ACSS Singapore Chapter

Ramanathan (“Ram”) Sivabalan is the Director of Market Planning for Financial Crime Compliance and Payments for the APAC region at LexisNexis® Risk Solutions. Based in Singapore, he leads the development and fulfilment of the overall revenue and customer value proposition throughout Asia Pacific.

With over 22 years of experience in Banking, Financial Services and Insurance industries, Sivabalan has a strong track record in leading the legal and compliance functions and effective business operations in various markets within Asia. He has previously held legal and compliance leadership roles at MUFG, Societe Generale and Future Generali.

Sivabalan is a member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India and is a two time graduate of the University of Mumbai. In his free time, he enjoys volunteering with several organizations, reading about world affairs and listening to music.

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.

Grace has over 30 years of post graduation experience. She was trained as a professional engineer, then progressed to be a qualified accountant and internet auditor. She spent two decades working in the financial industry and now works as Senior Director at a digital bank, which includes AML and sanction compliance. Her expertise stems from her prior experience as a professional consultant, Monetary Authority of Singapore as well as various governance, regulatory compliance and AML related roles in both traditional and digital banks. Grace possesses a proven track record in navigating complex regulatory landscapes, establishing robust governance functions, and advising Board and Senior Management on business initiatives for diverse financial institutions. Having a technical background, Grace is a key advocate for digital solutions, leveraging AI and machine learning capabilities to enable transformative organizational changes.

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.