Governance and Ethics
At ITT, we are firmly committed to doing the right thing, fostering transparency and competing fairly in the marketplace. Grounded in our values of respect, responsibility and integrity, we expect our people, processes, policies and systems to be fair and accountable.
The ITT Values
We're dedicated to respect, responsibility and integrity. Our values look beyond day-to-day business demands to remind us of what is truly important. These values have been embraced by employees globally and integrated into management goals, business plans and employee performance evaluations.
Code of Conduct
ITT's Code of Conduct details our expectations of employees and the processes now in place to promote an ethical culture, including our global commitments to human rights, inclusion and diversity, export compliance and fair competition.
ITT is committed to training employees annually on our core Code of Conduct issues as well as responsible ethical leadership. Members of ITT's Leadership Team regularly speak to employees about ITT's Values and the complexities of global business as well as the need to work within various laws, regulations, and our own Code of Conduct and corporate policies.
Reporting a Concern
ITT is committed to continually enhancing corporate openness and transparency. By doing so, we believe employees will feel more engaged and committed to driving our business success.
We want employees to feel empowered to raise concerns and report suspected wrongdoing. We provide a number of internal resources to employees as well as EthicsPoint, a third-party provider offering 24/7 Web and telephone reporting channels in more than 100 languages. All concerns raised are appropriately reviewed in compliance with ITT policy.
Ethics and Compliance Network
In addition to ITT's corporate resources, all ITT business units are accountable for ethics and compliance program management within their organizations. To that end, each business has an Ethics and Compliance Review Board responsible for reviewing and managing issues raised by employees, as well as oversight of other activities such as training and communications.
We are also working to establish an ombudsperson network across the globe to have additional local resources available to employees in their native language. These ombudspersons will have ethics communications and training responsibilities, provide employees a trusted and confidential source with whom to ask questions and raise concerns, and may perform preliminary investigative work.
Transparent Communications
ITT is committed to clear and transparent communication, and we provide our stakeholders a steady flow of communications about the company's direction, decisions and priorities.
Our Annual Report and other financial filings and presentations are publicly accessible on our website, as are our Code of Conduct and Global Citizenship Report. Our employees are also kept informed through ongoing communications from managers, live "town hall" events and team meetings, our intranet portal, and regular print and electronic newsletters and memos.
Governance Principles
ITT is dedicated to the highest standards of corporate governance and our practices reflect this commitment. The company maintains and makes publicly available its corporate governance principles, charters for the Board of Directors' standing committees, and policies regarding related-party transactions.
Board of Directors
ITT's commitment to the values of Respect, Responsibility and Integrity start with our Board of Directors, who uphold The ITT Way and ensure effective organizational planning, focusing on the areas of strategy and risk management.
The Board of Directors, which represents a diverse group of perspectives and experience, is elected by company shareholders to oversee the actions and results of management, and to act in the best interests of the company and its shareholders.
Board independence is vital. ITT CEO and President Denise Ramos is the only member of company management on the Board, and the Chairman of the Board is an independent director.
Financial, Legal and Regulatory Risk Assessments
ITT performs rigorous risk assessments of our internal controls and has established a Risk Center of Excellence (RCOE) that leverages cross-functional resources, systems and processes to identify, model and mitigate enterprise risk.
The company's Ethics and Compliance team also manages a global legal and regulatory risk assessment process in parallel to the RCOE process, including ongoing monitoring of mitigation plans. These risk assessments inform the annual ethics and compliance training strategies.
Trade Compliance
ITT has a significant global presence and we are committed to international trade compliance. Our fulfillment of these requirements is necessarily dependent on all employees doing their part to ensure their activities and the actions of those with whom they work comport in every way with regulatory requirements. To this end, ITT is dedicated to providing our business units with the guidance, support and resources necessary to comply with ITT's policies and, to the extent necessary, develop their individual international trade compliance programs.