Mary Shirley is a New Zealand-qualified lawyer with 18 years of ethics and compliance experience that includes working for data privacy and antitrust regulators, in-house and private practice/consultancy across five countries and four regions of the world.

Most recently she was global Head of Culture of Integrity and Compliance Education at Fresenius Medical Care, a Fortune 500 healthcare and medical device company with around 120,000 staff, assisting the company with an FCPA monitorship, serving both the legal and compliance departments.

Mary also hosts the Great Women in Compliance Podcast, which aims to create a platform for the outstanding achievements of women in the field and sharing ideas and provide learning opportunities for everyone in compliance.

She co-authored the book, “Sending the Elevator Back Down: What We’ve Learned from Great Women in Compliance” (CCI Press, 2020).

She has been given the honors of being named a Compliance Week Top Mind 2019, Trust Across America 2020 Top Thought Leader in Trust and Excellence in Compliance Awards 2022 Mentor of the Year.

"My philosophy towards compliance programs: compliance staff should take a genuine interest in what the business has to say, acting as a true business partner and enabler of business. Once issues are identified, the Chief Compliance Officer should view themselves as chief problem solver and do everything possible to find a solution to achieve business objectives while remaining within the boundaries of the law and company policies.

If compliance training is boring and staff aren't learning how to follow procedures and apply them to their daily work, it's not being done correctly. If investigations are always treated as interrogations rather than fact finding enquiries, they're not being conducted to the best effect.

There is a lot of scope to be creative with compliance awareness and communications without spending a great deal of money. Compliance may not always be everyone's favourite department, but they should have a reputation for being fair, approachable and interested in their colleagues and the company."

"If there is one thing my country’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has shown the world recently, it’s that traditionally feminine traits can make for a phenomenally effective leader."