European Anti-Financial Crime Summit 2024

Raluca Prună works for the European Commission, as Head of Financial Crime Unit in DG Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union (FISMA). From 2015 to 2017, she served as Minister of Justice in the Romanian Government.

Since 2007, she worked in several Directorate Generals of the European Commission, in various fields as fight against organized crime, financial crime, and free movement of goods. Previously she worked in the Legal Service of the Council of the European Union (2005-2007) and the Delegation of the European Commission in Bucharest (2000 -2005). Ms Prună started her career as lawyer in 1996. She is a founding member and former President of Transparency International Romania.

Paschal Donohoe is the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

As Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal is responsible for delivering well-managed and well-targeted public spending, through modernised, effective and accountable public services. The department oversees the implementation of the National Development Plan, drives the programme of public service reform, and has a key role in decisions made across Government.

Minister Donohoe was elected President of the Eurogroup on 9 July 2020. His two and a half year term began on 13 July 2020.

From June 2017 - December 2022, he served as the Minister for Finance.

From May 2016 - June 2020, he served as the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, and from July 2014 - May 2016, as the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. He also held the position of Minister for European Affairs at the Department of the Taoiseach and the Department of Foreign Affairs from July 2013 - July 2014.

Minister Donohoe was first elected as a TD in February 2011 for the Dublin Central constituency. Prior to this he was a member of Seanad Éireann, from 2007 - 2011. He also served as member of Dublin City Council from 2004 - 2007.

He was formerly the Chair of Ireland’s Future in Europe Oireachtas Sub-Committee, as well as a member of the Public Accounts Committee. He has also served as the Vice-Chair of the European Affairs Committee and, as a Senator, he served as a member of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport.

During his time as member of Dublin City Council, he served as Chair of the Environment & Engineering Strategic Policy Committee, as a member of the Corporate Policy Group and also as Chairman of the Central Area Committee.

Minister Donohoe is a graduate of the Trinity College Dublin, with a degree in Politics and Economics and he attended St. Declan’s CBS.

Dr. Marcus Pleyer of Germany assumed the position of President of the FATF on 1 July 2020. He succeeded Xiangmin Liu of the People's Republic of China.

Dr. Marcus Pleyer serves as Deputy Director General in Germany’s Federal Ministry of Finance with responsibilities for policy development and international engagement pertaining International Financial Markets (including FSB, G7, G20 matters), Anti- Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing (AML/CFT), Financial Sanctions Policy, Digital Finance including Payment Services and Cyber Security and national and international development banks. As representative of the Federal Republic, he is currently a member of the board of governors of the Development Bank for Agribusiness and of the Foundation for Financing the Disposal of Nuclear Waste. He is regularly invited as an expert on AML/CFT and took part in a number of international AML/CFT-missions. Before he assumed the position of President on 1 July 2020, he served as Vice-President of the FATF (July 2019–June 2020), and as the Head of the German delegation (2016–July 2019). Dr. Pleyer has also been serving in the Steering Committee of that same organisation since 2016.

Prior to his current position, Dr. Pleyer headed the Division for International Financial Markets from 2014 to 2015. From 2011 to 2014, he served as Head of Cabinet of Federal Finance Minister Schaeuble. From 2006 to 2011, he worked in the Federal Chancellery as senior adviser for Economic Law, International Financial Markets, Eurozone and G8/G20-Affairs and was part of a special team of Chancellor Merkel for the stabilization of the financial sector in 2009. Prior to that, he held positions as adviser in the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) after he had worked as a researcher in the field of public and capital markets law at the University of Dresden and as lecturer in criminal law at the University of Heidelberg.

With support of the German Academic Scholarship Foundation, Marcus studied law at the National University of Singapore and the University of Heidelberg from which he graduated in law in 1995 before he qualified for the position of a judge in 1997. He holds a Master of Laws degree from the University of Edinburgh, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Wales and a Ph.D. from the University of Dresden. He has also passed the admission exam as a stockbroker.

Derville Rowland is Deputy Governor at the Central Bank of Ireland. Prior to this, Derville was Director General of Financial Conduct. She is responsible for Consumer and Investor Protection, overseeing Retail Conduct, Securities and Markets Supervision as well as oversight of Anti-Money Laundering, Financial Sanctions and Enforcement.

Derville also serves as a member of both the management board and the board of supervisors of the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and chairs its Investment Management Standing Committee.  Derville is a board member of the International Organisation of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) and is vice-chair of IOSCO’s European Regional Committee.

Prior to joining the Bank, Derville practiced as a barrister in the UK, where she completed a Bachelor of Law Degree and barrister's training (Inns of Court School of Law) in London. Subsequently she obtained a Barrister-at-Law degree from Kings Inns in Dublin and a Diploma in Applied Finance Law.

Antoine Magnant is a graduate of the French École Nationale d'Administration (ENA), Sciences Po Paris and the University Paris I Sorbonne. With the exception of two years at the National Museum of Natural History, Antoine Magnant has devoted his entire career to the Ministry of the Economy and Finance.
In 1999, graduating from the École Nationale d'Administration (ENA), Antoine Magnant joined the Tax Policy Directorate. In 2003, he was appointed General Administrator of the Musée de l’Homme.

