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Judging Panel
Judging Panel
The FinCrime Tech Awards are judged by an independent panel drawn from major financial institutions, regulators, and the wider RegTech ecosystem. Our judges have collectively spent decades building, buying, supervising and analysing financial crime technology.
Judges follow a standard recusal process: any judge with a commercial or personal connection to a nominated company steps out of the discussion and vote for that category.
About the Judges
Aaron Wolf
Managing Director, Head of Financial Crime Compliance and Deputy Chief Compliance Officer, Mizuho
Aaron is a proven leader and deep subject-matter expert in Financial Crime Compliance (FCC), including Anti-Money Laundering (AML), Sanctions, Anti-Bribery & Corruption (ABC), and Fraud, and General Compliance practices. He has developed, implemented, and led Compliance Programs at large, complex, international banks spanning all major lines of business. Aaron has a long history of advocating for and adopting new and emerging regulatory technology in Know Your Customer, Customer Screening, Transaction Monitoring, Sanctions Transaction Filtering, and Surveillance controls.
Pallavi Kapale
Senior Financial Crime Officer - Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU), Bank of China (UK)
Pallavi is a Senior Financial Crime Officer (2LOD) in the Financial Crime Intelligence Unit at Bank of China, bringing extensive First and Second Line of Defence experience across major high-street banks. Her expertise includes AML, fraud prevention, risk assessments, and training. An ICA Certified Financial Crime Investigator holding an ICA Diploma and Advanced Certificate in AML, Pallavi is the author of How to Tackle Compliance Pressures with Tech Innovations (Journal of Financial Compliance) and creator of the LinkedIn series FinCrime Mythbusters.
Sholthana Begum
Senior Director, Technology & Digital, Competition and Markets Authority
Sholthana is the Senior Director of Technology and Digital at the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), bringing over 20 years of experience across frontline regulation, central banking, and financial services. Having held senior roles at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Bank of England, she specialises in regulatory technology, data driven innovation, and digital transformation. At the CMA, Sholthana leads strategy, infrastructure, cyber security, and scalable AI to strengthen regulatory effectiveness and drive positive outcomes for markets and consumers.
Sadeque Ahmed
Executive Director, Product Lead - Client Onboarding & KYC Platform, JP Morgan Chase
Sadeque is an Executive Director of Product Management at J.P. Morgan Chase, with over 25 years of experience in investment and retail banking across London and New York. A visionary leader, he specialises in digital transformation, onboarding, and KYC, leveraging cloud native and API first architectures to deliver scalable solutions for global markets. Sadeque is a passionate advocate for digital identity and compliance innovation, committed to shaping the future of financial services. He also serves as a Non Executive Director for Miraj Studios.
Ashley Bostel
Head of Financial Crime Analytics, NatWest Group
Ashley is the Lead for Financial Crime Analytics Strategy at NatWest Group, specialising in analytics, data science, and technology for anti-financial crime. With over 20 years’ global experience across banking, consultancy, and technology, his career includes senior roles as Product Manager at Nasdaq Market Technology and Vice President at Deutsche Bank, alongside stints at Accenture and Oracle. Formerly a Lecturer in Neural Systems at the University of Essex with extensive software development experience, Ashley holds a PhD in Physics from King’s College London.
Nick Lewis
Managing Director, High Risk Client Unit, Conduct, Financial Crime & Compliance, Standard Chartered
Nick is Managing Director, High Risk Client Unit at Standard Chartered Bank, overseeing complex financial crime investigations and risk management. Before joining the bank in 2016, he spent over 30 years in UK law enforcement, including serving as Counsellor for Transnational Organised Crime at the British Embassy in Washington DC. Awarded an OBE for services to international law and order, Nick is an Associate Fellow at RUSI and serves on the board of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime.
Liz Owen
SVP, BSA Officer, First Bank of the Lake
Elizabeth is Senior Vice President and BSA Officer at First Bank of the Lake, with over 15 years of experience building and optimizing anti-financial crime compliance programmes. She specialises in managing high risk portfolios and driving strategic compliance across emerging sectors, including Banking as a Service, fintech partnerships, cannabis banking, and digital payments. A Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) since 2014, Liz excels at bridging operational execution with regulatory expectations while championing mentorship, cross functional collaboration, and a culture of ethical innovation in an increasingly digital landscape.
Nathan Parker
Co-founder, Parker & Lawrence Research
Nathan is a recognised thought leader in RegTech, FinTech, and Web3. Nathan has led high-impact research for global technology vendors, startups and regulators. His deep expertise has helped RiskTech and RegTech firms build for new and complex regulations, compete in saturated markets, and develop compelling business cases for buyers. He is a regular author, speaker & panelist on financial crime, ESG, AI governance, and cybersecurity, having written countless blogs, eBooks, white papers and primary research reports, and produced a Web3 podcast, among other marketing assets.
Michael Lawrence
Co-founder, Parker & Lawrence Research
Michael is a technology researcher and expert in AI, particularly ML and LLMs. Michael has been immersed in technology startups since 2017, running multiple go-to-market projects and successfully placing technology products in major financial institutions. He has built advanced technologies including large language models for the UK Government, machine learning models for Nationwide Building Society, NLP-based regulatory horizon scanning for Capco and a digital marketplace for thousands of RiskTech and RegTech solutions.
Kelly Letsiou
Financial Crime & Technology Consultant, Baringa
Kelly is a financial crime and technology specialist whose experience spans industry compliance, consulting and academia. Her work focuses on the intersection of financial crime, regulation and emerging technology, particularly across AML, digital assets, AI governance, RegTech and SupTech. She has worked with both public- and private-sector organisations, including financial institutions, regulators and supervisory authorities, supporting the development, adoption and governance of technology-enabled approaches to financial crime compliance and supervision.
Lucy Heavens
Fractional CMO, Independent
Lucy is a senior marketing leader with over 25 years’ experience across FinTech, RegTech, and WealthTech. Having previously led global marketing at Salv to combat financial crime, she has held senior leadership roles at IBM, Fiserv, SimCorp, and several high-growth scale-ups. Featured on the Innovate Finance Women in FinTech Powerlist since 2017, Lucy co-founded RegTech Women (now part of Risky Women) and acts as an adviser and ambassador across various fintech communities, championing impactful marketing and genuine inclusion.
Kevin Newe
Assistant Director - Illicit Threat Lead, HMRC
Kevin has more than 16 years’ experience in various illicit finance roles, covering operational and strategy delivery, including managing HMRC’s largest financial investigation team which delivered multi-million-pound confiscations, cash forfeitures and established HMRC’s Offender Management and Enforcement Team, ensuring robust oversight of high-harm offenders. Kevin’s current role is overseeing HMRC’s response to priority IF threats, such as tech-enabled and trade-based money laundering. Kevin is also a FATF assessor, having worked on the Mutual Evaluation Review of the United Arab Emirates. In 2020, alongside The Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units and The Netherlands, Kevin also produced an updated FATF report on trends within trade-based money laundering. In 2022, Kevin received the Keith Hughes Award for Outstanding Contribution to Excellence and Innovation in Financial Investigation. And in 2025, a Merit Certificate from the World Customs Organisation in recognition of his work on a range of international initiatives relating to financial crime.
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