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Decades ago, while at a bit of a career crossroads, I was thinking of making a dramatic change and moving halfway around the world. I was talking it through with a friend who said that one day he asked himself whether he wanted to have a successful career or an interesting one. He realized that interesting was more important to him. That decision led him from Missouri to New York to Hong Kong, Singapore and Thailand, where he ended up enjoying great success.
Ricardo Weffer, Group Ethics and Compliance Head of Al Dahra, has had a similar career journey that ranged from Venezuela to Dubai with countless points in between.
In this podcast he shares his almost two decades of work in compliance and anticorruption in Latin America, the Middle East, Sub-Saharan Africa, Central Europe and Asia. A lawyer by training, he has worked in energy, banking, tobacco, logistics and agriculture.
Despite all this variety, both in geography and industry, he shares that there are professional commonalities wherever he has gone. These include great compliance and business leaders who stand for what is right and are willing to fight for it. He has also found, happily, that, no matter what the industry, companies are mostly made up of real, hard-working, well-intentioned people driven by values who want to do the right thing.
What wisdom does he have for those thinking of having a global career? He offers three pieces of advice:
- Be adventurous and open to new experiences.
- Be willing to be taught.
- Enjoy it. Working and living abroad can be tough, but the rewards are worth it.
Listen in to learn more, including some inspiring words about the impact of compliance professionals.