Confidence in business continues to erode amid corporate scandals linked to environmental negligence, social misconduct and governance/ethical failures. Besides conducing to fines, legal prosecution and more stringent regulations, there wrongdoings have a direct impact on a company’s reputation and on its license to operate. In the context of its ongoing series on corporate governance, organized in association with Columbia Law School’s Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership, the Santiago Center hosted a seminar in October focusing on reputational risk featuring Gabriel Cecchini, a renowned consultant in corporate governance, ethics and compliance, and Environmental, Social and Governance aspects of business performance (ESG).
Cecchini is ESG Advisor for Latin America at RepRisk AG and Director at ESG Integridad. Previously, he was Director, Integrity & Reputation at Governance Latam and Coordinator of the Center for Governance and Transparency at IAE Business School in Buenos Aires. He is co-author of the recent publication “A Practical Guide for Collective Action against Corruption” (2015) written for the United Nations Global Compact and a contributor to the book "Treatise on Compliance" (Thomson Reuters La Ley, 2018).
During his conference, Cecchini defined reputational risk from a business standpoint and advised how to prevent and address it in case businesses are faced with it. He gave several examples of global companies that had mishandled ESG factors and, as a consequence, faced negative publicity and a hit on their reputation.
You can download Cecchini’s presentation here (in Spanish) and look at the picture gallery here.
