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Doing right daily
Spencer Preis helps Southwire align ethics, governance, and business growth through practical leadership
What’ s the right thing to do?” For Spencer Preis, that question has guided his career. It first took shape during his years as an employment lawyer, where legal decisions carried consequences beyond policies and regulations. Over time, it became the principle behind his approach to risk, compliance, leadership, and business partnerships.
Today, Spencer is Vice President, Associate General Counsel, Deputy Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer, Chief Privacy Officer, and Assistant Corporate Secretary at Southwire Company. He leads ethics and compliance, privacy, trade compliance, governance, entity management, and government affairs for a company powering utility infrastructure, residential and commercial construction, industrial operations, data centers, and EV charging systems.
The scope of the role reflects how legal leaders now sit at the heart of conversations about technology, regulation, trade, reputation, and growth. Spencer connects with teams to understand their goals and helps them move forward while managing risk.
“ One of the guiding principles that I developed was always to ask the question,‘ What’ s the right thing to do? Are we being fair to the parties involved? How would the actions that we’ re going to take be viewed by the various stakeholders if they were made public?’ I’ ve taken that principle to every role I’ ve ever been in. It’ s been a good rule of thumb, asking what’ s the right thing to do, not just what’ s legal and not legal.” It is that principle that has shaped far more than legal advice. It’ s the thread connecting a career built on understanding businesses from the inside out.
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