Tom Hardin

Biography

Tom Hardin spent much of his early career as a financial analyst on Wall Street before becoming an unlikely central figure in one of the largest insider trading investigations in US history. Under the federal code name 'Tipper X', he cooperated with the US Department of Justice to help expose widespread securities fraud, contributing to more than 20 of the 80-plus criminal cases brought in Operation Perfect Hedge. As the youngest professional implicated in the sting, Tom wore a covert wire on over 40 occasions to help the FBI bring some of the industry’s biggest targets to justice.

After being invited back by the FBI’s New York office to speak to new agents, Tom has transformed his experience into a powerful platform for ethics education. Now a trainer and advisor on behavioural ethics, compliance and organisational conduct, and culture risk, Tom recounts his story, along with some serious self-examination, exploring the psychological traps that led him down the slippery slope from questionable choices to criminal activity. He considers the impact it had on his career, friends and family, and tells of his harrowing but ultimately redemptive journey.

Drawing on his insider’s perspective of Wall Street’s culture and his own transformation, Tom helps organisations strengthen their compliance cultures, understand the behavioural drivers of misconduct and equip employees to make better decisions under pressure. With candour and insight he looks at ideas of opportunity and temptation, rationalisation and redemption, and show how small, seemingly harmless decisions can lead to major consequences, and how individuals and organisations can avoid that path.