Professional Portfolio
POLICY / GOVERNMENT
Co-authored first US national intelligence assessment on global Wildlife Trafficking
Helped draft the first US National Strategy on Wildlife Trafficking
Helped draft portions of the Eliminate, Neutralize, and Disrupt (END) Wildlife Trafficking Act (Public Law 114-231)
Drafted the Preliminary Standard for Nature-Related Financial Disclosures, part of the 2020 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity process.
Expert legal advisor on civil liberties, terrorism, corporate crime and corruption cases. Provided subject matter expertise to defendant in landmark US Supreme Court civil liberties case, Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, 561 U.S. 1 (2010)
Invited expert / speaker to various governmental agencies and bodies, international institutions, universities, and non-profit organizations
TECHNOLOGY / R&D
Founder, United for Wildlife Taskforces’ global information sharing system on wildlife trafficking, currently used by 200+ global companies and government/law enforcement worldwide.
Co-designed AI-driven tool, 'WISE (Wildlife Intelligence Sharing Exchange)’ In partnership with Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory for automated data mining and threat discovery of actionable wildlife trafficking information.
In partnership with Microsoft, Heathrow Airport and two other major private sector corporate partners, contributed knowledge modeling and domain expertise to creating AI-driven platforms for screening transportation networks for illegal wildlife products.
Designed and helped test/pilot 'Focused Financial Targeting,' an information-to-action process framework for special operations forces / special mission units.
Co-designed intelligence management tool, 'Ujuzi,' for small analyst teams.
Developed various science-based methodologies and prototypes related to terrorist financing analysis, evidence-based AML/CTF due diligence, and analysis of sustainable/green investments
Tech/R&D partners: The Royal Foundation; Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory; Microsoft; Universities of Oxford, St Andrews, and Groningen; Basel Institute on Governance; Basis Technologies; Ultris Ltd; Heathrow Airport; National Defense University; US Asymmetric Warfare Group; US Special Operations Command
EDUCATION & TRAINING INNOVATION
Co-Founded the "Illicit Trade Summer School," a unique week-long residential course which brings together academics and practitioners to teach students about illicit financing and trading - not only through theory and book study, but by learning the actual practices and techniques criminals, terrorists, and dictators use to obscure their profits and evade accountability for their actions, and the corresponding techniques to counter them.
Started environmental crime component of the Countering Transnational Organized Crime course at the George C. Marshall European Center for Strategic Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany
Designed / delivered various professional training courses to financial institutions, law enforcement and government, and NGOs on Environmental Crime Risk, Geopolitical Risk Analysis, Illicit Finance, Terrorist Finance, Threat Finance, Open Source Intelligence, Intelligence & Analysis, Financial Targeting, and related topics.
FIELD RESEARCH
Chechnya / Georgia border region | 2006 | topic: PhD case study of al Qaeda financing
Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, UAE | 2011 | topic: an ethnography of al Shabaab financing
Northern Mozambique | 2013 | topic: wildlife trafficking convergence with narcotics and transnational threats
Comoros, Madagascar, Seychelles, Mauritius | 2013-14 | topic: emerging security issues in the Indian Ocean region
Tanzania, Kenya | 2015 | topic: a ‘carcass-to-port’ study of poaching and wildlife trafficking from southern Tanzania