René is a governance, risk and compliance professional with management and auditing expertise in Europe and Australia. He has extensive experience developing, implementing and auditing management systems in relation to all elements of governance, risk and compliance within a range of segments, including professional services/consulting, power and utilities, wholesale/trade, manufacturing, medical device and logistics.

Currently, René is compliance risk manager EMEA at Olympus based in the EMEA headquarters in Hamburg, Germany. He is additionally managing Olympus’ current global initiative regarding the implementation of an integrated governance, risk and compliance framework and approach.

René holds a bachelor’s degree in business law (LL.B.) and a master’s degree in international business law (LL.M.). He is trained in Lean Management, has a certificate in PRINCE2 Project Management and is a certified internal auditor (CIA).

Adam Billings is an Integrated Risk Management (IRM) Product Specialist at NAVEX. With over 10 years of experience in the industry, he’s had the opportunity to participate in over 100 implementations, lead our Professional Services organization, and serve on Deloitte’s GRC/IRM advisory team. Adam’s enthusiasm for risk management and software lead him back to NAVEX where he helps our customers select the right tool for their needs and position them for future success. His experience spans multiple verticals and subject matters, but his passion revolves around Third Party Risk Management.

Susanna Cagle is a product strategist and ESG practitioner building solutions for companies who want to imbue sustainability into their purpose and operations. At NAVEX Global she oversees the design and development of ESG software and services and has previously worked at ENGIE, POLITICO, The Economist Group, and Anthem Insurance in product management roles. She holds a Master of Science in Sustainability Management from American University.

Amy Cravens is Research Manager for IDC’s Security and Trust Group responsible for the Governance, Risk, and Compliance Technology (GRC) practice. Ms. Cravens will be responsible for research related to the innovation and transformation of Governance, Risk, and Compliance software including analyzing technologies aimed at solving fraud, third-party risk, and other types of risk across the enterprise.

Ms. Cravens has provided strategic market consulting to companies for over two decades. Previously working as an independent consultant, her areas of research included mobile devices, services and applications. Prior to working as a consultant, Ms. Cravens served as a Senior Research Analyst at In-Stat covering mobile applications/services and public broadband.

Matt has been leading complex projects and diverse teams for over a decade, ranging from US Military operations to process development. His experience in implementation covers all aspects for IRM/GRC, including enterprise and third-party risk management, threat and vulnerability management, and policy compliance for public, private, and governmental operations. As the manager of the Lockpath Customer Success team, Matt oversees the NAVEX Global Technical Account Managers as they focus on providing a single point of contact for customers, as well as developing and leading customer outreach initiatives like webinars and the Customer Advisory Board.

Matt earned his Masters of Cybersecurity from Maryville University of St. Louis and his BS in Management Information Systems from Emporia State University.

Jared Deane is Sr. Manager of ESG Product Specialists at NAVEX. Jared’s team matches software solutions for customers looking to capitalize on the investment dollars, compliance pressure, and cultural shift towards ESG.

Before joining NAVEX, Jared worked to operationalize Nike’s global supply chain to keep pace with the digital revolution and evolving consumer demands, as well as led a team of engineers to build financial planning models across geographies with consolidated reporting out to Wall Street.

Ethan is an integrated risk management Product Specialist for NAVEX IRM. Before joining NAVEX, Ethan supported several technology companies by managing business development action plans and supporting implementation projects for IoT technologies. Ethan has experience collaborating with public and private entities to develop smart factory and smart grid IoT solutions. He has collaborated with energy consultants, energy providers, and smart-grid developers to collect data and implement enterprise solutions to conduct real-time monitoring and automation of valuable energy and commercial building assets.

Ethan is a program and project manager with skills in organizational planning, process optimization, stakeholder facilitation, and performance based contracting strategies. As a previous supply chain and network operations (SCNO) consultant at Deloitte, Ethan focused on developing knowledge in product lifecycle management and developing expertise in several technologies to help lead the future of digital transformation strategy for his clients.

Thomas Fox has practiced law in Houston for 30 years. He is now an Independent Consultant, assisting companies with anti-corruption and anti-bribery compliance. He was most recently the General Counsel at Drilling Controls, Inc., a worldwide oilfield manufacturing and service company. He was previously division counsel with Halliburton Energy Services, Inc. where he supported Halliburton’s software division and its downhole division.

Tom is the author of the award winning FCPA Compliance and Ethics Blog and the international best-selling book “Lessons Learned on Compliance and Ethics”. His second book, “Best Practices Under the FCPA and Bribery Act” was released in April, 2013. His latest work is an eBook entitled, “GSK in China: A Game Changer for Compliance”. He writes and lectures across the globe on anti-corruption and anti-bribery compliance programs.

