Shilpa Arora, Anti-Money Laundering Director for EMEA, ACAMS

Shilpa is the AML Director, Europe Middle East and Africa for ACAMS, where she is responsible for the development of regional anti-financial crime content strategy and implementation across all channels. Shilpa also builds and manages the expanding multilingual faculty of leading subject matter experts and instructors who work with ACAMS on curriculum development, instruction, event programming and task forces. Shilpa represents ACAMS by speaking at select major industry events and conferences, participating in think tanks and engaging proactively with policy makers, regulators and industry practitioners across the region.

Maya Braine, Managing Director Africa & Middle East, FINTRAIL

Consultant, investigator, and regional specialist, it’s been Maya’s job for nearly a decade to promote compliance and diligence for financial institutions large and small. She has conducted enhanced due diligence and in-depth compliance assessments for leading international banks, as well as investigations into financial laundromats, and bribery and corruption scandals. Maya is passionate about how the FinTech sector can promote financial inclusion and economic development, and her mission at FINTRAIL is to provide compliance solutions that aid, not hinder, world changing innovation.

Carrie Brassley, Corporate Partnerships, Unseen UK

Carrie Brassley runs corporate partnerships at Unseen UK, focusing on raising awareness of modern slavery, engaging employees in the issue and raising vital funding for projects supporting survivors. Her partnerships focus on creating a strategy to make the biggest possible impact no matter how large or small the business. She also runs yoga and wellbeing classes with survivors of slavery and those struggling with mental health issues. Before coming to Unseen three years ago, she worked in International Development and women’s rights organisations.

Tony Brown, Chief Risk Officer and MRLO, PayConstruct

Tony is a passionate and experienced CRO & MLRO with c.17 years financial services experience, specialising in anti-financial crimes and regulatory compliance. Tony currently heads Legal, Risk and Compliance at Pay Perform, a Global FinTech offering fiat and digital treasury management for large corporates and sits on the Executive Advisory Panel for AFEP where he is able to share best practices with the UK payment sector.

David Carlisle, Head of Policy and Regulatory Affairs, Elliptic

David Carlisle is Head of Policy and Regulatory Affairs at Elliptic, leading engagement with policymakers and other external stakeholders on cryptocurrency-related regulatory issues. David has more than a decade of experience working in both public and private sector roles focused on AML and CFT regulations. He is an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, a UK think tank, where he has authored reports on terrorist and criminal use of cryptocurrencies, and appropriate policy responses.

Pravin Chandrasekaran, BSA Officer, Varo Bank

Pravin Chandrasekaran currently is serving as the BSA Officer of Varo Bank. Varo is on a mission to revolutionize Banking, and he has been presented with the unique opportunity to build an AML program from scratch. Prior to that, he ran Wells Fargo’s Monitoring and Surveillance Programs, including oversight for developing, implementing, and overseeing monitoring and surveillance programs, tools, and AI strategies. Previously he oversaw the Customer Risk Analytics Team which developed Wells Fargo’s Enterprise View of a Customer as well as its Enterprise Customer Risk Rating. In addition, Pravin is an Intelligence Officer in the United States Army Reserve. He has spent the last 16+ years developing effective, and efficient customer risk, Due Diligence, and monitoring programs leveraging AI tools and technologies to increase program efficiency and effectiveness rates. Pravin is based in San Francisco, California for Varo and has a Masters in Risk Management from New York University’s Stern School of Business and a Bachelor’s in Economics from St. Mary’s College in California.

Isabella Chase, Research Fellow, RUSI

Isabella Chase is a research fellow at the Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies at RUSI, the world’s oldest security and defense think tank based in Whitehall, London. At the CFCS Isabella’s work focuses on government policy responses to financial crime. She currently researches the UK government’s implementation of the 2019 Economic Crime Plan; monitors the FATF Strategic Review and anti-money laundering reforms in the EU. Isabella is leading a two-year project which assesses the impact of the FATF framework on digital financial inclusion. Her other research interests include new payment technologies, e-money, sanctions and financial crime involving high value goods such as art. Isabella is the host of the CFCS podcast, the Suspicious Transaction Report, which is soon to be in its third season.  

