Innovation in Compliance with Tom Fox

Innovation occurs across many areas, and compliance professionals need not only to be ready for it but also to embrace it. Join Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance, as he visits with top innovative minds, thinkers, and creators in the award-winning Innovation in Compliance podcast. In this episode,  host Tom visits with Jeff Kushner, a compliance and IT security leader at Allgress.

Jeff talks about “compliance drift,” where external obligations such as laws, frameworks like NIST/ISO/CIS, customer and licensing requirements, fall out of alignment with internal governance policies, procedures, and contracts, creating silent gaps that surface only during audits or incidents. They discuss the added volatility from business and geopolitical changes and identify industries most exposed to hidden compliance risks, including small and mid-sized businesses, AI-focused organizations, behavioral health clinics managing many frameworks across multiple sites with drop-in audits, and small DoD contractors facing CMMC. Jeff argues that traditional spreadsheet-based or audit-centric GRC is static and point-in-time. He describes Reg Watch as a complementary regulatory intelligence layer that continuously monitors 3,000+ global standards, provides real-time alerts, explains changes in plain English, and provides sample policies and implementation steps, along with supporting documentation and follow-up validation.

Key highlights:

Resources:

Jeff Kushner on LinkedIn

Allgress

Innovation in Compliance was recently honored as the Number 4 podcast in Risk Management by 1,000,000 Podcasts.

Innovation comes in many areas, and compliance professionals need not only to be ready for it but also to embrace it. Join Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance, as he visits with top innovative minds, thinkers, and creators in the award-winning Innovation in Compliance podcast. In this episode, Tom visits Deb Krier to discuss her work coaching primarily executives after serious cancer diagnoses.

Deb discusses the unique leadership challenges of privacy, disclosure, and maintaining credibility while undergoing treatment. Deb, a corporate communications professional and founder of Wise Women Communications, discusses what leaders should share with boards, HR, close colleagues, and clients, emphasizing the importance of controlling the narrative to prevent rumors and coordinating with medical teams to plan around energy levels, treatment, and time away. She describes resilience as “grit,” encourages leaders to delegate and empower teams, and urges organizations to strengthen business continuity and contingency planning so no single person holds ultimate authority. Deb highlights the importance of a support “tribe,” the benefits of humor, and advises compliance professionals to listen with empathy while addressing any legal disclosure obligations.

Key highlights:

Resources:

Deb Krier on LinkedIn

Your Cancer Coach Website 

The Business Power Hour Podcast

Innovation in Compliance is a multi-award-winning podcast that was recently ranked Number 4 in Risk Management by 1,000,000 Podcasts.

Innovation spans many areas, and compliance professionals need not only to be ready for it but also to embrace it. Join Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance, as he visits with top innovative minds, thinkers, and creators in the award-winning Innovation in Compliance podcast. In this episode,  host Tom visits with GRC expert and OCEG co-founder Carole Switzer.

They highlight her new books, “Mastering GRC: The Lawyer’s Guide to Success in Governance, Risk and Compliance” and “The AI-Enabled Law Firm” (co-authored with Lee Denner). Carole explains she wrote “Mastering GRC” to help lawyers applying legal skills in GRC roles move from reactive problem-solvers to proactive enterprise leaders by embedding in business objectives, asking better questions, and collaborating across audit, risk, legal, and compliance. She recounts OCEG’s origins and its GRC Capability Model, certifications, and global growth. Carole discusses balancing legal oversight with business partnership, including the risks of privilege when acting in business roles. Looking ahead, she predicts rapid AI-driven change in legal practice, stressing technology and data-meaning (“semantic layer”) issues, and the need to adapt existing GRC frameworks for speed and volatility.

Key highlights:

Resources:

Carole Switzer on LinkedIn

OCEG

The AI-Enabled Law Firm

Mastering GRC: The Lawyer’s Guide to Success in Governance, Risk and Compliance

Innovation in Compliance, a multi-award-winning podcast, was recently honored as the Number 4 podcast in Risk Management by 1,000,000 Podcasts.

Innovation occurs across many areas, and compliance professionals need not only to be ready for it but also to embrace it. Join Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance, as he visits with top innovative minds, thinkers, and creators in the award-winning Innovation in Compliance podcast. In this episode, host Tom Fox visits with Dr. Rohan Lall, a clinically trained Neurological Surgeon and Chief Medical Officer of SynerFuse, about innovation in spine surgery and the compliance infrastructure needed to support it.