Ingrid Fredeen, J.D., Vice President, Online Learning Content, has been specializing in ethics and legal compliance training for more than ten years. She has been the principal design and content developer for NAVEX’s online training course initiatives utilizing her more than 20 years of specialization in employment law and legal compliance. Prior to joining NAVEX, Ingrid worked both as a litigator with Littler Mendelson, the world’s largest employment law firm, and as in-house corporate counsel for General Mills, Inc. a premier Fortune 500 food manufacturing company.

Nick Halvorson is the AVP of IT Governance, Risk, and Compliance at First PREMIER Bank and PREMIER Bankcard in Sioux Falls, SD. He is responsible for the management of IT controls, IT risk and audit management, IT policy, PREMIER’s IT compliance programs (PCI, ISO), and the Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery program. He has over 17 years of experience in Information Security and Technology. Nick is a leader and subject matter expert in information security/cybersecurity and compliance standards, specifically ISO27001, PCI, GLBA, and HIPAA. Nick has worked for heavily regulated financial organizations, most notably the International Monetary Fund, Ameriprise Financial, and Merrill Corporation. He has extensive experience in building information security and IT compliance programs and has certified organizations to ISO27001 in the U.S and Europe. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Information Systems from Dakota State University in Madison, SD; was formally an IRCA accredited auditor, and has the following industry certifications: Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP), and Payment Card Industry Professional (PCIP).

As Director & Senior Analyst, Sustainable Finance & ESG, Grant Harrison leads on program development for GreenFin — the premier ESG event aligning the sustainability, investment and finance communities. Grant works to direct the vigor of capital markets toward the realization of a clean and just economy, and to make GreenFin the launchpad of the ideas, insights and connections that will shift capital allocation to support sustainability.

Grant previously served as senior account executive with GreenBiz, working with clients across financial services, transportation, tech and consulting. Prior to joining GreenBiz, Grant worked under the auspices of the USDA implementing reforestation projects in fire-affected regions of Northern California. Grant holds a bachelor’s degree in American studies from University of California, Berkeley and a master’s degree in environmental governance from Oxford University.

Steve is the head of Verizon Ethics and Legal Investigations. After working in private practice, Steve joined MCI after the Worldcom scandal as part of the company’s first Ethics Office and helped successfully navigate the GSA’s mandates for the program. When Verizon acquired MCI, Steve transitioned to Compliance, focusing on internal investigations of employee conduct that raised significant legal concerns, including any matters deemed Board-reportable.

Steve currently leads Verizon Ethics, which is Verizon’s main resource used by employees or outside parties to raise integrity-related questions or bring forward concerns; he also has enterprise-wide responsibility for all investigations at Verizon that raise legal issues.

Chris Heydemann is Senior Director of the NAVEX One Platform, a comprehensive suite of compliance and risk management solutions. With key executive and customer stakeholders, he’s building and executing a compelling vision that brings NAVEX’s applications under a unified umbrella including UI framework, authentication, business intelligence and many other capabilities. He previously led product management for NAVEX’s flagship EthicsPoint product, bringing a mobile incident reporting solution to market. Prior to NAVEX, Chris was a Senior Product Manager at Microsoft, where he led delivery of the first small-business CRM solution optimized for touch screen devices. Chris holds a Master’s Degree in Computer Science from Johns Hopkins University.

Wesley Hone is director of Ethics & Compliance for the University System of Georgia. He is a graduate of the University of Georgia, with degrees in law and business. His previous work includes service as a special agent with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and assistant attorney general.

Catherine H. Kanzler is Vice President, Head of Global Compliance Operations for Olympus Corporation. She is responsible for overseeing, directing, continuously improving, and harmonizing Olympus Group Compliance operations, with focus on training, communications, investigations, systems, and applications. Currently, she is managing the Evolve Compliance project, designed to globalize, harmonize, and digitize the global Compliance Management System to ensure delivery of direct business value, as well as enhanced prevention and mitigation of organizational risk. She was a key leader in developing the Olympus Compliance Program in the Americas, managed the implementation of Company’s Corporate Integrity Agreement, and was a key contributor to the management of its Deferred Prosecution Agreements. Prior to joining Olympus in 2008, she practiced law in New York, representing a range of clients in corporate and commercial litigation.

Melissa is a risk assurance professional with experience strengthening organizations. She has a proven track record developing and executing risk strategies within a variety of industry segments, including healthcare, financial services, manufacturing, medical device, and publishing. Currently, Melissa leads Compliance Operations and Enterprise Risk Management at Olympus Corporation of the America and based in the Center Valley, PA, office.

