Emily Judith Gorman-De Lisle

Emily, is CAMS certified and has over 10 years experience in due diligence and money laundering risk. She previously worked at Refinitiv as a Financial Risk analyst in Cape Town before transferring to the company’s Terrorism and Insurgency Research Unit (TIRU) in Penang, Malaysia where she focused on terrorism financing typologies in Western Europe. She additionally focused on her passion projects around human rights violations in supply chains in South East Asia and AML typologies in the maritime sector.

Following 5 years with Refinitiv, in 2020 Emily became a freelance analyst with Sqope Intelligence which specializes in Enhanced Due Diligence analyses for individuals and entities globally. She is now an Intelligence Team Lead and Senior Intelligence Manager with Sqope, where she leads a team of highly skilled analysts and supports Sqope’s delivery of exceptional quality risk reports to private banks and corporate clients in numerous jurisdictions. Emily remains passionate about ESG risk related concerns, and is an expert in complex ownership structures and sanctions evasion and money laundering typologies in the maritime sector.

What makes you a Risky Woman?

I believe that processes attached to compliance and due diligence always allow room for “out-the-box-thinking” in difficult or unique scenarios. The intricacy, complexity and consistent innovation associated to money laundering methodologies demands the same level of sophistication from those who combat it. I believe that adaptation and creative thinking are paramount to what we do and I try and employ this in my day-to-day work with Sqope.

Name your top 3 achievements

1. CAMS certification – I am terrible at exams and usually allow for a first-time failure before trying again, but I passed first time. I sacrificed evenings and weekends to study for it so I was very proud of this achievement.
2. When I was a green analyst at Refinitiv, my colleague, Kerry Howard, initiated a discussion on the inclusion of interpreting child exploitation imagery as a financial crime – allowing for its inclusion in the World Check platform around 2016. We both worked on the guidelines and pitched it where it was successfully rolled out across World Check. I consider this more Kerry’s achievement that my own, but I was proud to have helped and learned a lot from her in the process.
3. Redesigning Sqope’s internal country risk assessment methodology with my colleague Dragos Becheru for closer alignment to global interpretation on AML and sanctions risks related to specific jurisdictions.

What is the biggest risk you’ve taken in your career?

Actively applying for the role in the terrorism investigative unit in Penang, effectively leaving my role in Cape Town, that was both interesting and also under the purview of a highly supportive and inspiring manager Lisa Walters. She supported me throughout the transition process which really helped, but also made it harder to leave. I applied for and accepted the job in Malaysia having never been there before. I was driven by my interest in research and the challenge associated with terrorism risk and while I don’t regret the move as I met some amazing people and had a great career, it was a very difficult and risky decision with a lot of unknowns.

What’s something most people don’t know about you?

I love running long distance. I also love crosswords and jigsaw puzzles.

What is the best quality for successful leaders in Risk?

Integrity