This interview with Shanti Atkins,president and chief strategy officer of Navex Global, which handles ethics and compliance issues, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant.
Q. When you were a child, were you in leadership roles?
A. Yes, if there was an opportunity to be a leader — to be the class president or run the school play — I definitely wanted to do that. I had a desire to lead from a very young age.
Q. Tell me about your parents.
A. My father’s a rheumatologist, and my mom was a nurse. They always told me I could do anything, and they got behind me 100 percent, no matter what. They were very strict, too, but they just thought very highly of me, and I thought very highly of them.
Q. Do you see any strands of your parents in your leadership and management style?
