Starting Out Remotely: a Q&A With Signify Health’s Compliance Chief

A lawyer by training, she has spent a significant amount of her career in the healthcare industry. At Signify, she will help lead the company’s compliance risk management team, which consists of three other people overseeing internal controls and training as well as driving technology initiatives.

The company said it had about 2,200 employees, with 2,100 working full-time, according to its annual report filed in March. Signify filed to go public in January and together with Ms. Kelly’s hiring, they also hired a chief growth officer.

The Wall Street Journal spoke with Ms. Kelly, who is based in Richmond, Va., and plans to travel to Signify’s offices regularly, about her new position and breaking into a new role remotely. Edited excerpts follow.

WSJ: This is your first job as a compliance officer. What attracted you to the compliance field?

Ms. Kelly: The skill set I learned as a lawyer over the 20 years is very applicable to this role. The space that I was in is extremely applicable to Signify and its customers as well, so I have that view of the regulatory landscape that we are operating in. I’ve really enjoyed digging into complex business processes and working with the business team to develop processes and strategies that allow the business to reach their goals, but also to do it in a compliant manner.

By understanding Signify’s business processes, I’ll be able to assist in the development of processes and strategies that can lead to practical and compliant business solutions. I’ve had the opportunity to really work with individuals who are leaders in legal compliance, even [in] their respective business fields. And I’m really excited to bring all those learnings and experiences to the role here at Signify.

WSJ: What was it like to be onboarded as CCO remotely?

Ms. Kelly: It’s been busy. But I’m enjoying it so far. I think compliance is a companywide responsibility, which all our employees here have a role to play in. There is a compliance program in place. But building upon that, I’m working with an experienced team of compliance and legal and government affairs professionals already. I’ve been meeting the business team as well, doing these kinds of meetings virtually. I’ll be working together with them to develop processes and strategies to implement.

I do think that we will be back in the office at some point soon, and I also plan to be there in person to meet people as a follow-up to our kind of virtual sessions. And I plan to continue to do that regularly.

I’m going to be based remotely, but I will be in the office regularly. I think visibility is important, but I think we do have an open culture here. And we have multiple channels through which people can report complaints [including hotlines for employees to reach out if they have any concerns]. So, we investigate those complaints, no matter which channel we received them through.

WSJ: What are some of your priorities as you start?

Ms. Kelly: I anticipate leveraging technology and developing processes and potentially mitigating risk, and I think that will really help Signify scale as the organization grows.

As the organization grows, our compliance program will evolve, which I’m excited to be part of, and that will include continued development and implementation of policies and procedures that align our business to the applicable regulations and legal requirements.

I think ethics can play an important role in organizational decision-making. Both ethics and the values of an organization can inform that process, in particular where there’s not clear legal guidance or regulations, I think it should be part of the conversation.

Write to Mengqi Sun at [email protected]