The Fifth International Debarment Colloquium

Roundtable 1

• Collin Swan, Senior Counsel, World Bank Office of Suspension & Debarment (USA)

Collin Swan is Senior Counsel (Sanctions) in OSD at the World Bank, where he assists the Chief Suspension and Debarment Officer in reviewing sanctions cases and determining whether to suspend the contracting eligibility of respondent firms and individuals.  Prior to joining the World Bank, Mr. Swan worked as a government contracts associate at Wiley Rein LLP and served as a judicial law clerk for the Honorable Jimmie V. Reyna on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit. He is also an Associate Editor for the Public Contract Law Journal and has been a Professorial Lecturer in Law at the George Washington University Law School since 2014, where he teaches courses on government contracts and scholarly writing.  A native of Pennsylvania, Mr. Swan received his B.A., summa cum laude, from the George Washington University, and his J.D., with highest honors, from the George Washington University Law School.  During law school, he won both the National Contract Management Association’s writing award and the Public Contract Law Journal writing competition. His publications include works in the Journal of National Security Law and Policy, the Public Contract Law Journal, the George Washington Law Review and the Journal of Contract Management.

• Jessica Tillipman, Assistant Dean for Field Placement; Professorial Lecturer in Law, The George Washington University Law School (USA)

Jessica Tillipman is the Assistant Dean for Field Placement and Professorial Lecturer in Law at The George Washington University Law School where she teaches anti-corruption and compliance. Dean Tillipman is also a Senior Editor of “The FCPA Blog”—a leading Foreign Corrupt Practices Act resource on the internet and a co-chair of the ABA International Anti-Corruption Committee. She also regularly advises foreign governments and companies on anti-corruption and compliance issues. Prior to joining GW Law, Dean Tillipman was an associate in Jenner & Block’s Washington, D.C. office, where she was member of the firm’s Government Contracts and White Collar Criminal Defense and Counseling practice groups. She joined Jenner & Block after serving as a law clerk to the Honorable Lawrence S. Margolis of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. Dean Tillipman graduated cum laude from Miami University in Oxford, OH and obtained her J.D., with honors, from The George Washington University Law School.

• Juan Ronderos, Sanctions Officer, Inter-American Development Bank Group (USA) (IDB Sanctions Officer, USA)

Juan Gabriel Ronderos is a Canadian-Colombian citizen with a law degree from Universidad de los Andes, a Specialization in Taxation from the same university, and an LL.M. from Osgoode Hall Law School in Canada. Since October 2010, he has served as the Sanctions Officer for the Inter-American Development Bank Group (IDB Group) in Washington, D.C. In this position, he acts as the first instance reviewer of the IDB Group’s two-tier Sanctions System. As Sanctions Officer, he is in charge of adjudicating cases of Prohibited Practices brought forward by the Office of Institutional Integrity (OII), related to allegations that corporations and/or individuals have engaged in corrupt, fraudulent, coercive, collusive and/or obstructive practices, all according to the IDB Group’s Sanctions Procedures. If warranted, the Sanctions Officer imposes appropriate sanctions. His determinations can be appealed before the IDB Group’s Sanctions Committee. Prior to joining the IDB Group, Mr. Ronderos was the Regional Team Leader for the Latin America and the Caribbean investigative team at the World Bank’s Integrity Vice Presidency (INT). After joining the World Bank in 2003, Mr. Ronderos participated in different units of INT, including the South Asia investigative team where he conducted investigations in India, Bangladesh, and Cambodia, among other countries. Prior to his work for the two Multilateral Development Banks, Mr. Ronderos worked for KPMG Forensics in Canada and in the United States, where he held the level of director. Mr. Ronderos’ career started in the early nineties in Colombia where he held different posts, ranging from being a front line investigator at the Attorney General’s office to commanding a special task force in charge of investigating money laundering and financial crimes related to the drug cartels. Later, Mr. Ronderos worked in academia in Canada as Assistant Director for the Nathanson Center for the Study of Organized Crime and Corruption at Osgoode Hall Law School. Mr. Ronderos speaks frequently at national and international events about the IDB’s Sanctions System and international anti-corruption issues. He has been an adjunct professor on taxation at the Jorge Tadeo Lozano University, guest lecturer on organized crime at Osgoode Hall Law School, and guest lecturer on corruption and international development at Universidad de los Andes in Colombia, American University and Georgetown in Washington D.C., and Duke University Sanford School of Public Policy. Mr. Ronderos has published on issues related to law enforcement, transnational organized crime and corruption in international development.