Melissa holds a Master of Science in Information Systems from DeSales University and a Bachelor of Science degree in Accounting from The Pennsylvania State University. She is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE), Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), and Certified in Risk and Information Systems Control (CRISC). In addition, she is a Certified Public Accountant licensed in Pennsylvania.

Greg has earned a national reputation as a whistleblower defense attorney. He helps clients successfully prepare for, investigate, and defend claims raised by whistleblowers. Greg has litigated and investigated whistleblower matters across the country and around the world. He has handled whistleblower engagements under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the Dodd-Frank Act, the False Claims Act, and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Greg is the principal author of the national treatise Whistleblowing and Retaliation, now in its sixth edition. In 2008, he established the first whistleblower defense practice group in the United States.

A thought leader on whistleblower issues, Greg counsels clients on establishing a strong compliance program to help them avoid problems. He previously testified in the U.S. Senate on creating effective compliance programs and helped write a thought leadership piece on compliance programs while serving for four years on the U.S. Department of Labor’s Whistleblower Protection Advisory Committee. Greg teaches the course “Whistleblowing and Retaliation” at Boston College Law School as an Adjunct Professor.

Greg has extensive experience defending against class and collective actions arising under the Fair Labor Standards Act, Title VII, and the ADA, among others, including defeating class certification and prevailing on the merits. He also manages cases involving restrictive covenants, trade secret violations, and employee raiding. Additionally, he investigates allegations of sexual harassment, retaliation, and other wrongdoing. Before joining Epstein Becker Green, Greg was chair of a Boston-based law firm’s Whistleblower Defense and Labor, Employment & Benefits practice groups.

Matt Kelly was editor of Compliance Week from 2006-2015. Prior to his role at Compliance Week, he was a reporter and contributor on corporate compliance and technology issues for magazines such as Time, Boston Business Journal, eWeek, and numerous other publications. Matt now maintains his own blog, RadicalCompliance.com, and writes & speaks frequently on all things GRC.

A.G. Lambert is chief product officer at NAVEX, where he is responsible for driving the company’s product vision and strategy. Helping NAVEX further its product innovation and leadership, A.G. is expert at optimizing product strategy to meet current and future needs of customers, partners and the industry.

Prior to joining NAVEX, A.G. served as chief product strategy officer at SAP Concur. He has also held positions leading product management and marketing teams at Saba, Infor, Extensity and Autodesk. A.G. earned a degree in physics and English literature from Washington University, and an MBA from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

Peter Laz, MBCP, Principal, IRM Solutions is responsible for driving the evolution of NAVEX’s Integrated Risk Management capabilities. He has 35 years of professional experience designing, implementing and managing enterprise-wide risk and resiliency initiatives and is a member of DRJ’s Executive Council.

Julia leads NAVEX marketing and communications, bringing over 20 years’ experience working at the intersection of strategy, communications and corporate culture. As a marketing and communications leader, she has been quick to harness the power of emerging technologies for corporate storytelling and was an early adopter of Agile marketing to test and iterate on initial concepts of marketing automation, social media and content management.

Prior to NAVEX, she served as Chief Marketing, Communications and Sustainability Officer at Clarivate, a publicly held global data, analytics and insights company. She also served as head of global enterprise marketing for Dow Jones, Vice President of Acquisition Marketing at the Wall Street Journal, and Chief Marketing and Sales Officer for Sterling, a mid-sized HR technology company, which was acquired by Goldman Sachs.

Haywood leads the NAVEX IRM and NetClaim business units, where he brings experience in strategic planning, sales, marketing, product, customer success and operations to his role. 

Prior to NAVEX, Haywood led marketing, strategic/product planning and an inside sales team for a division of Danaher. He previously served in the Pentagon as a military strategy consultant and team lead for Booz Allen Hamilton, and ran a live military intelligence mission while serving as a soldier in the U.S. Army, among other roles. 

Haywood earned an MBA from The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and a degree in international business from Virginia Tech.

Kyle has over a decade of leading risk and compliance professionals across multiple industries. With consulting and implementation experience, he works directly with customers and his teams to create the ideal customer experience. Kyle leverages his product management background to coach efficient Integrated Risk Management (IRM) use and adoption, while his project management and customer service background allows him to communicate goals through all levels of the customer organization. At NAVEX, Kyle interacts with all aspects of the Customer Success Organization, directly managing both the Customer Success and Professional Services teams. His cross-functional alignment with each department at NAVEX is critical to the success of his teams, and he takes on all challenges to improve NAVEX IRM and the experience of the customers that use our IRM platform.

