Great Women in Compliance

Sarah Hadden sits down with Cindy Hennessy for a candid, funny, and deeply human conversation about career loss, reinvention, and what can happen when the next chapter of your life isn’t the one you planned. Cindy talks openly about being laid off late in her career—and refusing to let her employer call it “retirement”—and the long “hallway” between that ending and the unexpected opportunity that eventually brought her full circle to mission-driven work at Make-A-Wish. Along the way, Sarah and Cindy talk about resilience, the luxury and importance of waiting for work that aligns with your values, the surprising gifts that can come from rejection, and the power of writing to help us make sense of difficult experiences. There’s also an emotional-support Pomeranian, a lifelong love affair with the Oscar Mayer Wienermobile, and a reminder that sometimes joy, hope, and a willingness to laugh at yourself are pretty good tools for navigating whatever comes next. Takeaways: Losing a job can be deeply personal—especially when work has been an important part of your identity—and there’s no reason to sanitize the experience or pretend it didn’t hurt. Cindy describes the uncertain period after a major life disruption as “the hallway”: one door has closed, the next hasn’t opened yet, and sometimes the only way forward is simply to live through the space in between. A late-career transition can also create an opportunity to get much more intentional about what you want—including the freedom to say no to work that doesn’t align with your values. Cindy’s path back to Make-A-Wish, where she had worked 25 years earlier, wasn’t something she carefully engineered. In fact, she initially wasn’t sure she wanted the job—a good reminder to stay open to possibilities that don’t look quite right at first. Mission matters. After years of interesting but sometimes less personally aligned work, Cindy talks about the joy of using her experience to serve an organization whose purpose she deeply believes in. Writing has been one of Cindy’s lifelong tools for processing difficult experiences. She shares her experience with the 100-Day Reckoning, a structured writing practice that helped her step outside a painful situation and find greater perspective, kindness, and understanding. Reinvention doesn’t necessarily mean chasing another bigger title. Cindy is deliberately thinking about how to do meaningful work while also making more room for travel, friends, family, writing, Mahjong—and eventually a life that isn’t organized around a W-2. And finally: Never give up on the Wienermobile. Cindy certainly hasn’t.

AI is a key topic for all of us these days, and for ethics and compliance professionals, it is a challenge and an opportunity. In this episode, Lisa Fine and Hemma Lomax speak with Mara Senn, founder and CEO of Ethakos, and Audrey Harris, Managing Director at Affiliated Monitors; both have deep experience across investigations, enforcement, in-house compliance, and monitorships. We focus on what AI means for compliance – from how it is changing how companies operate to how it can help us work smarter while keeping humans in the AI loop. They share insights from their experience on many topics, including: Moving beyond AI as a time-saving tool and thinking bigger about how it can transform compliance. Why compliance needs to understand the business, its systems, and its data. The risks of staying safely inside the “compliance box.” How better data and AI can help compliance see risk differently—and connect the dots. Why tech and data skills are becoming essential for the next generation of compliance professionals. Finding the balance between innovation and risk management. This is a great discussion for novice AI users and experienced professionals alike. 

For this #GWIC roundtable episode, Lisa Fine and Ellen Hunt spoke with two renowned experts, Francine McKenna and Ursula Schmidt, about what Ethics & Compliance professionals should learn from recent accounting firm scandals in Australia. Listen in as our guests help us unravel: why similar scandals keep happening, how the incentives and pressure at play in these scandals are universal, the important role that culture plays, how auditors and others should live up to their professional standards, and why we still ignore those that bring issues forward. There are lessons in these scandals for every #Ethics and #Compliance professional on how to improve your culture and program. A huge thank you to Francine and Ursula for sharing their insights, expertise, and wisdom with us.

Career journeys are rarely linear—and sometimes our most valuable lessons come from the unexpected turns. In this episode of Great Women in Compliance, co-host Dr. Hemma Lomax sits down with Amybeth Garcia-Bokor to explore a career spanning public service, legal and compliance leadership, and an inspiring pivot from law to baking before returning to the profession with a renewed perspective. Together, they discuss how curiosity, resilience, and thoughtful leadership help compliance professionals navigate increasing complexity while building trust and enabling better decisions. Key Takeaways: Why judgment is one of the most important capabilities in modern compliance. How an unconventional career path can strengthen leadership and perspective. The evolution of compliance from enforcement to strategic business partnership. Building cultures where curiosity, learning, and open dialogue thrive. Leading confidently through ambiguity without sacrificing integrity. Preparing compliance programs—and ourselves—for a future shaped by constant change and AI. Bio Amybeth Garcia-Bokor is a leader who helps organizations navigate complexity, build trust, and make sound decisions where strategy, governance, and innovation intersect. Her career spans government, private practice, entrepreneurship, and nonprofit organizations, giving her a distinctive perspective on how organizations grow, manage risk, create lasting value, and innovate responsibly in rapidly evolving environments. She currently serves as Senior Vice President of Legal and Compliance at Emergent, where she helps shape the governance of the emerging global market for forest carbon finance.

We are back with another GWIC x Everything Compliance crossover, with Hemma and Lisa joining Kristy Grant-Hart and Karen Moore to talk about what’s on their minds and the compliance news of the day. They discuss everything from Scoular Company entering into a Deferred Prosecution Agreement and paying over $10m for FCPA violations, lessons for Ethics & Compliance professionals from the World Cup, the resolution of the allegations against Alibaba and AUS Merchant Services, and what we can take from the leaked draft of the EU’s New Public Procurement Regulations. And, of course, it wouldn’t be Everything Compliance without the rants and raves.