• Roland Stein, Partner, Blomstein (Germany)

Roland Stein is an expert for public procurement law and international trade law. He is founding partner of the leading boutique BLOMSTEIN based in Berlin, Germany. Before founding BLOMSTEIN Roland worked at Freshfields for many years. Roland assists his clients in Germany and abroad. His public procurement law practice covers advice to both contracting authorities and bidders. In addition, he has longstanding experience in the field of procurement compliance (exclusions, debarments and self-cleaning). This also includes advising on sanctions imposed by the World Bank or other multilateral development banks. Additionally, he assists sanctioned companies in reviewing their compliance systems by acting as a monitor. Furthermore, Roland advises companies in all areas of international trade law, including export controls and sanctions law. He is also co-chair of the IBA subcommittee on debarments and exclusions. Roland is regularly ranked as a leading government contracts and international trade law expert by Who’s Who Legal and is also among Who’s Who Legal Thought Leaders Global Elite in the field of Government Contracts. Roland is half German and half Brazilian and grew up in São Paulo, Brazil. He is admitted to the Bar in Germany (Rechtsanwalt)

• Adriana Dantas, Member of Petrobras' Independent Board Committee on Sanctions and Disciplinary Measures (Brazil)

 Adriana Dantas is a Brazilian attorney, recognized for her significant international experience, her strong academic background, and her skill in representing clients in matters involving multiple jurisdictions. She currently serves as member of Petrobras' independent Board Committee on Integrity, a body responsible for imposing sanctions based upon the Brazilian Clean Company Act on vendors and executives engaged in fraud, collusion and corruption with Petrobras' system. Adriana has been involved in conducting internal investigations and in defending Board Committees and companies before Brazilian and U.S. authorities. She has acted in proceedings resulting from industry sweeps conducted by the DOJ and SEC and, more recently, by Brazilian authorities. She is the first Brazilian woman to serve as independent monitor reporting to Brazilian Federal Prosecutors.  She also practices International Trade Law, where Adriana concentrates her practice on trade defense actions in Brazil and other countries and on representing companies and associations in international disputes, particularly disputes before the World Trade Organization's Dispute Settlement Body.

• Kjell Kristian Dørum, Council on Ethics, Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global (Norway)

Mr. Dørum is currently working as Chief Advisor on Corruption in the Council on Ethics for the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global, where he has been employed since 2017. In the Council, Mr. Dørum is responsible for monitoring the companies in the fund portfolio for possible violation of the corruption criterion in the Ethical Guidelines for the fund, research relating to corruption allegations and dialogue with companies in this regard, as well as drafting of recommendations/reports on observation and exclusion of companies. Before the Council, Mr. Dørum worked for the Office of the Auditor General of Norway (OAGN) for more than ten years. In addition to conducting performance audits, he was member of the Internal Specialist Group on Fraud in the OAGN for several years, and Project Manager for the INTOSAI WGEA-project «Addressing fraud and corruption issues when auditing environmental and natural resource management». Mr. Dørum has also worked in the Norwegian Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Fisheries for eight years, mainly with international and national resource management issues. Mr. Dørum has his main education in Political Science, and additional Master Studies in Economic Crime and Corporate Social Responsibility. 

