As Leidos’ chief ethics and compliance officer for the past 5 years, Michele Brown built an ethics and compliance program that has been on Ethisphere Institute’s annual list of the World’s Most Ethical Companies four times in a row, including this year.
Key to that, Brown said, was making ethics foundational to the company’s culture. Leidos’ first corporate value is integrity, and the Leidos ethics and compliance program instills this value as the duty and responsibility of every employee, she said.
In her 14 years — 20 including as outside counsel — Brown has led many of Leidos’ most significant legal matters and overseen countless investigations.
“Every day for the last 14 years, all I’ve wanted to do is add value and make an impact,” she said.
All of this influenced Brown’s decision to accept an acting general counsel role for Leidos’ $2 billion health business in December 2020, while still maintaining leadership of the ethics and compliance function. Brown took on the health group role permanently in March.
Why Watch
Brown now has an even greater platform to bring to the forefront her enterprise perspective and focus on integrity and inclusion. She has focused her efforts on anticipating and mitigating risk and discovering new avenues for growth.
“As a strategic partner to group President Liz Porter, my role is to provide sound legal leadership for every aspect of the business,” Brown said.
She has a full docket in 2021. The business is ramping up the Military and Family Life Counseling program contract, continuing to support rollout of the military’s new electronic health record for the Defense Department and is navigating a series of recompetes, takeaway bids and award protests.
Read the rest of the “Top 15 General Counsels to Watch in 2021” list here.