Bindu leads International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children’s (ICMEC) programme vision in the APAC region and is founding director of ICMEC Australia. Bindu, chairs the US and APAC Financial Coalitions against Child Sexual Exploitation, a pioneering collaborative initiative with the financial payments industry, regulators, and law enforcement to counter the scourge of online child sexual exploitation (CSE). She serves on the board of the International Centre for Not-for-Profit Law and is member of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime’s Global Initiative Network.
What makes you a Risky Woman?
I challenge the financial industry from the outside to take ownership of child protection. Leading the Financial Coalition against CSE, I advocate for banks, card schemes, payment processors, and FinTech’s to strengthen due diligence and disrupt criminal payment networks embedded in global financial systems.
Name your top 3 achievements
- Built Regional Coalitions: Spearheaded the expansion and leadership of the US and APAC Financial Coalitions against Child Sexual Exploitation, uniting global financial leaders and law enforcement to disrupt illicit abuse networks.
- Founded ICMEC Australia: Established and launched ICMEC Australia, securing the funding and scaling the organization’s operational impact across the Asia-Pacific region.
- Bridged Tech, Finance, & Law Enforcement: Drive high-impact cross-sector collaborative action across banks, card schemes, payment gateways, and regulatory bodies to fight financial crime.
What is the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?
Walking away from a secure corporate finance career, straight out of graduate school. Realizing it wasn’t my true calling, I took a leap of faith, went back to school for a Master’s in Public Policy, and pivoted into international development and non-profit leadership—a risk that reshaped my entire trajectory. I have not looked back since.
What’s something most people don’t know about you?
Beyond international development, child rights and financial compliance, I have long worked as both board member and Chair of a leading US institution in the area of international non-profit law.
What is the best quality for successful leaders in Risk?
Strategic foresight and critical thinking ability to see the big picture, the systemic risk and then to speak truth to power. Successful leaders view risk control or compliance not as a passive administrative function or as a mere cost centre. They view it as a core design feature of an institution. Risk and compliance in an always-connected environment must be embedded at the design stage, ideally. Risk leaders know that by embedding risk management at the product blueprint stage, organisations actively detect, prevent, and mitigate real-time financial crime in an organic, essential, and automatic manner.
