Chair, Advisory Council

Ceri Lawley is Chair of the Advisory Council. She is a Board Member of Coalition for Integrity and former Chief Compliance Officer of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector investment arm of the World Bank Group. Over more than 30 years, she has held senior legal, governance, risk and compliance roles across international organisations, private practice and the financial sector. Based in Washington, DC, Ceri advises on corporate governance, ethics, compliance, integrity risk and emerging technology. She holds the NACD Directorship Certification and is a UK and Australian-qualified attorney. She holds degrees from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge as well as from Georgetown University in the United States.

Advisory Council

Hans is IBM’s former Vice President & Chief Compliance Officer. He is a global executive with more than 35 years of international legal and leadership experience in senior global roles across compliance, legal, privacy, and governance. He brings experience in regulatory oversight and cross-border operations, including transformative leadership, stakeholder trust-building, and the ability to apply data and integrate technology, including AI, to drive compliance efficiency and business enablement

Advisory Council

Ambassador Jonathan R. Cohen is a strategic advisor and international consultant who served as a US diplomat for over thirty-five years, including as Ambassador to Egypt and the United Nations, as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Europe and Eurasia covering Turkey, Greece, and Cyprus, as Deputy Chief of Mission in Baghdad and Nicosia, and as Acting Deputy Chief of Mission in Paris. Ambassador Cohen is the recipient of a Presidential Rank Award for sustained superior accomplishment in foreign policy, the State Department’s Charles Cobb Award for success in trade development and promotion and the James Clement Dunn Award for Excellence, a Distinguished Honor Award, and multiple Superior Honor Awards. Since leaving diplomacy, Jonathan has served as a Distinguished Fellow at the Royal
United Services Institute and has engaged deeply in start-up and scale-up business ventures, particularly in the fintech space.

Chair of Trusted Partners

James is a former British diplomat with more than three decades of experience in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, during which he served across South East Asia and Eastern Europe, worked in the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, and spent three years as Deputy Private Secretary to The Prince of Wales (now King Charles). After setting up and running the Coexist Foundation, an international educational charity focused on religion in a globalised society, he returned to the Foreign Office before serving on the Senior Directing Staff of the Royal College of Defence Studies. He subsequently moved into the technology sector, as Director of Partnerships at first Improbable and then Rebellion Defence, a UK-US company building AI tools for the Armed Forces. Since 2023 he has been spending more time on the family farm; he also advises several technology startups, sits on two charity boards, and runs regular networking events for non-fiction authors.

Trusted Partner

Oliver is a finance and business development professional with a career spanning over four decades, beginning at Cazenove (1983 to 2004) after graduating from Cambridge, where he held roles including MD of Cazenove Australia and head of private equity relationships. Subsequent positions included Director at Credit Suisse’s UK private bank, Director of Development at The Prince of Wales’s Charities Foundation, Investment Director at Walker Crips, and Senior Associate at GPW. He joined Aperio Intelligence in 2018 as Head of Business Development.

Trusted Partner

Andrew Cainey is a seasoned advisor on China, Asia, geopolitics and business strategy with over 35 years’ experience advising companies, owners and governments. Currently based in London, he first visited China in 1981 and has lived and worked in China and across Asia. He is the co-author of Xiconomics: What China’s Dual Circulation Strategy Means for Global Business. Andrew is a Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), the world’s oldest security and defence think tank; a non-executive director of Schroder Asian Total Return Investment Company plc; a Senior Advisor to Boston Consulting Group; and a Senior Advisor to Lumen Capital Investors in Singapore. Previously Andrew headed Tony Blair’s Asian Government Advisory business; was China Managing Partner for Booz & Company; and led Boston Consulting Group’s Asian Financial Institutions Practice. He also co-founded the UK National Committee on China and held positions at Chatham House, Fung Global Institute in Hong Kong, and the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

Trusted Partner

Sophie is a London-born international business consultant, Founder of Capital Strategy. With more than 30 years’ experience and a trusted global network, she specialises in international business development, government relations and strategic partnerships, helping organisations unlock new opportunities and enter new markets. Her consulting work focuses primarily on the UK and US markets, as well as Australia and other geographies, with a particular emphasis on fast-growing sectors including artificial intelligence, digital infrastructure, healthcare, transport and education. She consistently supports founders, investors, corporates and public sector leaders to build strategic partnerships that deliver long term commercial value. She welcomes introductions across GTI’s international networks.

Trusted Partner

Jennifer is a senior finance leader with extensive experience across the construction, infrastructure, and telecommunications sectors. A chartered certified accountant (ACCA), she currently serves as Group Chief Financial Officer at one of the largest construction companies in Malta, where she leads financial strategy, governance, and capital planning. Previously she held the roles of Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer at a Maltese listed entity, bringing deep expertise in financial management, restructuring, and growth. Based in Malta, Jenny’s preferred target sector is multinational corporations, with particular focus on Citizenship by Investment programmes in Malta.

