SCCE History

The first National Symposium on Corporate Responsibility: Compliance & Ethics Programs was held on November 21-22, 2002, sponsored by the Health Care Compliance Association (HCCA) in association with Microsoft Corporation in Redmond, WA. The conference drew 100 attendees from some of the top corporations in the nation including DuPont, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Amazon.com, Boeing, Starbucks, the University of Texas and many more. The keynote speaker was William C. Powers, Jr. who served as Chairman of the Special Investigative Committee of the Board of Directors of Enron Corporation.

Requests for a second Symposium were answered in 2003. More than 250 attendees filled the room to hear speakers such as James Sheehan, Associate United States Attorney for Civil Programs; Ron James, CEO, Center for Ethical Business Cultures; Honorable Michael E. Horowitz, Commissioner, United States Sentencing Commission; and Colleen Rowley, Special Agent, Federal Bureau of Investigation. Our mission was clear, there needs to be a forum for business professionals working in the compliance and ethics field. A forum to champion compliance standards, corporate governance and ethical practice in the business community and to provide the necessary resources for compliance and ethics professionals and others who share these principles.

Through the years the SCCE continued to evolve.  The association currently offers regional meetings around the US, training academies, and specialized meetings for the energy and higher education communities.  The SCCE has also expanded beyond the US, offering programs in Brazil, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.

In addition, the SCCE, working with the Compliance Certification Board, developed a certification program for compliance and ethics professionals.  To date nearly 1,000 individuals have become Certified Compliance and Ethics Professionals.

To meet the growing demands of members for networking and knowledge sharing, the SCCE has also embraced social media.  An SCCE group can be found on LinkedIn, and SCCE feeds are available on Twitter.  Most importantly, SCCEnet was launched in 2008, providing an online social network, complete with vigorous discussion groups.  SCCEnet is open to anyone interested in participating and has attracted over 5,000 members.

In 2009 SCCE celebrated their 8th Annual CEI in Las Vegas, and despite the dark economic clouds, approximately 500 compliance and ethics professionals were in attendance. SCCE has grown to be the number one resource for compliance and ethics dedicated to advancing quality standards in corporate compliance. With a significant growth SCCE has increased their membership to over 1800 U.S. and International members.

Despite all this change, one thing remains the same:  the SCCE mission to champion ethical practice and compliance standards in the corporate community and to provide the necessary resources for compliance professionals and others who share these principals.