“The Career of an Ethics & Compliance Officer is Largely Self-Driven” – Mekhla Basu, Regional Compliance Counsel, South East Asia, Intel Corporation

In-House Counsel

“The Career of an Ethics & Compliance Officer is Largely Self-Driven” – Mekhla Basu, Regional Compliance Counsel, South East Asia, Intel Corporation

Lex Witness Bureau | June 2018

THE PROFESSIONAL YOU

Briefly, tell us about your role in the organization and the mandates you handle?

At Intel, I head the Ethics & Legal Compliance function for South East Asia region- this includes all the countries of Intel’s Operation for sales, R&D and manufacturing like India, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia & New Zealand. In my role, I am responsible for upholding the company’s Code of Conduct, regulatory compliance like competition law, anti-corruption, fraud and privacy. In addition to legal compliance, I hold the responsibility of Ethics officer- guiding/ advising the company, management and board to run business with integrity & transparency. I also over-see all privileged and highimpact investigations.

The chief mandates in this role is to identify and determine the inherent, regulatory and business risks of the existinghigh-risk areas of operation in South East Asia and accordingly design/ create and execute a compliance program that is exceptionally agile, impactful and successful. This program should be owned by every employee and augmentedwith strong and innovative tone from top. At Intel, we have a sophisticated regional management who iscognizant of these risks, are highly supportive in all endeavours towards better compliance management and are invested in the cause.

Tell us something about your journey so far as a General Counsel and thereafter your move into the Ethics and Compliance Officer role in India?

I started my career with a well-known law firm and eventually moved in-house. In my in-house roles, I have been fortunate to handle interesting subject areas impacting operations of the company be it in competitive advantage, regulatory mandates or inorganic growth. Therefore, as a generalist, I was able to secure a general counsel and leadership role very early on in my career, with leading MNCs.

One thing leads to the other. It is during my GC career phase, that I developed a keen interest for Compliance and eventually landed up as the Ethics & Compliance Officer with IBM, India— heading the compliance function of a 3.5+ Billion USD revenue and over 130,000 employees. Earlier, last year I joined Intel.

I see it as a highly value creating role, both toward profitability & brand building as well as continue to conduct business with the highest and uncompromising ethical standards. In my role, I help create this and this is the most job satisfaction that I have received so far!

Do you feel that the role of the Compliance Officer is a mandate for organisations?

I cannot stress enough on the importance of the role of a Compliance Officer and Compliance Officer hiring at decision making/ leadership levels. Most large companies/ Fortune 500, have their very own lean but evolved compliance teama bunch of senior level professionals usually with a legal or finance background who are passionate about the cause. I want to be very candid- this is a very difficult and strenuous role and only the passionate survives! Clearly, the need and the demand for hiring Ethics & Compliance Officers are on the rise, along with putting together a compliance team, but I will not advise anyone to move into this field unless a personal dedication or passion backs that decision- it is a very evolved leadership role where subject matter expertise is only a peripheral requirement.

A few reasons why companies should hire Ethics & Compliance Officers and put together a compliance/ risk management team are:

Developing, implementing and managing an organization’s compliance program
Balancing the company’s risk tolerance with its strategic goals and compliance obligations
Ensuring that the need to do the right thing, acting with fairness and honesty both within the organization as well as the marketplace is in the DNA of each and every employee at every level
Guiding and advising company leaders, board of directors to walk the talk and create exemplary examples through actions, by setting the right tone from top and middle.
Advising the company management to put together a team of compliance champions from business areas and have good behavior recognized 6. Coordinating with domestic and international regulators- be a one stop contact point for all legal and regulatory queries and/or investigations, externally
Design user-friendly policies, procedures, trainings and communications for employees at all levels
Creating a proper reporting channels for compliance issues and ensure a “speak-up” culture. 9. Implementing third-party compliance management programs
Preventing the company from making bad investments in high-risk mergers and acquisitions
Creating compliance, auditing, monitoring, investigation processes that enables a company towards early detection of mis-conduct or compliance gaps before they escalate into regulatory violations, including cross-border criminal liabilities.
Identifying future risk, depending on technology, business direction, local requirements and behaviours driven by culture and make the organization riskproof

How do you see this role evolving in the next 5 years?

