SCCE Conference Kicks Off

The new head of the Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics made his public debut today at the SCCE annual conference in Nashville, praising ethics and compliance officers as doing work “more important than any job I’ve had in my life” and the profession overall as one that should endure through the ages.

Garth Jordan arrived as the new chief executive of SCCE (and its sister organization the Health Care Compliance Organization) just eight days ago. This morning, the bald and bespectacled Jordan jaunted onto the stage in front of well over 1,000 compliance officers attending SCCE’s annual conference to introduce himself. He immediately launched into praise of the ethics and compliance profession, always a wise move when trying to introduce yourself as the new leader of an association meant to serve ethics and compliance officers. 

Photo credit: Adam Turteltaub

“I deeply believe that your job is more important than any job I’ve ever had in my life,” Jordan said.

To further charm the crowd, Jordan then described himself as a proud “tree hugger” and said he is on a mission to plant 100 trees around his neighborhood in suburban Denver. (He’s planted 81 so far.) That led to a metaphor about bonsai trees and how compliance officers are stewards of good organizational conduct.

The metaphor: Jordan showed a picture of the Rikusho-no-Matsu bonsai tree in Osaka, Japan. More than 600 years old, the tree has been carefully cultivated over the centuries to look like a ship. To make that tree so strong and sturdy today, generations of gardeners had to prune the tree in just the right ways, and they had to pass down that knowledge of how to guide the tree’s growth from one generation to the next. 

Along similar lines, Jordan said, ethics and compliance officers carefully guide their organizations to grow in sturdy, ethically aware directions; and pass down those practices from one compliance officer to the next over the years. The project is never done, just like the Rikusho-no-Matsu tree will never have a “final” shape forever more. Constant care is always required.

“Each of you are compliance and ethics bonsai experts,” Jordan said. “You represent dedication to sharing knowledge in well-balanced form.” 

A bit hokey? Sure — but I love this profession too, so I’m all for hokey metaphors about why corporate ethics and compliance is so important.

And with that, Jordan jaunted back off-stage. Now we’ll have more than two days of discussions, presentations, and cocktail parties; with lots more coverage in Radical Compliance later this week. Stay tuned.

The Rikusho-no-Matsu tree of Japan.