S2E8 | Prioritizing Purpose Over Profit: A Conversation with Michael Williamson of Pacific Dental Services

“I have a passionate belief that...really all businesses have a heart and a soul, and the ethics and compliance function has an essential role in finding them when they are not evident, and exploiting them when they exist. The ethics and compliance function can bring out the best in an organization by tapping into real, core human qualities.”

“The power in leveraging values as a cultural driver and a driver of ethics and compliance, is really to focus on how you are doing what it is you are doing. The behavioral guidance they provide to us are a strategic differentiator for us. Folks can copy what we do, but they can’t copy how we do it.”


Host Dr. Marsha Ershaghi Hames interviews Michael Williamson, chief compliance and chief privacy officer for Pacific Dental Services on this episode of the Principled podcast. Williamson brings experience in the regulatory sector to his role in the private equity healthcare space, and says it can be difficult to square up to regulatory imperatives when a private healthcare organization has a primary focus on profit over purpose. When an organization gets the balance of purpose and profit right, and the business is built on ideals and principles, it becomes easier to get support for ethics and compliance as a business driver, a strategic differentiator, and as a means of engaging employees. 

What You’ll Learn in This Episode
[0:54] Williamson recounts his journey into compliance, and how he found himself shifting into this type of path?

[3:36] How did he transfer his skills from previous roles into his role today with Pacific Dental Services?

[5:56] Does he see ethics and compliance as a potential facilitator to make purpose more actionable and measurable, while meeting regulatory guidelines?

[6:53] How willing does he think the workforce is to share and speak about being a part of culture?

[8:36] Williamson shares a little bit about the values system at Pacific Dental Service?

[12:24] What is his advice to ethics and compliance practitioners that are struggling to build the business case for internal stakeholders that they need to collaborate with?

[14:52] What trends does he forecast in the field over the next five or 10 years?

Find this episode of Principled on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, SoundCloud, Podyssey, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.