Financial Services Compliance Episodes
Developing Effective Compliance Guardrails with Bill Connolly (Ep. 14)
Stepping into compliance “by accident,” building guardrails that actually help the business, and staying curious enough to reinvent your career—Episode 14 with Bill Connolly is packed with practical lessons for anyone in risk, privacy, or compliance leadership.
In this episode of Compliance Chronicles, host Liisa Thomas talks with Bill Connolly, Head of Resiliency Risk for the U.S. retail bank at HSBC. Bill oversees a broad risk portfolio that spans information risk, business continu…
Using Operational Change in Compliance with Kam Dodge (Ep. 10)
In this episode of Compliance Chronicles, our 10th, Kam Dodge, an in‑house leader with roots in Northwestern SESP’s Learning and Organizational Change program, explains why privacy and compliance are non‑negotiable in heavily regulated industries and introduces his “rubber balls vs. glass balls” framework for prioritizing risk. He shares how to use simple expected‑value thinking (likelihood x impact) to communicate 8‑ and 9‑figure exposure in language that boards and business leaders underst…
Thriving in Compliance Gray Areas with Deb Sokol (Ep. 9)
In episode nine of Compliance Chronicles, we learn from Deb Sokol the importance of embracing the gray and look at the evolving nature of compliance. Deb shares her compliance journey and lessons she's learned along the way.
What we cover:
Being open to new opportunities and volunteering for stretch assignments can unexpectedly launch a career in privacy and compliance
Moving from a pure legal role into a compliance role requires a mindset shift toward controls, …
Following Unique Paths to Successful Privacy Compliance with Mike Smith (Ep. 2)
How do you turn a “strange path” through the Navy, fraud risk, and call centers into a successful career as a bank privacy officer and compliance leader? In this episode of Compliance Chronicles, Liisa Thomas sits down with Mike Smith, Privacy Officer at Wintrust and former HSBC leader, to unpack how he built a wide‑angle view of risk, regulation, and real‑world data use.
Mike shares how running a centralized privacy project pulled him into the field, why adding the CRCM and broader …