#WomeninFincrime

Frances Fitzgerald is a Fine Gael MEP for Dublin City and County. She is a member of the ECON (Economic & Monetary Affairs) Committee, FEMM (Women’s Rights & Gender Equality) Committee and DEVE (Development) Committee. Frances also serves as the lead coordinator for the European People’s Party on FEMM.

Prior to her election to the European Parliament in the 2019 European Elections, Frances served as a Fine Gael Parliamentarian for over 20 years. She served as a Senator and T.D. in Dublin Mid-West (2007-2019) and has previously served as a Fine Gael T.D. in Dublin South East (1992-2002).

She most recently served as Tánaiste (2016-17), one of only four women to have ever held this position. She has also served as Minister for Business, Enterprise & Innovation (2017); Minister for Justice & Equality (2014-17) and was the State’s first Minister for Children & Youth Affairs (2011-14).

Frances has a clear record of delivering change and reform in Ireland stemming back to her education and early career.

Raised in Stillorgan, she was educated in Dominican College Sion Hill, Blackrock and the London School of Economics.  She worked as a social worker and family therapist for ten years in Ballymun Child & Family Centre and in St. Ultan’s Children’s Hospital, St. James’ Hospital and the Mater Hospital. She has also worked in inner city communities in both Dublin and London.

​Prior to her election to the Dáil, Frances served as Chair of the National Women’s Council of Ireland (1988-92) and Vice President of the European Women’s Lobby. She was also a founding member of the Women’s Environment Network – as it was known then.

Before Fine Gael entered Government in 2011, she served as Leader of the Opposition in Seanad Éireann (2007-11).

Federica is a Partner at Interpath Advisory, where she co-leads a team of regulatory experts who assess and investigate regulatory and financial crime concerns on behalf of regulators and enforcement agencies globally.

Federica has led and been involved in numerous of the recent large-scale investigations (Swedbank, Latvian/ABLV flows, organised crime) on behalf of regulators in Europe and the US, including a dual-track (criminal and regulatory) investigation into a major universal bank that revealed the facilitation of significant terror-related activity.

Federica translates her direct, hands-on, experience of investigating complex financial crime schemes (encompassing illicit use of shell companies/complex ownership structures, cryptocurrencies, hacking incidents, ransomware scams, identity theft schemes and bribery and corruption) involving a wide range of jurisdictions (including Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Malta, Cyprus, UK, US, Sweden, Italy, Libya, Hong Kong, the BVI, Panama, Bermuda and Curacao) into practical advice for supervisors and regulated firms and advises regulators and law enforcement agencies as to how to build and improve (intra-)jurisdictional infrastructure to prevent an investigate financial crime .

Federica has conducted investigations and served as a strategic advisor to the Malta Financial Services Authority (MFSA) and Malta Financial Intelligence Analysis Unit (FIAU) on the topic of financial crime and served, on an interim basis, as Head of the MFSA’s Financial Crime Unit. She also advises the regulators and other government entities in preparation for upcoming FATF assessments.

Amongst Federica’s clients are the EMEA regulators (including the UK FCA, MFSA, FIAU, CySEC, CBUAE, BaFIN, Bermuda Monetary Authority, Guardia di Finanza and Danish FSA), governments (e.g., UK, Malta, UAE, Cyprus, Lithuania and Cayman Islands) and a wide range of financial institutions (including gambling and cryptoassets businesses).

She is a Board Director of Malta’s ACAMS Chapter and AML Intelligence and a senior adviser to the EU AML/CFT Global Facility on the topics of beneficial ownership and virtual assets.

In her early career, Federica set up and co-led an independent firm consulting financial services and government agencies in Europe on quantitative risk management and general compliance.

Later, Federica held senior compliance and control roles (including Head of Compliance and MLRO) in industry (including at Credit Suisse, RBS and ICICI Bank, all in the UK), setting up and leading control and compliance units. She also led the regulatory affairs team that negotiated (with, inter alia, the FCA, PRA, HMT and European Commission) the terms of the Banking Licence Application for Williams & Glyn as part of the RBS rescue package deal with the UK government.

Federica is a frequent speaker and writer on various financial crime topics, the predicate offences that drive it, the small (but impactful) shortfalls that cause illicit flows to pass through the financial system, the consequences of financial crime and to provide pragmatic advice as to how to remediate them.

Vivienne is Managing Director and Chief Privacy Officer at the London Stock Exchange Group, leading the global Privacy Office and overseeing global privacy strategy and practice.

Previously, Vivienne was the Chief Privacy Office at Refinitiv and Thomson Reuters, and Managing Director and Global Head of Privacy Legal & Head of International for the Intellectual Property and Technology Law Group at Citi.  Prior to joining Citi in 2000, Vivienne worked in private practice in London.

Vivienne chairs the International Regulatory Strategy Group Data Working Group and is the Vice Chair on the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of the International Association of Privacy Professionals (IAPP).  Vivienne is also on the Business and Law Advisory Board of St Mary’s University, the Alumni Advisory Board of Pembroke College Oxford University, and is on the Founding Editorial Board for the Journal of AI and Ethics.  Vivienne was recognised in the 2019 PrivSec200 list of privacy and security professionals across Europe.