Prior to joining RUSI, Isabella was the financial crime writer at RegTech, ComplyAdvantge. She holds an MA in Intelligence and International Security with distinction from the War Studies department at King’s College London.

Justine Currell, Director, Unseen UK

Justine joined Unseen on 1 May 2016 following a 28.5 year career in the civil service. During that time she held a variety of operational and policy posts working across a number of UK Government departments. For the last five years of her civil service career, Justine was the modern slavery senior policy adviser in the Home Office and led on development of the Modern Slavery Act, including the transparency in supply chains provision and business guidance, working closely with Ministers, businesses and international colleagues. Since joining Unseen Justine has been called upon to provide her insight and experience on the issue of modern slavery to media, law enforcement agencies, safeguarding professionals and business. She has specifically provided support to a number of key businesses on developing their response to supply chain transparency and is highly regarded in this field. Since joining Unseen Justine has successfully developed and launched the new and enhanced Modern Slavery Helpline and Resource Centre which has become a vital tool for all in the UK’s fight against modern slavery. Justine seeks to use her experience and knowledge of working with UK Ministers to influence other Governments internationally to take action to address modern slavery and, in particular, business supply chain issues.

Paul Kwesi Damalie, CEO, Appruve

Paul Kwesi Damalie is the founder of Appruve, a product of Inclusive Innovations Inc. Appruve is used by financial services across Africa to verify data the submit across the lifecycle of engagement in their product.

Paul has been actively involved in advising the central bank of Ghana on regulation for innovation, most recently sitting on the board responsible for drafting Ghana’s Financial Inclusion Policy.

He believes in the potential of using machine learning to solve critical financial inclusion challenges underserved markets face.

John-Paul Eaton, Global Community Director, FINTRAIL & FinTech FinCrime Exchange

John-Paul is a creative multipotentialite intrigued by anti-financial crime, who has discovered a purpose in blending his unique skill-set to create immersive and engaging environments to educate and connect industry professionals. John-Paul is excited to serve both the FINTRAIL and FFE communities as Global Community Director, by building long-term partnerships and curating memorable experiences that the communities will want to share with the anti-financial crime world!

Robert Evans, Co-Founder, FINTRAIL

Robert exploits his knowledge of and experiences within developing and high risk economies, institutional banking and financial services to help FinTech clients design, execute and assure financial crime compliance objectives driven from a business and customer-centric perspective. As co-founder of FINTRAIL, Robert is a leading authority on financial crime compliance within the FinTech community and is responsible for the execution of financial crime compliance projects for FinTech clients in Europe, US and Asia. He is the co-author of the ACAMS "AML for FinTech” courses and co-established the FinTech FinCrime Exchange (FFE), a free members network operating globally.

Danyelle Gerges, Regional Director Middle East, Financial Services Volunteer Corps

Danyelle Gerges is the Financial Services Volunteer Corps (FSVC) Regional Director for the Middle East based in Beirut, Lebanon. As part of her technical assistance portfolio, Ms. Gerges leads anti-money laundering/combating the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) efforts in Jordan. Since 2011, Ms. Gerges has worked with various regulatory, law enforcement and military agencies in Iraq, Jordan and the UAE on implementing risk-based supervision principles to detect, investigate and prosecute cases of money laundering and terrorism financing. She also works with local private institutions including banks, non-bank financial institutions, designated non-financial businesses and professionals, and non-governmental organizations to develop robust compliance programs and encourage the reporting of suspicious transactions.

With a background in human rights and development, Ms. Gerges has developed a unique, cross-cutting expertise that allows her to critically assess the impact of AML/CFT reforms. Prior to working with FSVC, Ms. Gerges spent several years working in economic development with FIAN International, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, and as Local Coordinator with Oxfam Italia.

