Establishing Effective Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) for Achieving Good Compliance and Superior Governance

Why Should You Attend:

Regulatory agencies are taking a harder look at business operations. Compliance has become a key element in business operations. Federal Sentencing Guidelines contain specific provisions which can benefit a business that has the proper compliance structure and procedures in place despite some pitfalls. Businesses are also under attack from internet hackers and others seeking either to do reputational damage or to steal their confidential and proprietary information.

Clearly, risk management has become a global need for companies which should adopt an enterprise-wide risk management and compliance program ensuring that from the board of directors and top management to each department a cohesive and unified structure is in place to ensure compliance and manage the risks. This webinar will review the need for, the structure of, and the operation of an ERM program.

Areas Covered in the Webinar:

• What is ERM? Why do you need ERM?
• Creating an ERM program
• ERM checklist to start
• What risks should be managed?
• Governance
• Regulatory
• IT – Web
• Operational
• Assets
• Customers
• Employees
• Who should be involved in the ERM program?
• The role of senior management
• The role of the board of directors
• The role of risk managers
• Crisis management and when things go wrong

Who Will Benefit:

• Company Directors
• CEOs
• CFOs
• COOs
• Financial Reporting Staff
• Accounting Staff
• Compliance Managers
• Department Heads

Instructor Profile:

Barth Aaron has been a practicing attorney since 1977. He is licensed to practice law in Nevada, New Jersey and New York. During his career, Mr. Aaron has served as a public prosecutor, in private practice concentrating on litigation and commercial transactions and, since 1986, has been involved in the gaming industry. For the past 15 years, he has been responsible for the drafting, negotiation and management of all types of contracts, corporate reporting and regulatory compliance.

Mr. Aaron has been the secretary and general counsel to both public and privately owned companies, serving as their chief legal officer, with specific responsibility for corporate governance, coordinating all board of director functions and regulatory compliance. He has served as a regulatory compliance officer with specific responsibility for creation, implementation and administration of the Nevada Required Regulatory Compliance Policy and has guided his employers' operations with no material regulatory actions, violations or issues.

Mr. Aaron has contributed in drafting and updating internal controls and procedures and employee manuals, and preparation and review of corporate reporting and policies. As a chief legal officer, he was also responsible for SEC compliance, human resources, development and acquisitions, contracts, intellectual property, and licensing and litigation management.

Topic Background:

There is an alphabet soup of regulatory agencies, some with overlapping jurisdiction. From the SEC and DoJ to the OCC, FTC, FAA and more, our federal government regulates almost every aspect of our business. States have joined in as well with many of the same concerns as the federal agencies. In the wake of Enron, WorldCom, AIG, Lehman Brothers, and Bernie Madoff, federal courts and prosecutors have recognized that preventative compliance is a key to successful business operations. For this reason, the Federal Sentencing Guidelines include provisions which recognize a validly formed and operated compliance program can mitigate the penalties imposed on the business when there is individual wrongdoing. While we should expect all to comply with the law and regulations, we want businesses to self-enforce compliance through their internal programs.

In addition, there are regular reports of hacking attacks, which seem to increase in frequency and volume. These thefts of confidential and sometimes proprietary information can lead to both law suits and reputational damage. Sony Entertainment is the most recent and seemingly most embarrassing to date.

While risk management and compliance programs have been around for some time, making them meaningful now means making them enterprise-wide and coordinating compliance and information-sharing across the company. No longer is it proper to segregate compliance functions keeping one department in the dark about what concerns other departments. ERM or enterprise risk management is now the hallmark of a good compliance program.

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