Lauren Higgins

Lauren has over 20 years experience designing global compliance programmes in house and as a consultant. She is currently the Head of Ethics and Compliance for Tate & Lyle, where she is in charge of the Code of Ethics, Anti-Bribery Compliance, Human Rights, Trade Compliance, investigations, and M&A due diligence.

What makes you a Risky Woman?

My objective is that companies have in place programmes and cultures to control against and/or tackle some of the most impactful risks: ethics failures, corruption, and human rights concerns. As an experienced “risky woman”, I know effective compliance is lead from not only the top, but also the middle.

Name your top 3 achievements

Leading the Compliance integration for a Transformational Acquisition – integrating the compliance programme of my company into an acquired multinational company with 7 new Operating sites.
Being presented with an Anti-Bribery and Compliance Programme Award for creating and launching a Compliance App to be accessed and used by Sales team members globally to ensure better accessibility to Compliance data as they were in the field.
Helping launch the Compliance programme in a new high risk sales market for one of my companies and ensuring the right balance of Compliance training was provided for the new recruits and management from Day 1.

What is the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?

I set up my own consultancy for a few years and worked with 4 companies on Compliance during that time. It was great really getting stuck in using my experience as a guide to help other companies with Compliance challenges.

What’s something most people don’t know about you?

I wanted to be a lawyer when I was younger, but after “falling” into risk and Compliance, I don’t regret my career choice as I really enjoy the puzzle that is creating effective compliance programmes.

What is the best quality for successful leaders in Risk?

Practical approaches and good stakeholder engagement to ensure that Commercial objectives are heard, but risk and compliance standards are still maintained.