Debra Sabatini Hennelly advises executives and boards on enhancing organizational resilience by creating cultures of integrity, innovation, and inclusion. Her methodology engages stakeholders directly to manage ethical, compliance, and ESG risks and opportunities, integrating those insights into operations and culture.
Debbie is an adjunct professor in Fordham University Law School's Program on Corporate Ethics and Compliance, a Master of Legal Studies (MLS) program. She also coaches ethics and compliance professionals, helping them lead effectively and develop strategies for personal resilience.
For more than 25 years, Debbie has been creating innovative approaches to managing compliance and fostering ethical leadership—from boardrooms to break rooms—with organizations ranging from small entities to some of the largest multinationals. Grounded in her engineering and law degrees, Debbie’s pragmatic approach is informed by decades of corporate leadership, C-suite, and consulting roles in compliance and ethics, legal, environment and safety, and strategic management. Her passions for learning, teaching, and "connecting the dots" fuel her ability to inspire authenticity, engagement, and accountability.
Debbie co-authored the article, “Resilient Organizations Make Psychological Safety a Strategic Priority,” for Harvard Business Review (August 2022). She has been interviewed on several podcasts, writes on several platforms, and frequently speaks at conferences (SCCE, NABCRMP, ECI, NSCP, PLI, NACD, others). She is also the author of the book, "Presence in Chaos - 365 Mindful Moments." (PresenceInChaos.com).
Debbie founded Resiliti in 2004 (originally, as Compliance & Ethics Solutions), to provide consulting services and experiential learning, with a focus on values-based codes of conduct and holistic risk management. With her talented colleagues and comprehensive suite of services, they help bring to life organizational values and a culture that supports the ideas, perspectives, courage, and dignity of each individual in a team and across an organization.
She has served as adjunct faculty for BP, facilitating small-group workshops in ethical leadership, as well as leading interactive learning for other organizations with their employees, managers, senior executives, and board directors.
Debbie has also served as general counsel and chief compliance officer for two chemical companies, Sonneborn and PeroxyChem, reporting to their CEOs and meeting quarterly with their Boards of Directors. Earlier in her career, Debbie spent more than ten years in legal and compliance leadership roles in AT&T, Lucent Technologies, Avaya, BP, and Avon Products. Her experience holding senior in-house roles in public and private companies, as well as working in two ethics and compliance service providers, has enabled her to acquire an uncommon perspective from both sides of the client/vendor relationship.
Prior to her corporate experience, Debbie practiced law with two major law firms in Washington, DC, and New Jersey. Before practicing law, Debbie was a civil and environmental engineer, supervising construction for Exxon.
Debbie earned her B.S.E. in Civil/Environmental Engineering from Duke University and her J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law.
