Sanctions Conference 2025

Daniel is a partner in Dentons' London office. He is a member of the Firm's International Trade group, and a member of the Trade, Regulatory and Government Affairs practice and the Financial Crime team.

Daniel's practice focuses on all aspects of international trade, national security concerns arising from foreign direct investment, as well as financial crime matters. This encompasses compliance with export and cyber controls, financial and trade sanctions, anti-corruption and anti-money laundering regulation, as well as other aspects of international trade, including customs and excise, trade remedies, free trade agreements and wider trade policy.

Daniel has a strong reputation within both the US and European trade compliance communities and advises across all industry sectors including Financial services. His practice ranges from advisory, strategic, contractual and compliance advice, through to investigations and contentious advice.

Esther took over as Deputy Director Russia and Belarus Sanctions at the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in May 2024. She is a long-time FCDO official, having worked in London on Russia policy, climate change and counter-terrorism. She was Deputy Consul-General in Hong Kong (2015-2019), and before that Deputy Head of the British Embassy in Bucharest (2010-2014). Her first diplomatic posting was in the Political Section of the British Embassy in Moscow (2002-2006), after spending a year learning Russian. Before joining the Foreign and Commonwealth Office in 2000, Esther worked in the Special Reports Team at the Financial Times in London.

Daniel Drake is Deputy Director in HM Treasury's Office of Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), leading on Licensing, CT & Intelligence. Daniel has been a UK civil servant for over 20 years, working in the FCDO including on overseas postings to Ethiopia and Egypt, in the Cabinet Office and in the Ministry of Defence. For the past four years his focus has been on sanctions. 

Within the FCDO he was closely involved in the rollout of sanctions on Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, after which he spent nine months on secondment to the private sector before joining OFSI in March 2025. He was awarded an OBE in 2023 for services to British foreign policy, including his work on sanctions.

Zia Ullah is Co-Global Head of Corporate Crime and Investigations at Eversheds Sutherland and a Board Member of Eversheds Sutherland (International) LLP. Zia is a globally recognised specialist in International Sanctions and has led multiple cross-border sanctions investigations. He advises on all aspects of corporate/financial crime and was previously the Global Head of Sanctions at Barclays. Zia is a current FCA ‘Skilled Person’ for Financial Crime.

Zia and his team have provided strategic advice to over 100 global institutions with respect to the legal, regulatory and commercial issues arising from the expansion of UK, EU and US sanctions against Russia following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. His team has also advised on the impact on sanctions compliance frameworks, divestment activity in Russia, the application of exemptions and licences, and the reporting requirements in light of potential breaches of sanctions.

Zia and Victoria Turner co-authored a chapter for Global Investigations Review’s first ever book on sanctions compliance - “The Guide to Sanctions” – Zia’s team also publishes the only global guide on international sanctions setting out details on over 70 jurisdictions sanctions compliance requirements. Zia’s team also created the Global Sanctions Tool which won Best Client Innovation at the British Legal Awards 2024 and nominated in the same category at The Lawyer Awards 2024.

Zia is co-chair of the UK Finance Associate Members’ Sanctions Committee and is also a member of HM Treasury’s Senior Implementation Group, a body comprised of all government departments with responsibility for the UK’s sanctions regime. Zia is also a committee member at the Fraud Lawyers’ Association.

Zia is ranked in Band 1 of Chambers for Financial Sanctions, is ranked in the Global Elite in Who’s Who Legal for sanctions and recommended for business crime and asset recovery. Zia was included in the Lawyer’s Hot 100 for 2023.

Lotte joined Standard Chartered in May 2021 as a Director in the Group Sanctions Team and leads on monitoring applicable global sanctions laws and regulations, drafting sanctions policies and standards for the bank, and providing technical advice on business and transactional matters. Prior to joining Standard Chartered, Lotte was at Barclays bank where she drafted and provided guidance on the bank’s Financial Crime Policy and Standards.