Rebecca O’Neill leads Marvell’s ESG function, developing and driving the company’s approach to ESG strategy, disclosure and engagements with investors, customers and employees.

She has over 15 years’ experience working at the intersection of the private sector and its stakeholders to address sustainability issues. Prior to joining Marvell, Rebecca was a Director at SustainAbility (now the SustainAbility Institute by ERM), where she advised companies in the technology, energy and food sectors on sustainability strategy and transparency. She has also worked in the Sustainability team at Safeway, as a Director of Stakeholder Engagement at Future 500, and in the Business and Business team at the UK non-profit Fauna & Flora International.

She holds a Bachelor’s in Biological Sciences from University of Oxford and a MSc in Environmental Management from Imperial College London.

As one of the earliest ethics officers in the industry, Carrie Penman has been with NAVEX since 2003 after serving four years as deputy director of the Ethics and Compliance Officer Association (ECOA) now ECI. A scientist by training, she developed and directed the first corporate-wide global ethics program at Westinghouse Electric Corporation from 1994-1999.

As Chief Risk and Compliance Officer for NAVEX, Carrie leads the company’s formal risk management processes. She also oversees its internal ethics and compliance activities employing many of the best practices that NAVEX recommends to its customers.

Carrie has extensive client-facing risk and compliance consulting experience, including more than 15 years as an advisor to boards and executive teams; most recently as NAVEX’s SVP of Advisory Services. She has also served as a corporate monitor and independent consultant for companies with government settlement agreements.

Carrie was recently awarded the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award for Excellence in Compliance 2020 by Compliance Week magazine. In 2017, Carrie received the ECI’s Carol R. Marshall Award for Innovation in Corporate Ethics for an extensive career contributing to the advancement of the ethics and compliance field worldwide.

Shon has focused his legal career on corporate law and regulatory and compliance matters. In more than 25 years of practice, he has managed corporate law departments and counseled multi-national corporations on transactional and compliance matters. As NAVEX’s general counsel, he is responsible for the legal department, and provides direction and oversight to the human resources and global privacy functions.

Shon previously served as general counsel for various publicly traded and private companies, with concentrations in technology and energy. Shon has also been a partner or senior counsel in some of the world’s largest law firms, including Baker & McKenzie and SNR Denton (now Dentons). Shon is a graduate of Park University and the University of Virginia School of Law.

Kara is an Associate Director of Product Marketing for the NAVEX One Platform, focusing primarily on the ethics and compliance products. She has been marketing technology for 20 years and before NAVEX worked at a information management company that specializes in digital transformation and AI. Kara has a Master’s Degree in Marketing and focuses on helping companies deliver software platforms that solve customers’ most pressing challenges. You can find Kara on LinkedIn.

Leading both the HR and organization development functions, Cindy brings more than 20 years’ experience leading human resources functions and business operations within rapid-growth organizations. Since joining NAVEX, Cindy has led several change initiatives associated with the merger and acquisition of multiple companies, including enhancing existing cultural programs, reducing undesired employee turnover and establishing people programs and strategies as a critical contribution to business success. 

Cindy has been nominated for the Portland Business Journal’s HR Leadership Award, and has served as a featured presenter at multiple industry events. A graduate of Portland State University, she is certified as a senior certified professional with the Society for Human Resources Management and a senior professional in human resources with the Human Resources Certification Institute.

Alison Seville has a career in Product Management leading teams in the software, sustainability and hardware sectors. She has also held various positions in operations, marketing and sales. She leads the Product Management team in strategy and execution while collaborating cross-functionally to meet the needs of our customers and the market. Alison has over 20 years’ experience understanding market problems in order to develop, launch and promote services and products for domestic and international markets. Alison received her bachelor’s degree from Washington State University and holds an MBA in International Management from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California.

Amit Sharma has engaged in a myriad of roles that intersect financial markets, risk management, regulatory compliance, and international development. He is the Founder and CEO of FinClusive, a hybrid financial-technology and regulatory technology (fintech/regtech) company that provides a compliant gateway between traditional financial services and digital asset ecosystems including blockchain-enabled networks and decentralized financial services (Defi)—with an embedded full-stack global-standard financial crimes compliance (FCC) platform. Prior to FinClusive, Amit worked in both the public and private sectors, including with: Mitsubishi UFJ as the global lead of new products and the Chief of Staff to the Head of Global Markets and Intl. Business Units; Command Global Services as Chief of Operations, and at the US Treasury Department, first at the inception of the Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence (TFI), and later as COS to the Deputy Secretary and Advisor to Treasury’s senior team under Secretary Henry Paulson.