 

Roundtable 2

• Peter Trepte, Senior Research Fellow, University of Nottingham (United Kingdom)

Peter Trepte is a practicing barrister with Littleton Chambers in London and of Counsel to Grayston & Company in Brussels. He is a Senior Fellow in Public Procurement Law at the University of Nottingham and Head of the Unit on Corruption and Public Procurement. In the case of regulated procurement, he advises and represents public and private sector clients on issues of EU procurement rules as well as on the application of the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement and the effect on the procurement rules of the European Commission’s preferential trade arrangements. At the international level, he has extensive and wide geographical experience in public procurement reform. He has lectured and published widely on public procurement issues and is the author of Public Procurement in the EU, 2nd edition (OUP, 2007) and Regulating Procurement (OUP, 2004), and he is co-editor of Public Procurement and Aid Effectiveness (Hart, 2019).

• Christopher Yukins, Lynn David Research Professor of Government Procurement Law, The George Washington University Law School (USA)

Christopher R. Yukins serves as Co-Director of the Government Procurement Law Program at The George Washington University Law School, and has taught there on contract formations and performance issues in public procurement, bid protests and claims litigation, state and local procurement, anti-corruption issues, foreign contracting, procurement reform, and comparative and international law. He has spoken as a guest lecturer at institutions around the world, and he was a contributing editor to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime manual, Guidebook on Anti-Corruption in Public Procurement. He is an active member of the Public Contract Law Section of the American Bar Association, and is a member of the Procurement Roundtable, an organization of senior members of the U.S. procurement community. He is a faculty advisor to the Public Contract Law Journal, is a member of the editorial board of the European Procurement & Public-Private Partnership Law Review, and is on the advisory board of The Government Contractor. He has worked on a wide array of international projects on capacity-building in procurement, and he was an advisor to the U.S. delegation to the working group on reform of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Procurement Law. Together with his colleagues Steven Schooner and Jessica Tillipman, he runs a colloquium series on procurement reform at The George Washington University Law School. In private practice, Professor Yukins has been an associate, partner and counsel at leading national firms; he is currently counsel to the firm of Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer LLP.

• Alexandra Habershon, Program Coordinator, WB Governance Global Practice (USA)

Alexandra Habershon is a Senior Governance Specialist in the Governance Global Practice of the World Bank where she leads governance research and analytics projects on anticorruption. She provides technical assistance to public sector reform operations, including on income and asset declaration systems and conflict of interest prevention regulations; beneficial ownership transparency; data analytics to promote public sector integrity; and whistleblower protections and complaint mechanisms. She is the World Bank observer on the Board of the Infrastructure Transparency Initiative (CoST). In her previous role she was coordinator of Preventive Services for the World Bank’s Integrity Vice Presidency and was responsible for organizing the global meetings of the International Corruption Hunters Alliance (ICHA). She has over 15 years’ experience in governance and public sector modernization, with a focus on anticorruption and judicial reform. Alexandra has a Ph.D. in Cultural Studies from Georgetown University.

• Giuliana Dunham Irving, Executive Secretary to the World Bank Group Sanctions Board (USA)

Ms. Giuliana Dunham Irving is the current Executive Secretary to the World Bank Group Sanctions Board. She has been with the Sanctions Board Secretariat since October 2016. Ms. Dunham Irving joined the World Bank Group in 2006 as an Institutional Integrity Officer in the Institutional Integrity Department (now the Integrity Vice Presidency). From 2008 to 2012, she held the position of Senior Counsel in Legal Department’s Institutional Administration Unit. From 2012 to 2014, she served as Senior Counsel and Special Assistant to the General Counsel and Senior Vice President of the World Bank Group. From 2014 to September 2016, she held the position of Senior Counsel for Sanctions Policy in the Legal Operations Policy Unit. Ms. Dunham Irving received her Juris Doctor from New York University School of Law in 1992, and completed her undergraduate studies in economics at Columbia College of Columbia University in New York and Universita’ Commerciale Luigi Bocconi in Milan. Ms. Dunham Irving began her legal career as a litigation associate with the firm Debevoise & Plimpton in New York. Prior to joining the World Bank Group, she served as a Trial Attorney in the Fraud Section of the United States Department of Justice and as an Assistant United States Attorney in Washington, D.C.