Anna is responsible for establishing and leading the Office of Trade Sanctions Implementation (OTSI) in the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). To maximise the impact of the unprecedented package of sanctions against Russia imposed by the UK, OTSI is being set up as a dedicated Government unit, equipped with new powers, which will strengthen trade sanctions implementation and enforcement. Legislation that will give OTSI civil enforcement powers is currently before Parliament; these powers come into force and OTSI will ‘go live’ on 10^th October 2024. 

Anna is a highly experienced senior civil servant. Prior to moving to DBT to take up her current role last year, Anna spent most of her career at HM Treasury in wide-ranging leadership, policy and delivery roles, including leading the economic response to the Covid pandemic, on savings and pensions, consumer policy and financial services regulation.

Rosamund de Sybel is Head of Advisory Services, International Institute for Strategic Studies. She was formerly a director at a US-headquartered due-diligence and investigations firm, and held the position of Editor/Economist Middle East & Africa at a global research firm. She was also editor of a Middle East business and economics journal, and helped to launch the Geo-Economics programme for a leading British defence and security think-tank. She has a first-class degree from King’s College London, having spent an exchange year at University of California, Los Angeles.

Sarah Travers is the RBC Head of AML Advisory for Capital Markets Europe, Investor Services UK and Global Asset Management UK.  Sarah has over 20 years’ experience in financial crime, including roles within law enforcement and the private sector, including roles at Barclays, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Macquarie and BAML. Sarah has also worked with the IMF on technical assistance missions and FATF assisting with drafting the Guidance on the Risk-Based Approach for Casinos. 

Emil is Head of Sanctions at FINTRAIL, and works with clients to maintain effective sanctions compliance programmes. He previously worked in advisory roles at global Fintechs including EMEA Sanctions Lead at Stripe, and he was previously also a Senior Research Fellow focusing on sanctions and illicit finance at RUSI's Centre for Financial Crime and Security Studies at RUSI and Stripe. At FINTRAIL, he runs a Sanctions Club aimed at payment firms and other fintechs to share best practices and stay ahead in a rapidly changing sanctions landscape.

Rosamund de Sybel is Head of Advisory Services, International Institute for Strategic Studies. She was formerly a director at a US-headquartered due-diligence and investigations firm, and held the position of Editor/Economist Middle East & Africa at a global research firm. She was also editor of a Middle East business and economics journal, and helped to launch the Geo-Economics programme for a leading British defence and security think-tank. She has a first-class degree from King’s College London, having spent an exchange year at University of California, Los Angeles.

Francisco Mainez is the former Global Head of Data and Analytics for Wealth and Personal Banking Financial Crime Risk at HSBC. Francisco is now part of the Professional Services team at Nice Actimize, where he is using his experience in Financial Crime and Intelligence to integrate different capabilities into solutions that can improve prevention, detection and investigation of Financial Crimes.

Throughout his career, Francisco has specialised in activities related to data extraction, analysis and insight reporting, covering Money Laundering, Financial Crime Typologies, Operations, Customer Due Diligence and Tax Evasion, among other areas. His team was also involved in rolling out initiatives related to Advanced Analytics solutions for Financial Crime.

While in HSBC, Francisco worked in other Financial Crime Teams, such as the Financial Intelligence Unit and Compliance Reporting. Prior to HSBC, Francisco fulfilled roles in Standard Chartered Bank in London and Singapore after completing several tours of operations in Military Intelligence for NATO and the European Union in different geographical locations.

She specialises in delivering policy and advocacy on behalf of members, leading on UK Finance's domestic anti-money laundering offering and wider economic crime reform matters. She leads on anti-money laundering related regulatory and legislative projects, oversees the Money Laundering Advisory Panel and provides support on strategic issues within the wider economic crime reform programme. 

Prior to UK Finance, Aminah worked as consultant at KPMG within the financial crime department. She specialised in providing advisory, investigation and analytical services within AML and sanctions to global financial services clients.