CORPORATE COMPLIANCE OFFICE OF THE YEAR AWARD
MONDAY, JUNE 10, 2013
MOYOCK, NC
SAN DIEGO, CA
SALEM, CT
MCLEAN, VA
ACADEMI HAS BEEN NAMED RECIPIENT OF THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL
CORPORATE COMPLIANCE OFFICE OF THE YEAR AWARD ACADEMI has been named the recipient of The National Law Journal’s prestigious 2013 Corporate Compliance Office of the Year Award. The award recognizes excellence in corporate compliance by in-house counsel in the Washington Metropolitan Area. According to ACADEMI CEO, Craig Nixon, the award demonstrates the company’s dedication to professionalism, leadership, and transparency in business. “We are all honored to receive the Award. It recognizes the hard work of our legal and compliance team and even more broadly, the commitment of all the ACADEMI employees to integrity and accountability.”
ACADEMI WAS PURCHASED BY A GROUP OF PRIVATE INVESTORS IN 2010, AND BUILDING A ROBUST GOVERNANCE AND COMPLIANCE PROGRAM WAS AMONG THE NEW MANAGEMENT’S FIRST ORDERS OF BUSINESS. A Board of Directors was created that brought a widely-respected depth of expertise and leadership. John Ashcroft, former U.S. Attorney General, serves on the company’s Board of Directors. “It is an honor to receive this award from the National Law Journal. The ACADEMI Governance Committee and the department have worked hard with senior leadership to build
this world-class compliance operation. This award is testament to ACADEMI’s dedication to the highest integrity and industry leadership,” said Ashcroft. ACADEMI’s compliance team is led by General Counsel Suzanne Folsom, who joined the company in 2011 after helping AIG establish a strong regulatory and compliance program in response to the financial crisis. Building a team that could develop and implement a new Code of Business Ethics and Conduct and establish compliance policies, procedures and monitoring that had not existed under the previous ownership was at the top of her Agenda at ACADEMI. “Our selection demonstrates that through focus on building
a corporate culture of compliance and integrity, a company is never permanently encumbered by the legacy of the past.” That sentiment was echoed by former White House Counsel to President Clinton and ACADEMI Board Member Jack Quinn. “ACADEMI’s approach to compliance is simple— embed integrity and commitment to the rule of law as a central theme in all global operations. Winning this award by implementing our compliance initiative is part of our commitment to the stakeholders who rely on ACADEMI to maintain the highest ethical and moral standards while operating in high-risk, high-threat environments,” said Quinn.
CREATING A CULTURE OF COMPLIANCE ACADEMI’S compliance team faced significant challenges early on. It was not enough to establish a set of rules, regulations and policies. ACADEMI wanted, in Speice’s words, to cultivate “a culture of compliance within the company.” This meant doing more than checking the box—it required educating employees, and integrating the compliance process into daily business activities by building on the company’s core values of integrity, excellence and dignity. According to Carly Chasteen, ACADEMI’s Facility Security Officer, “we ensure the rules are abided by and that we are trustworthy to our customers. Without our customers, ACADEMI wouldn’t be here.”
“ACADEMI has always had a top-notch curriculum, world class instructors, employees and facilities. Now it has a best-in-class compliance program to match,” adds McKenney. But the team is not finished yet—she continues, “compliance cannot stay static, otherwise it will grow stale.” Winning the prestigious National Law Journal Award is a valued recognition of the hard work of the team, but the team also recognizes the need to continue to build the credibility and reputation of ACADEMI every day.
KABUL, AF
A LOOK AT THE TEAM ACADEMI’s in-house legal department is made up of twenty individuals, who work out of the McLean, Virginia headquarters and ACADEMI’s flagship training facility in Moyock, North Carolina. Together, they have built and cemented the company’s compliance program. “Our team’s goal is always to make sure that everything we do is in furtherance of making ACADEMI a better, stronger company,” said Victoria McKenney, the Director of the Regulatory and Compliance Department and Associate General Counsel. “A company that is run well usually has a strong compliance program; otherwise, it lacks credibility.” McKenney and the rest of the team work diligently to manage the critical task of building—and maintaining— that credibility. Robert Garretson, the Director of Export Compliance, adds that compliance “reflects the Company’s commitment to conduct business with the highest level of integrity and is critical to building and maintaining the reputation for excellence.” Nobody on the team has an “average day”—each individual spends his or her day tackling a wide range of issues. For example, the Director of Firearms Control, Rick Price, “will deal with anything and everything firearms and explosives-related…whether it involves one firearm or a hundred destructive devices.” Patrick Speice, the team’s Compliance Counsel, handles issues that vary from drafting and reviewing contracts to advising ACADEMI’s business lines on compliance. The multi-faceted and complex nature of their work “demands that the members of the Office of General Council work together as a well-functioning team,” he says.
