ECEI in Berlin

The 14^th Annual European Compliance & Ethics Institute was held in Berlin, Germany from March 2-4, 2026, at the JW Marriott.  It had been a while since I gave a presentation at an SCCE conference, and I looked forward to reconnecting with old friends and meeting new ones.   The biggest challenge was selecting which concurrent sessions to attend, when there were so many great presentations during each time slot.

The conference began with a keynote presentation by Piergiorgio Pepe, CEO of Quantum Ethics, entitled – “Ethical Leadership in a Negotiable World”.  Piergiorgio gave an overview of bad ethics stories ranging from the Ford Pinto’s 1970’s exploding gas tank scenario to Boeing’s more recent troubles.  He posed the question – “How do you embed ethical thinking into your product development?” and discussed the “3 V’s” of ethical leadership – “Values, Voice, and Vision”.

One major theme during the workshop was the impact that Artificial Intelligence is having on the world of compliance and ethics. Susan Dubecker’s (Microsoft) – “AI Preparation, Planning and Implementation: How to Build a Robust Program of Both Gen AI and RAI”, did an excellent job explaining this and discussed how phishing wasn’t a risk – it’s an exploit. 

While AI was a recurring theme, other topics were also discussed.  My session – “Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast: How to ‘Pump Up’ Your Organization’s Ethical Muscle Memory” reviewed: 

1. the elements of culture (shared values, tone of the organization, organizational justice and willingness to bring bad news forward),
2.  the regulatory and business case to be made for promoting an ethical culture, and
3.  how to reinforce and improve it with storytelling.

Jonathan Armstrong interviewed Mary Shirley about her career in compliance.  She underscored the importance of learning the culture of other countries you’re operating in to ensure employees are in compliance. She discussed the protocol of giving a “red envelope” at New Years and a “white envelope” at funerals. Mary gave her 3 top tips for compliance teams:

1. Compliance teams need to be moral leaders holding themselves to higher standards,
2. Hire people with diverse backgrounds – not just a “mini-me”.
3. Have fun.

Christian Hunt (Founder, Human Risk) and Nadege Rochel (Healthcare Compliance Director) discussed “Behavioral Science and Compliance: The Perfect Match”.   They started with a comedic introduction to overcompliance in training dealing with receiving a $0.29 pen, and the fun didn’t stop after that.

There were dozens of sessions to choose from, and the conference planning committee did an excellent job in putting the program together.  These conferences don’t just offer learning opportunities – they’re a great way to expand your network and make new friends.  Our ethics and compliance community is so friendly and willing to share their knowledge and passion, all attendees should make the effort to make new contacts. The Berlin conference facilitated this with a “Speed Networking” session on the second day.  

In addition to the conference, I was able to spend some time exploring Berlin.  I spent my last afternoon there on a 3-hour walking tour visiting such sites as the Brandenburg Gate, remnants of the Berlin Wall, and the car park that sits above Hitler’s former bunker.  The only let-down was “Check Point Charlie”.  I’d seen it portrayed in movies like “Bridge of Spies” and “Atomic Blonde” and imagined it as a formidable structure used to exchange prisoners between East and West Berlin.  Instead, it looked more like a toll both, which acted as a “photo-op” for tourists.

Overall – an excellent conference I was happy to attend and hope to see others at future meetings.