Business View - January 2015 119
HEALTHCARE
HCCA is growing at about 7 percent a year. SCCE is
growing at about 20 percent a year. There has been
very steady growth over the years.
BV: What sorts of people/entities tend to be mem-
bers and why? Do you have a particular segment
that’s grown the fastest? What do a majority of
those people/entities tend to look like?
SNELL:
The majority of our members work in the
compliance department. However, we have members
from audit, legal, risk, ethics, leadership, academia,
government, etc. The common thread is an interest
in the role of the compliance officer and the function
of a compliance program. The growth really has come
from all over. We have a very diverse membership. We
benefit from the diversity. Most of our members come
from mid to large sized organizations.
BV: Are there certain issues that are on the minds of
the members? Are there any specific things that are
pressing issues to the group as a whole?
SNELL:
The members’ interests can be broken down
into three categories. Some are studying the risk ar-
eas and associated laws. Others are focused on the
various elements of a compliance program, such as
audit, risk, education, etc. Others are focused on the
role of the compliance officers. Although members
may have a primary focus in each of these areas, they
spend time in all three areas. The real pressing issues
tend to be within the role of the compliance officer.
We have many people in business who understand
the laws. We have many people in business who un-
derstand various elements of a compliance program.
The reason our profession was created is because no
one fulfilled the role of the compliance officer. They did
not fill that role because it was difficult. It was difficult
because the compliance professional has to stand up
when the going gets tough and fix material issues. En-
ron, Penn State University, Tyco and many other major
compliance and ethics failures had people who knew
the problem existed but did nothing. They ran from the
fire, compliance professionals run toward the fire. One
of the most important issues our members face and
one of the most important roles our organization plays
is to help compliance professionals be that person
who can prevent or correct the next big issue and live
to tell about it.
BV: Are there certain issues that you feel are going
to be a lot more high profile a few years from now?
SNELL:
Laws change. Risk areas change. The focus of
the enforcement community changes. People love to
talk about the next law or enforcement activity that will
be a hot issue, but it really doesn’t matter. What mat-
ters is the compliance officer has to develop the skills
to help leadership make tough decisions. The main is-
sue will always be the intangible skills such as negotia-
tion, collaboration, compromise, influence, etc. That is
what was missing before our profession was created
and it was missing because it was hard. It was hard
because there was a lot at stake and there were peo-
ple at the center of all major compliance failures who
were powerful and advocated for deny and defend as
opposed to reveal and remediate. The biggest issue
for compliance professionals will always be preventing
the people who want the CEO to bury his/her head in
the sand from being successful.
BV: In terms of ways that you engage your member-
ship – what have been the ones that have had the
most resonance? Have you had multiple events? Do
you put out publications? How do you stay in contact
and what has worked?
SNELL:
This is a very interesting question. We stay in
contact to a fault. It’s very hard to communicate to
14,500 in a way, because they all need something
