DEI Backlash, Executive Orders, and When “Tone at the Top” Needs Resources

Welcome to a revamped Everything Compliance. Host Adam Turteltaub and panelists Karen Moore, Matt Kelly, Rebecca Walker, and Jonathan Armstrong discuss compliance issues spanning DEI, executive orders, leadership support, and new EU sustainability rules.

• Karen Moore reviews rapid corporate reversals on DEI and cites a Stanford/UC Berkeley study, “Markets Do Not Punish Firms for Maintaining DEI”.
• Matt Kelly uses the “Lake Ontario to Lake America” renaming to argue executive orders aren’t laws binding companies and that choosing to comply reflects corporate values and policy-override decisions.
• Rebecca Walker argues “tone at the top” is insufficient without resources and real trade-offs, citing NAVEX data on gaps between encouraging, modeling, and persisting in ethics under pressure.
• Jonathan Armstrong outlines a new EU law limiting the destruction of unsold apparel and footwear, along with practical compliance steps.

The members of Everything Compliance are:

• Rebecca Walker – a top legal mind in ethics and compliance. Woody can be reached at the law firm of Kaplan and Walker.
• Matt Kelly – Founder and CEO of Radical Compliance. Kelly can be reached at mkelly@radicalcompliance.com
• Jonathan Armstrong – a UK colleague and an experienced data privacy/data protection lawyer in London. He can be reached at Armstrong@puntersouthall.law.
• Karen Moore, a principal at Sounding Board Compliance, can be reached at moore@soundingboardcompliance.com

The award-winning Everything Compliance is a part of the Compliance Podcast Network.

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