• Joseph Mauro, Integrity Compliance Specialist, Integrity Vice Presidency, World Bank Group (USA)

Joseph C. Mauro is an Integrity Compliance Specialist in INT’s Integrity Compliance Office. He assists the Integrity Compliance Officer by working with sanctioned entities on the development of integrity compliance programs and evaluating whether sanctioned entities have met their conditions for release from sanction. He oversees a portfolio of compliance monitors and also contributes to INT settlements and sanctions cases. Previously, he practiced law at a national law firm focusing on fraud and corruption investigations, FCPA and securities law, litigation, and compliance. He also clerked for a judge on the Court of Appeals of Maryland and worked briefly as a Spanish-English interpreter. He has a J.D. from the University of Michigan and a B.A. from Wake Forest University. He is licensed to practice law in Washington, D.C.

Roundtable 3

• Steven L. Schooner, Nash & Cibinic Professor of Government Procurement Law, The George Washington University Law School (USA)

Steven L. Schooner is the Nash & Cibinic Professor of Government Procurement Law at The George Washington University Law School, where he previously served as Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. Before joining the faculty, Professor Schooner was the Associate Administrator for Procurement Law and Legislation (a Senior Executive Service position) at the Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) in the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). He previously tried cases and handled appeals in the Commercial Litigation Branch of the Department of Justice. He also practiced with private law firms and, as an Active Duty Army Judge Advocate, served as a Commissioner at the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals. As an Army Reserve officer, he served for more than fifteen years as an Adjunct Professor in the Contract and Fiscal Law Department of the Judge Advocate General's School of the Army, in Charlottesville, Virginia. Outside of the United States, he has advised hundreds of government officials on public procurement issues, either directly or through multi-government programs. His dispute resolution experience includes service as an arbitrator, mediator, neutral, and ombudsman. Professor Schooner received his Bachelors degree from Rice University, Juris Doctor from the College of William and Mary, and Master of Laws (with highest honors) from the George Washington University. He is a Fellow of the National Contract Management Association (NCMA), a recipient of NCMA’s Charles A. Dana Distinguished Service Award, a Certified Professional Contracts Manager (CPCM), and he serves on the Board of Directors of the Procurement Round Table. He is a Faculty Advisor to the American Bar Association’s PUBLIC CONTRACT LAW JOURNAL and a member of the GOVERNMENT CONTRACTOR Advisory Board. He is author or co-author of numerous publications including THE GOVERNMENT CONTRACTS REFERENCE BOOK: A COMPREHENSIVE GUIDE TO THE LANGUAGE OF PROCUREMENT (now in its fourth edition). Professor Schooner’s recent scholarship is available through the Social Science Research Network at http://ssrn.com/author=283370. On Twitter, @ProfSchooner.

• Belita Manka, Senior Counsel, World Bank Legal Procurement (USA)

Belita Manka is a Procurement Counsel in the Legal Operations Policy Unit (LEGOP) of the Legal Vice Presidency of the World Bank. In her role, she is primarily responsible for advising World Bank operational and procurement teams on a wide range of operational procurement matters as related to the Bank-funded contracts and projects, advising borrowers on public procurement legislation, and assessing performance of national public procurement systems. She is the principal procurement lawyer for Europe and Central Asia, East Asia and Pacific and East Africa regions. Belita has been working for the World Bank for more than 18 years combining experience with the Europe and Central Asia’s operational procurement unit, and in the Legal Vice Presidency.  Belita holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law from the University of Tirana (Albania), a Master in Business Administration (MBA) degree from the Institute Kurt Bosch (Switzerland), and a Master of Laws (LLM) in Government Procurement Law from George Washington University Law School.

