Florida’s governor doesn’t believe in vaccine mandates. So it wasn’t a surprise when he appointed a new chief medical officer who shares his beliefs.
When leaders make important appointments at the top of their organization, they are telling everyone where the organization is heading.
So the next time your CEO appoints a Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer for your company, pay attention. Was the new CECO an internal promotion or an external hire? How did the CEO describe the job in the official announcement? What were the CECO’s major accomplishments at her previous job? What did she promise to do in her first communication to employees? Can you tell if her focus is going to be on compliance, ethics, culture — or all of the above?
Some appointments bring peace of mind. Others don’t.
You just need to act accordingly.
Writing as “The Ethical Leader,” Yan Tougas draws on 15 years of experience as a compliance & ethics officer at a Fortune 500 company, sharing insights, wisdom and lessons learned. This post originally appeared on “The Ethical Leader” and is reprinted here with permission. Views expressed are that of the author. Visit him at YanTougas.com, connect with him on LinkedIn or follow him on Twitter.
Yan Tougas, Global Ethics & Compliance Officer, Raytheon Technologies Corporation
Yan Tougas oversees Raytheon’s global ethics programs, supporting a network of nearly 300 Ethics & Compliance Officers, managing the company’s Ombuds program, and ensuring that best practices are adopted across Raytheon’s business units. Ethical culture and leadership is the focus of all activities under his responsibility.
Yan joined Raytheon in 2000 and held positions of increasing responsibility at several of its business units. He took his current position at the Corporate Office in 2012.
Yan holds a LL.B from the University of Sherbrooke School of Law (Quebec) and a LL.M. from University of Connecticut School of Law. He sits on the Board of the Ethics & Compliance Initiative and on the Advisory Board of the Hoffman Center for Business Ethics at Bentley University. Yan currently lives in Connecticut with his wife and three children. 