In 2005, he joined the Public Finances Directorate General as head of the "tax approvals" office,
then as head of the "strategy innovation synthesis" department. From 2008 to 2011, Antoine
Magnant was successively head of the "tax control management" office, then deputy director
of State accounts at the Public Finances Directorate General. In 2011, he was appointed deputy
director of "transaction taxation" and then "personal taxation" at the Tax Policy Directorate. He
then spent three years as head of the human resources department of the Public Finances
Directorate General.
In 2018, he was appointed Deputy Director General of the Public Finances Directorate General
and a member of the Directors' Committee of the Ministry of the Economy and Finance.
He was appointed Director of Tracfin by decree on March 6, 2024, and took office on April 1,
2024.

Aamir is the Regional Vice President, AML Compliance for EU / CIS / Africa for Western Union. He has held multiple positions in the anti-financial crime space in the public and private sectors including as the Head of Financial Crimes for EMEA / UK MLRO for Stripe, the Regional Head for the US Law Compliance Program for ASEAN and South Asia for Standard Chartered Bank, and the Head of Financial Crimes for the Middle East and North Africa (excluding the UAE) for Standard Chartered Bank. Aamir has also led financial management teams for Expedia and Boeing; and spent nine years working in the U.S. government focusing on geopolitical, intelligence and global financial crime issues.

Aamir has an MBA in Finance and Marketing from the Johns Hopkins University and a Masters in International Policy and Practice from George Washington University.

Seána Cunningham is the Director of Enforcement and Anti-Money Laundering in the Central Bank of Ireland.

She was appointed to this position in January 2018 with responsibility for overseeing enforcement investigations, AML/CFT supervision of credit and financial institutions and policy development.

Seana previously held the position of Deputy Head of the Anti-Money Laundering division and Head of the Enforcement Advisory division in the Central Bank.

Prior to joining the Central Bank in 2011, Seána practised as a solicitor for over 12 years in Ireland and the UK, specialising in commercial litigation and insolvency.

Aaron leads Wise’s first line risk and compliance teams responsible for supporting the launch and growth of Wise products in a safe, risk-managed and customer-centric way. Prior to Wise Aaron was Head of Financial Crime and Fraud at Revolut, leading product, data science and operations teams to better detect and prevent illicit activity. Aaron has also previously specialised in financial crime and compliance technology matters for financial services and fintech clients at Ernst & Young and led KYC and AML product development at UK regtech vendor Quantexa.

Jenny joined EY in 2021 and brings more than 22 years experience in the Financial Services industry. In EY, she leads Financial Services Risk Consulting in Ireland with a focus on Risk & Regulatory-driven transformation and Financial Crime.

Prior to joining EY, Jenny was a Partner in another big 4 firm in Singapore specialising in Risk Management, Regulatory Advisory and Data & Analytics in Financial Services.

Before her time as a consultant, Jenny spent several years in banking, working across multiple functions and lines of defence in London, Dubai and New York. A current social focus for Jenny is in helping to drive industry efforts in combatting modern slavery through awareness, collaboration and technology.”

Jaap is current the Head of the Detecting Financial Crime (DFC)  unit, which is ABN AMRO Bank’s 1LOD centre of excellence for financial crime risk management.

The DFC unit maintains and executes the standards, systems and operations for all financial crime risk management processes. Jaap joined ABN AMRO Bank as their Global Head, AML & Sanctions in April 2021.

Prior to that he was with Standard Chartered Bank for a over seven years where he worked in the Financial Crime Surveillance (screening & monitoring) unit based out of London, and prior to that as Head of Retail Financial Crime Compliance based in Singapore.

Prior to Standard Chartered, Jaap worked at ING Bank in various financial crime compliance capacities. All in all, Jaap has over 25 years of experience in the financial services industry, of which over 15 years in the AML / CTF domain.

Gemma Rogers is the Head of the EMEA Financial Crimes team at Stripe and UK MLRO. She has worked in a variety of financial crime-related roles in banks and at Fintechs.

Prior to joining Stripe, she co-founded Fintech specialist AML consultancy FINTRAIL, and before that worked in senior leadership roles in HSBC's Financial Intelligence Unit.

Her background before moving into the world of banking was in the UK civil service. Gemma is passionate about fighting financial crime due to the huge, negative human and societal impacts it has, and sees information sharing as central to these efforts.

Detective Chief Superintendent Michael Gubbins is the current Chief Bureau Officer of the Criminal Assets Bureau (CAB). He has been a member of an Garda Síochána for over 30 years, during which time he has worked as a Detective Garda, Detective Sergeant and Detective Inspector at the CCIU. In 2016, Michael was appointed as the Detective Superintendent in charge of the newly formed Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau (GNCCB). During his career, he has represented an Garda Síochána on various Europol & European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) fora including the European Computer Training and Education Group (ECTEG), European Multidisciplinary Platform against Criminal Threats (EMPACT) and the European Union Cybercrime Task Force (EUCTF) of which he is a previous Chair and board member.

In May 2020 Detective Chief Superintendent Michael Gubbins was appointed as the Chief Bureau Officer of the Criminal Assets Bureau. The Bureau’s remit is to target a person’s assets, wherever situated, which derive, or are suspected to derive, directly or indirectly, from criminal conduct. Since its inception, the Bureau has fought organised crime in this jurisdiction and disrupted the activities of criminal gangs by depriving them of ill-gotten assets.