• Michal Kania, Professor, Silesian University (Poland)

Michał Kania is a professor of law at the University of Silesia in Katowice (Poland), legal adviser with 15 years of experience in the practice. Michał is an active member of the Public Procurement Association and legal consultant with the specialization in the public-private partnership, concession and public procurement law, visiting Fulbright scholar at the George Washington University, Washington DC (September 2018-June 2019), Fellowship of the German Academic Exchange Service at the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich (June – August 2017), author of more than 100 publications, speaker at the Polish and international conferences, initiator and lecturer at the Postgraduate Studies in Public-Private Partnership and Public Procurement at the University of Silesia in Katowice, independent adviser for the Polish Ministry of Development responsible for the concept of the new Polish Public Procurement Act, adopted on 11 September 2019, vice-president of the Silesian Arbitration Court.

• Duc Nguyen, Senior Debarring Official, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USA)

Duc H. Nguyen is the Senior Debarring Official (SDO) at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As SDO, he takes discretionary suspension and debarment actions to protect the integrity of Federal procurement and nonprocurement (assistance) programs. Mr. Nguyen also issues agency decisions on petitions for reinstatement of eligibility by contractors and grantees who have been statutorily debarred under the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. Prior to joining EPA, Mr. Nguyen served in a number of legal positions with various federal agencies. These positions include Fraud Remedies Coordinator for the Western Region with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Procurement Fraud Remedies Coordinator for the Army Materiel Command. He also served on active duty in the Army’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps as a senior military prosecutor and supervisory defense counsel. Mr. Nguyen currently co-chairs the American Bar Association’s Debarment and Suspension Committee and is the former Vice-Chair of the Interagency Suspension and Debarment Committee. He received his Bachelor of Arts from Cornell University, his Juris Doctor from the University of Washington School of Law, and his Master of Laws from the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School.  He is a frequent speaker on administrative remedies to protect the Federal Government from fraud, waste, and abuse.

• Katarzyna Kuźma, Partner, Domański Zakrzewski Palinka sp. k., (Poland)

Katarzyna Kuźma is head of the team providing services relating to Polish and European public procurement law at the law firm Domański Zakrzewski Palinka. She has extensive experience in advising both public and private entities operating in various sectors (including construction and engineering services, environmental protection, pharmaceutical and energy) on projects carried out in the traditional form (public procurement) and those based on partnership structures in the broad meaning of the term (PPP, concessions). The advice Katarzyna renders covers all stages of procedures (including representation before the National Appeal Chamber and common courts) and performance of public contracts, including inspections and financial adjustment procedures. She actively promotes implementation of compliance systems in the area of public procurement, with special focus on bid rigging.

 

Roundtable 4

• William Kovacic, Professor, George Washington Law School (USA)

William E. Kovacic is the Global Competition Professor of Law and Policy at George Washington University Law School and Director of its Competition Law Center.   He is also a Visiting Professor at King’s College London. Since August 2013, he has been a non-executive director with the United Kingdom Competition & Markets Authority.  With Ariel Ezrachi, he edits the Journal of Antitrust Enforcement.  From January 2006 to October 2011, he was a member of the Federal Trade Commission and chaired the agency from March 2008 until March 2009.  He was the FTC’s General Counsel from 2001 through 2004.

• Smokin Wanjala, AfDB Sanctions Commissioner, Judge at the Supreme Court of Kenya (Kenya)