Vivienne is on the Advisory Board of Women in Banking and Finance, having been President and CEO from 2017-2020.  Vivienne is a recognized gender champion and leader having been awarded the Champion for Women Award at the Women in Banking and Finance Awards for Achievement 2016.  Vivienne received the 2019 WeAreTheCity Rising Star Editor’s Choice Award in recognition of her tireless efforts in the diversity space, and as an individual who is pushing for change within her industry.  Vivienne placed in the top 20 Executive Women Role Models in the HERoes List 2020, was awarded Woman Solicitor of the Year in the Law Society Excellence Awards in 2020, and has many years of experience leading a broad range of diversity initiatives and groups both within firms and across sectors.  Vivienne was awarded an OBE in the Queen’s New Year’s Honours in 2021 for services to financial services and gender diversity.

Carolin Gardner is the Head of the European Banking Authority’s AML/CFT Unit.

She oversees the development of common European AML/CFT standards for credit and financial institutions and their supervisors, and work to foster cooperation and information exchange among key stakeholders. She is also responsible for a programme of reviews of competent authorities’ approaches to AML/CFT supervision. 

Prior to joining the European Banking Authority, Carolin was a technical specialist for financial crime policy at the UK Financial Conduct Authority, and a policy officer at Transparency International, an international anti-corruption charity.

Lorraine is a former Senator, barrister, and a highly experienced public policy professional, media commentator and strategist.

She is the founder and Secretary General of Digital Business Ireland and also works as an external consultant to a number of blue chip multinational companies and was previously CEO of Ireland’s largest retail representative body.

A public speaker she has contributed to many public discussions on eCommerce and digital development including at the United Nations in Geneva. She has worked closely with the largest lobbying body in the world, the NRF (USA), on the implementation of the GDPR for American retailers and served as a Director of eCommerce Europe (Brussels).

During her time as a Senator she was a regular contributor on matters including business, entrepreneurship and EU issues and in an independent study conducted in 2014 she was named the second most influential member of Seanad Éireann in terms of shaping public policy and opinion. In December 2015, she was also named by the Irish Times as one of the Top 5 People in Politics to Watch and one of the Top 50 People in Ireland to Watch.

Lorraine is also currently Honorary Consul of the Slovak Republic and plays a role in the economic and cultural development of the relationship between the Slovak Republic and Ireland.

She previously worked as a Barrister and was a Lecturer teaching Contract Law and Tort Law to students undertaking the Law Society FE1 exams. She currently guest lectures for the Public Relations Institute of Ireland.

Mrs Ben-Simhon is currently leading the Intelligence partnerships and cyber-fraud Innovation at Citi’s Cyber Intelligence Center & TLV Innovation Lab.

Karine is a senior cybersecurity manager with vast experience and understanding of the cyber warfare ecosystem, on both corporate and National levels.

In her current role, Karine is working on identifying Innovative solutions for cybercrime prevention, and work with internal and global stakeholders to increase effectively information exchange and data analytics.

Prior to joining Citi, she worked at the Israel National Cyber Directorate, where she founded and managed the Operational Cooperation unit. During this role she worked closely with Government agencies worldwide, and established tailor made collaborations to prevent cybercrime from occurring with financial institutions and other Global industry stakeholders.

She began her career at the the Israel Security Agency, and continued her journey working for the private and Government sector promoting multi-national projects related to cybersecurity and HLS.

Being a top priority, in the past few years, Karine promoted local initiatives to empower younger girls to achieve their full potential, and encourage technological leadership.

Karine is an 8200 Intelligence Unit veteran and holds a MA in Defense & Intelligence studies from the Bar-Ilan University and a Political Sciences BA diploma from the Tel Aviv University.

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.

Carolina Garcés Monterrubio is Santander´s Global Head of Financial Crime Compliance. Carolina has over 22 years of banking experience; 19 of which are specific to financial crime prevention. Carolina has held multiple senior roles in global financial institutions such as HSBC, Goldman Sachs, BlackRock and RBS.

Carolina holds an MSc in International Money and Banking from the University of Birmingham in UK, a Diploma in Anti-Money Laundering by CASS Business School in London UK and a BA in Economics from ITESM Campus Mexico City. Carolina is a native Spanish speaker and is fluent in both English and German.

Elizabeth Hearst is the Digital Editor of AML Intelligence, having previously served as Senior Correspondent since its inception in 2020.

Elizabeth is responsible for the curation of daily content, editing and publication of news stories on AML Intelligence, as well as management of all social media platforms and event co-ordination.

A graduate of Dublin City University's Masters of Journalism programme, Elizabeth spent time as a Schuman Trainee at the European Parliament's Liaison Office in Dublin, and previously interned with the national broadcaster RTÉ at Ireland's General Election 2020.

Elizabeth has a passion for politics, banking and current affairs and brings an in-depth understanding of European politics to her role at AML Intelligence.