RISK | STRATEGY | CYBER COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENT
Ryan Hodge, a Senior Director in Stratis Advisory, is a compliance and risk expert with nearly 20 years’ experience in banking and payments, ranging from Fortune 500 banks to startups. At Stratis, Ryan leads an international portfolio of FinTech and Regtech startups across six continents developing right-sized risk management frameworks from initial scope to ongoing deployment. Moreover, he executes the implementation of systems design and implementation for the various stages of a startups lifecycle.
Before Stratis, Ryan led BBVA Open Platform’s Risk & Control team, building out a compliance program to best balance risk and growth in one of the most compelling new industries in the FinTech space, Banking-as-a-Service. Previous to BBVA Open Platform, he served as Dwolla’s Financial Intelligence Unit Director, where he built and managed a unified group for risk, compliance, fraud and sanctions.
Prior to moving to the FinTech space, he served in multiple risk roles within various financial institutions. As the BSA & OFAC Officer for Chevron Federal Credit Union, he instituted their first centralized fraud management program. While at Washington Mutual, Ryan served as a quality control analyst for multiple internal and external teams working to remediate a Cease & Desist order and he led one of the top performing fraud investigation teams. He began his career in 2001 at Wells Fargo, working in multiple retail management roles. Ryan has been featured as a speaker at both local and national ACAMS events, as well as the American Bar Association’s Cyberspace Law Committee’s Winter Working Group, and holds an advanced Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) certification.
Z Segismundo, a Director in Stratis Advisory, has over 17 years of experience managing global clients and teams in the business process outsourcing (BPO) industry focused on business strategy, management, development and transformation, project management, and process standardization and improvement.
At Stratis, Z leads research, development, and process transformation for globally operating emerging growth companies. She is responsible for supporting clients growing and scaling their regulated and unregulated operations in multiple jurisdictions, unlocking new markets, and aligning risk management processes.
Prior to joining Stratis, Z managed multi-geo client portfolios in the US, LATAM and APAC for a leading BPO firm. She was responsible for global service delivery, business growth and financial health, including handling different verticals in the credit card, network security, and technology industries particularly consumer electronics and a major internet-related services and products provider.
Victoria Howard, a Director in Stratis Advisory, has over 17 years of experience in the financial services with experience in regulatory compliance, process improvement, and implementation for payments and money transfer firms to large financial institutions.
At Stratis, she leads process design and implementation of scalable regulatory compliance programs, including risk management infrastructure, the underlying technology suite, and ongoing regulatory strategy and reporting. Previously, Victoria led regulatory examinations and quality assurance at OFX, a globally licensed online international payments firm. At OFX, she was responsible for multiple aspects of the BSA/AML/OFAC compliance program, including regulatory reporting, examination management, governance, quality assurance, training, and policy and procedures. Victoria also served as an Investigation Manager for Nexxo Financial’s Financial Intelligence Unit, a kiosk-based money transfer business serving Latin America that was acquired by MoneyGram, as well as Bank Of America’s Global Financial Crimes Compliance division. She started her career in 2002 at Wells Fargo working in multiple loss mitigation and loan processing management roles.
Victoria holds a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS) certification with experience in the industries of banking, financial services, MSB’s, FinTech startups, lending in the US, LATAM, APAC, Canada, and the UK.
Deb Wood, a Director in Stratis Advisory, has over 15 years’ experience in fraud, investigations, financial crime, corporate security, technology and project management disciplines across global financial services organizations. At Stratis, she leads fraud and financial crime technology implementation appropriate for the size and scale of the financial institution from early stage payments firm to global financial institutions. Moreover, Deb manages due diligence portfolios for financial institutions managing emerging growth companies and higher-risk relationships.
Previously, Deb led the Fraud Risk Management team for OFX, a globally licensed online international payments firm. At OFX, she was responsible for managing the implementation of the long-term fraud risk strategy for the future direction. Her role was a conduit throughout the business, providing continuous feedback that would influence and drive the overall Fraud Risk Management roadmap, strategy and ultimately protected OFX assets by minimizing fraud loss, risk exposure and by providing optimal customer service. Prior to OFX, Deb led fraud innovation for Fidelity Worldwide Investment in APAC. She is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE) with experience in the financial services, technology, FinTech and eCommerce industries in Australia, United Kingdom, Canada, United States, Africa and throughout Asia.
Brian Stoeckert, CEO and founder of Stratis Advisory, is a recognized risk management expert with more than 20 years of experience in providing startups through Fortune 500 companies with strategy intelligence, advisory services and witness testimony. At Stratis, he manages an international portfolio of FinTech startups, money service businesses, financial institutions, government agencies, universities, and entertainment companies. Brian has served as an expert witness in domestic and global civil and regulatory matters related to anti-money laundering (AML) and digital currency compliance and as a consultant to the 30-episode crypto crime drama tv series “StartUp” on Netflix, which was produced by SONY Pictures.
Previously, Brian led Booz Allen Hamilton’s San Francisco-based strategy and risk practice, advising boards of directors, audit and compliance committees, and executive management teams of financial institutions, MSBs and global intelligence firms. He has also served as a guest lecturer at New York University’s Law School and Stern School of Business on AML laws, regulations and digital currency compliance, and he is a frequent presenter at global risk, compliance and FinTech conferences. Brian is an executive board member of the award-winning ACAMS Northern California Chapter and serves as a Mentor for Silicon Valley Bank and First Data’s Commerce Innovated and Envestnet | Yodlee Incubators for FinTech startups. He received his JD from New York Law School and his BA in Political Science from Stony Brook University. In 2014, Brian received the University’s Top 40 Under Forty Award.
Maria Potapov, a partner in Stratis Advisory, brings 25 years of experience in business strategy, risk management, startups and investment funds. She has launched and managed 11 new finance and technology ventures during her career. Prior to Stratis, Maria served as the head of R&D at SVB Financial Group, where she helped create several new business lines for long-term EPS growth. Before SVB, she was founding partner, chief investment officer and chief compliance officer of Green Alpha Advisors.
Maria also served as a C-level officer, Board director and investor at several FinTech and software startups as well as a board member and trustee at education-focused non-profit organizations. She started her career as a research analyst at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. Maria is a Chartered Financial Analyst, holds an MBA from the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London and a BA in Economics from Boston University.
Catalina Martinez, a director at Stratis Advisory, has over 15 years of experience in the areas of product development and management. At Stratis, she leads licensing execution for early stage companies seeking to achieve and maintain lending and payment-based licenses. Moreover, she oversees risk management operations from design to execution and implementation for product launches, exam readiness, and go-to market strategies.
Prior to joining Stratis, Catalina managed both the CAMS exams and the Advanced Certification programs for ACAMS – a globally recognized financial crime prevention association. She led the development of the CAMS-Audit and CAMS-FCI certifications, as well as the translation of the CAMS certification into nine foreign languages. During her tenure at ACAMS, Catalina also grew the organization’s community chapters to over forty in the U.S. and abroad.