Our Executive Committee is comprised of in-house investigations professionals
The Executive Committee is the governing body of the ACi, and sets the strategic priorities of the Association.
It is a working committee, making decisions driven by the professional needs of the Association’s membership and wider corporate investigations community. The Executive Committee devotes its time to the Association out of a commitment to its mission and the chance to ‘give back’ to the profession.
In line with ACi’s mission, our Executive Committee members hold active in-house investigation positions and work pro-bono. These constitutional requirements serve to prevent actual and/or perceived conflicts of interest.
The Executive Director is the only non-voting member of the Executive Committee, and works exclusively for the ACi.
We define ‘in-house’ as any person engaged in a corporate investigations role and preferably as a head of investigation or middle management. We define non-in-house as external ‘sellers of investigative services’ namely, external lawyers, consultants, auditors, accountants, technology vendors, education and training suppliers, etc. The terms ‘in-house’ and ‘external’ are broadly understood by all industry sectors.
If you are interested in joining the Executive Committee and wish to learn more, please register your interest via ‘Contact Us’ and a member of the Executive Committee will contact you to explain the role in more detail.
Steve Young, Chief Executive Officer
Steve served 20 years in UK law enforcement investigating economic crime specialising in the pro-active investigation of Banking Fraud, Bribery & Corruption, Whistleblowing and Money Laundering. This was followed by 6 years at Citigroup Inc. as EMEA Regional Director of Investigations, and 8 years as Barclays Bank Plc, Global Head of Investigations for Investment Banking & Wealth Management. Currently Head of Fraud & Investigations in Group Compliance at Lombard Odier, based in Geneva. To date, 40 years of international economic crime experience in both a law enforcement and corporate environment.
Basha Galvin, Chief Operating Officer
Basha started her career with the Metropolitan Police and moved to the City of London Police Fraud Unit, covering money laundering, trade finance fraud, bribery and corruption. Basha left the police and moved to Citigroup for four years, moving to Barclays plc in 2006 as Head of Investigations & Whistleblowing for Wealth & Investment Bank. In 2018 Basha moved to the Oil & Gas Industry as Head of Investigations for Tullow Oil Plc leaving in late 2020. In early 2021 Basha moved to Lloyds Banking Group managing Conduct Investigations and in November 2022 commenced a role as Senior Investigations Manager at British American Tobacco. Basha is a seasoned financial crime investigator in the public and corporate sector. She has led and managed global investigations teams, provided investigations training and built case management systems. During her career, Basha has had the opportunity to work in a number of jurisdictions including the USA, APAC and EMEA developing investigation models and collating evidence for civil and criminal prosecutions. Basha was named as one of the “Top 40 in-house” investigation professionals by Global Investigations Review.
Jeff Giddings, Head of EMEA
Jeff has over 26 years’ experience leading and performing internal and external corporate investigations in the corporate sector, various United Nation’s agencies, and other international organizations. Currently, he is the Senior Investigator and Head of Investigations for the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) – the world’s largest security-oriented intergovernmental organization.
Ash Sharma, Head of Advisory Panel
Ash Sharma has over 20 years’ experience in investigations and financial crime risk mitigation. Ash presently manages one of two global investigation hubs for Anglo American Plc, a global mining, minerals and extraction company. His team conduct corporate ethics and compliance (including regulatory and financial crime) investigations. Ash has worked in the UK and Asia in regional and group roles for a global bank. There, he headed up an internal fraud risk, background vetting and investigation function, before leading and coordinating global significant investigations for the group. Ash is a Certified Fraud Examiner, Certified Financial Crime Specialist, and Certified Cryptocurrency Investigator.
Livia Gurgel, Head of LATAM
Livia started her career within Internal Audit and Risk management. She has more than 15 years’ experience performing and leading corporate investigations in the mining and industry sector, especially in large Capital Projects. Her experience covers a variety of conduct and ethics breaches related to financial crime, regulation and compliance, unfair labor practices, sexual harassment and fraud. Livia has a degree in Marketing, post-graduation on International Financial Reporting Standards and Corporate Governance. She is now leading the South America Investigations function for a large Group in the mining, diamonds and minerals sector. Livia is Certified Fraud Examiner and holds an Executive MBA by Fundação Dom Cabral.
Patrick Wellens, Chief Compliance Officer
Patrick has over 20 years’ professional experience in leading complex and sensitive global fraud, corruption and financial crime investigations across diverse sectors from luxury brands to healthcare to NGOs and is experienced working with law firms, prosecutors and compliance monitors. He also has an impressive track record of establishing risk, compliance, and Internal Audit governance, processes, systems and standards. Patrick is currently working as a Compliance Manager for a healthcare and agriculture company where he is a business partner for all global functions of consumer health division and EMEA Crop Science management functions. Patrick is also a Board Member of Ethics and Compliance Switzerland and member of the editorial board of Society for Corporate Compliance & Ethics.
Simon Scales, Chief Education & Development Officer
Simon’s extensive international experience in corporate investigations includes significant Employee Misconduct, Fraud, Bribery, Corruption, Antitrust & Competition, AML, Sanctions, Market Abuse and commensurate preventative/remedial measures. His 30 years of expertise in major investigation management, covert and overt intelligence gathering, relationship and stakeholder management, Ethics / Compliance / Integrity related investigations and reviews demonstrate his proven ability to facilitate consensus through negotiation and collaborate with senior management across all geographies.
Cheryl O’Shea, Head of APAC
Cheryl O’Shea has over 20 years of experience in investigation and risk management and specializes in fraud and investigations within the IT industry. Her extensive investigation experience extends to conducting investigations involving fraud, corruption, money laundering, financial misconduct, non-compliance, and violation of company policies. She leads a corporate investigation team in a multinational IT company covering Asia Pacific to conduct investigations in challenging situations and work with legal counsel in multi-jurisdictions. Cheryl holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from the UK and a Master’s degree in Finance from Ireland. She is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).