Ryan Suen is the SASB Standards Integration Manager at the IFRS Foundation. He supports licensees of the SASB Standards ranging from investors, technology platforms, and data providers with utilizing the SASB Standards in their commercial work. Ryan joined the legacy-SASB team in 2019 and has guided licensees of the SASB Standards through the VRF merger and now the IFRS merger with the future IFRS Sustainability Disclosure Standards.

Sean leads NAVEX’s executive team and serves on NAVEX’s the board of directors. He started his tenure at NAVEX as President and Chief Operating Officer where he led Strategy, Product Development, Sales, and Marketing.

Sean’s career began with 10 years at Deloitte Consulting where he was one of the firm’s youngest practice leaders in ERP. He then moved on to technology startups, most notably pre-IPO Drugstore.com. This was followed by nearly 10 years with Microsoft, with a variety of roles including group product manager for Microsoft’s $8 billion Database business and managing director of global strategic partnerships. Sean then co-founded the natural language processing and artificial intelligence company, Nuiku, which was sold to Nortek (NASDAQ: NRTK) in 2016. Next on to SAP, where he quickly rose to executive vice president of SAP’s Business Network, the world’s largest B2B and supply chain marketplace.

Sean earned an MBA from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Business Administration with high honors from Gonzaga University. He is also a CPA in the State of Washington.

Megan brings over 2 decades of consulting, instructional design, and project management experience to the team at TorranceLearning. Not only does Megan facilitate the LLAMA® and instructional design workshops, she also supports clients with project kickoffs to make sure each project has clear direction. She is devoted to delivering outstanding work to clients and creating a top-notch work environment based on trust, flexibility, compassion and fun.

Gayla joined the NAVEX IRM group in 2019 as a member of the Professional Services team. She brought with her over 10 years of experience in management, customer support, financial services, and project management. Her passion for building trust and rapport with her customers through industry expertise has assisted in leading the TAMs in account management, product knowledge, and industry focus. Gayla holds a BGS in Communication Studies with an emphasis in Business from The University of Kansas and is qualified as a Governance, Risk Management and Compliance Professional (GRCP).

Rod is currently the Head of the Operational Risk Program at Securian Financial Group in St Paul, Minnesota, a Fortune 500 financial services firm. He is responsible for leading strategy for all Operational Risk program elements and enabling risk informed decisions across the company.

Michael Volkov, CEO of The Volkov Law Group, LLC, is a recognized expert in anti-corruption enforcement and defense, internal investigations, ethics and compliance, and white-collar defense issues with over 30 years’ experience in practicing law. Mr. Volkov served for 17 years as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the District Columbia and has served on the Senate and House Judiciary Committees as the chief crime and terrorism counsel to the respective Chairmen. He also served as a deputy assistant attorney general in the Office of Legislative Affairs of the U.S. Department of Justice and as a trial attorney in the DOJ’s Antitrust Division. He also maintains the popular legal blog Corruption, Crime & Compliance.

Before becoming a professor at George Washington University, Kyle Welch worked on the investment team at the Stanford Management Company (Stanford University’s endowment). While there he developed asset allocation and portfolio strategies. Professor Welch also evaluated public equity, private equity, venture capital, and hedge fund investment opportunities and fund managers. Prior to working at Stanford, Professor Welch worked at Standard & Poor’s (S&P) in the Corporate Valuation and Consulting group (now part of Duff & Phelps).

Carol Williams is an Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Consultant with 20+ years of experience managing risk in the insurance industry. Her firm, Strategic Decision Solutions, was founded to help companies design flexible—but optimal—strategies to make risk-informed decisions. Carol specializes in identifying strategic and operational opportunities for improvement and offers expert consulting which enable clients to achieve their corporate initiatives and strategy.

Ron Woerner, CISSP, CISM, has over 20 years of IT and security experience and is a noted consultant, keynote speaker, teacher, blogger, and podcaster. As President and Chief Security Evangelist of Cyber-AAA, LLC, he delivers awareness, risk assessments, and advising to small, medium, and large organizations. Woerner also teaches at Bellevue University, an NSA Center of Academic Excellence. Woerner has been speaking at the RSA Conference since 2005 and is a member of the RSAC Program Committee. His crowning achievement was being selected as the Air Force Association CyberPatriot 2014 Mentor of the Year for his work coaching high school cybersecurity students. Woerner has multiple technology degrees and is passionate about building the next generation of cyber professionals.