Ethics & Compliance Officer Association (ECOA)

The Ethics & Compliance Officer Association (ECOA), formerly known as the Ethics Officer Association, is a nonconsulting, member-driven association established exclusively for individuals (i.e., ethics and compliance officers) who are responsible for their company's ethics, compliance, and business conduct programs. As the first global organization designed to serve the needs and interests of ethics and compliance officers, the ECOA provides training and hosts a variety of conferences and meetings for exchanging best practices. As of February 2006, the ECOA consisted of more than 1,250 members, representing nearly every industry. Member companies include more than half the Fortune 100 conducting business in more than 160 countries. In addition to corporations, ECOA membership includes nonprofit organizations, municipalities, and other organizations. The ECOA is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.

The ECOA was officially launched in 1992. Its establishment was primarily based on two key developments, the Defense Industry Initiative (DII) and the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines for Organizations (Guidelines). First, following allegations of waste and fraud in the U.S. defense industry in the mid-1980s, a blue-ribbon commission concluded that defense [Page 793]contractors must promulgate and enforce codes of ethics that address defense procurement problems and procedures as well as develop and implement internal controls to monitor these codes of ethics. As a result, the DII was created, made up of the largest defense contractors. Together they developed a model for internal ethics and compliance programs that were designed to prevent and detect waste, fraud, and other wrongdoing. The DII also created a network of executives who were responsible for each company's ethics and compliance program.

Following the DII, other companies in other industries also began to reflect on the importance of having an executive responsible for their ethics and compliance programs. The primary reason was the promulgation in November 1991 of the Guidelines. Not only did the Guidelines raise fines for white-collar crimes they also provided a means for greatly reducing these mandatory fines. Under the Guidelines, if a company is determined to have in place an effective program for preventing and detecting wrongdoing, the fine can be reduced by up to 95%. One of the seven minimum elements in the Guidelines for an effective program was for organizations to have someone in place (high-level personnel) to be responsible for the oversight of the program. A sufficient justification for the establishment of a new ethics profession, the ethics officer, and the concomitant need for a networking organization for these professionals, now existed. However, although the DII provided a forum for defense contractors to share best practices, no multi-industry network existed.

The first meeting that led to the creation of the ECOA was held at Bentley College, in Waltham, Massachusetts, in June 1991. The meeting was cohosted by the Center for Business Ethics and the Dreiford Group, with about 30 ethics officers in attendance. The group decided to create a new organization for peer-to-peer discussion, and on June 17, 1992, the ECOA officially filed as a 501(c)(6) nonprofit, Delaware-based corporation. At the time of incorporation, 19 companies were ECOA sponsoring partner members. Although originally named the Ethics Officer Association, the name was officially changed to the Ethics & Compliance Officer Association on January 13, 2006.

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