Biography:
Michael is an independent consultant with more than 30 years’ experience. He focuses on transparency, anti-corruption and good governance issues. He is also a political risk and stakeholder engagement expert with a focus on the Middle East. His book on Gaza will be published in the near future. He has worked for Middle East Broadcasting Centre, Control Risks Group, the Eurasia Group and for the international gas company BG Group as an international government relations manager in Egypt, Oman and Gaza. At BG Group, he was also responsible for the transparency agenda, especially the Extractive Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI). He has also lived, worked and travelled extensively in the Middle East, advising companies on assessing and mitigating political risk in the region. Michael studied Arabic at the University of Edinburgh where he gained an MA (Hons).
He is a recognised expert in beneficial ownership disclosure and provides technical assistance to governments and government agencies introducing measures to tackle corruption, money laundering and other financial crimes, and has worked with jurisdictions across four continents. In collaboration with Tim Law, he co-developed the BO6 framework for the design and implementation of beneficial ownership reporting regimes. He is an expert to the Council of Europe Economic Crime and Cooperation Division and the EU AML/CFT Global Facility and has been a member of the B20 Integrity and Compliance Taskforce. He has also delivered projects funded by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.