Ms. Gerges holds an MA in Sustainable International Development from the Heller School for Social Policy and Management at Brandeis University.

Ben Gray, Global CCO, Square

Ben Gray is Square Inc.'s Chief Compliance Officer, Bank Secrecy Act Officer, and Regulatory Counsel. Ben leads Square's global compliance team in administering the company's anti-money laundering, counter-terrorist financing, sanctions, and anti-bribery compliance programs and advising on Square's payments and regulatory legal issues. Ben also guides Square's financial crimes technical function, including data science and engineering teams. Prior to joining Square, Ben practiced law at Schwartz & Ballen LLP, a Washington, DC based boutique financial services and banking regulatory law firm. At the firm, Ben advised traditional financial institutions and fintech Fortune 500 companies on anti-money laundering compliance, licensing, enforcement, policy drafting, reporting, and record keeping. Prior to private practice, Ben worked as a federal financial regulator for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) in Washington, DC reviewing banks for compliance with federal lending statutes and regulations.

 Ben graduated from The George Washington University Law School and Brown University, magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa. Ben is CAMS certified, a member of the District of Columbia Bar, and a member of the California Bar.

Aamir Hanif, EMEA Financial Crimes, Stripe

Aamir Hanif is the UK Money Laundering Reporting Officer ("MLRO") for Stripe. Prior to joining Stripe, Aamir was the Head of Financial Crimes for Middle East and North Africa (excluding UAE) and the MLRO for Bahrain for Standard Chartered Bank. Aamir has worked on financial crime issues for over 14 years in the private and public sectors including with the US government. Aamir has a Bachelors in Finance and Management Information Systems from Washington State University, an MBA in Finance and Marketing from Johns Hopkins University and a Masters in International Policy from George Washington University.

Gordon Harrison, Head of Sales EMEA, Jumio

Gordon Harrison, Head of Sales EMEA. Gordon leads the new business team in Jumio's EMEA region, responsible for growing the business across all major verticals, notably Financial Services and Mobility. Prior to Jumio, Gordon worked in strategy consulting and business development at Accenture and across the Fintech industry.

Kate Hotten, Senior Advisor, FINTRAIL

From her work in scaling Stripe’s financial crime program globally, Kate is experienced in implementing controls in a technology-focused, customer-centric and hyper growth environment and understands the needs of online platforms. She’s also worked in retail and correspondent banking, anti-bribery and corruption, and in partnership with emerging economies on developing effective frameworks. She’s passionate about reducing barriers to entry and creating accessible, intelligent solutions.

Electra Japonas, Founder and CEO, The Law Boutique

Electra Japonas is the founder of The Law Boutique, the world’s first Legal Optimisation Company. Electra founded the business after spending 10 years in large corporates and becoming frustrated with the way legal services were delivered. The Law Boutique is on a mission to transform in-house Legal commercial advantage, through the implementation of user-centric process design, smart tech and bespoke tools. Through its four pillared approach: Define, Design, Delegate and Automate, The Law Boutique helps Legal and Compliance teams align their trajectory with that of the business, make themselves scalable and fuel business growth.

Ser-Jin Lee, Head of Compliance and Government Relations, Grab

Ser-Jin Lee is the Head of Compliance and Government Affairs at Grab Financial Group (GFG), South East Asia’s leading Fintech player headquartered in Singapore. He leads a regional team covering the regulatory compliance and regulator engagement scope for all GFG verticals ranging from e-wallets/Mastercard issuance, lending, payments processing and investment/insurance distribution. He is also a core member of the team driving Grab-SingTel’s digital full bank license application. Prior to joining GFG, Ser-Jin served at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) with stints in regulatory supervision, international affairs, financial sector development and monetary policy implementation, and was also Head of MAS’ New York Office.

Scott Liles, President and Managing Director, ACAMS

Scott Liles was appointed President and Managing Director of ACAMS in November 2020 and brings with him considerable global experience and expertise across a multitude of consumer-facing sectors.