Michael holds a Masters in Forensic Computing & Cybercrime Investigation (MSc FCCI) from University College Dublin, a Postgraduate Diploma in Serious Crime Investigation from the University of Limerick and a Professional Certificate in Governance from the Institute of Public Administration.

Siobhain is the Director of Global Compliance at Etsy, responsible for multiple global compliance programs. Etsy is a global marketplace for unique and creative goods with a mission to keep commerce human.

Before joining Etsy, Siobhain held a number of senior compliance roles at Meta (formerly Facebook), the most recent being that of Director of Compliance Oversight, responsible for global compliance programs for Meta's regulated entities.

Prior to this, Siobhain held senior financial crime compliance roles in a number of large US financial institutions including US Bank, State Street and Cantor Fitzgerald.

Siobhain is currently Chairperson of the Irish Compliance Institute's Fintech and Payments working group. She holds an undergraduate degree from Trinity College Dublin, Masters degree in Economic Development from University College Dublin.

Siobhain recently finished a Masters degree in Ethics and Corporate Responsibility at Dublin City University, completing a minor research thesis on the ethical use of machine learning and artificial intelligence in credit decisioning. Siobhain is interested in the prevention of financial crime in the financial sector through leveraging technology, in partnership with internal and external stakeholders.

Linda started her career as a commercial litigator in an international law firm in Edinburgh.  Since joining the civil service, she has had a range of interesting and challenging roles, including Private Secretary to the First Minister of Scotland; Head of Civil Asset Forfeiture for Scotland; Deputy Director of Defence, Security and Cyber Resilience; and Senior Responsible Officer for EU Exit in the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland.

Linda joined the Fraud Investigation Service in HMRC in April 2021 and originally led Offshore, Corporate and Wealthy, managing white collar civil and criminal investigations into wealthy individuals and large corporates.

Since September 2022, Linda has been Head of Organised Crime, leading complex international investigations to disrupt and dismantle Organised Crime Groups. Linda leads a team of 1500 civil and criminal investigators across 15 sites and 3 legal jurisdictions in the UK. She specialises in all elements of economic crime, including money laundering, bribery and corruption and fraud and has concluded a number of Deferred Prosecution Agreements. Linda is committed to  collaborating with domestic and international partners to maximise impact against financial crime.

Stephen is the Publisher at AML Intelligence based between our Brussels and Dublin offices. Stephen is former Group Editor-in-Chief at INM, Ireland’s largest media group, where he ran the newspaper and online operations.

A member of the Supervisory Board of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), he has also served on the board of the World Editors Forum. Stephen is Principal at KOBN, a specialist European leadership advisory, with an emphasis on cybersecurity and climate change.

Suzanne Gunn is the Head of Economic, Transnational, and Organised Crime Policy at the Department of Justice, Ireland where she leads the development and implementation of criminal justice policies and strategies to combat all forms of economic and organised crime that threaten the public interest and the rule of law.

Suzanne is a a member of Ireland’s Advisory Council Against Economic Crime and Corruption and Anti Money Laundering Steering Committee, and Irish Head of Delegation for the Group of States Against Corruption (GRECO), the OECD Working Group on Bribery, the EU Network Against Corruption, and the Group of Experts on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA).

Suzanne has over 15 years of experience in criminal justice, as a practising barrister and subsequently as Director of Criminal Enforcement at the Corporate Enforcement Authority heading up a multi-disciplinary team incorporating national police detectives and forensic accountants investigating complex cases of corporate and economic crime.

Carol Lawton is Head of Financial Crime in AIB, responsible for a Centre of Excellence in the first line of defence which encompasses AML, Fraud and Sanctions activities. She has also lead the design and multi-year implementation of a new operating model for Financial Crime in AIB.

Carol’s diverse career has spanned a wide range of functions and roles at senior level including operations, payments, digital adoption, business transformation, retail banking and direct banking.

Carol holds a BSc (Management) from Trinity College, Dublin and the Professional Diploma in Financial Advice from University College, Dublin. Carol is also a Fellow, and former Vice President and Director of IOB (The Institute of Bankers in Ireland).

Manuel has over 24 years of experience in professional services, delivering large-scale transformation programs.

He leads multidisciplinary international teams by building trusted relationships with senior client stakeholders.

Manuel holds a degree in Computer Sciences and Engineering from the University of Granada and is passionate about applying technology and innovation to solve present and future clients’ and social needs.

Charmian Simmons is a Financial Crime and Compliance Expert covering Financial Services at SymphonyAI. She has over 20 years of experience in the financial sector across risk management, financial crime, internal controls and IT advisory. She is a technology evangelist specialising in AI innovations and transformation. Charmian is responsible for providing practitioner expertise, thought leadership and analysing key policy, regulatory and technology drivers transforming the compliance market.

Prior to joining Symphony AI, Charmian was a Fincrime Expert with BAE Systems, a Regional Director of Strategy and Performance for the Risk business at Refinitiv, the Head of Audit in North America at Lloyds Banking Group USA and a Vice President at Morgan Stanley covering Institutional Securities and Capital Markets.

Charmian is CAMS, CDPSE, CRMA and CISA certified.

Joris is the Identity Verification Specialist of Inverid, the creators of ReadID. ReadID is the first and leading NFC – based identity verification solution. He is a specialist in the field of financial institutions and identity wallets.