We are living in interesting times where almost every other month there is a big news running the mill around fraud or corporate governance. It’s not just the economic crimes but also conduct that is under focus- eg the #metoo movement that has now received world-wide participation. The future of compliance risk is not restrictive to legal violations, it is expanding to include inclusion, good behavior, human rights like privacy and acting fairly in the market-place.

Enforcement action are supplemented by rising demands from local regulators to adhere to their code of conduct, eg the new compliance manual published by CCI. Therefore, there is no looking back. It’s a great future ahead- not just as scope of employment but also re-shape the governance landscape in countries of operation.

What are the key challenges that Compliance Officers have to deal with on a regular basis, irrespective of the industry sector?

Recently, I had an interaction with an ex US Department of Justice official, she reiterated my belief that one of the biggest challenges faced by Ethics & Compliance Officers across regions/ industries is organization awareness and understand how the employees at grassroot levels are doing/ what is their morale.

In addition, here are some of the more frequent challenges:

Ensure no mis-haps in the form of a violation of law/ code of conduct. If they do, your company has a full proof plan for management of the matter with speed, accuracy and agility.
Getting together the right team- both people who report to you, responsible to you as well as partners and collaborators from various functions like operations, IT, HR, audit, finance etc.
Ensure you have your CEO’s backing and support. In fact, your management team should be owning compliance. If you work for an organization where compliance is the responsibility of the compliance officer, it’s a bleak situation
Customizing a global program for the region keeping in mind behaviors, traditional customs, culture etc.
Creating a program that is inclusive and re-affirms recognition for positive behavior
Influencing positive behavior with the company eco-system like suppliers, vendors, business partners, distributors, system integrators etc. by relentless communications, trainings and in case of violations, creating precedence through disciplinary action

Given that the role of Compliance Officers is quite new and niche, how does one continue and enhance their knowledge and learning?

This is a very important aspect and I am glad you are touching upon this. The career of an Ethics & Compliance Officer is largely self-driven. It starts with passion to do good but does not stop there. One very good way of enhancing one’s learning and comparing one’s abilities/expertise with industry experts is to attend highly impactful compliance conferences and there are several around the world. India is also catching-up. I will also advise you to not be shy and take up speaker opportunities at these international conferences once you are few years into the field and confident about your insights. However, nothing replaces the power of reading. It is important to constantly learn about regulatory developments and enforcement trends across the worlds; it is also important to make oneself very aware of the social/political developments around you. Outcomes of country elections, economic sanctions, key gov’t appointments etc.

I understand there are several institutions that offer certifications, you can explore them as well. However, be careful about their learning models and impact.

Any advice for someone planning to make a move from a General Counsel to a Compliance Officer
role?

I think this a fantastic field for warmblooded, passionate and dynamic leaders who want to make a difference to the society, staying within the four pillars of their corporate jobs. The first requirement is of course- subject matter expertise and your strong & thorough legal knowledge base.

Secondly, passion and drive because the road ahead is fraught with executional, operational and psychological challenges. If you aspire to be a successful Ethics & Compliance Officer, your inherent personality should be a good combination of inquisitiveness, alertness, empathy and assertiveness. The deeper your ability to dive and the more you can read inbetween lines, the more effective you are.

Thirdly, you need to be seen as a balanced, credible and strong leaderboth to your colleagues in the management team as well as the employees. You have to be a good listener and quick decision maker. The last but not the least, is the ability to function under tremendous stress- both emotional and operational. This role, touches people’s lives; makes or breaks reputations- hence it’s a lot of responsibility and the power that comes with it needs to be used discerningly.

FAVOURITES

Gadget – I love my Naim Muso music system – it connects to any iphone, internet and also has its own inbuilt radio channel that can source any radio across genres on this planet. I also obviously love my iPhone.
App – Google Fit, BBC, Instagram, XE Currency Converter, Sky Scanner and of course, Swiggy!
Automobile Brand – Tesla but alas!
Writing Instrument – Month Blanc Antoine Saint Exupery writer’s edition fountain pen
Holiday Destination – Paris & Tuscany
Cuisine – Pan Asian and of course my Bengali fish curry & rice

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