Dr. Lall Law explains TLIF (transforaminal lumbar interbody fusion) and ETLIF, which integrates direct nerve root stimulation into reconstructive spine surgery to address persistent pain from chronically injured nerves even after decompression and fusion. Dr. Lall describes the innovation as team-driven, highlighting collaboration and detailing the regulatory path for a novel Class III device, including a feasibility proof-of-concept study, third-party data management, and an independent data and safety monitoring board. Dr. Lall outlines how compliance leaders should align with business speed while managing FDA requirements, data integrity, ethics, and risk, and he notes future impacts from neuromodulation, robotics, and image guidance.

Key highlights:

Resources:

Dr. Rohan Lall on LinkedIn

Synerfuse Company Website

Innovation in Compliance is a multi-award-winning podcast that was recently ranked Number 4 in Risk Management by 1,000,000 Podcasts.

Innovation occurs across many areas, and compliance professionals need not only to be ready for it but also to embrace it. Join Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance, as he visits with top innovative minds, thinkers, and creators in the award-winning Innovation in Compliance podcast. In this episode,  host Tom visits with Aravind Parthasarathy, Vice President, Client Partner for Telco & Tech at NewRocket, a ServiceNow implementation company focused on helping large enterprises adopt agentic AI.

They discuss the shift from viewing AI as a tool to treating it as an operator with humans as mentors handling exceptions, and what this means for compliance, GRC, and risk management. Aravind contrasts minimum viable product (MVP) with minimum viable function (MVF), emphasizing end-to-end autonomous business functions, probabilistic performance, and continuous learning. They cover governance needs, including guardrails, policy-as-code, auditability of agent decisions, model drift monitoring, and automated “trust but verify.” Aravind provides a telecom outage-troubleshooting example with compliance notification obligations, addresses board-level AI governance using emerging standards like ISO 42001, suggests KPIs (accuracy, autonomy), recalibrates operational metrics, and introduces “context graphs” to capture decision data over time.

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Resources:

Aravind Parthasarathy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aravindsarathy/

New Rocket Website: https://www.newrocket.com/

Innovation in Compliance is a multi-award-winning podcast that was recently ranked Number 4 in Risk Management by 1,000,000 Podcasts: https://www.millionpodcasts.com/Risk-Management-podcasts/

Innovation occurs across many areas, and compliance professionals need not only to be ready for it but also to embrace it. Join Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance, as he visits with top innovative minds, thinkers, and creators in the award-winning Innovation in Compliance podcast. In this episode, host Tom visits with Nav Thethi, creator of the “Cracking the Digital Maturity Code” series, to discuss leadership gaps in digital transformation, AI, and data governance.

Nav describes building a peer-learning platform through his podcast, developing digital maturity benchmarks with organizational scorecards, and co-authoring a book on digital maturity. He outlines an AI readiness gap driven by executive imposter syndrome, FOMO-driven pressure, education and alignment gaps, and lack of roadmap, citing Gartner’s view that 89% of AI initiatives fail for reasons beyond technology, including “pilot purgatory.” Nav’s maturity approach emphasizes measuring the current state across multiple pillars, including technology, data, customer experience, leadership/strategy, and talent/culture; aligning with business outcomes; upskilling; refining; integrating with governance; tracking meaningful KPIs; and scaling responsibly. He stresses C-suite-led governance, leader engagement in change management, and maintaining customer trust through human oversight of AI-generated content.

Key highlights:

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Resources:

Nav Thethi on LinkedIn

Nav Thethi Website

Nav Thethi podcast-The NavThethi Show

Cracking the Maturity Code with Nav Thethi on YouTube

Innovation in Compliance was recently ranked Number 4 in Risk Management by 1,000,000 Podcasts.

Innovation comes in many areas, and compliance professionals need not only to be ready for it but also to embrace it. Join Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance, as he visits with top innovative minds, thinkers, and creators in the award-winning Innovation in Compliance podcast. In this episode, host Tom Fox visits with energy journalist/publisher Loren Steffy to discuss whether a Trump administration announcement regarding Venezuela is meaningful for oil markets, concluding that it mainly increases uncertainty and is unlikely to drive major U.S. oil-company investment.

They note West Texas shale generally needs about $60 oil to break even, making $50 oil politically and economically problematic. They explain that Venezuela’s heavy crude requires specialized extraction technology and extensive, aging infrastructure upgrades to reach the market, potentially costing billions and taking decades, with some estimates placing Venezuela’s break-even price at $80 or higher. They emphasize governance, corruption, degraded PDVSA human capital, contract enforceability, and unresolved debts (including reported $12B owed to ConocoPhillips) as key barriers, making Venezuela “uninvestible” for most majors and suggesting only high-risk players might consider entry amid unclear U.S. strategy.