Joris has held multiple management positions in the payment and mortgage space at Rabobank. Rabobank is the second largest retail bank of the Netherlands. He also was the CEO of a startup Datakeeper for almost 4 years. Datakeeper is an identity wallet in line with the new upcoming European guidelines. Both companies used ReadID for online identity verification.

Joris has a Masters in Business Administration from Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

Ms. Kohr's background includes more than nineteen years of experience in the anti-financial crime sector with significant experience in Bank's Secrecy Act/Anti-Money Laundering (BSA/AML), fraud and sanctions compliance, managing complex regulatory issues and remediation projects, and facilitating public and private partnerships (PPPs) to develop effective strategies to combat illicit financial activities.

In 2023, Ms. Kohr transitioned her career in banking to the public sector.She joined IRS-Criminal Investigations to assist, among other things, in building an agency-wide approach to PPPs and feedback to the private sector. As the Strategic Engagement Advisor, she oversees the development and implementation of CI-FIRST and the J5-GFIP. Prior to this, Ms. Kohr served as President of Kohr Global Advisory Services, LLC., where she advised and trained the public and private sectors on various matters related to banking compliance, anti-money laundering, and other complex financial crimes. Previously, Ms. Kohr was the Senior Director of AML for a global anti-financial crime organization. As the Senior Director, Ms. Kohr was focused on building the global Anti-Financial Crime public-private partnership engagement initiative, assisting in executing the global Law Enforcement strategy from a thought-leadership perspective, and serving as both a subject matter and technical expert on AML/CTF, regulatory policy and AML regime priorities.

Ms. Kohr also served as the Senior Vice President, Chief Risk Officer (CRO), and BSA Officer at Old Dominion National Bank (ODNB) in Tysons Corner, VA. As the SVP and CRO, Ms. Kohr was responsible for Old Dominion's enterprise risk management program, including leading the bank's AML/BSA and OFAC programs. Ms. Kohr was the 2016 ACAMS AML Professional of the Year, authored the 2016 and 2020 ACAMS Article of the Year, and 2019 awarded the U.S. Capital Excellence in Public/Private Partnerships and 2023 private sector recipient the AML Partnership Forum Excellence in Public/Private Partnership award. Ms. Kohr is a frequent speaker at numerous domestic and international conferences for the public and private sectors on AML/BSA/OFAC and CTF-related topics.

Elan Faidel is a seasoned professional in the field of financial crime compliance, currently serving as the MLRO (Money Laundering Reporting Officer) at Revolut Branch Germany. With over 9 years of experience in FinCrime within the financial services sector, Elan has navigated both traditional banking institutions and dynamic FinTech environments. Elan thrives in fast-paced settings, adept at managing complex projects and fostering collaboration among internal teams and external stakeholders. Holding a European Certified Compliance Professional designation from the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management, Elan brings a robust understanding of regulatory frameworks and a commitment to upholding the highest standards of compliance and integrity.

Neil joined NTT DATA in 2021 after having spent 30 years working for regional and global banks in Ireland, UK and Europe in digital roles covering product, technology, payments and transformation activities. Neil is now working with banks leveraging his experience in helping them address the challenges of the digital landscape with financial crime becoming an ever more prominent area of focus – he views this landscape as being akin to a ‘Tom and Jerry’ scenario where the wider banking industry has to be smarter, faster and more nimble in negating the efforts of the ‘Toms’ as they try to disrupt and plunder the financial eco-system.  Neil has also studied in this area and holds a Post Grad qualification in Financial Crime Prevention.

Sarah Beth Felix has over 20 years of experience in anti-financial crimes with operational, audit and consulting roles, working with banks, payment firms, and global Fintechs. Operationalizing AML/sanctions threats is one of her most well-known attributes, providing actionable solutions. Beyond traditional banking, she has specialized years of work in Fintechs, Lendtechs, cannabis banking, crypto, correspondent banking, and trade finance.

While managing a thriving AML/sanctions advisory firm for over 12 years, Palmera Consulting, she is also co-founder and CAMLO for a de novo digital correspondent bank – Acceleron Bank, in formation – based in Vermont, U.S. She has a 360-degree view of banking and how money flows throughout the world. Sarah Beth and her team are building a highly compliant digital bank focused on providing cost-effective solutions to US banks.

With global speaking engagements and her years spent on the operational AFC front, she focuses on impactful takeaways that move listeners to ‘take action’ in improving their AML/sanctions programs. Sarah Beth is also a guest lecturer at the National War College in Washington, D.C. and is frequently asked to train various US federal law enforcement agencies on private sector data availability that impacts subpoenas and unregulated payment ecosystems.

Nicola Passariello is a senior practitioner in Financial Crime Prevention with +25 years of strategic experience in the field. Nicola is a deep subject matter expert in topics such as money laundering, terrorist & proliferation financing, but also fraud and corruption.

Throughout his international career, Nicola has gained extensive industry experience having worked for different global information providers and corporate governance advisors by providing best-in class solutions to financial institutions but also corporates, public sector and government authorities on enhanced due diligence, regulatory issues support and sanctions compliance guidance, development of best practices, creation of risk assessments, detection of illicit activities, increase effectiveness and embedding a culture of Compliance.

