Students from the Specialisation Course for Compliance Officers attended an initial special class at this event. The class involved them being spectators at a debate in which seven compliance officers from different companies and solicitor’s offices and a public prosecutor held a debate on the practical details of their daily lives while involved in this new field. 

The participants included Iñaki Larraizar, from Abertis; María José López, from Novartis; José María Salillas and Xavier Fort, from CaixaBank; María José Villoslada, from Grupo Zeta, and Raquel Montaner and Jesús Silva, from Molins&Silva Defensa Penal. Silva was also a moderator at the event, along with José Ramón Agustina, the course director.

The participants in the round table agreed that they had some concerns about this new role in companies, which in some cases could lead to conflict.  According to María José López, from Novartis: “The challenge is how to be efficient and independent at the same time.  In order to be efficient it is necessary to be friendly, however this friendliness could take away some of your efficiency”.

On the other hand, Villoslada, from Grupo Zeta, shared his concerns about the place of a compliance officer in a communications company, where at the moment some issues are not fully regulated, or there is generally not a culture of regulation.

Throughout the debate some questions arose about whether a compliance officer should be a lawyer, and the majority of the speakers responded in the affirmative, after debating the pros and cons.

On the other hand, public prosecutor Óscar Serrano talked about the question of the extent to which Compliance plans in companies are created and regulations are systematised.  All the speakers entered into this debate.

Another issue which caused a debate was the issue of penalising compliance officers for a crime committed by another manager or executive.  The speakers talked about whether this was fair or not.

This event was held to inaugurate the second edition of the Specialisation Course for Compliance Officers. The course provides an in-depth view of the profile of compliance officers during each of the three stages in which the model for the prevention of crimes within companies operates: prevention, detection and reaction to crimes and irregular behaviour.