True North 2026 was shaped by listening.
We asked the ethics and compliance community what mattered most—where the pressure points were, what felt unresolved, and what leaders needed space to think through together. The response was clear. Questions around ethical leadership, culture, decision-making, data, and human behavior weren’t theoretical—they were showing up in daily practice.
This year’s program reflects what we heard.
We brought together leaders, practitioners, and researchers whose experience directly aligns with those priorities—people who are well positioned to lead meaningful discussion and help illuminate what’s emerging for the ethics and compliance function.
Headlining the day: perspectives that frame what’s next
The shared sessions at True North bring the full community together around voices that help frame the big questions facing the field.
Sherron Watkins brings a perspective shaped by lived experience at a defining moment in corporate history, offering insight into ethical courage, accountability, and decision-making before concerns become public crises.
Todd Haugh brings a research-driven lens to how ethical decisions are actually made, connecting behavioral ethics and corporate compliance theory to real-world systems, incentives, and outcomes.
Erica Salmon Byrne brings deep experience helping organizations understand and act on culture, challenging leaders to move from measurement toward insight without eroding trust.
Together, these voices reflect what the community told us it needed most: clarity, perspective, and space to think critically about what’s changing.
Guiding the day: continuity and connection
Throughout the day, Harper Wells, Chief Compliance Officer at Learning Pool, serves as a consistent guide—connecting themes across conversations and helping surface what leaders should be paying attention to.
With more than two decades of experience building and leading global ethics and compliance programs, Harper’s role is to create coherence: helping participants see patterns across perspectives and reflect on what those insights mean for their own organizations.
Learning from people doing the work
The depth of True North comes from the people leading the conversations—practitioners and thinkers whose insight is shaped by real decisions, constraints, and accountability.
You’ll hear from leaders including:
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Joanna Bayron, bringing perspective from large, complex organizations where ethics and compliance must operate at scale.
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Selece Beasley, sharing experience translating compliance data into insight that resonates with senior leadership.
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Elizabeth Class, connecting compliance, sustainability, and organizational responsibility.
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Beth Colling, examining how compliance, legal, and HR intersect in practice and what shared responsibility looks like when organizations respond to real-world issues.
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Taylor Epley, exploring how technology and AI intersect with ethical decision-making in practice.
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Christian Hunt, bringing insight from behavioral science into how organizations understand risk, judgment, and decision-making.
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Kasey Ingram, offering a legal leadership perspective on accountability and alignment.
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Cory MacDonald, sharing insight on ethics and compliance learning in global, frontline environments.
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Jennifer May, focused on clarity, usability, and behavioral design in compliance programs.
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Andrew McBride, drawing on experience leading compliance under regulatory scrutiny.
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Nichole Pitts, exploring culture, trust, and psychological safety.
- Hayley Doorey, sharing how behavioral data helps validate and strengthen communications.
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Courtney Sander, offering an operator’s lens on how ethics and compliance programs evolve in practice.
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Jay Sharp, highlighting how compliance, people, and leadership intersect inside organizations.
Together, these voices reflect the range of perspectives the community asked for—research and practice, reflection and execution—helping illuminate how the ethics and compliance function continues to evolve.
Why this lineup matters
True North reflects a simple commitment: to listen to the ethics and compliance community, take its priorities seriously, and bring together people who can help shed light on what’s changing—and why it matters.
Illuminating the future of ethics & compliance isn’t about predicting what comes next. It’s about gaining clarity in moments of uncertainty—understanding emerging signals, questioning assumptions that no longer hold, and learning from those who have navigated complexity firsthand.
The value of this lineup comes from how these perspectives sit alongside one another. Together, they illuminate a function in motion—helping leaders see patterns, make sense of tension, and carry forward insight they can apply with confidence and clarity.
Join the conversation at True North
Join us on Wednesday, February 11, as we illuminate the future of ethics & compliance together. Learning Pool customers are also invited to an exclusive second day of deeper, in-depth discussions.