Nicola also brings valuable regulatory experience having participated to the AMF – the French Market Regulator Commission and he’s currently a board member of the Italy Chapter at ACAMS. Nicola holds an Executive MBA from the French business school ESCP Europe, the ICA post-graduate in Financial Crime Prevention awarded by the Alliance Manchester Business School in the UK and he is also a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist.

Oonagh is an award winning Compliance Officer and recognised as one of the leading voices and trainers globally in compliance risk management, with over 20+ years’ experience. She has built and led various compliance risk framework developments and teams across the industry for a diverse range of financial entities, including traditional banks, Fintech, and Crypto firms, and is known for her proven expertise in management of complex compliance remediation challenges. She is an advocate for ethical compliance leadership and framework development, with increased automation, including AI and Machine Learning integration.

With over 20 years of experience, Liliya has worked across the financial crime space in different roles and capacity and across different business segments. She has managed teams, due diligence projects in challenging environments, and led major investigations and litigation support cases. In the late 1990s she joined Bulgaria’s Financial Intelligence Unit where she headed the International Contacts and Legal Coordination department.

Her experience also includes Transparency International in Berlin, several London-based investigative consultancy firms and the Royal Bank of Canada in London. In 2016 she joined Commerzbank London where she managed the AML Advisory and EDD Team until her appointment as head of Transactions Monitoring and Investigations/UK FIU and deputy MLRO.

In 2020 she joined CACIB as Head of UK Financial Security; she is also the MLRO. She holds a doctorate in AML policies from Tilburg University in the Netherlands and gives lectures at the University of Manchester. A speaker at industry events, Liliya has delivered presentations on behalf of Stop the Traffik, a London-based non-profit organisation that fights human trafficking and slavery.

Colum Lyons is the CEO and founder of ID-Pal, an end-to-end identity verification and AML screening solution that enables firms to verify identities and addresses in real time using 100% AI-powered technology and ensuring zero access to customer data. The platform is ISO 27001 and 9001 certified and winner of Best RegTech solution in the 2024 Merchant Payments Ecosystem (MPE) Awards. Recently appointed by the Irish Minister of State for Financial Services to the Ireland for Finance Industry Advisory Council (IAC), Colum is also a member of the Technology Council of Ireland and was previously part of the FinTech & Payments Association of Ireland (FPAI).

Prior to founding ID-Pal, Colum worked as a Trader and Stockbroker and has over 20 years' experience working in the financial markets and has a deep understanding of financial services. Colum is a qualified charting analyst as well as a qualified financial advisor and is passionate about making identity verification simple, secure and convenient for businesses globally.

Phillip Bugeja is a seasoned professional specialising in Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Combating the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) with close to a decade of experience offering tailored solutions to businesses in high-risk sectors like remote gambling and financial services.

Over the years, Philip has established himself as a trusted authority in the domain of financial compliance. Philip served as Head of Compliance and MLRO for an international law company and subsequently directed AML/CFT efforts at the browser company Opera. In his current role as a partner at IGA Group, Phillip leads the AML & CFT department, overseeing audits, compliance, policy drafting, technological support and cryptocurrency-related advisory services. In addition to his consultancy work, Phillip collaborates closely with regulators and authorities in various jurisdictions, providing them with training in his areas of expertise. 

Philip holds a B.Sc in criminology and is certified in various AML/CFT-related disciplines. Philip's approach is driven by a passion for his work and a commitment to staying informed about emerging trends in financial crime. Philip enjoys mentoring aspiring professionals in his field, primarily teaching them to “ask the right people the right questions”.

James is the Managing Director at AMLi. James is also CEO at StubbsGazette, one of the oldest continuous credit bureaus in the world. He is one of the founders of the International Fraud Prevention Conference (IFPC), the fincrime and cybersecurity convention. James acquired the Stubbs brand from Dun & Bradstreet in 2008 and built the company’s reach. He was also the founder and chairman of the Irish Fraud Bureau.

Paul Coady has over 25 years of financial services experience focused on compliance and financial crime practice and related people risk.

He has held senior roles that included Business Ethics, Policies & Training Manager for AIB Bank, Group Head of Compliance Policy & Learning for Barclays, Global Head of Financial Crime Risk Education & Culture for Deutsche Bank, and has recently founded ComplianceLnD, a new boutique consulting and professional education practice. Paul has worked in Dublin, London, and New York and led teams and complex transformation and regulatory requirements throughout the UK, US, EMEA, APAC and Africa.

He is a regular international speaker and thought leader promoting the people-side of compliance and financial crime. Paul holds an MSc. in Education & Training Management from Dublin City University (DCU), and is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS), Licentiate of the Compliance Institute of Ireland and a Fellow of the Learning & Performance Institute (LPI).

Conor Flynn serves as the Chief Information Security Officer in ID-Pal. He is also the founder of Information Security Assurance Services Limited (ISAS), which was created to meet the growing demand for cyber and data governance oversight.

With over 25 years of experience in ICT Security, Conor has been a pioneer in the field of Information Security in Ireland, frequently advising public sector bodies and private enterprises on complex cybersecurity issues and offering expert advice on Information Security and Cyber challenges in Ireland.

