New Office of Enterprise Risk Management, Ethics and Compliance

December 3, 2013

Dear Rutgers Faculty and Staff:

At today’s Board of Governors meeting, I announced the establishment of the Rutgers Office of Enterprise Risk Management, Ethics and Compliance. To lead this office, I have appointed Ted Brown, former general counsel at UMDNJ and former deputy attorney general for the State of New Jersey.

The establishment of enterprise risk management programs is becoming commonplace as a best practice in higher education; in fact, nine of the schools in the Big Ten Conference have already established such a system. Equally important to note, it was recommended for Rutgers in the report to the Board of Governors prepared by Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom this past summer in the wake of the problems that led to the termination of the former men’s basketball coach. But this is a system that makes sense across all elements of an institution. Enterprise risk management provides a comprehensive early warning system to ensure that senior leaders are apprised of emerging universitywide issues and can take steps to address them. The goal is to break down the silos and establish a universitywide system to recognize potential problems and to take appropriate steps to mitigate and resolve them before they become actual problems.

This office will act separately from any operating departments and with full independence. In addition to enterprise risk management, the office will also be responsible for the university’s compliance and ethics functions. These essential functions—which touch areas across the university including athletics, public safety, student life, academics, research, finance, human resources, facilities, information technology, and data security—have become markedly more complicated by the addition of the medical schools and health-related programs that are now a part of Rutgers. It will be enormously valuable, then, for compliance functions to be unified under one leader and a single point of authority and responsibility. This office will also assume responsibility for compliance with the New Jersey Open Public Records Act.

Ted Brown, our new Senior Vice President and Chief Enterprise Risk Management, Ethics and Compliance Officer, is very well-qualified to establish this program at the university, and I look forward to the many benefits that the office will bring to Rutgers.

Sincerely,

Robert Barchi
President