Debra Sabatini Hennelly
Founder & Senior Advisor of Compliance & Ethics Solutions LLC
Debbie Hennelly founded Compliance & Ethics Solutions in 2004. She has spent more than 25 years developing and implementing compliance and ethics programs for organizations, ranging from small companies to some of the largest multinationals.
Debbie brings both her legal expertise and engineering background to creating practical approaches for compliance and ethics risk assessment and management, “right-sized” and integrated into an organization’s operations and culture. She especially enjoys creating and leading interactive training and writing codes of conduct to help organizations create and sustain a “speaking up” culture and a commitment to ethical leadership.
In addition to her work with CES’ clients, Debbie has worked on both sides of the client/vendor relationship in the compliance and ethics field. She has held senior in-house roles in public and private companies, as well as working in two ethics and compliance specialty vendor companies. She spent more than 10 years in legal and compliance roles in AT&T, Lucent Technologies, Avaya, BP and Avon Products, with responsibilities ranging from implementing environmental and safety management systems to leading global compliance and ethics programs. She also advised other multinational companies on compliance and ethics program implementation while serving as vice president and general counsel of Integrity Interactive and as a senior knowledge leader with LRN.
Debbie also served as general counsel and chief compliance officer for two privately-owned chemical companies, Sonneborn and PeroxyChem, during transitional years for both companies, reporting directly to their CEOs, collaborating with and advising other members of their senior management teams and meeting quarterly with their Boards of Directors.
At the beginning of her legal career, Debbie spent 5 years in law firms, practicing environmental law with Bryan Cave in Washington, DC, and with Riker Danzig in New Jersey.
Prior to practicing law, she was a civil/environmental engineer and supervised construction for Exxon Company, USA.
Debbie has written and lectured extensively on compliance, ethics and leadership issues. She also served as adjunct faculty for BP for almost 2 years, periodically facilitating small-group learning in ethical leadership.
She is a past Chair of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s Environmental Law Committee and past Assistant Chair of ACC-Europe’s Compliance & Ethics Committee. She served on the Alumni Council of the University of Virginia School of Law and is currently a member of its Alumni Association Advisory Committee.
Debbie earned her B.S.E. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Duke University, and she received her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.