 Most recently, Scott served as the President of two of Nationwide Insurance’s growth and innovation companies.  He led the turnaround of Nationwide Pet Insurance, a $500 MM market leader in pet health insurance.  Scott also launched Spire Insurance, a new company in Nationwide’s portfolio that is innovation driven, mobile first, and millennial focused.  

 Over the course of his career, Scott has served as a legislative aide in Texas, an economist in South Africa, the director of a U.N. development initiative in Vietnam, a senior manager with Accenture in London and San Francisco, and an associate principal with McKinsey & Co. in Washington, D.C.  Scott earned an MBA from the London Business School and a Master’s in Economics from the University of Cape Town.

Patrick Lord, Commercial Director, Diligencia

Patrick joined Diligencia in 2015 and leads our commercial operations including product development, marketing and strategic partnerships. Prior to joining Diligencia, Patrick spent 10 years with risk consulting firm Control Risks, latterly as Managing Director of its consulting businesses across the Middle East region. Patrick began his career at the Financial Times where he held a variety of commercial publishing roles.

Megan Millard, Senior Managing Director, FINTRAIL Solutions

Megan Prendergast Millard assists companies in compliance matters and investigations, including risk assessments, strengthening risk management and compliance programs, remediation efforts, corporate monitorships, and internal investigations. 

For nearly fifteen years, Ms. Millard worked at the New York State Department of Financial Services (formerly the New York State Banking Department.)  She began her career in the General Counsel’s Office and most recently served as the Deputy Superintendent for Enforcement where she supervised investigations of licensed institutions in a wide range of areas including anti-money laundering, OFAC sanctions, market manipulation, virtual currency as well as all other banking and insurance matters.  She was also responsible for oversight of monitors engaged pursuant to consent orders issued by the Department. 

Ms. Millard also served as a Senior Assistant District Attorney for the Office of the District Attorney in Kings County, NY where she performed all aspects of criminal prosecutions from investigation to trial. 

Mike Moate, Co-Founder & CTO, Countingup

Mike is Co-Founder & CTO of Countingup, the business account that automates accounting.  Prior to Countingup, Mike led the Platform Engineering group at Oliver Wyman Labs (now Oliver Wyman Digital). Operating as an internal startup, Labs brought technology into the world of management consulting, supporting large scale data analytics and modelling alongside business insights provision through real time dashboards.

Mike is passionate about using technology to automate the mundane, freeing up time for more valuable activities.  Ask him how Countingup does this for thousands of UK SMEs!

Countingup has been an FFE member since early 2018 and, though the Countingup team has grown since, Mike remains interested in how technology can help in the fight against Financial Crime. He is an active member of the FFE Data Sharing working group.

Mikey Morton, Consultant, FINTRAIL

Mikey is passionate about creating intelligence-led and context-based approaches to disrupt financial crime. He has a deep interest in how geopolitical and socio-economic change intertwine with the bigger financial crime picture. Mikey draws upon his experience working within financial crime compliance and operations for a digital challenger bank and supporting UK law enforcement initiatives to create unique solutions to the problems financial crime creates for our clients.

Payal Patel, Managing Director APAC, FINTRAIL

Payal combines her legal education and extensive compliance experience to build 'best-in-class' anti-financial crime programmes for clients and is focused on enabling innovative business whilst balancing risk and regulatory demands. She brings over 14 years of experience in financial services across multiple regions, focusing recently on FinTech and crypto. She has led engagements with regulators on new business models and has worked with a wide range of organisations globally on international best practices. Payal leads the FINTRAIL business in Asia.

Rafa Plantier, Country Manager UK&I, Tink

Rafa Plantier is Country Manager for the UK and Ireland at Tink. Over the past 15 years Rafa gained significant merchant acquiring experience with roles at Citi, and more recently, as head of EMEA banking at Stripe. Rafa now leads Tink’s ambition to equip financial institutions and fintechs with best-in-class technology solutions that will allow the UK and Ireland to continue to lead the way as pioneers of open banking.