Conor's career began at AIB in Information Technology before moving into Information Security. He established Ireland’s first InfoSec consultancy in 2003 and later founded ISAS in 2011. Following its integration into the Waystone Group in 2021, ISAS has become renowned for its exemplary Information Security and Data Protection advisory services, spanning multiple jurisdictions and aiding organisations to be compliant with current and pending regulation.

Conor’s work encompasses collaborations with large corporations, public sector entities, and startups by advising and developing a clear data governance culture.

Ilze Znotiņa is the former Director of FIU Latvia. Prior to joining FIU Latvia she has had a career as a sworn attorney-at-law specializing in dispute resolution. Her main areas of expertise included regulatory issues, insolvency, anti-bribery and anti-money laundering, fraud and white-collar crime.

A former Partner of law firm Deloitte Legal, Ms. Znotina has represented a wide range of local and international clients in courts as well as performed an anti-fraud reviews at many international and local companies where she led investigation of corruption, false accounting, fraud, theft, asset recovery, tax evasion, money laundering and obstruction of justice cases.

Her recent activities before the appointment related to leading the preparation of Latvian National AML/CFT Risk assessment and several sectoral assessments.

Ms. Znotina has submitted her doctoral thesis in the Faculty of Law, University of Latvia. She holds a Master degree in International and European Law from Riga Graduate School of Law and a Bachelor degree in Law from the University of Latvia. She is an author of a number of publications related to law, fraud and corruption as well as a frequent speaker on these topics.

Assistant Commissioner Kelly has over 32 years policing experience and was appointed to his role as Assistant Commissioner, Organised and Serious Crime in May 2022.  He is responsible for leading the national policing response in areas of drugs and organised crime, cybercrime, economic crime, immigration and crimes against vulnerable persons.  He is the strategic lead for the development of capacity and organisational policy in a number of areas connected with serious crime investigation.  

Assistant Commissioner Kelly most recently held the position as Detective Chief Superintendent, in the Organisation’s Operational Counter-Terrorism Unit, the Special Detective Unit.  He was previously Detective Superintendent, Garda National Protective Services Bureau, as well as a Detective Inspector, Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau, and a frontline Inspector in the Blanchardstown and Clondalkin areas of Dublin. 

In 2001 Assistant Commissioner Kelly was seconded to work for the United Nations in Bosnia Herzegovina, where he worked monitoring and building the capacity of local Law Enforcement. 

Steve is the Co-founder and Director of AML Analytics and is recognised as one of the UK’s leading industry experts on anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing issues, legislation and regulation.

He has worked in the financial services industry since 1988 and in financial crime compliance since the inception of the UK Money Laundering Regulations in 1994.

He has previously held roles as the Director of Regulatory and Financial Crime Programmes at Wolters Kluwer Financial Services in London and as Global Head of Money Laundering Prevention for Prudential plc., where for fifteen years he had responsibility across the Group for the development and delivery of the corporate money laundering, counter terrorism and sanctions policy, together with providing advice and guidance on AML/CTF prevention. During this time he worked in the UK, USA, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Whilst with Prudential he spent time on secondment to NCIS (now the National Crime Agency) and at the UK National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit at Scotland Yard.

In 2001 Steve created the UK Institute of Money Laundering Prevention Officers where he was Chairman for seven years and then President until 2012.

Steve holds an ICA Diploma in Anti-Money Laundering with distinction and is a Fellow of the International Compliance Association.

He is an experienced speaker on financial crime issues and has lectured at conferences throughout the UK, Western and Eastern Europe, Asia, Australia and the USA.

Tarana Baghirova leads the OSCE’s portfolio on financial investigations into human trafficking as well as policy work on trafficking nexus with drugs and terrorism. Until 2023, she also led OSCE Special Representatives political mandate of country visits and evaluated over 20 States’ anti-trafficking efforts. Tarana possesses over 15 years of international experience in coordinated policy planning and program management in a range of areas including security affairs, transnational threats and criminal justice reform.

Prior to joining the Office the Special Representative in 2015, she led Anti-Trafficking programme in the OSCE Office in Baku and also consulted other international organizations, such International Organization for Migration and the International Centre for Migration Policy Development in assessing the state’s anti-trafficking responses.

Peadar is a Director with Interpath Advisory Ireland. He has specialised in forensic accounting services since 1999 having spent 17 years employed in Ireland as a law enforcement forensic accountant, and from 2016 to 2019 as an investigative accountant with the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement (ODCE). He spent three years working as a Director in KPMG Ireland’s forensic practice specialising in Investigations, Expert Witness services and Financial Crime. More recently he joined Interpath Advisory Ireland in October 2022 to set up its Irish forensic practice.

Peadar focuses on Regulatory and Compliance issues incorporating Financial Crime. He has considerable experience in conducting financial crime related investigations, preparing expert reports and advising Counsel in economic crime, proceeds of crime, asset tracing, money laundering, organised crime, and other criminal financial investigations. He has given expert oral evidence and was cross examined in numerous successful civil proceedings and criminal prosecutions.

He has extensive experience in managing corporate investigations which address financial misstatement, fraud, procurement, regulatory breaches and whistleblowing issues. In addition, Peadar has used his wide-ranging experiences to advise clients across their respective financial crime compliance programmes.

