply Chain or procurement, the same holds true. Finally if you are a FCPA compliance practitioner, this is one event which will bring you realistic and effect solutions to your issues. I plan to attend and hope to see you there.