ACSS Singapore Chapter - Association of Certified Sanctions Specialists

ACSS

Singapore Chapter

About Chapter

Come join us to promote sanctions awareness and create a community for sanctions and export controls professionals in Singapore and South East Asia! The Chapter will hold regular events centered around hot topics in the sanctions industry that impact sanctions and export controls professionals. If you are in the South East Asia region, please join us!

All ACSS members can join their local Chapter for free. If you are already an ACSS Member, all you need to do is update your membership profile. Click here to access your membership profile.

NOTHING LIKE OUR CHAPTER EXISTS TO PROMOTE SANCTIONS AWARENESS IN THE SINGAPORE AREA. COME BE A TRAILBLAZER WITH US!

Board Members

Ramanthan Sivabalan

Chapter Chair

Compliance Though Leader and Industry Expert
LexisNexis Risk Solutions
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Ramanathan (“Ram”) Sivabalan is a highly experienced professional with over 23 years of leadership in the Banking, Financial Services, Insurance, and Technology industries. Based in Singapore, he has held senior roles at top-tier institutions such as MUFG, Societe Generale, Future Generali, and LexisNexis® Risk Solutions, where he contributed to legal and compliance leadership, business transformation, and the integration of technology into financial crime compliance and payments solutions across Asia Pacific.

Currently, Ram serves as an adviser to family offices, investment funds, and technology companies, leveraging his extensive expertise in financial crime compliance, regulatory frameworks, governance, and operational strategy. He is also actively involved in several startups, providing guidance on governance, compliance, and market entry strategies.

A member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, Ram holds two degrees from the University of Mumbai and numerous professional certifications in financial crime compliance and governance. Outside of work, he enjoys volunteering with various organizations, exploring world affairs, and listening to music.

Lino Arboleda

Sr. Leader – International Trade Compliance APAC
GE Aerospace
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Lino Arboleda serves as the Senior Leader for International Trade Compliance in the APAC Region at GE Aerospace. Based in Singapore, he is responsible for overseeing GE Aerospace’s adherence to sanctions and export control laws and regulations, and for helping to shape and deploy the strategic vision for managing the company’s Internal Compliance Program in the region. With over two decades in the field, Lino boasts an extensive background in sanctions, export controls, and customs compliance, and holds a Certified Sanctions Specialist (CSS) certification.

Before coming back to GE, Lino played a pivotal role as the Trade Compliance Governance Lead for APAC at Olympus. He further held significant positions such as the Trade Compliance Manager APAC for Shell Chemicals and a Senior Director role at FTI Consulting in their Export Controls, Sanctions, and Trade Practice.

Early in his profession, Lino lent his expertise in export control and sanctions compliance to GE Businesses across ASEAN, ANZ, and various Asian countries. He played a crucial part in improving and upkeeping GE’s Internal Compliance Programs to ensure strict observance to the relevant regulations. He also bridged communication between the ITC Center of Excellence, various business entities, and the Compliance leadership concerning sanctions and export control challenges in the region.

Lino holds a Master’s in Strategy and Security from the University of New South Wales in Australia and earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of the Philippines.

Robert MacDonald

Global Head of Compliance Oversight
ByteDance
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Robert is a UK qualified barrister with over 15 years’ Financial Crime Compliance (“FCC”) experience working in the financial services industry (for NYSE & FTSE 100 listed firms and investment managers). Including UK public sector work with the Ministry of Justice.

Over the years Robert has held the following roles, Deputy Money Laundering Reporting Officer at Sumitomo Mitsui (London), Compliance Specialist at Capital Group (London), FCC Anti-Bribery & Corruption (“ABC”) for UK and Europe at HSBC (London), Global Head of Programme Management & Regulatory Assurance at Standard Chartered Bank (London & Singapore), Regional Head Conduct, Financial Crime & Compliance Assurance Greater China & North Asia at Standard Chartered Bank (Singapore), Chief Compliance Officer & Head of Fintech Legal at Coupang Pay (South Korea), Global Head of Advisory for Sanctions, ABC and Counter-Terrorist Financing at Binance (Singapore) and latterly Global Head of Compliance Oversight at ByteDance (Singapore).

Julie Mills

Asia Sanctions Lead
Citibank
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Julie Mills joined Citibank in September 2022 as the Sanctions Lead for Asia. In this capacity, she is responsible for implementing Citi’s Sanctions Program and leading efforts to provide credible challenge, guidance, and advice on sanctions-related matters across Citi businesses and products in Asia. 
 
Julie was previously at MUFG Bank, where she established a financial crime intelligence and analytics function in the APAC region. Among other things, her team was responsible for complex investigations as well as optimization of financial crimes monitoring and screening systems. 
 
Prior to MUFG, Julie worked in several roles at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, most recently as Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. In this role, she advised the Under Secretary in oversight of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) and worked closely with OFAC colleagues in developing strategies to apply sanctions and other Treasury tools to address U.S. foreign policy objectives. Her previous Treasury roles included leading the Terrorist Financing & Financial Crimes Asia/Africa team and serving as North Korea senior policy advisor. Julie’s experience prior to Treasury centered on nonproliferation and export control in corporate, NGO, and public sector settings.
 
Julie holds a Masters of Arts in Security Policy Studies from The George Washington University and a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University.

Joaquin Tan

MLRO Singapore
TerraPay
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Joaquin has been with the financial industry for around 10years, in both the banking and the payments sector. His current stint is with TerraPay, handling the compliance function in the Asia Pacific region whilst being the Money Laundering Reporting Officer for the Singapore entity.
Joaquin has experience across various functions of compliance, starting from his humble roots from the onboarding functions to compliance advisory functions and finally stepping to the payments sector, overseeing the compliance function in the APAC region.

Ng Kian Mun, Ken

Head of Group Sanctions Policy, Advisory & Training
– United Overseas Bank (UOB)
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Kian Mun has been with the Banking industry for almost 30 years covering all of the Bank’s first, second and third line of defense. His latest stint is with UOB as the Head of Group Sanctions Policy, Advisory & Training function.

Prior to UOB, he was the Sanctions Advisor for BNP Paribas and Standard Chartered Bank covering APAC for almost 6 years where he advises on various sanctions matters from both sanctions regulations and Bank’s risk appetite perspective. He is also well versed with the Bank’s products e.g. Trade, Investment Banking, Global Markets, Securities Services etc.

Kian Mun started his career in the branch operations as part of first line of defense for almost 8 years. Then, he moved to third line of defense for almost 8 years where he was called upon as the lead reviewer for high risk areas of the Bank.

Kian Mun graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He holds certifications from ACAMS, CIA and CGSS and is an Associate Member of CPA and member of Association of Certified Sanctions Specialists.

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