Nicholas Johnson
Ethics, Compliance & AI Governance Leader | MS, CCEP
Dynamic leader building high-integrity compliance programs, strengthening governance frameworks, guiding internal investigations, and advancing responsible AI adoption across complex organizations.
About
Nicholas Johnson (MS, CCEP) is a compliance and ethics leader with experience advancing enterprise integrity, regulatory risk management, investigations, policy governance, and culture-building initiatives.
His work spans program design, operational execution, leadership advisory, and cross-functional partnership with legal, HR, internal audit, security, and business teams. He brings a practical leadership style grounded in sound judgment, clear communication, and scalable governance.
In addition to core ethics and compliance leadership, he has contributed to enterprise AI governance efforts, supported responsible AI policy development, and helped drive internal AI capability-building across legal and risk functions.
Education & Credentials
Master of Science in Management & Leadership
Western Governor’s University
Bachelor of Science in Management
Cardinal Stritch University
CCEP (Certified Compliance & Ethics Professional)
Society of Corporate Compliance & Ethics (SCCE)
Experience
Director, Head of Ethics & Integrity Managment
TTEC Holdings, Inc.
May 2023 - Present
Nicholas leads global ethics and compliance strategy for a 52,000-person customer experience organization, with a focus on governance maturation and responsible innovation. His role is to build the infrastructure that enables a global workforce to operate with clarity, accountability, and integrity.
He established a compliance architecture aligned to the Department of Justice Evaluation of Corporate Compliance Programs (ECCP), with particular emphasis on accountability and investigations.
Nicholas oversees a global ethics reporting helpline, conducts sensitive investigations involving executive-level personnel, and partners directly with the General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, Audit Committee, and Chief Risk Officer to translate risk into board-ready metrics and strategic recommendations.
Nicholas' primary strategic initiative is responsible AI governance and adoption. He participate in a weekly Responsible AI Council with Risk and Legal teams to evaluate AI adoption across the organization—positioning it not as a compliance constraint but as a strategic enabler. This includes drafting steering principles, designing governance frameworks, and promoting AI skill-building across the organization. He works directly with business and legal leadership to operationalize responsible AI practices in high-impact use cases.
Nicholas also lead enterprise ethics & compliance risk assessments, corporate policy and Ethics Code architecture, and serves as an executive partner to HR on global compliance and integrity issues. The through-line: governance that scales, board partnership that is substantive, and responsible innovation as a competitive advantage.
Senior Manager, Ethics & Compliance Program
Workday
June 2022 - November 2022
Nicholas revised and updated global compliance policies across employee, partner, and supplier codes of conduct, ensuring alignment with evolving international regulatory requirements (FCPA, UK Bribery Act, gifts and hospitality, conflicts of interest, hotline management, DOJ/FSG guidelines). He also executed the Integrity Week campaign and communications strategy.
Manager, Ethics & Compliance Training
Adobe
September 2021 - June 2022
Nicholas owned compliance training as a core risk management control area, designing policies, standards, and curriculum aligned to regulatory requirements and organizational risk profile. The approach: treat training not as awareness-building, but as a strategic control that integrates adult learning best practices with regulatory rigor.
He designed curriculum spanning conflicts of interest, gifts and hospitality, code of conduct, anti-bribery and corruption (FCPA, UK Bribery Act), hotline protocols, DOJ/FSG guidance, and SEC requirements. Nicholas also managed delivery and effectiveness assessments, ensuring that training was retained and applied—not simply completed.
This experience reinforced a core principle: compliance architecture includes controls beyond policies and procedures. It includes how employees understand and internalize their role in governance.
Senior Analyst, Ethics & Compliance
JetBlue
January 2018 - September 2021
Nicholas helped build JetBlue's ethics and compliance program from inception, establishing governance infrastructure for a 23,000-person public company (NASDAQ: JBLU). This role shaped his foundational approach: program architecture matters more than operational overhead.
Nicholas designed scalable frameworks across code of conduct (developed in-house, cost-neutral), ethics hotline operations, conflicts of interest management, and anti-bribery and corruption aligned to FCPA, UK Bribery Act, and DOJ/FSG guidelines. He also managed the insider trading prevention program for a public company, navigating SEC requirements and related persons transaction reporting with precision.
The program's relationship with the Board Audit Committee became foundational to his leadership philosophy. At JetBlue, Nicholas prepared quarterly compliance metrics, annual program assessments, and strategic updates on emerging risk, supporting senior leadership and the Audit Committee's oversight of compliance maturity and regulatory trends.
This role demonstrated that program maturity doesn't require complexity. It requires clarity, accountability, and systems thinking.
Foundational Regulatory Expertise: From Frontline Operations to Governance
August 2012 - January 2018
Nicholas built foundational expertise in frontline operations and regulatory compliance, progressing from flight attendant through regulatory specialization. This arc shaped how he designs compliance programs: they must account for the realities of an entire enterprise, including the frontline and operations.
Flight Attendant | Compass Airlines (Aug 2012 – Oct 2014): Managed passenger safety and service delivery in a federally regulated role, gaining direct exposure to how compliance requirements affect day-to-day operations.
Instructor / Curriculum Developer | Compass Airlines (Oct 2014 – Dec 2014): Developed and delivered FAA-compliant training programs for crewmembers, collaborating with subject matter experts on effective learning design.
Specialist, Inflight Policy and Compliance | Compass Airlines (Jan 2015 – Jul 2015): Managed FAA, DOT, and DOD regulatory alignment for inflight operations, conducting audits and collaborating with vendors, union representatives, and corporate leadership.
Analyst, Inflight Regulatory Standards | JetBlue (Aug 2015 – Jan 2018): Developed compliance policies for 4,800+ inflight personnel, ensuring multi-jurisdictional regulatory alignment (FAA, DOT, DOD, IATA/IOSA, OSHA, ADA). He administered a fatigue risk management program that reduced fatigue-coded callouts by 40%—demonstrating that compliance, when designed thoughtfully, improves both safety and operational efficiency.
This foundation is critical to how Nicholas leads today: he understands how policy translates to the frontline, and designs compliance systems accordingly.
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© 2026 Nicholas Eric Johnson. All rights reserved.
Opinions expressed on this site are my own and may not necessarily reflect those of any past, current, or future employer or affiliated organization. I do not speak on behalf of any organization named on this site.