Louie Vargas (Chair) is a Scheme Compliance Manager with the Nets Group based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Previously, he has worked for J.P. Morgan Chase, Agricultural Bank of China, Deutsche Bank based out of New York City and Danske Bank based out of Copenhagen. Currently, he is focusing on distributing announcements received from Mastercard, Visa and other in-scope schemes to relevant stakeholders. In addition, provide oversight in any remediation work to comply with the announcements and avoid fines. Louie is passionate about learning from and sharing information with others.

Hera U. Smith (Co-Chair) is a Director of Financial Crime Compliance at Moody’s Analytics. Hera has extensive experience in Sanctions, AML, and Financial Crime. She has built and managed Global Sanctions Programs in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific, and has experience implementing Sanctions, PEP, and Adverse Media screening and KYC verification systems.

Before joining Moody’s, Hera worked at Danske Bank, where she helped enhance the Bank’s sanctions processes and managed external commitments to regulators. Prior to Danske Bank, she was based in the United States. She headed the Global Sanctions Program in the Americas, EMEA, and Asia Pacific regions for Associated Foreign Exchange, and before that, worked at East West Bank. In her early career, she worked as a litigation lawyer, and is a licensed attorney in California and the Philippines. She is a Certified Anti Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) a Certified Global Sanctions Specialist (CGSS) and a Certified Sanctions Specialist (CSS). She also has an International Diploma in Governance, Risk & Compliance from the International Compliance Association (ICA) and helped draft sanctions certifications for ACSS and ACAMS CGSS.

Hannah Becher (Programming Director) is a data-savvy senior risk & decision scientist focused on ensuring sustainable value and good governance building customer-centric FinTech solutions. In her current role @Pleo, she builds and implements financial crime risk rating models and engages with C-executives, product managers and the regulator to ensure we can 'make everyone feel valued at work' while scaling rapidly across Europe.

She is the founder of BrainFruits, a platform to help women engineer their future in the tech & finance sector (brain-fruits.net). She is passionate about economic empowerment, diversity, inclusive finance, and mental well-being.

Katherine Campbell Nurmikko (Secretary) is a Senior Expert in Financial Crime Prevention at Nordea Bank Abp in Helsinki, Finland, where she focuses on financial crime investigations and regulatory reporting. Her previous experience includes KYC due diligence, KYC process management, and AML investigations and reporting at financial services companies in California and Tallinn, Estonia. Katherine is a Certified Financial Crime Specialist (ACFCS), Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (ACAMS), and holds a Masters Degree in International Policy Studies with a focus on Trade, Investment and Development from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

Benjamin Masanori Kojiro Brown (Secretary) is an Account Executive at Strise, a Norwegian RegTech focused on optimising Know Your Customer (KYC) and Ongoing Due Diligence (ODD) procedures. Hailing from Australia, he has lived and worked in Sydney, Tokyo, London, Paris and now, Oslo. He has eight years of sales experience in B2B tech startups across various industries including finance, telecommunications and renewal energy. Ben is passionate about translating technological solutions into business and societal value with customers: financial crime prevention with being the worthiest cause he has been a part of to date.

Sujata Dasgupta (Chapter Advisor) is a multiple international award-winning industry leader, and Global Head of Financial Crime Compliance Advisory at Tata Consultancy Services, based in Stockholm, Sweden. She has 22+ years of experience, having worked extensively in the areas of financial crime compliance across Banking, IT services and consulting for premier banks in 7 countries covering US, UK, EU, and Asia. She is an accomplished thought leader, author, columnist and speaker, and is regularly interviewed by reputed international journals for her analysis and opinions on contemporary topics in this area. She has won several awards including ‘Risk Professional of the Year 2021’ by Waters Technology and ‘Head of FinCrime Compliance 2021’ from GRC World Forums. She has also been named as a ‘Top 25 Thought Leader in Risk Management 2022’ by Thinkers360.

Lars Ekstrom (Chapter Advisor) is a seasoned corporate banker with 30+ years of working experience in the financial sector. Over the last 15 years, Lars has held senior management positions within banking, amongst them as General Manager of Danske Bank Poland for 8 years, General Manager of Danske Bank Germany for 4 years, and Global Head of Trade Finance at Danske Bank Group for 3 years. Lars has in these roles had the responsibilities for regulatory compliance and has maintained a frequent dialogue with local FSAs. Lars is a strong believer in a close collaboration between regulatory authorities, the financial sector, and the business environment to ensure compliance with AML and KYC standards.

Marie Lundberg (Chapter Advisor) is the founder and CEO of Acronym Consulting AB, based in Stockholm, Sweden. She is a senior financial crime specialist with 28+ years of experience within the financial sector. She has held several roles in various Financial Institutions ranging from i.e., Business Analyst, MRLO, Head of Surveillance, Head of Compliance, Risk Control, and Internal Audit. In her experience from the consulting industry, Marie has been a management consultant/partner focusing on forensics accounting and advanced investigations. Adding to that, she also has extensive experience from various global software vendors. Marie is a firm believer of using analytics and the importance of knowing and understanding your data, as well as your customers.

She has extensive international experience, working mainly in the Nordics, Europe, and the UK. She is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering (CAMS) specialist by ACAMS. In 2015 Marie together with other fin-crime fighters founded the ACAMS Nordics Chapter and was co-chair for 5 consecutive years. Marie is also a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) by the ACFE. She joined the Institute of Internal Auditors Sweden (IIA) Advocacy Committee in January 2023 and is a frequent chair, moderator, and speakers at Transform Finance events.