José R. Hernandez

José R. Hernandez

My mission is to inspire leaders to lead in a disrupted world, re-inventing themselves, learning from scandals and history.

José R. Hernandez has worked on large fraud, bribery and money laundering cases across the globe. He is a visionary entrepreneur, investing in start-ups and helping organizations deal with disruptive forces facing the world.

His two decades of experience have taught him that no business is immune from the possibility of an existential crisis. He believes that corporate misconduct is inevitable, but scandal is not. At the core of his practice, José works to identify the deep causes of misconduct and tackle them head on before they escalate into scandal, to protect both a company’s reputation and its bottom line.

José is active in global governance discussions in Latin America, Europe, and North America. He comments in Spanish and English as an international expert on ethics and innovation, corruption and money laundering and the future of business and leadership.

Keynotes by José R. Hernandez

• Cheating, Disruption, and Imagination: How to Tackle the Future
• Crime, Scandal, and Ethics: How to fix a Broken Business
• Crime, Scandals and Responsible Leadership: The Corruption ABC’s
• Broken Business: 7 Steps to Reform Good Companies Gone Bad

José is also available to do workshops or as a chairman for the day.

Background of dr. José R. Hernandez

Dr. José R. Hernandez has a remarkable personal story. José grew up in El Salvador during the country’s civil war. He experienced the devastating impact of corruption first hand when his father’s company was forced into bankruptcy by bribery demands. His family faced threats of violence by the warring political factions. The Hernandez family were lucky. They emigrated to Canada, where they found both safety and opportunity.

Witnessing the effects of rampant corruption on his homeland shaped José from an early age and fostered a life-long commitment to fighting corruption and its ruinous effects on organizations, communities, and society at large.

Business career
He started his career at PwC, working in Canada, the United States, Cuba and The Netherlands. In Canada, José served as Independent Expert advising the Board of SNC-Lavalin in the wake of its landmark corruption matter. In Europe, he has served as deputy on a major FCPA monitorship and supported global organizations such as FIFA, Siemens, Telia, Bilfinger, Ahold, Ericsson, and Daimler. In 2008, José joined forces with former FBI Director Louis Freeh to establish a new firm focused on corporate investigations and remediation, FGI Europe (now Ortus Strategies AG).

José works with governments and the accounting profession as a vocal advocate for policies that promote ethical business, protection of whistleblowers, and the fight against dirty money. Since 2016, he has served on the Government of Canada’s Advisory Committee on Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing. In 2021, he testified before British Columbia’s Cullen Commission on money laundering. He is a member of the President’s International Advisory Board at the University of Waterloo and its Advisory Council at the School of Accounting and Finance.

Teacher
He teaches at Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam, where he ran a lecture series on Crime, Scandals and Ethics. He has also lectured at research institutions in Canada, Sweden, the UK, El Salvador, and Switzerland. He recently lectured at IMD’s High Performance Board program on the subject of Cheating, Disruption, and Imagination. He is faculty for ESG programs with Competent Boards.

Dr. Hernandez invests in start-ups and culture initiatives. He advocates for effective higher education of the next generation of leaders and supports efforts to improve mental health in children. He is currently serving as non-executive director at Kelvin Thermal Energy.

Author
His approach to improving organizational conduct and rehabilitation is documented in the book Broken Business: Seven Steps to Reform Good Companies Gone Bad, published by Wiley (2018) and translated into Dutch, German, and Korean.

Education

José holds an Honours Bachelor of Mathematics (B.Math) and Master of Accounting (M.Acc) degrees from the University of Waterloo. His doctoral dissertation is titled Principles, Processes, and Practices of Fraud Prevention, leading to a Ph.D. in Economics and Business Administration at VU Amsterdam. He is a Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA-CA, Ontario), Certified Public Accountant (CPA, Delaware), and Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Interested in a keynote by dr. José R. Hernandez or do you have any questions?

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