The 2023 Rising Stars of the Profession: Laura Greenman

Laura Greenman, a Managing Director with StoneTurn, brings over ten years of public and forensic accounting, in-house and consulting financial services experience. Laura specializes in implementing and testing the internal control framework and compliance programs of large financial institutions and corporations and advising companies on how to remediate and enhance compliance programs to prevent and detect fraud and ethical misconduct. Laura has deep monitorship experience, having led many of StoneTurn's largest and most complex monitorship engagements. She is highly skilled in the assessment of compliance programs and internal controls, and advises companies on how to remediate and enhance compliance programs to prevent and detect fraud. She also worked with companies to help in identifying material risks, developing risk responses and remediating control deficiencies. Laura's experience also includes performing forensic accounting investigations and assisting counsel with accounting and auditing matters and has supported investigations and litigation matters, including in the areas of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and False Claims Act (FCA). She joined StoneTurn in 2016 from Goldman Sachs, where she worked as a Legal Entity Controller focused on financial and regulatory reporting. Earlier in her career, she worked in the Financial Services Assurance practice for a Big Four firm.

What would you say has been the biggest factor in your success so far?

The biggest factor in my success is my ability to have an open mind in how I approach different engagements and tasks, and learn from others in identifying new ways of working. I keep an open mind in how I lead my engagements in order to develop the best tailored approach for the client, adding the most value and helping them to develop sustainable methods and achieve their desired outcome and improvement in their compliance programs. Maintaining an open mind and working proactively to identify what is best for the client has helped my clients to be successful in achieving their goals. Consulting is never a one size fits all industry and being able to adapt my approach for my clients has enabled me to help them solve various complex problems.

What do you enjoy most about your career in the consulting industry?

I enjoy my career in the consulting industry as it enables me to continuously learn as I take on new challenges and work with professionals with such different backgrounds and perspectives. These challenges allow me to grow and develop new ways of thinking and approaching projects. I especially like problem-solving and helping clients in identifying the root cause of their issue and developing the best approach to mitigating their risk, implementing correcting actions and seeing the tangible value added.

Working with others in the consulting industry allowed me to learn from a wide array of talented experts from all different fields which broadened my understanding not only across my clients' industries but also across the ways different people approach problems. I've learned so much from working with my consulting colleagues who bring their backgrounds as former lawyers, economists, prosecutors, and compliance and risk professionals as well as my clients who bring their own expertise and background.

What is your proudest achievement to date?

My proudest achievement to date is helping a client to see the benefit of developing and implementing an effective risk assessment across the global firm and having them truly understand the value added in being able to proactively identify and respond to their risks. I'm proud of this achievement because I spent dedicated time embedded in the client's risk department and it enabled me to extend my knowledge and skills in helping them solve complex problems that arrive with these type of large transformations across their regions and businesses. I worked with my team to embed the new solutions into the business and proactively identify risks. The most rewarding part of this achievement was having the business leaders understand how proactive risk identification can help them avoid large negative risk events and improve their overall operations and bottom line.