Trusted Partner

Helge is a senior integrity, corporate investigations, and compliance specialist with decades of experience spanning law enforcement, financial services, and professional advisory and forensic services leadership roles. He is the Founder and CEO of Kvamme Associates AS, focused on anti-corruption, anti-bribery, and AML through corporate investigations and prevention. Helge is the Chair of the Oslo Anti-Corruption Conference Foundation.

Trusted Partner

Doug is a Venture Partner at Westerly Winds, a London-based investment firm, and the founding partner and senior executive of 451 Media Group. He collaborates closely with peers within his network including Karim Abdel-Ghaffar Plaza and Dudley Hawes from Westerly Winds. Spinnaker Global Advisors has a presence in both the UK and the US.

Trusted Partner

George is Co-Founder of Circular, a consumer electronics subscription and financing platform. Backed by Y Combinator, institutional venture investors, and debt providers, Circular operates across Singapore, Southeast Asia, and Australia. Before Circular, George led a major business line at Ninja Van during its growth into one of Southeast Asia’s most prominent unicorns. Earlier in his career, he co-founded Karzo, Myanmar’s first technology-enabled trucking fleet. George has spent over a decade founding and scaling businesses across Southeast Asia’s startup ecosystem, with strong relationships across the region’s investor and debt provider networks.

Trusted Partner

Zaklina combines over 20 years of expertise in commodity and financial markets with deep understanding of international trade flows, market correlation, compliance, and due diligence. She has generated more than $250M in revenue across international markets, working closely with C-suite leaders, government authorities, regulators, and financial institutions. Career highlights include serving as tactical lead on a team that successfully reduced Brazilian tariffs from 6% to 1%, opening a market for a new $1Bn mine, and establishing the compliance structure for a finance boutique start-up focused on Africa and emerging markets. She has particular strength in navigating multi-jurisdiction frameworks, governance expectations, and risk considerations. Multilingual, she has lived and worked across the EU, Singapore, South Africa, and the USA.

Trusted Partner

Ed’s career spans military leadership, international diplomacy, and the management of complex estates and assets for some of the world’s most high-profile families. He began as a young officer in the British Army, serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he learned to lead under pressure and make decisions amidst uncertainty. He transitioned into international private service, managing significant European estates for a senior Arab Head of State, a role demanding logistical command, cultural fluency, and discretion across diplomatic and defence-related matters. Fluent in French and widely travelled, Ed has since run the Private Office of a member of the House of Lords and held senior roles in leading Arab Family Offices. He brings strategic oversight, commercial insight, and interpersonal skill to designing systems that balance legacy, efficiency, and long-term value.

Trusted Partner

Charlie’s career sits at the intersection of leadership, trust, and operational delivery. With over 20 years of experience across military command and senior Family Office roles, he has led teams through some of the most demanding environments – from conflict zones to complex private office settings across Europe and the GCC.

Beginning his career as an Infantry Officer in the British Army, Charlie served in Afghanistan and Iraq before taking on roles including Her Majesty the Queen’s Royal Guard and Intelligence Officer, environments that demanded clear decisions under pressure and an unwavering mission-first mindset. Transitioning into private service, he has held Chief of Staff and Director roles across multiple Single Family Offices, overseeing estate portfolios, specialist staffing, security, and procurement. What sets Charlie apart is his character, defined by loyalty, discretion, and cultural fluency. Fluent in French and Italian, with advanced Arabic and Spanish, he builds deep trust with clients, particularly across the GCC where he has held senior roles. Raised in Geneva and working extensively across Europe and the Middle East, Charlie lives between the Cotswolds, London and Edinburgh with his wife and two children. He is passionate about motorbikes and skiing, pursuits that reflect his love of challenge, precision, and momentum.

Trusted Partner

Paul is an entrepreneurial senior executive with a substantial track record of hands-on, innovation-based leadership and delivery across a broad range of sectors, including academia, Government, SMEs, and PLCs, frequently acting as the “translator.” He has maintained a technical and business curiosity, complemented by an ability to lead or influence complex, technology-rich businesses, particularly in the defence and security sectors. Among his former roles are Director at Reliance High-Tech, CEO at CENSIS, an innovation centre for sensor and imaging systems, and Executive Director, Innovations, at the UK Defence Solutions Centre. In previous years, he was also CEO & President at QinetiQ Inc, where he led, developed, and grew a viable business to represent and deliver UK technology and solutions into the strategically important US defence and security markets.