Peadar lectures in Financial Investigation Techniques and Money Laundering on the Postgraduate Diploma in Proceeds of Crime and Asset Identification with the University of Limerick and the Garda College. He is also a lecturer on Chartered Accountants Ireland’s Diploma in Forensic Accounting and Investigation.

Michael is the CEO of the Compliance Institute, vice chair of the Sport Ireland/FAI Governance Oversight Group, a Board member and chair of the audit committee of Carmichael, a member of the Sustainable Finance Skillnet Steering Committee , a council member and Chair of the Education committee of the Institute of Certified Public Accountants and a member of the Irish committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants England and Wales.

Prior to that Michael was Director of DPP with KPMG Ireland, CEO of IAASA (The Irish Auditing and Accounting Supervisory Authority), Head of Financial Reporting Supervision with IAASA and Technical Manager and Head of the practice review function at the Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

He established Ireland’s statutory accounting enforcement function (tasked with examining whether the financial reports of listed entities comply with financial reporting standards) and oversaw the establishment of Ireland’s statutory Audit Inspection regime (tasked with inspecting the quality of audit work conducted by Ireland’s large audit firms).

For 12 years, he was the Irish Observer at the Corporate Reporting Council of the FRC which produces UK and Irish accounting standards.

He was also Ireland’s representative at ESMA’s European Enforcers Co-ordination Sessions which is tasked with co-ordinating accounting enforcement across Europe having chaired a number of ESMA sub-committees.

Michael has acted as examiner, moderator, lecturer and solution writer for various accountancy bodies.

Michael is a qualified accountant and a member of the Compliance Institute, Institute of Certified Public Accountants (CPA Ireland) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of England and Wales (ICAEW).

Ted leads Moody’s Analytics industry practice in Europe, Africa & Americas. He has spent the last decade helping organisations harness data and technology to improve their risk-based approach to customer and third-party due diligence. Teds’ practise group drives innovation in Moody’s product strategy and helps their customers to make better, faster decisions in the era of exponential risk.

Ted is a regular contributor to global anti-corruption forums and an active supporter of public-private collaboration initiatives. He was a member of the winning team at the FCA’s Global AML TechSprint addressing beneficial ownership registry reconciliation. He is also a founding member of the DT4C (Data & Technology for Compliance) industry alliance, a collective advocacy group working to promote data access in the broader fight against financial crime.

Ted holds ACAMS certification and a Diploma in Financial Crime Prevention from the International Compliance Association.

Rob O’Farrell is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and co-founder of ID-Pal, an award-winning ISO 27001 and 9001 certified identity verification solution that enables businesses to verify identities and addresses in real-time, using their iBeta PAD level 1 & 2 Certified and NIST IAL 2 Compliant platform. It's also available to integrate via the Salesforce AppExchange.

Prior to ID-Pal, Rob established consultancy business Perfutil Technologies, which boasts the largest Utilities in Europe as clients, and builds complex data-driven software for the biggest brands in the world. During this time, Rob led teams designing software to manage the electricity and gas grids in multiple countries including Ireland, the UK, Belgium and the Netherlands.

Rob has 20 years experience working in AI, machine learning and automation and has a deep understanding of the identity verification space. Rob has a degree in Computational Physics and Chemistry, a Masters in Computational Chemistry and a Masters in Multimedia Systems all from Trinity College Dublin.

Karen Bissett is a senior Financial Crime Compliance and risk leader with over 20 years of legal and banking experience. After 12 years in private practice, Karen spent 7 years with the Bank of Ireland Group. Starting as a senior legal adviser in consumer banking she began to specialise in financial services regulatory projects and acted for a time as chairperson of the Bank’s Mortgage Appeals Board. Karen then took on the role of the Head of Sanctions and Counter-Terrorist Financing and Deputy Group Money Laundering Reporting Officer.

To gain a deeper knowledge of Financial Crime Compliance and risk from an international banking perspective, Karen spent 3 years as a Global Financial Crimes Director and Deputy Money Laundering Reporting Officer for Bank of America’s EU headquartered entity, Bank of America Europe. Karen returned to the Bank of Ireland as Head of Financial Crime and Group Money Laundering Reporting Officer in late 2022. Karen is a member of the Law Society of Ireland and maintains a current practising certificate.

Neil is the Director of Intelligence at STOP THE TRAFFIK Group and President of Traffik Analysis Hub. He has a 13-year history of collecting and developing intelligence on the issue of Human Trafficking. Neil has been working with STOP THE TRAFFIK since 2008 and moved to lead Traffik Analysis Hub in 2019.

With an extensive background in Law Enforcement, Neil has worked with New Scotland Yard, Regional and National Crime Squads, National Criminal Intelligence Service and Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) in leading major international programmes to counter organised crime. This includes as the UK Law Enforcement Attache to North America, based at the British Embassy, Washington DC.

In SOCA, he led the Human Intelligence Department in collecting information globally on organised crime and has operational experience in Afghanistan, Colombia and West Africa. He also served as COO at UK Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP).

Kevin has more than 15 years’ of experience in various illicit finance roles, including both operational and strategy positions. Starting his illicit finance career in the Serious Organised Crime Agency (now the National Crime Agency) in 2008, Kevin re-joined HMRC in 2010, including managing the largest financial investigation team which delivered multi-million pound confiscations, cash forfeitures and working with HMRC’s Criminal Taxes Unit to deliver a blended asset recovery approach.

