Anna Sergi
Professor of Criminology, University of Essex
Specialist Compliance Officer, BNP Paribas
Alessandra Fontana is a Specialist Compliance Officer at BNP Paribas. Prior to this position, she was an independent researcher and consultant on governance, anti-corruption, money laundering and organised crime with more than 10 years of experience with the topics. She has provided support to developing countries in the implementation of policies in these areas as well as conducted applied research and policy analysis on the topic. She has worked for the OECD focusing on efforts undertaken by the international community in the area of illicit financial flows as well as managing projects in corruption prevention in the Middle East and North Africa region (for Tunisia, Morocco and the Palestinian Authority). She was also an advisor for the U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre in Norway (focusing on the agenda of illicit financial flows and political party financing) providing advice and support to bilateral aid agencies in the area of political corruption, organised crime and money laundering. Prior to that, she managed a large research project for Transparency International on political party financing across Latin America. Her background includes working as a financial journalist in Brazil for which she received a Thomson Reuters Foundation scholarship in 2002. She is currently undertaking a Certificate in Security and Crime Science with the University College London and has an MA in International Relations and Development Studies, from the University of East Anglia in the UK.