HOW TO ESTABLISH AN EFFECTIVE COMPLIANCE OFFICE FOR SARBANES-OXLEY AND OTHER LAWS

One Day Seminar - MASP -777

Boston:  April 29, 2006         - New York: May 15, 2006

BACKGROUND

Now that the first year Sarbanes-Oxley compliance has been met by large companies, they must begin the vital task of organizing for “ongoing and sustainable” compliance to provide strong leadership and enforcement of compliance across all regulations that impact their company. 

The first year Sarbanes-Oxley effort was handled primarily on a project basis and focused only on meeting the initial deadline.  The compliance to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was conducted in a project-oriented fashion with a specific deadline in mind.

Business organizations must now address the “process” for “ongoing and sustainable” compliance not only to Sarbanes-Oxley but to many other regulations, such as Gramm-Gilb-Bliley (GLB), HIPPA, Patriot Act, and even international regulations, such as Basel II for international financial firms. 

Recent information of compliance organization in companies indicates that:

• Only ten percent of organizations have some form of a compliance Office.  

• Many of these may be illstructured to meet the functional obligations assigned to it. 

• Forty percent of companies are seriously considering establishing the Compliance Office

• The remaining companies are watching developments in this challenging area.     

• The Board and the CEO want one individual that they can resort to for enterprise-wide compliance issues as opposed to dealing with multiple fragmented functions that deal with compliance silos.

• Thus, it is only a matter of time before the CEO and Board will consider instituting some form of corporate compliance office.

Handling compliance on a group-by-group and on a project-by-project basis represents a highly constrained and ineffective approach. Since compliance to Sarbanes-Oxley and other laws is an ongoing affair, organizations need to establish an organizational mechanism to ensure ongoing compliance that will also help reduce the costs and improve corporate governance, since compliance and governance are unavoidably interrelated. 

This requires that companies establish a formal compliance function or office. 

The consensus of experts is that organizations must institute an official Compliance Office (CO) headed by a C-level Chief Compliance Officer (CCO) to fulfil the strategic, directional and coordination role that is now lacking and that modern complex compliance requires.  This senior officer should have full responsibility for spearheading and enforcing enterprise-wide compliance and ethical standards to meet the major laws that impact the enterprise. He or she might report to the CEO and have unfettered access to the Board of Directors.

This practical seminar provides CEOs, Board members, the legal and HR divisions, consultants and present compliance officers with practical guidelines on how to establish an effective enterprise-wide Compliance Office.  Candidates for the position of CCO will find the knowledge imparted invaluable in preparing for the challenging duties of the new office.

The seminar is also intended to assist Auditors (internal and external), Chief Security Officers (CSOs), risk managers, Chief Information Officers (CIOs), staff and line executives and all affected personnel with a sound understanding of the new strategic role that the CCO will play and how best to collaborate with the Compliance Office for optimal compliance development and deployment.

WHAT YOU WILL GAIN FROM THE SEMINAR

This one-of-a-kind seminar will equip you with:

• Fundamental background, drivers and justification for establishing the Compliance Office (CO)

• Success factor to ensure that the CO function is successful.

• A broad functional charter that can be easily adapted to prepare your own company charter

• Alternation organizational structures for the Compliance Office and recommendations of the best arrangement to suit your company’s environment.

• Details job descriptions for the CCO and key staff.

• A set of skills that the CCO and the Compliance Office staff should possess

• Compensation guidelines.

• Best practices and guidelines for implementing the Compliance Office.

• A copy of the only book of its kind on the Compliance Office, which provides in-depth information to help you plan and establish the Compliance Function (a $150 value)

• Practical workshop discussion on how best to set up the compliance function, including the pros and cons of reporting to various functional units as opposed to the CEO and the Board and linking compliance to Corporate Governance.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

The following positions will directly benefit from this seminar:

-   CEOs - Audit Committee and Members of the Board              -  Risk Management Groups

-   CFOs, Controllers                                                                            - CIO, IT Executives and Managers                 

-   Compliance Officers                                                                       - Corporate Governance specialists

-   CSO (Chief Security Officer), Security Professionals                - Legal Counsel - Internal and external consultants

-   Internal, External Auditors and consultants                                - Chief Security Officers

-   Managers charged with developing compliance programs   - Line Operational Managers who deploy compliance 

SEMINAR OUTLINE  - See bottom of page

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REGISTRATION FORM

____Please register me to attend your workshop: "How to Establish and Effective Compliance Office for Sarbanes-Oxley and Other Laws". 

LOCATION: ___ BOSTON, April 29, 2006   ___NEW YORK, May 15, 2006

Name_____________________________Position__________Dept________________

Address_____________________________City__________ST______ZIP__________

Tel:______________Email:________________Fax:____________

Tuition: $825 per participant -  A ten percent discount applies for third and additional participant.

___Payment is enclosed         ____Invoice my Organization

Please repeat this form for each participant

Participants will receive a copy of the practitioner's manual: "Establishing a Compliance Office for Sarbanes-Oxley, Other Laws and Corporate Governance" (a $187 value).

NOTE: This seminar can be presented in-house to a small group of executives in a cost-effective manner. 

The seminar can be reduced in length to accommodate the busy schedule of senior executives and can also be customized

to company specific needs.

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