Lee Augsburger Chief Business Ethics and Compliance Officer Prudential Financial

The Law, Compliance, Business Ethics & External Affairs Department at Prudential Financial, Inc. [NYSE:PRU] recently hosted a diversity event to encourage minority lawyers, accountants and other professionals to consider careers in the corporate compliance and business ethics fields.

“Most of us who work in corporate compliance and business ethics have gotten here by accident rather than design,” Lee Augsburger, chief business ethics and compliance officer at Prudential, told more than 200 participants at the seminar – A Career in Compliance: Past, Present and Future. “But it’s an engaging, gratifying profession that is fast becoming quite popular.”

Augsburger cited a U.S. News & World Report statistic that ranked compliance officer fourth on its list of “Best Business Jobs” in 2013. And according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the ethics profession is expected to grow an average of about 15 percent through 2020.  “Clearly, there is significant opportunity in this career,” Augsburger said.

Participants also heard from several other Prudential executives and from  Jacqueline Brevard, former chief ethics and compliance officer at Merck & Co. Inc.,  and John Walsh, a partner at Suther, Asbill and Brennan law firm in New York City. Presenters discussed the current status of the profession, roles and responsibilities, and the skills needed to be successful in the business ethics and compliance positions.   

Many of the participants were members of the National Association of Black Accountants, the National Black MBA Association, the National Association of Hispanic MBAs, the Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting, the Garden State Bar Association, the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, the Asian Pacific American Lawyers Association, and the Asian American Bar Association of New York.

Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), a financial services leader with approximately $1.060 trillion of assets under management as of December 31, 2012, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Prudential’s diverse and talented employees are committed to helping individual and institutional customers grow and protect their wealth through a variety of products and services, including life insurance, annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds and investment management. In the U.S., Prudential’s iconic Rock symbol has stood for strength, stability, expertise and innovation for more than a century.  For more information, please visit http://www.news.prudential.com/