Mr. Smokin Wanjala is a Kenyan national and a Judge of the Supreme Court of Kenya since 2011. Before his appointment to the Supreme Court of Kenya, Justice Wanjala served as a Law Lecturer and later, Senior Lecturer at the University of Nairobi for twenty (20) years. While still lecturing, he served as the joint Secretary to the Commission on Illegally and Irregularly Acquired Public Land in 2003. He was the first Chairman of the Public Complaints Committee on the Environment from 2002 to 2004. He was appointed Assistant Director of the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) in October 2004, where he served in that capacity until 2009. He is a member of the International Commission of Jurists, ICJ-Kenya Chapter and the Kenya National Academy of Sciences. He has recently delivered lectures at the International Anti-Corruption Academy (IACA) during the Institution’s Summer Lecture Series. In 2017, Justice Wanjala served as the Advisor to the Consulting Team inquiring into the necessary Policy and Legal Reforms for the Institutional Strengthening of the Anti- Corruption Division of the High Court of Uganda. Justice Wanjala is also the current AFDB Sanctions Commissioner. Justice Wanjala is a holder of a Bachelor of Laws (LL.B, Hons.) from the University of Nairobi, a Diploma in Law from the Kenya School of Law, a Master of Laws (LL.M) from Columbia University, New York and a Doctorate in Law (PhD) from the University of Ghent, Belgium. He has many publications to his credit including books and articles in the fields of Law, Human Rights and Governance both locally and internationally. 

• Paul Kearney, Chief Counsel & Enforcement Commissioner, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (United Kingdom)

Paul Kearney was appointed Enforcement Commissioner at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in 2015, having joined the Bank in 1998. Prior to that, he worked for Salans Hertzfeld & Heilbronn, in London, and for McCann Fitzgerald, in Dublin and in London. At EBRD, Mr. Kearney has worked on a wide range of matters, including the financing and restructuring of EBRD projects, the development of EBRD’s carbon credit product line, a range of contentious, enforcement and criminal cases, as well as on institutional and HR matters. Mr. Kearney also worked as Assistant Company Secretary, while on secondment with the GPA Group. Mr. Kearney holds a B.A. (Mod. Leg. Sci.) and an M.A. from Trinity College, Dublin. He was admitted as a solicitor in Ireland in 1988 and has been admitted as a solicitor in England and Wales since 1996.

• Songezo Mabece, Legal Counsel, Competition Commission of South Africa (South Africa)

 “The continuous quest for enlightenment and eloquence, building people and ensuring social justice is realised for all” –That is the answer one will receive when asking Songezo Mabece what his biggest passion is.  Songezo loves interacting and sharing ideas with people from all backgrounds.  He believes strongly that people’s diversity is a strength to be valued.  Songezo is an enlightened and travelled Legal Counsel and Researcher with over 10 years’ experience.  He does not take his enlightenment lightly either.  He is enlightened enough to know that the learning never stops and his passions for gaining new knowledge as well as for people drive him.  Songezo has legal advisory and research services experience in the competition regulation, constitutional, administrative, labour and commercial law litigation, and international banking sectors.

Currently, he serves as Legal Counsel and Researcher to the Commissioner at the Competition Commission of South Afrika where his role is multi-faceted, including leading the Commission in its advisory work towards public procurement reform in South Africa.  Songezo has previously served in the judiciary as a law clerk at the Constitutional Court of South Afrika and has held a positions in private practise. Songezo boasts international legal and banking exposure at the World Bank.  His short term consultancy at the Bank earned him development banking experience with a multilateral perspective.

Academically, Songezo holds Bachelor of Laws (LLB) from the University of Fort Hare (South Afrika), has completed a General Management Programme (GMP) at the IEDC Bled School of Management (Slovenia), has completed an LLM (with a focus in International Trade Law) at the University of Stellenbosch (South Afrika) and is in the process of finalising an LLM (Government Procurement Law) at the George Washington University (United States of America).  He reads widely and has presented at numerous law lectures, workshops and conferences; domestically and internationally.

Songezo Mabece has developed a commendable track record and a range of competencies and skills in media, where he has carved out a niche in talk radio; first with Cape Talk, and currently with SAfm where he currently hosts a talk radio show that focuses on social justice issues in the South Afrika. The show major objective is to press home the notions relevant to law, politics and the economy (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHO1RuXDZdw).

