The story behind the TWELVE Program
Since announcing the TWELVE Program last week, I have been asked by several people for the story behind the TWELVE Financial Crime Development Program. Here it is.
After a career in UK law enforcement dealing with financial crime and money laundering, I moved to Canada in 2016 where I started teaching Leadership and Management Development to Canadian Police Officers at Dalhousie University.
Fast forward to 2020 and I currently teach the following courses:
Ethics in Action at Dalhousie University
Financial Crimes Prevention and Mitigation at Seneca College
Anti Money Laundering and Counter Terrorism Financing at Seneca College
Ethics, Corruption and Accountability at Wilfrid Laurier University
At the same time, I have maintained a close relationship with private financial crime sector in Canada.
As an Academic and Practitioner I have experience of both sides of the financial crime “coin” and also the challenges faced by those transitioning from university/college to the workforce. I observed talented individuals graduating and then struggling to gain employment in the financial crime field. I saw candidates possessing many certifications but lacking the core skills of a financial crime professions.
I decided to find a nexus between the two worlds.
In 2018 I made a proposal to Seneca College to create a Financial Crimes Prevention and Mitigation certificate program which linked closely to my preferred industry certification, the Certified Financial Crime Specialist. The intention was to create a program which provided an academic and industry certification outcome for the participants.
In late 2019 I was encouraged (person shall remain nameless) to take my informal coaching practice to the next level by developing my idea for a training and mentoring program that leverages both the academic and practitioner worlds. The objective of the program was to identify early years professionals who showed real promise to become leaders and provide them with the tools and techniques to achieve this goal.
Thus the TWELVE Program was created.
A 12 month program which creates a sustained mentor/mentee relationship with existing industry leaders and delivers knowledge on key financial crime topics via online content, facilitated group discussions, and forums. Each month of the program has a financial crime theme, a mentoring topic, and focus on a specific leadership skill.
I’m very excited to welcome the first 12 participants to the program in the coming months. The level of interest has been a surprise and it will be a hard decision to select just 12!
Dr Ian Messenger