Real-World Experience: Michael Herde

Key Takeaways

In moments of crisis, it's extremely important to think strategically and consider the long-term implications and the broader implications of what's going on around you. Got up in the morning, boarded a flight, short flight, about an hour. By the time I landed, the firm had fully approved a short communication that it was going to send out to all of its clients. Unfortunately, it wasn't correct. There were very simple statements, five words that were too broad. We had to take a step back and go through it word by word in a way with a different lens that considered all the implications. That's what you do when you're a chief compliance officer. When I was chief compliance officer, I would look for people uh outside who had my experience, who had sat in my chair, who understood the pressures and the dynamics that we were operating in. And I believe that that real world experience is relevant and helpful to people as they navigate crisis that they may be seeing for the first time that I've seen a dozen or 15 times. I've been a chief compliance officer of four different financial services firms in my career. Today I'm a risk management expert in financial services at FTI.