The Global Coalition to Fight Financial Crime (GCFFC) is pleased to announce the members of its Advisory Board. Sarah Paquet, former Director and Chief Executive Officer of FINTRAC, Canada's Financial Intelligence Unit, chairs the Board. Vivienne Artz OBE, Mohamed Shalo and Mu'azu Umaru serve as Vice-Chairs, and Ilze Znotiņa serves as Member of the Advisory Board and Board Coordinator.

The Advisory Board was set up under the Coalition's new governance framework in 2026. It is a strategic, non-executive body which advises the Executive Committee on the Coalition's long-term direction, priorities and partnerships, and helps uphold high standards of integrity, transparency and sound governance, while day-to-day operations stay with the Executive Committee and the Secretariat.

The members bring experience from financial intelligence units, regional and international AML/CFT bodies, government and the financial sector, across North America, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

Members of the Advisory Board

Sarah Paquet, Chair

Sarah Paquet is the former Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada (FINTRAC), Canada's Financial Intelligence Unit and the federal regulator responsible for the anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing regime. She has extensive international leadership experience in financial crime policy, including as former Chair of the Egmont Group's Information Exchange Working Group and as Co-Chair of GCFFC's FIU–Law Enforcement Effectiveness Working Group. She brings expertise in regulatory oversight, public-private partnerships and the use of artificial intelligence to prevent financial crime.

Vivienne Artz OBE, Vice-Chair

Vivienne Artz OBE is Chief Executive of the FTSE Women Leaders Review and a portfolio non-executive director. She has more than 25 years of experience in global financial and professional services, including at the London Stock Exchange Group, Refinitiv, Thomson Reuters and Citibank. She advises businesses on data, privacy and digital strategy, with a focus on AI, new technologies and anti-financial crime. She chairs GCFFC's Data Group and the AI and Data Advisory Group at the International Business & Diplomatic Exchange, and has advised the UK government on international data transfer strategy. She was awarded an OBE in 2021 for services to financial services and gender diversity.

Mohamed Shalo, Vice-Chair

Mohamed Shalo is Director of the Strategic Partnerships and Communications Department at the General Secretariat of the UAE's National Committee for Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism and Proliferation Financing. He has more than 18 years of experience across financial regulation, public policy and international diplomacy. He leads the UAE's international engagement on AML/CFT/CPF and its strategic partnerships, including cooperation with the FATF, the IMF and the World Bank. He was awarded the Order of Zayed II (First Class) for his leading role in the efforts that secured the UAE's removal from the FATF grey list. He is also a Board Member of ADGM Academy.

Mu'azu Umaru, Vice-Chair

Mu'azu Umaru is Acting Secretary-General of the ECOWAS Commission. He has more than three decades of experience in policy, research and law enforcement. He spent over a decade in senior leadership at GIABA, the Inter-Governmental Action Group against Money Laundering in West Africa, as Director of Policy and Research. There he led research programmes, typologies work and collaborative research with the FATF, and coordinated technical assistance across 17 member states. Earlier, he headed the Secretariat of the West African Joint Operations against drug-related crime and served at Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. He is a Chevening Fellow.

Ilze Znotiņa, Member of the Advisory Board and Board Coordinator

Ilze Znotiņa is a lawyer and strategic advisor specialising in governance, financial crime, sanctions, critical infrastructure resilience and hybrid threats. She has more than 25 years of senior leadership experience across the public, private, international and academic sectors. As Head of Latvia's Financial Intelligence Unit, she led the country's AML/CFT reforms and represented Latvia in the FATF and MONEYVAL. She later served on the Management Board of Latvia's electricity transmission system operator, overseeing legal, compliance, risk and regulatory affairs. She is the founder of the advisory firm RIZEN Riga and an independent Non-Executive Director of RT Bank (Iraq), where she chairs the Financial Crime Committee. She is also a member of NATO's Hybrid Threat Expert Group.

The Advisory Board's appointment comes ahead of the GCFFC Annual Summit in Vilnius on 22–23 October 2026, under the theme Financial Crime Fighting in the Digital Age: AI, Cross-Border Threats and Data Privacy. Vice-Chair Vivienne Artz OBE will take part in the Summit.