A key development for governance professionals in recent years has been that compliance, risk management and strategic issues are now often as much a part of their evolving and expanding role as dealing with board materials and arranging the AGM.
Nicole Dragoo, chief operating officer and chief compliance officer with Chandler Asset Management, is the recipient of this year’s award for governance professional of the year (small to mid-cap) and is an excellent example of how these changes can operate in a successful way within an organization.
An external nomination for Dragoo states that ‘it is her leadership in the firm, her exceptional knowledge of regulatory requirements and her execution of compliance principles that provide the foundation for the company’s growth and success’.
Over the awards review period, Dragoo’s achievements include having created an enterprise risk committee. ‘As we grow, it is important to capture all risks, not just those [we might see] through a compliance lens,’ she tells Corporate Secretary, adding that the company doesn’t just face trading risks. ‘It’s been great,’ she says of the new group. ‘It’s opened everyone’s eyes on the committee.’
Dragoo sits on the firm’s executive committee and board. Each meeting of the board includes a section where members discuss the risks the firm faces, how serious those risks are and what the team is doing to mitigate them. For example, Chandler Asset Management, as a fixed income manager, faces fee compression that is affecting the industry as a whole and needs to determine how to address that strategically, Dragoo notes.
Among other things, she completed the transaction to implement an employee stock ownership plan at the firm and engaged in switching out the company’s portfolio order management and portfolio compliance system.
The external award nomination describes Dragoo as a respected thought leader in the compliance community, and goes on to point out that she not only developed the first compliance program at Chandler Asset Management but also ‘continues to foster a mentality of compliance across the company, resulting in accelerated adoption by the team and formulation of a culture of compliance and risk mitigation’.
According to Dragoo, the keys to success in a corporate governance/compliance role include being knowledgeable, keeping up with the fast pace of change in the industry and taking a collaborative approach where you don’t always say ‘no’.
This article originally appeared in the Winter issue of Corporate Secretary.
Ben Maiden
Ben Maiden is the editor-at-large of Governance Intelligence, an IR Media publication, having joined the company in December 2016. He is based in New York. Ben was previously managing editor of Compliance Reporter, covering regulatory and compliance...
