Elizabeth Simon to speak at GRC Connect Atlanta

Taking place May 22 and 23 at Loudermilk Conference Center, Atlanta, GRC Connect Atlanta provides a platform for organizations to address the cumulative nature of risk.

GRC Connect Atlanta’s comprehensive agenda is led by subject matter experts, business chiefs and industry leaders, giving attendees a deep-dive into challenges and solutions on the rapidly evolving GRC landscape.

Elizabeth Simon is Vice President of Compliance and Risk at Progress Residential, a single-family home rental company based in Scottsdale, AZ.

From her remote home-office in southwest Florida, Elizabeth is tasked with developing and implementing a robust compliance and enterprise risk management program aligned with industry standards and legal requirements.

Elizabeth will be attending GRC Connect Atlanta to discuss the importance of breaking down silos and developing a holistic approach to risk management.

You can learn more about Elizabeth Simon and her focus session below:

Could you briefly outline your career pathway so far?

I’ve done pretty much everything you can do with an accounting degree: taxes, bookkeeping, external audit, forensic accounting, internal audit, and now compliance.

My first interaction with compliance was when Sarbanes-Oxley came out, and I got a job as a SOX Compliance Supervisor at a payments processing company.

I started developing my enterprise risk assessment methodology when I was in Internal Audit at a consumer products company and have expanded that ERM methodology as I built compliance programs at several other companies in different industries, including telecommunications, automotive, and property management.

I’m currently the VP of Compliance & Risk at Progress Residential and am in charge of our enterprise risk management program and corporate compliance program.

Why is it so important to break down organisational silos, particularly as AI technologies become more commonplace on the corporate landscape?

Many departments are so concerned with their own goals and their own budgets that it is difficult to see the bigger picture of the organization’s strategy as a whole. This causes many issues due to conflicting departmental goals, which could ultimately result in a negative impact on the organization’s broader strategic objectives.

Especially with AI technologies becoming more common in the workplace, if departments are not aligned with the broader strategic objectives of the company and seeking guidance from support services like legal and compliance, decisions about the use of AI can be made in a vacuum, causing negative consequences such as privacy and diversity implications.

Having a bigger picture of risk as a whole, and including various departments in the process, helps to break down those silos and provide a greater impact collectively.

What are the some of the primary goals that organisations need to achieve part of a strategy designed to break down silos and establish a culture of holistic risk management?

Transparency, communication, and relationship building are three key values needed to break down silos and establish a culture of holistic risk management. Leaders throughout the organization, from the front-line managers to the executives need to be aware of how the organization is identifying and managing risk.

They all play a part in the process of risk mitigation, so transparency and communication throughout the levels of the organization is important. Being able to communicate the “Why” behind what is being asked of them, particularly of the front-line supervisors and managers, is key in helping to provide insight into the bigger picture of the importance of risk management to the organization’s strategic objectives.

Building relationships with those front-line managers and supervisors helps them to feel included in the process and bought into the results. This also provides valuable insights into what the risks are on the front line that may have been missed if only asking the senior or executive levels of leadership.