Dorothy Hoei joined Hempel as Compliance Officer in January 2019. Today, she works at headquarters with the Compliance & CSR team. Dorothy’s work covers many areas, from managing our whistleblower system to answering compliance-related queries from the business. She’s also the person responsible for rolling out the Code of Conduct e-learning course that we all take every year, meaning we all have direct contact with her work.
“I like the fact that at Hempel compliance is under People & Culture. This indicates that management sees compliance as a cultural issue. It’s not just about adhering to legal requirements; it’s also about communicating values and promoting ethical behaviour,” she says.
Learning to ‘fail forward’
Dorothy is excited to be able to develop in her role, both through training and by taking on new tasks and challenges – and she loves the fact that she can take risks at Hempel.
“I really think we’re free to try new things here – and it’s even a safe place to make some mistakes, as long as we fail forward. I have a tendency to focus a little too much on details, and this has held me back in the past. But here, I get ‘stretch’ assignments and my manager helps me keep an eye on the big picture – even if this means sometimes moving at a pace where I don’t have perfect control over every detail. As a result, I’m able to accomplish more, and I feel like I really am making an impact.”
Putting family first
Outside of work, Dorothy’s life revolves around her family, mainly spending time with her husband and their son Wilford, who featured in the People Promise film.
“My son has been to the office a couple of times. He got lucky once and came on a day when the canteen had ice cream,” she says laughing. “And it’s funny. He had already been asking me if he could work at Hempel when he’s older, long before he was invited to join the film.”
A global company that feels like home
As Dorothy says, she is ‘from everywhere’. Raised in the Philippines with an Indian father, she studied law and worked in the US before moving to Denmark in 2012. As a two-time immigrant, she likes the fact that her job is international, giving her the chance to work with colleagues from different cultures and departments. But she also appreciates that Hempel has a family feel, where colleagues know and support each other.
““When I started, I spoke to someone who had worked here before and she said, “Hempel has over 7,500 people, and you feel like you know 1,000 of them by name.” I found it’s true.” I deal with a lot of people, from different places and cultures, but at the end of the day, we’re all here for each other – we support each other when things get tough and celebrate together when things go well.”
“When I started, I spoke to someone who had worked here before and she said, “Hempel has over 7,500 people, and you feel like you know 1,000 of them by name.” I found it’s true.”