As a writer Songezo is a published author in social commentary (We Write What we Like - https://www.amazon.com/Writing-What-We-Like-generation-ebook/dp/B01FUO6HDE) and in legal academic field of public procurement law (https://www.americanbar.org/groups/public_contract_law/publications/public_contract_law_jrnl/48-2/reform-south-afrika/) through the Public Contracts Law Journal (PCLJ) of the George Washington University School of Government Contracts (volume 48, Number 2, Winter 2019).

Songezo truly resembles much of the promise that young South Afrika is all about. 

• Wojciech Hartung, Counsel, Domański Zakrzewski Palinka sp. k. (Poland)

Wojciech Hartung, PhD - counsel at the Polish law firm Domański Zakrzewski Palinka, advises on infrastructure projects carried out under the Public Procurement Law or using partnership structures, i.e. PPP, concessions and other forms of co-operation between public and private partners, specialises in public¬-public cooperation (in-house procurement) issues.

Wojciech is a Member of a working group set up by the Ministry of Development to review the law on public-private partnerships and to draw up a government policy in this respect. Until March 2009 Wojciech Hartung acted as the Director of the European Union and International Co-operation Department at the Public Procurement Office. Wojciech was also Polish representative on the European Council's Working Group on Public Procurement and on the Advisory Committee for Public Works Contracts set up by the European Commission.

Co-author (with Katarzyna Kuźma) of Combating Collusion in Public Procurement – Legal Limitations on Joint Bidding – Edward Elgar Publishing 2020 – ISBN 978-17-899-0484-0 (to be published 10.2020)

 

Roundtable 5

• Moderator: Faisal Siddiqui, Deputy Chief Compliance Officer, International Finance Corporation (USA)

Faisal is Deputy Chief Compliance Officer at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank Group. Faisal helps lead IFC’s Business Risk and Compliance Department, which focuses on integrity, regulatory, international tax, privacy and conflict of interest risks. Faisal also directly manages IFC’s integrity due diligence efforts (including anti-corruption, AML/CFT, and sanctions issues) and heads many of its crisis management teams. Most recently, he has co-led IFC’s response to the fall of The Abraaj Group, described by The Economist as the “biggest collapse in private equity history.”

Prior to IFC, Faisal was Managing Director at Fannie Mae, responsible for all compliance investigations for the institution. Previously, Faisal supervised the Administrative Law Division at the Export-Import Bank of the United States (Ex-Im Bank), where he managed Ex-Im Bank’s integrity, regulatory, compliance, litigation, ethics and corporate governance portfolios. Earlier in his career, Faisal practiced litigation as an Associate at Steptoe & Johnson PLLC and an Assistant Staff Judge Advocate in the Judge Advocate General (JAG) Corps of the United States Air Force.

• Alan Bacarese, Director, Integrity and Corruption, African Development Bank (Côte d'Ivoire)

Alan Bacarese was appointed as the Director of Integrity and Anti-Corruption in the African Development Bank (AfDB) in January 2019.  Alan leads the Investigations function in the AfDB and so oversees all investigations of corruption, fraud, and other misconduct in AfDB-financed and leads the Bank’s policies on anti-corruption and integrity measures as well as the enforcement practices of multilateral development banks. He also leads the AfDB’s Business integrity due diligence functions, focusing on integrity, regulatory (including AML/CFT and IFF policies), international tax, privacy and conflict of interest risks on AfDB projects.

Alan is a well-respected specialist in corruption (domestic and trans-national), money laundering, international cooperation and white collar crime, with a wealth of experience as a former UK Senior Crown Prosecutor and the first Head of Legal and Case Consultancy at the Basel Institute’s International Centre for Asset Recovery, Basel, Switzerland. He was previously a Director in the international consultancy Stream House AG and worked on numerous international projects, most notably as a consultant advising the Anti-Corruption Bureau of Malawi on the investigation and prosecution of grand corruption cases (2015-19). Alan was an External Member of the Inter-American Bank’s Sanctions Committee (2015-19). He is a UK Barrister and an Advocate of the Higher Courts of England And Wales.

