Introducing 2021 Fellow - Samantha Sheen

Samantha Sheen is a Fellow on the International Program

Sam is a financial crime prevention professional with over 15 years of practical experience in compliance.   Sam's previous work experience includes working as MLRO, Data Protection Officer and CCO and Group Head of AML for various financial institutions, both offshore and in Europe. 

Sam also worked offshore for several years as the first legal counsel to the financial regulator in Guernsey heading up its enforcement activities. She subsequently set up the regulator’s first financial crime division, overseeing the examination of a variety of financial institutions and formulating the regulator’s ongoing supervisory activities across a diverse group of financial sector participants. 

Sam continues to maintain ongoing engagement with other regulators on financial crime matters and was approved last year as an independent assessor for MONEYVAL, the European based body of the FATF.

Sam has extensive training experience in the field of financial crime prevention and corporate governance matters. She has most recently been involved in projects related to FenTech businesses, the use of RegTech to mitigate financial crime and list management relating to the screening of customers and third parties. Sam worked with ACAMS Europe as its first subject matter expert as its AML Director and subsequently ran her one advisory business, assisting Crypto, FinTech and AML/CFTvendor technology and outsourcing vendors on various financial crime prevention matters.  Sam is recognised by ACAMS and the EIMF as a subject matter expert and has co-authored a number of online certificate courses, facilitated working groups on 4/5AMLD in Europe and assistance in the development of white papers.  

Sam most recently started a new position as Financial Crime Officer EMEA and MLRO for Stripe, a leading innovative FinTech providing payment infrastructure solutions for the internet.

Originally from Montreal, Quebec Canada, Sam holds a number of qualifications and is recognised as a subject matter expert in the field of financial crime including a Bachelors of Public Administration from Carleton University, Law Degree from Queen’s University, qualified as a barrister and solicitor in Ontario, Canada and as a solicitor in NSW Australia and holds her Masters in Business, specialising in risk management from Monash University in Victoria, Australia.  Sam most recently completed a Diploma with the London School of Economics in London, UK in Data Analytics.