Roundtable participants discussed strategies for multi-national companies to achieve worldwide compliance with ethical business practices and with such laws as the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Prior to entering a new geographic area, companies carefully should assess local business culture, train home-office and field personnel accordingly, and develop internal and external resources for monitoring the ethical performance of the company, its suppliers, and other business partners. Similar considerations apply when evaluating compliance issues in the context of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) transactions.
Moderators were Foley Partner Timothy Sheehan as well as Clyde Ebanks and Bruce Wineman of Aon Global Client Network, Adena Friedman of NASDAQ, Robin Johnson of Eversheds LLP, Emily McNeal of UBS Securities LLC, and Jack Walker of Deloitte Financial Advisory Services LLP.