Alan has authored many books and technical papers and is a co-author of the leading UK Legal textbook on ‘Corruption and Misuse of Public Office’ (Oxford University Press – Third Ed. published October 2017), ‘The Counter Fraud Practitioners Book’ (Gower Publishing) and others. He is a regular speaker on the international circuit and speaks at the European Law Academy (ERA) and Cambridge University on a broad range of international white collar crime subjects.

• Matthew Fowler, Principal Integrity Officer, Office of Institutional Integrity, Inter-American Development Bank Group (USA)

Matthew Fowler is a Principal Integrity Officer in the Office of Institutional Integrity at the Inter-American Development Bank.  In that capacity, he heads a unit that oversees the integrity due diligence conducted for the operations of IDB Invest, the private sector arm of the IDB Group, as well as.  Mr. Fowler also oversees the implementation of the IDB’s Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism Framework. 

Mr. Fowler is a U.S. attorney specialized in the FCPA and anticorruption compliance.  Before joining the IDB, he worked for 8 years in private U.S. law firms and for 2 years as in-house FCPA counsel for a Fortune 50 company.  He is a graduate of the University of Michigan Law School.

• Chiawen Kiew, Associate Director (Investigations), European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (United Kingdom)

Mr. Kiew is the Associate Director for Investigations at the Office of the Chief Compliance Officer of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). In that role, Mr. Kiew oversees all investigations of corruption, fraud, and other misconduct in EBRD-financed projects and advises the Bank on identifying and responding to such allegations. He also advises the Chief Compliance Officer on international policy concerning anti-corruption measures as well as enforcement practices of multilateral development banks. Mr. Kiew was a Policy Analyst with the Anti-Corruption Division of the OECD, where he performed legislative and policy analysis to provide counsel to national-level governments on the implementation of the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention.  Prior to that, Mr Kiew was a lawyer in private practice representing clients in white collar investigations, merger-related litigation, and general commercial litigation.

• January Sanchez, Integrity Specialist, The Office of Anticorruption and Integrity, Asian Development Bank, Asian Development Bank (Philippines)

January Sanchez is an Integrity Specialist at ADB’s Office of Anticorruption and Integrity (OAI). She primarily supports Head, OAI in policymaking and advice, including the provision of advisory services to parties both within and external to ADB, as appropriate, on ADB’s Anticorruption Policy, Integrity Principles and Guidelines, and other areas under OAI’s mandate. Prior to re-joining ADB, she was an Investigator at The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GF) in Geneva, Switzerland, where she conducted investigations of misappropriation, misuse and fraud involving GF grant funds. She started working in OAI in 2009, handled complaints and investigations of integrity violations against bidders, contractors, suppliers, and ADB staff, and was actively involved in the formulation and implementation of various OAI initiatives, particularly the establishment of the Integrity Due Diligence advisory function in 2011. She was also a Legal Specialist (Consultant) at ADB’s Office of the General Counsel from 2007 to 2009, where she worked on law and policy reform projects. Ms. Sanchez is a lawyer and a Certified Fraud Examiner.

• Lucas Diez-Suarez, Compliance Counsel, International Finance Corporation (USA)

As Compliance Counsel in IFC, Lucas provides legal advice in respect to integrity matters affecting IFC transactions, including AML/CFT regulations, anti-corruption laws, economic sanctions, and crisis management related to significant integrity matters. He is also IFC’s liaison for World Bank Group debarments and sanctions matters.

Before joining IFC, Lucas worked as Compliance Specialist for the Inter-American Development Bank, where among other things, he was responsible for developing AML/CFT policies and for assessing the AML/CFT controls of financial institution clients. Prior to that, he worked as general counsel for a private equity firm and spent five years in China as a lawyer advising multi-national companies in cross-border transactions.

Lucas holds law degrees from University of Oviedo (Spain) and Columbia University (USA). He is admitted to the practice of law in New York and in Spain.