Kevin also developed HMRC’s award winning Offender Management Enforcement Team, which merged confiscation enforcement, fugitive recovery and use and enforcement of Serious Crime Prevention Orders.

Kevin’s recent role is overseeing HMRC’s response to priority illicit finance threats, such as tech-enabled, cash-based and trade-based money laundering. Kevin is also a FATF assessor, having worked on the Mutual Evaluation Review of the United Arab Emirates. In 2020, working with The Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units and The Netherlands, Kevin also produced an updated FATF report on trends with trade-based money laundering.

In 2022, Kevin was awarded the Keith Hughes Award for Outstanding Contribution to Excellence and Innovation in Financial Investigation.

Jackie leads Brussels-based Ibec Global, Europe's leading English-speaking, globally networked business organisation, and the international business division of Ibec - Ireland’s largest and most influential business advocacy and representative organisation.

Ibec Global’s engagement spans across Irish and global stakeholders to shape the conditions for international businesses to thrive, and to advance practical and scalable solutions that economies and societies need to prosper. Her previous roles include Chief Operating Officer at the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, and Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Ottawa, Canada office of a leading international public affairs and strategic communications consulting firm.

Jackie has over two decades of experience as an international business leader, building high-performing teams and transforming organisations for the future. She is recognised as an expert in managing risk for organizations with international exposure, and has worked with executives, their boards, and public-sector officials in every sector of the global economy to protect and enhance reputation and deliver results for business and communities.

Pat who is originally from Drimoleague, West Cork, joined An Garda Síochána in 1986 and has served mainly in the Dublin Region but also worked in the South Eastern and Eastern Garda Regions. Pat has worked in Community Policing, Drugs, Prostitution Investigations, Serious Crime Investigations, Fraud and Financial Investigations, Financial Intelligence and Cybercrime. He has held the position of Detective in all ranks and has been at the forefront of the investigation of serious crime for many years. Pat is a Senior Investigating Officer (S.I.O.) and holds a B.Sc in Management Law from Trinity College Dublin.

In 2015, Pat took up his current position as Head of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau. The Garda National Economic Crime Bureau is involved in many high profile investigations and is supported by Gardaí throughout the country trained in Fraud Investigation. Pat and his team have developed a Post Graduate Certificate in Fraud and E-Crime Investigation in association with University College Dublin. Pat was also the lead representative from An Garda Síochána in the 2017 Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Review of Ireland. Pat sees education and crime prevention as being the most beneficial ways of reducing fraud into the future.

Miss Annika Agemans is head of legislation and litigation at the compliance department of the General Administration of the Treasury of the Federal Public Service Finances. She obtained a degree of Master in Law from the University of Ghent where she specialised in European law, international private law and banking law.

She focuses on all aspects of the legislation concerning anti-money laundering, the UBO register and the restrictive measures. She is in charge of the Belgian legislation in these fields and the transposition of the European directives. She is closely involved in the initiatives on the European level and participates directly in the Belgian presidency team for the AML Package.

Adam McLaughlin possesses several years of operational experience identifying, investigating and mitigating financial crime risks. He previously worked as an AML compliance manager for J.P. Morgan and before that spent nearly 10 years as a Police Detective in the UK. Part of this was managing a financial crime investigation team in the City of London Police, the UK’s national lead force for economic crime.

Adam was also an operational member of the UK Joint Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce (JMLIT). The JMLIT is a joint public and private partnership whose aim is to work together to share intelligence and information to fight financial crime and identify new threats.

Claudette Whyte is a seasoned compliance professional with a wealth of experience spanning prestigious financial institutions. Currently serving as a Senior Financial Crime Compliance Professional, Claudette brings a robust background in financial crime and compliance assurance.

Claudette held pivotal roles at JP Morgan, Barclays and BNP Paribas as a Financial Crime Compliance Officer. She began her career as an AML Analyst gradually ascending through the ranks, showcasing her dedication and expertise in the compliance domain.

Claudette's academic achievements are equally impressive, boasting a Postgraduate Certificate in Global Capital Markets with a specialisation in Regulation and Compliance, a Professional Diploma in Strategic Management from the Institute of Bankers and a Master of Science (MSc) in Compliance from UCD.

Additionally, she is currently pursuing a Master of Business Studies in Internationalisation (MBS) from SETU and a Master of Science in International Business (MSc) with Brest Business School, further enhancing her analytical prowess.

As a testament to her commitment to professional development and excellence, Claudette has earned various certifications, including Internationally Certified Compliance Professional, Certified Data Protection Officer, and Certified Financial Crime Prevention Practitioner. She is also a Director and Fellow of the Compliance Institute.

Beyond her professional endeavours, Claudette actively contributes to various industry initiatives, serving as Chair of the Diversity & Inclusion Committee of the Compliance Institute, demonstrating her dedication to fostering inclusivity and diversity within the corporate sphere.

She was nominated in the Advocate of the Year category in the Women in Finance Awards Ireland 2021 and nominated in the Ireland National Diversity & Inclusion Awards 2023 in the Leader/Emerging Leader category.

Claudette is in the Top 10 of 2023 INvolve - Top 100 Heroes Future Women Leaders Role Model list, highlighting the incredible efforts of women executives, women future leaders, and their allies to drive inclusion for women in business.