As Mercy Corps’ Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer, Steve Linick leads a stand-alone Ethics and Compliance Department that supports and monitors ethical, legal and contractual compliance across Mercy Corps’ global operations. He also oversees the Intake and Investigations department, responsible for all reports of ethics violations including safeguarding allegations, fraud, corruption, other Code of Conduct reports, and Global Human Resources complaints.

Steve previously served as Inspector General for the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM) between 2013 and June 2020. He brings extensive experience providing oversight for large entities and leading sensitive and complex investigations. As Inspector General, Steve was the senior official responsible for identifying operational risk within the Department of State and the USAGM, assessing the sufficiency of internal controls, and conducting investigations of waste, fraud, mismanagement, and misconduct. Prior to this appointment, Steve served for three years as the first Inspector General of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.

Steve was an Assistant United States Attorney in California and Virginia. He also served as both Executive Director of the Department of Justice’s National Procurement Fraud Task Force and Deputy Chief of its Fraud Section, Criminal Division.

Steve has a B.A. and M.A. in Philosophy, and a law degree, all from Georgetown University.