Sanctions: the need for agility in a shifting landscape

Ross joined the ICA from private consultancy following an extensive career within UK Law Enforcement, where he specialised as a Financial Investigator. During this time, Ross led national and international money laundering and asset tracing investigations focussed on disrupting serious and organised criminal networks. He went on to work within UK Counter Terrorism, again focussing on following the money, working with a number of international government and private sector partners to disrupt terrorist activity and prevent attacks from occurring around the globe. As a Course Director and Global Lead for Sanctions, Ross is passionate about sharing his operational expertise and strives to continue to make a difference.

Following operational investigations targeting Organised Crime Networks, Ross moved to New Scotland Yard, joining the National Terrorist Financial Investigation Unit (NTFIU). Working closely with key government and industry partners, he led national and International Terrorist Finance (TF) and financial intelligence operations. In this role, Ross would also assist in War Crimes investigations and in building financial sanctions cases in support of the UK Treasury department.

As part of a UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) capacity building program, Ross was part of a small team of officers that delivered bespoke, tailored, training in Countering the Financing of Terrorism (CFT) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) to overseas partners in the middle east.

In 2012, Ross was privileged to manage the NTFIU’s Intelligence and Assessment desk during the London Olympics.

Subsequently, Ross was seconded to the UK’s Ministry of Defence to provide specialist CFT and AML Investigative expertise - travelling to Afghanistan, the United States and across Europe. During this secondment, Ross was responsible for developing UK lines of effort for adoption at the ‘Five Eyes’ Threat Finance Working Group. This was comprised of subject matter experts from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United States and the UK.

Maddalena Tovazzi is an experienced financial crime professional, with experiences in both AML/TF and sanctions advisory roles. The last 3 years of her career have been spent specializing on sanctions advisory and sanctions risk management, following complex cases primarily involving Nordic customers. Her multidisciplinary education, skills for languages and international experience have been key driving forces. She currently works as a Senior Sanctions Expert and Functional Lead at Nordea Bank in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Luma is an economist and banking specialist experienced in Financial Crime policy setting and control implementation.

She designed and implemented compliance controls at strategic and operational levels working closely with business divisions, industry bodies and regulators to develop shared frameworks and an agreed approach on matters such as de-risking, facilitation of international transactions relating to humanitarian work and sectoral sanctions.

She is particularly experienced in working across functions and boundaries to translate global policies into operational practices supported by appropriate technology. She is active within the RegTech space, mainly focused on new tools to combat Money Laundering.

Luma is a Chevening Scholar and a Fellow at the International Compliance Association. She has a Bachelor in Economics, a Postgraduate Diploma in Fiscal and Monetary Economy and Master’s degree in Banking and International Finance.

She has a keen interest in technology and current affairs and their economic, social and political impact.

With seven years of experience in Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Sanctions compliance gained across various sectors (e-commerce, financial services, banking, alternative payments/acquiring), Sara is now leading GSK sanctions compliance programme. Previous roles include the divestment of a compliance function supporting systems and controls design, risks transition, target operating model definition and performance of financial crime assurance reviews to evaluate the future organisation compliance against financial crime policy and standards. A more recent position involved the management of an AML, Sanctions and Law enforcement response team. The current role has allowed to develop valuable experience in managing various stakeholders groups across the organisation, mastering resilience through the delivery of a significant organisational change.