Rowena Bethel
Associate Director of Compliance
A veteran senior executive in financial services and communications sector regulation and policy. In depth experience at international and national levels in financial crimes regulation, cross border tax cooperation frameworks, data protection, pension fund management and digital transformation.
A UK qualified barrister-at-law, Rowena is a former senior legal adviser to The Bahamas government on financial services and communications sector reform, former AML regulator of DNFBPs, insurance and credit unions, and former head of the International Tax Cooperation Unit. She has worked extensively with World Bank ROSCs, IMF Article IV consultations, FSRB MERs, as an assessor for OECD Global Tax Forum EOI peer reviews and Tax information Exchange Treaty Negotiator. She is a former member of the UN Committee of Experts on International Cooperation in Tax Matters and the UN Expert Committee on Public Administration.
In the UAE private sector, her experience covers start-ups, SFO operations, asset management, virtual asset regulation and implementation of FATCA, CRS, data protection, general regulatory compliance, AML & Sanctions mandates.
Rowena has an LL.B (Leics), UK and LL.M in IT and Telecommunications Law and Policy (Strath), UK. She is CAMs certified and a member of the Honourable Society of Middle Temple (UK), Bahamas Bar Association, ACAMS, IFAUAE and IAPP.