S2E10 | Engineering a Career in Ethics and Compliance: Braskem’s Joseph Henry on Creating the Right Formula for a Values-based Business

“I tell people that compliance is a misnomer; I really am a risk management, ethics and compliance officer. And if I do those first two jobs well--helping them identify risks, helping them identify the proper controls, helping them make ethical decisions--the third part of my job, compliance, becomes very easy.”

“We’re not dependent on the executive team, the CEO--whether it’s the Braskem CEO overall or the CEO of the U.S.--for our budget. While I sit on our team, I create a good balance by being a good teammate with the ability to say no when necessary. I think that’s very valuable.”


On this episode of the Principled podcast, host Dr. Marsha Ershaghi Hames interviews Joseph Henry, U.S. compliance officer for Braskem, a Brazil-based petrochemical company. Henry started his career as a chemical engineer, and quickly moved into technical sales, program management, and then compliance. 

With experience in large and relatively small global companies, Henry heads up many initiatives for Braskem, not only in the U.S. under a compliance monitorship, but also globally on the risk management and anti-corruption front. Henry explains the importance of getting all business owners on board with policies, leading by example, and walking the tightrope between disciplined control and bureaucracy. 

What You’ll Learn in This Episode 
[1:19] Henry shares his career path from engineering into ethics and compliance, and explains a bit about Braskem as an organization. 
[3:07] He may be U.S. compliance officer, but Henry talks about the need to have a broad global focus in his role. 
[4:06] In moving to a smaller company, he talks about building the business case for an ethics and compliance strategy. 
[5:51] How is he leading decision-making on the ground, locally? 
[7:34] How has he integrated ethics and compliance into the business? 
[8:23] What is his current reporting structure? What does he think is ideal? 
[11:23] What is his approach to scale training? 
[13:19] How does he bring shop-floor employees into his training strategy? 
[14:54] Over the next three to five years, what priorities does he forecast in the ethics and compliance space? 

Find this episode of Principled on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, SoundCloud, Podyssey, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.