Joe Robinson, CEO, Hummingbird

Joe Robinson is Co-Founder and CEO of Hummingbird, a platform for fighting financial crime. Hummingbird is an anti-money laundering platform used by financial institutions to investigate suspicious activity and fight crime. Joe was previously an executive at Circle, a personal finance company backed by Accel Partners, General Catalyst, and Goldman Sachs. Prior to that, he worked at Square where he was product lead for Square Dashboard and Square Online Stores. Joe runs Designers + Geeks, one of the largest communities of designers and technologists in the world.

Gemma Rogers, Co-Founder, FINTRAIL & The FinTech FinCrime Exchange

Gemma has a passion for changing the terms of debate around financial crime risk management, debunking the lethargic tick-box concepts of old and focusing on intelligent, inclusive and business-focused solutions. Drawing on her wealth of experience across disruptive services, international banking and the public sector, Gemma brings clients deep domain knowledge of financial crime risks, as well as an ability to execute intelligent frameworks across both emerging platforms and established financial services.

Mark Schnieder, Financial Crime Risk Specialist, TransferWise

Mark’s background includes more than eleven years of experience in the financial crime sector. He specializes in designing measurable and actionable risk assessments, drafting risk based AML/EDD controls, and developing comprehensive risk governance regimes. Currently, Mark serves as the Financial Crime Risk Specialist at TransferWise in Tallinn, Estonia. He previously worked in multiple compliance roles in the United States, including managing the EDD operations for an online bank and executing risk governance at two larger financial establishments.

Samantha Sheen, Financial Crimes Compliance Officer, EMEA, Stripe

Sam is a financial crime prevention professional with over 15 years of practical experience in compliance. Sam holds a number of formal qualifications including an LLB and Masters In Businesss, specialising in Risk Management. Sam is recognised as a subject matter expert in the field of financial crime (FC), focusing on European regulatory developments and emerging financial crime risks.

Sam’s previous work experience includes working as MLRO, Data Protection Officer and CCO and previously worked as a regulator focusing on enforcement and FC in the Channel Islands.  Sam is currently the director of her own advisory firm, Ex Ante Advisory, through which she provides subject matter expertise on a variety of FC topics, control frameworks and designs and delivers high quality and role-specific training. Sam is a member of the RegTech Council, the Financial Institution Innovation Network and acts as SME advisor to a number of different technology-based and KYC-specialist organisation

Josie Wait, Community Manager, FINTRAIL & The FinTech FinCrime Exchange

Josie is enthusiastic about digital transformation in financial services and providing opportunities and environments where industry professionals can connect, gain insights, participate as thought leaders and then implement change in their organisation. Josie has experience in producing quality educational events and media projects on an array of fintech topics, and hopes to be able to drive similar initiatives (specialising in anti-financial crime) for the FFE and wider FINTRAIL community. Josie is excited to explore the FinCrime space further to improve her knowledge and learn more about what procedures and technologies fintechs can adopt to reduce their criminal financial activity. Josie is delighted to be contributing towards reducing the amount of crime in the world!

Willem Wellinghoff, Chief Legal and Compliance Officer, Shieldpay

Willem Wellinghoff is the Chief Legal and Compliance Officer for ShieldPay Limited, an online digital escrow solution for banks, law firms, corporates and consumers. Willem is primarily responsible for the legal and compliance affairs for the Group, including risk management, regulatory compliance with payment services regulation, anti-money laundering & terrorist financing obligations and also counts strategic growth and expansion to his responsibilities.

Prior to ShieldPay, Willem was VP Compliance for LendInvest, a FinTech company which operates a marketplace for investors and borrowers in connection with short term real estate loans; Compliance and Conduct Risk Director for Amigo Loans; and Group Head of Legal and Regulatory Affairs for Cabot Credit Management, the UK’s largest debt purchaser.

Willem has acted as mentor to a major FinTech accelerator since 2015 and was a special advisor to the Board of the Credit Services Association (CSA) from 2012 until 2016 in connection with consumer credit and debt collection.