The Society of Corporate Compliance and Ethics surveyed its members in 2009. According to a summary of the findings by John Soriano in Compliance Week, the survey found a plurality (45%) of chief compliance officers reported directly to the CEO. Only 17 percent of the respondents reported to the chief legal officer (See my post of Jan. 20, 2009: reporting lines of compliance function with 11 references.).
Nearly three quarters of the respondents believe that they should report directly to the CEO. It doesn’t surprise me that such a high percentage of believe they should report to the top executive – don’t all functional heads believe that?