MOYOCK, NC
SAN DIEGO, CA
SALEM, CT
MCLEAN, VA
ACADEMI HAS BEEN NAMED RECIPIENT OF THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL
CORPORATE COMPLIANCE OFFICE OF THE YEAR AWARD ACADEMI has been named the recipient of The National Law Journal’s prestigious 2013 Corporate Compliance Office of the Year Award. The award recognizes excellence in corporate compliance by in-house counsel in the Washington Metropolitan Area. According to ACADEMI CEO, Craig Nixon, the award demonstrates the company’s dedication to professionalism, leadership, and transparency in business. “We are all honored to receive the Award. It recognizes the hard work of our legal and compliance team and even more broadly, the commitment of all the ACADEMI employees to integrity and accountability.”
ACADEMI WAS PURCHASED BY A GROUP OF PRIVATE INVESTORS IN 2010, AND BUILDING A ROBUST GOVERNANCE AND COMPLIANCE PROGRAM WAS AMONG THE NEW MANAGEMENT’S FIRST ORDERS OF BUSINESS. A Board of Directors was created that brought a widely-respected depth of expertise and leadership. John Ashcroft, former U.S. Attorney General, serves on the company’s Board of Directors. “It is an honor to receive this award from the National Law Journal. The ACADEMI Governance Committee and the department have worked hard with senior leadership to build
this world-class compliance operation. This award is testament to ACADEMI’s dedication to the highest integrity and industry leadership,” said Ashcroft. ACADEMI’s compliance team is led by General Counsel Suzanne Folsom, who joined the company in 2011 after helping AIG establish a strong regulatory and compliance program in response to the financial crisis. Building a team that could develop and implement a new Code of Business Ethics and Conduct and establish compliance policies, procedures and monitoring that had not existed under the previous ownership was at the top of her Agenda at ACADEMI. “Our selection demonstrates that through focus on building
a corporate culture of compliance and integrity, a company is never permanently encumbered by the legacy of the past.” That sentiment was echoed by former White House Counsel to President Clinton and ACADEMI Board Member Jack Quinn. “ACADEMI’s approach to compliance is simple— embed integrity and commitment to the rule of law as a central theme in all global operations. Winning this award by implementing our compliance initiative is part of our commitment to the stakeholders who rely on ACADEMI to maintain the highest ethical and moral standards while operating in high-risk, high-threat environments,” said Quinn.
CREATING A CULTURE OF COMPLIANCE ACADEMI’S compliance team faced significant challenges early on. It was not enough to establish a set of rules, regulations and policies. ACADEMI wanted, in Speice’s words, to cultivate “a culture of compliance within the company.” This meant doing more than checking the box—it required educating employees, and integrating the compliance process into daily business activities by building on the company’s core values of integrity, excellence and dignity. According to Carly Chasteen, ACADEMI’s Facility Security Officer, “we ensure the rules are abided by and that we are trustworthy to our customers. Without our customers, ACADEMI wouldn’t be here.”
“ACADEMI has always had a top-notch curriculum, world class instructors, employees and facilities. Now it has a best-in-class compliance program to match,” adds McKenney. But the team is not finished yet—she continues, “compliance cannot stay static, otherwise it will grow stale.” Winning the prestigious National Law Journal Award is a valued recognition of the hard work of the team, but the team also recognizes the need to continue to build the credibility and reputation of ACADEMI every day.
KABUL, AF
A LOOK AT THE TEAM ACADEMI’s in-house legal department is made up of twenty individuals, who work out of the McLean, Virginia headquarters and ACADEMI’s flagship training facility in Moyock, North Carolina. Together, they have built and cemented the company’s compliance program. “Our team’s goal is always to make sure that everything we do is in furtherance of making ACADEMI a better, stronger company,” said Victoria McKenney, the Director of the Regulatory and Compliance Department and Associate General Counsel. “A company that is run well usually has a strong compliance program; otherwise, it lacks credibility.” McKenney and the rest of the team work diligently to manage the critical task of building—and maintaining— that credibility. Robert Garretson, the Director of Export Compliance, adds that compliance “reflects the Company’s commitment to conduct business with the highest level of integrity and is critical to building and maintaining the reputation for excellence.” Nobody on the team has an “average day”—each individual spends his or her day tackling a wide range of issues. For example, the Director of Firearms Control, Rick Price, “will deal with anything and everything firearms and explosives-related…whether it involves one firearm or a hundred destructive devices.” Patrick Speice, the team’s Compliance Counsel, handles issues that vary from drafting and reviewing contracts to advising ACADEMI’s business lines on compliance. The multi-faceted and complex nature of their work “demands that the members of the Office of General Council work together as a well-functioning team,” he says.
