Simon Scales

Chief Education & Development Officer at Association of Corporate Investigators

Speaker

A highly experienced former senior Regulator and leader in Investigations, Compliance and Governance for over 40 years, Simon’s extensive international corporate experience investigations includes Senior Employee Misconduct, Trauma-Informed Investigations, Bribery, Corruption, Anti-Trust & Competition, AML, Sanctions, Market Abuse and commensurate remedial measures. He is also widely admired within the CSO and CISO community for his groundbreaking activities in the areas of information security management. His decorated expertise in major investigation management demonstrates his proven ability to facilitate consensus through negotiation and collaborate with senior stakeholders across all geographies and sectors. Simon is a strategic thinker with meticulous attention to detail, possesses impeccable and exceptional interpersonal, analytical, written and verbal communication skills, and is an experienced results-focused leader who utilizes a positive, proactive, collaborative and engaged attitude to motivate and drive the development of high-performing teams and individual contributors.

Internationally recognised for his public speaking and chairing credentials, his vast experience is formed from having successfully led, directed and managed investigations across the world, including Europe, North America, China / AsPac, India, LatAm (Mercosur) and the CIS (former Soviet Republics). His experience in significant Corporate Investigations and Security Management draws from his background as a Senior Detective with the Metropolitan Police Service (UK) having studied at the National Crime Faculty. A trained and accomplished Financial Investigator, Advanced Investigative Interviewer and mentor to many investigators, Simon is recognised for his corporate delivery of innovative and dynamic approaches to the world of Fraud, Bribery and Corruption -specifically within the Financial Services, Procurement and Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Customs and Oil & Gas sectors.

Simon demonstrates how businesses can deploy and optimise skilled internal investigative resource, providing value add services within an organisation through the linking of best investigative practice to ethical codes of integrity and conduct, values, and behaviours. He is uniquely experienced in the delivery of ISO37002 and ISO 37008 Gap Analysis, together with QA and QC activities for Whistleblowing and Internal Investigations Standards. His desire is to see the streamlining of investigative activities within embedded operating cultures to reduce the financial and reputational impact of Fraud, Bribery, Corruption and other associated significant reputation and financial risk, having experienced this from both Corporate and Regulatory perspectives.

Simon joined TNT (FedEx) in 2002 and was their Director of Global Investigations, responsible for the direction of investigations into ABC, AML, Fraud, Compliance, Reputational Risk and Governance matters (together with eCrime and Intellectual Property Rights abuse). He moved to BP PLC in 2011 and led their Global Investigations Team, instrumental in developing their fit-for-purpose / robust investigative frameworks and training programmes which have proven to be successful, easily understood and readily applicable in many global jurisdictions. As a UK Regulator from 2017 he worked with the SFO, FCA and other government agencies on high profile public cases before joining Lloyds Banking Group in 2021. A founder member of the Corporate Investigation Council in 2005, Simon is a Board member of the Association of Corporate Investigators (ACi) and is their Chief Education and Development Officer.

His former teams were independently assessed as best in class by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) and Basel Institute of Governance. He is in demand to speak publicly with peers, professionals and those studying on the delivery of value within the areas of Ethics, Integrity, Security, Investigations and Advanced Investigative Interviewing. He is also experienced in corporate security services including Executive Protection, Crisis and Continuity Management, together with enhanced screening and vetting. He also implemented specialist internal M&A investigative due diligence services specifically for the Logistics, Aviation and Oil & Gas sectors.

Educated in the UK, Simon is a Graduate of the University of Nottingham (Business School), a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute, and part of the alumni of the Institute of Professional Investigators, World Association of Professional Investigators, and the Society of Forensic Interviewers. Simon is a visiting lecturer to the University of Portsmouth (Institute of Criminal Justice Studies) and has been published in leading journals, newspapers and international media, including Global Investigations Review, The Times (UK), The Guardian (UK), Le Monde (France), Washington Post (US) and the Law Society (UK). As an author, and having appeared on the BBC and CNN, he has provided editorial content on Fraud, Bribery and Corruption, and has chaired industry recognised conferences and seminars for Pulse, IIR, MIS Training Institute, Jacob Fleming, Lexis Nexis, Informa, Corporate Compliance Exchange and Marcus Evans.