Maureen Brundage, general counsel at The Chubb Corp., sees compliance and ethics as a fast-moving field. Think bribery, economic sanctions, data security, insider trading, unfair trade practices — a dynamic mix of changing laws and jurisdictions.

"Failure to do compliance right … can be the end of a company," Brundage says. "It affects their stock price, it affects morale, it affects other companies’ willingness to do business with them."