Speakers BCEC 2023
Richard Bistrong
CEO Front-Line Anti-Bribery LLC, USA
Richard started his career as a successful VP of Sales for a multinational corporation, but in 2007 he was targeted by the US and UK law enforcement authorities for breaches of international anti-bribery and trade laws. As part of a deal with the authorities, he went undercover for the FBI and the City of London Police, and after serving his sentence, he continued his career in consulting and found his mission in sharing his personal story.
Currently, through his consultancy, Front-Line Anti-Bribery LLC, he focuses primarily on ethics and compliance in the real world and the challenges of fighting bribery and corruption. As a consultant, he has presented to hundreds of diverse international multinationals such as Volkswagen, Microsoft, Novartis, Kraft Heinz, Airbus and trained law enforcement agencies through workshops. He helps people, teams and organisations understand that no one is ever alone when it comes to ethical decision-making and that we never have to sacrifice integrity to succeed.
Ruth Steinholtz
Author/Practitioner/Speaker
She formed the first network of ethics ambassadors in 2005, and was instrumental in their adoption globally by many companies. Ruth believes that organisations should focus on values-based leadership and creating effective ethical cultures, and not on tick the box compliance, to combat corruption. Since 2010, Ruth has been working with all types of organisations to identify and implement their values, measure and improve their cultures and rebalance their approach to integrity. AretéWork is her vehicle for that work; and her publications, speaking and panel appearances her way of spreading the word beyond those she can reach as a consultant.
Jelica Zdolšek
Jelica Zdolšek holds a BSc in Pharmacy and Master’s degree in Economics, both from University of Ljubljana. She launched her 26-year career at Novartis in Procurement and later took different positions of increasing responsibilities in Aseptic production and Supply Chain Management in Novartis Technical Operations.
Deep understanding of TechOps processes, people management and personal commitment to ethical business led her to take up her current role as the Head of Ethics, Risk, and Compliance Operations at Novartis. As a member of Novartis ERC and Operations Leadership teams, she empowers associates to prioritize doing what’s right. Her mission is to unite business objectives with unwavering integrity for the trust of Novartis by its patients, associates, and the society as a whole.
Elena Lunder
Global Responsibility and Consumption Associate at Focus
Elena Lunder works as an expert in the field of global responsibility and consumption at Focus. She graduated from Maastricht University and completed her LLM in Human Rights Law at the University of Nottingham. Focus, an association for sustainable development, works on topics such as climate change, energy, sustainable mobility, global responsibility and consumption, and focuses on human rights issues at EU level, with an emphasis on mandatory human rights and environmental due diligence.
Irena B. Karakashev
Irena started her career as a lawyer and continued as a compliance officer at the NLB bank in Skopje. She headed the Compliance and information security department for three years, and since 2021 she has been working as a legal consultant at Projects financed by the World Bank.
Anand Kumar Guruswamy
Senior Corporate Counsel, Infosys Limited
Anand is an Ethics & Compliance professional with over 20 years of work experience spanning across industries like Telecom, Banking & Insurance, Automobile and Information Technology. At present, Anand is responsible for Compliance Trainings & Communications at Infosys Limited. Anand is a pioneer in creating unique and innovative mediums to promote ethical culture within the organization.
His mantra is ‘Compliance is Important, need not be serious and boring’. In his endeavor to make Compliance attractive, he created a Compliance Board Game called The Risk & Opportunity Game which went on the win the Global Ideation Challenge conducted by his then employer Daimler AG. Anand is active on LinkedIn and his #ComplianceMeme posts are very popular among his connections.
Simona H. Bosiger
Senior Group Compliance Manager
As a Group Compliance Manager for a global manufacturing company Semperit AG Simona is working to establish, implement, and administer a compliance structure to strengthen the company’s existing compliance efforts. Her diverse background in anti-corruption, implementation of organizational integrity and journalism supports her in understanding practical challenges and nuances to bridge the gap between theory and execution. From how to why.
She embarked on her journey as a journalist and editor, pursuing stories that shed light on unethical practices and held those in power accountable. As the president of Transparency International Slovenia, she harnessed her expertise to lead transformative initiatives to promote good governance and combat corruption. She has worked with a diverse range of private and (international) public entities, delivering tangible results through developing and implementing robust integrity systems. She holds an MSc in Political Science focused on organizational integrity.
Anniina Kristinsson
Managing Partner at Nordic Sustainability
Anniina has more than 15 years of professional experience from both the private and public sector, making her ideally suited for complex strategy processes, policy, executive advisory, and change management.
Anniina is mostly in charge of helping clients for the upcoming EU sustainability regulations, in particular the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). This includes not only briefing senior leadership about the challenges ahead, but also leading the NS team’s efforts in creating new service models and methods for assessing clients’ material impacts across value chains.
Furthermore, Anniina has lead projects for global manufacturing clients on e.g. decarbonization of logistics and sustainability in product design.
She has previously led the preparation and implementation of a new sustainability framework for Hempel A/S, a Danish multinational coatings manufacturer. Anniina has a wide knowledge base of topics such as carbon neutrality and science-based targets, circular economy, sustainable product development, reporting, and sustainability communication. She holds a Masters in Political Science and International Law from Åbo Akademi University in Finland. Her previous work experience includes the Nordic Council of Ministers, the Finnish Parliament, and the European Commission.
Tim Tyler
Director of Qualifications at ICA
As Director, Qualifications, Tim is responsible for the development and delivery of the wide range of ICA courses from Certificate to Post Graduate Diploma.
Tim joined the ICA from the Gambling Commission where, as AML lead, he was responsible for all aspects of AML regulatory and supervisory activity. This was preceded by thirty years in UK Law Enforcement spanning the police, Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and National Crime Agency. During this time he led a number of functions including the Proceeds of Crime Operational Command within SOCA, and the UK International Crime Bureau, responsible for criminal and fugitive enquiries transacted between the UK and the rest of the world.
Countering the threat of financial crime has been a recurrent theme throughout Tim’s career. He established money laundering investigation teams across the UK and in strategic locations around the world. He developed innovative tactics to counter the threat and worked with many domestic and international partners to track and eliminate laundering at source.
Earlier in his career Tim worked in partnership with the Serious Fraud Office and overseas agencies including the FBI in the investigation of complex fraud and corruption. The understanding and specialist skills he developed over this time combine with his experience as a supervisor and mean that Tim offers significant insight and practical expertise as a trainer and as the lead for qualifications within the ICA.
Lucia Ana Tomić
Head of HR and Regulatory Affairs, Vienna Insurance Group d.d., Croatia
After graduating from the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Economics and Business, I gained my MBA and worked as a lawyer attending to legal affairs from the domain of company law in various institutions and positions. I am currently the head of HR and Regulatory Affairs, Vienna Insurance Group d.d., Croatia.
Dr. Jennifer Pope
US Fulbright Scholar / Associate Professor at IEDC – Bled School of Management
Dr. Pope took a position in the marketing department at Grand Valley State University in Michigan in fall 2003. She primarily teaches international marketing, sales and negotiation classes and has consulted with multiple companies and NGOs. She regularly teaches international business classes at a Duale Hochschule in Bad Mergentheim, Germany and has taught in France, Mexico, Taiwan and Slovenia. Currently, Dr. Pope is working as a US Fulbright Scholar at IEDC – The Bled School of Management in Slovenia. She has travelled to over 30 countries and has lived in four countries outside the US. Dr. Pope received her MBA and PhD in International Business and Marketing from the University of Texas-Pan American. At IEDC she is working on the ESG research project and as such speaking with many businesses and stakeholders around the region.