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Timestamps:

1. Investment in education: 4:15
2. Stepping through the door: 7:48
3. The guacamole party: 13:20
4. Moving the needle: 14:05
5. End-to-end service: 17:03
6. Dealing with the data: 20:40
7. Solving a problem like Excel: 22:44
8. The new history of the CCO: 29:35
9. Bold investment = growth: 39:15
10. The risk pays off: 42:58

The CEO Making Compliance Exciting

Forget what you know about compliance. Fast, exciting and futuristic, ComplySci CEO Amy Kadomatsu is making it fun to keep the rules.

When you make it easy for businesses to be compliant, you’ll end up getting hugged by your customers. Not something that happens everyday, but proof that Amy is making a tangible difference in the fintech compliance space.

But despite her huge success and skyhigh trajectory, there are plenty of days she pinches herself to check it’s all real. As the daughter of Japanese immigrants who invested heavily in her education and cultural grounding, the course of her life seemed settled in her LA hometown.

“I fully believe there are people who can change the trajectory of your life as you go along and it’s about being open and accessible to them and taking advantage of how that opens the aperture”

And that’s what happened when a school visitor suggested Amy head to the East Coast to continue her education, rather than stick closer to home.

For Amy the belief that you can help change people’s lives has become something of a motto to live by and she feels the weight of responsibility, in helping others to unlock their own potential.

Creating Frictionless Compliance

Compliance as a box-checking exercise is a myth Amy is keen to dispel. At its heart, compliance is about creating equity, fairness and protecting employees and customers. It’s why Amy helped create ComplySci’s three core values:

• How can I help?
• Team before ego
• Hungry for more

And the common theme that runs through all these values is a desire to work together, leaving ego at the door. 

“We know that if you have a ton of smart people in the room, if you come together to singularly focus on outcomes there’s nothing we can’t accomplish. We can run through walls.”

Creating end-to-end solutions for clients’ compliance needs has become ComplySci’s superpower. Offering software, consulting services, cyber security and education, ComplySci’s three company acquisitions in two months has allowed it to offer the full package. 

Making life easier for COOs and Compliance Officers is at the heart of the company’s drive and Amy recognizes the challenge faced by  those working in the space, handling large volumes of data. With many officers and COOs still working at home, the challenge is even greater post-pandemic particularly in the onboarding procedure.

“If we can deliver experience and software, and bundle that with data and education on top of that we can be an incredible compliance powerhouse.”

Kicking Imposter Syndrome to the Curb

Imposter syndrome isn’t just the realm of women CEOs, Amy believes anyone can fall victim to it at any time. It was a lesson delivered early on during her time at business school in New York and led to a career defining aha moment.

Feeling young, inexperienced and out of place she fell into conversation with a peer who seemed to have it all figured out. When her colleague turned the tables, revealing her own insecurity over the “the young gun. Blazing the trail, this person’s going to take over my job”, the pieces fell into place and she hasn’t looked back.

When anxiety and stress does come knocking, Amy recommends always taking an hour from your day to something positive for your body and your mind. For her that’s Soul Cycling, dance and music but whatever you do, except a spark of creativity that follows time spent acting out self-care.

A Bright Future For ComplySci

Bigger and brighter – if you were going to pick two adjectives to describe how Amy sees the future of her company, these two fit the bill.

Her vision is startlingly straightforward, to bring together the acquired companies that make up ComplySci to: “Bring huge innovations that make compliance officers’  lives better, help them sleep better at night and truly be their partners.”

Internally, she sees her role continuing to deliver equity in the boardroom, inspiring the next generation of C-suite executives and enjoying her spontaneous karaoke sessions.

Follow Amy:

Twitter:  twitter.com/amyk1313

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/amykado

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