To celebrate StoneTurn’s 20th Anniversary, we’re spotlighting our people. Meet Laura Greenman, a Managing Director in New York.

In this Q&A, Laura discusses the unique opportunities a culture of compliance can afford an organization, what trends will inform the compliance function in the next five years, and what sets the StoneTurn team apart.

Culture 

What is your favorite part of working with StoneTurn?

The people are ultimately what makes StoneTurn such a great place to work. What I like most is the diversity of experiences and expertise found at StoneTurn which makes working collaboratively much more enjoyable and interesting. At my prior firms the people around me all had the same type A personality and similar accounting and finance backgrounds. At StoneTurn what I found out almost immediately was how many different academic degrees and prior roles people had. Working amongst former prosecutors, C-suite leaders, economists, etc. brings many different and interesting perspectives to our engagements. I find that I’m constantly learning from my colleagues’ experiences. It ultimately results in great client service because our various backgrounds and expertise deliver a tailored work product with multiple perspectives.

What does entrepreneurship at StoneTurn mean to you?

I think of entrepreneurship as identifying and making the most out of and growing your own career. StoneTurn’s leadership has always been supportive of individuals identifying their area of expertise and growing their skills and experiences to strengthen their career. It has been especially useful as I grew my career the better part of the past decade to identify how I best excel in applying my compliance, risk and financial accounting skills in delivering excellent client service.

Business 

When it comes to compliance, what are the top trends you’re advising clients on?

Recently there has been an increase in clients wanting assistance in assessing their overall Compliance Program against the DOJ’s Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs in order to identify any areas for enhancement. This is both in relation to ongoing investigations as well as proactively to understand the effectiveness of their program before wrongdoing occurs. We assist companies by testing the design and operating effectiveness of their policies, processes and controls and advising on ways to strengthen their Compliance Program.

What is a common element of compliance that is overlooked or forgotten about?

I would say when it comes to compliance, culture is regularly overlooked. Many companies think of culture in different ways, and I think many tend to be overconfident that they have a strong and healthy culture. Many companies create a positive culture in programs supporting the company’s purpose and values (e.g., support resources, benefit packages) but miss the opportunity to tie its culture to compliance and the value of “doing the right thing” and instilling what the industry refers to as a “culture of integrity.” A culture of integrity or compliance stresses this importance and helps to create a strong tone from the top that cascades throughout the organization.  What most companies don’t realize is the culture is one of the foundational components of the compliance program and with a weak foundation your compliance controls are at risk of not preventing or detecting risks that arise. It is helpful for companies to understand the importance of culture and identify ways to measure or sense check how effective their culture is through culture metrics such as surveys/focus groups, speak up data (e.g., hotline and other reporting mechanisms), employee relations data.

Predictions for the Future 

Where do you hope to see the consulting industry in the next 5 years?

I hope the consulting industry will have grown in its alignment and use of data analytics and other integrations with technology. We’ve all seen that AI is making its way into different industries and it will be interesting to learn and grow collaboratively with our data experts to revolutionize how we approach our client’s problems and asks.

Reach out to Laura Greenman if you would like to discuss any of the topics above.