To the Members and Stakeholders of the Ethics & Compliance Community:

At the Ethics & Compliance Initiative (ECI), we share the grief and anger felt by so many at the senseless killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbrey, Breonna Taylor, and many others whose lives have been needlessly ended. We also have a sense of hope as we see people around the world joining together to call for an end to the deeply-rooted injustice of racism that has persisted far too long in our society.

We condemn the violent behavior and the expressions of hatred by those who deny the innate dignity and equality of all human beings. 

As an ethics organization, we also know that it is not enough to issue a statement expressing our views. Lasting change can only happen if we are all willing to hold a mirror to ourselves – to revisit our values, examine our biases, and to truly listen when others tell us how we can do better. We, like the leaders in the organizations we serve, need to walk our talk. There are hard questions to be asked and answered.

Together as a board and staff, we commit to that effort. And as an organization that is dedicated to helping others build and sustain high quality ethics & compliance programs, we also accept our responsibility to initiate a similar effort in our industry. The time has come for our community of ethics & compliance practitioners to join together to address the manifestation of racism, discrimination and the abuse of power in our workplaces, our industry-at-large, and the communities in which we operate. 

As a place of beginning, ECI is creating a working group to take a critical look at the depths of these issues in our workplaces and in our industry. The working group will identify good work that is underway and partner with our organization to determine the next steps that we should take. We invite any interested person (member or not) to join us in this important endeavor. For more information, click here.

Every day too many people experience egregious attacks on their humanity and dignity. All too often people are denied their basic human right to be treated with dignity and respect. At ECI, we are committed to doing the hard work to bring an end to this injustice.