Her Story
About Ronna
I've been working in compliance for just under a year now, after what I'd call an industry pivot from international relations into business law. I started my career after my undergraduate degree in international relations, interning with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and completing a program with the UNITAR UN Institute of Training and Development, where I gained skills in multilateral diplomacy, negotiation, and mediation. While I really liked working in international relations, I wanted to narrow my scope, so I pursued a master's degree in business law. After completing my master's, I decided to focus on compliance and started working in Ghana, West Africa, at a law firm doing compliance work for about 5 months. Then I moved to America and have been working with ACA Compliance for the past 5 months. My main area of expertise is regulatory compliance, which is primarily risk-based work. I help clients with their compliance needs across different risk areas, whether it's rules pertaining to marketing risks, insider trading, communications review, or books and records requirements. We make sure companies maintain the proper books and records so they can pass investigations by regulatory bodies. It's mainly prophylactic and risk-based work, as opposed to sanctions-based, which is what regulators handle.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Ronna
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to having confidence in myself and trusting the process, especially as a Black woman. I've learned that imposter syndrome is natural - everyone walks through the door not knowing what they're doing - but you have to be confident not necessarily in your abilities right now, but in the fact that you're going to go from knowing nothing to knowing something. It's about trusting the process. As a Black woman, this can be harder because you have to intrinsically have that confidence. It's more difficult to find mentors who can pull that out of you because they need to see it in you first, and sometimes people might not underestimate you, but they just look at you and think you might be capable without expecting you to operate at that higher level. So I've learned to have high standards for myself and the confidence that I can get to that high standard - the only thing between where I am now and that high standard is time and work. You'll definitely go through moments when things don't work out, but having confidence in the fact that there's progress with a capital P, that you'll get to where you need to get to, and having the highest standards you can for yourself even if you don't get to it - I think that's the most important thing.
02What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I'm very passionate about the educational system and how it works for women in general, specifically Black women. I think it's really important that as time goes by and the world becomes more competitive, we don't allow productivity to outpace the idea of equity and equality. We're becoming a very results-driven society, and sometimes when we push for results, we do it in a way that ignores how inequality festers - whether it's through how school systems operate or even in companies where what we feed to AI is biased, so what we produce with AI becomes very biased. I'm also passionate about creating opportunities for talented young people to be invested in, which is why I helped found Top Dreamers NGO in Ghana. We targeted kids in universities who had the educational background or were interested in getting it, but probably didn't have all the industry know-how or the hands-on material investment. Whether it was in tech, music, sports, or finance, I believe in giving young people the tools and knowledge they need to succeed, not just the theoretical knowledge but understanding how to operate a business and be employable in their chosen industry.
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