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Loren Steffy on LinkedIn

Stoney Creek Publishing 

Innovation in Compliance was recently ranked Number 4 in Risk Management by 1,000,000 Podcasts.

Innovation spans many areas, and compliance professionals need not only to be ready for it but also to embrace it. Join Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance, as he visits with top innovative minds, thinkers, and creators in the award-winning Innovation in Compliance podcast. In this episode,  host Tom visits with Jim Massey about his latest book, Risk in Action: The Leader’s Guide to Act with Clarity.

Jim Massey is a distinguished figure in risk management, known for translating complex ideas into practical strategies that empower business leaders. With a wealth of experience from boardrooms to executive sessions, he is a highly sought-after keynote speaker who enlightens audiences on how to navigate risks in high-pressure situations. Through his books, including his prior work, Trust in Action, Jim champions prioritizing and understanding risks, focusing on critical gaps and opportunities rather than attempting to address all risks equally. He is a proponent of using AI to streamline and revolutionize risk assessment processes, advocating a proactive approach in which leaders view risk as a potential driver of innovation and growth rather than merely a hurdle to overcome.

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Resources:

Jim Massey on LinkedIn

Jim Massey Website

Risk in Action: The Leader’s Guide to Act with Clarity

Innovation in Compliance was recently honored as the Number 4 podcast in Risk Management by 1,000,000 Podcasts

Innovation occurs across many areas, and compliance professionals need not only to be ready for it but also to embrace it. Join Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance, as he visits with top innovative minds, thinkers, and creators in the award-winning Innovation in Compliance podcast. In this episode,  host Tom Fox welcomes Evan Sampson, a noted health care compliance attorney.

Sampson traces his path from commercial litigation to representing healthcare practices on HIPAA/privacy and reimbursement matters, then moving in-house at a network of plastic surgery centers, where he managed compliance focused on fraud, waste, and abuse, and on evolving out-of-network billing rules leading into the No Surprises Act. Sampson explains how compliance programs can create business value beyond risk mitigation by uncovering inefficiencies and opportunities, such as identifying downcoding in medical billing and using complaint investigations to spot growth areas. He describes how his litigation background helps him anticipate how issues will unfold over time in investigations and litigation, thereby improving his credibility with business leaders. They discuss building a culture of compliance in fast-growing healthcare organizations, tracking regulatory changes across primary and secondary sources, and leveraging AI and data analytics to detect claim outliers and strengthen compliance.

Key highlights:

Resources:

Evan Sampson on LinkedIn

Post & Schell

Innovation in Compliance was recently honored as the Number 4 podcast in Risk Management by 1,000,000 Podcasts.

Innovation comes in many areas, and compliance professionals need not only to be ready for it but also to embrace it. Join Tom Fox, the Voice of Compliance, as he visits with top innovative minds, thinkers, and creators in the award-winning Innovation in Compliance podcast. In this episode, host Tom Fox welcomes Tim Khamzin, Founder & CEO of Vivox AI, to discuss building explainable, trusted AI agents for financial crime compliance teams.

Tim describes his background in banking operations automation, including large-scale digital transformation and the development of compliance products, and explains how large language models since 2023–2024 enable the automation of unstructured compliance work without extensive model training. He outlines key challenges in AML/KYC operations—15% of bank headcount tied to compliance, heavy manual repetitive investigations across multiple systems, and cultural resistance to adopting technology.

Tim emphasizes “explainability” through consistent, repeatable investigations with audit logs and screenshots that mirror human workflows, and “trust” through transparency, compliant vendor choices, and clear communication of limitations. Tim introduces Vivox compliance analyst, “Rachel,” a platform of collaborating agents that supports onboarding, customer due diligence, and false-positive reduction, improved via structured human feedback (thumbs up/down) to learn firm-specific standards.

He explains how Vivox stays aligned with evolving regulations by engaging with bodies such as the UK FCA and tracking frameworks such as the EU AI Act and Singapore guidance, with a focus on auditability and explainability. Tim predicts most compliance work will shift to AI agents, with humans handling complex cases and a new role of “compliance engineer” emerging to configure and evaluate agents, alongside industry consolidation and operating-system-style vendor platforms.

Key highlights:

Resources:

Tim Khamzin on LinkedIn

Vivox AI

Innovation in Compliance was recently honored as the Number 4 podcast in Risk Management by 1,000,000 Podcasts.