Christopher Laursen, President
Consultant and Expert Witness covering financial institutions, products, markets, risk management, regulation, governance & accounting
Christopher Laursen is a leading expert in financial institutions, markets, and products, as well as financial company risk management, regulation, and accounting. With 30 years of industry experience, he has served as a Federal financial company policy maker and regulator, consultant to public and private clients, and testifying expert.
Mr. Laursen served as the Federal Reserve Board’s Manager of Risk Policy and Guidance as well as the Head of Trading and Capital Markets Risk. He also served for over a decade as an examiner for the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
As a testifying expert, Mr. Laursen has opined on topics including trading and lending standards, product-specific risks, accounting, regulatory compliance, macroeconomic effects, industry custom and practice, valuation, damages, and fiduciary duties.
Mr. Laursen’s engagements have covered instruments including mortgage and asset-backed securities, options and swaps, structured notes, equity securities, municipal and corporate bonds, foreign exchange, bank and broker dealer loans, mutual funds, deposit accounts, insurance, pension funds, IRAs, private equity, and hedge funds.
Alison Fitzgerald, Director
Alison Fitzgerald provides litigation and advisory consulting support in matters involving securities and financial markets, risk management, and regulation. She has extensive experience working with large data sets, calculating and evaluating valuations and damages, and developing discounted cashflow models for clients. Her litigation and arbitration work also includes researching and calculating risk metrics related to traded securities and indices.
Ms. Fitzgerald has also run the operations side of several small business and non-profit organizations, managing day-to-day, marketing, and business development activities. She currently sits on the Board as Treasurer of a local non-profit, and holds a MA in Applied Economics from Johns Hopkins University.
Luis Alberto Aleman, Senior Consultant
Luis Alberto Aleman advises and provides consulting services in International Banking with specialization in Anti-Money Laundering, Fraud Investigations, Due Diligence, Bank Operations, Audit and Compliance in Latin America, Asia/Pacific, and Europe/Middle East regions. Mr. Aleman possesses over four decades of experience at the Bank of Nova Scotia in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and Bank of America in San Juan and Miami, where he mastered a diverse set of banking operations and audit programs. Mr. Aleman has executive-level financial services experience with proven ability to quickly assess and understand new environments, allowing him to make difficult risk/reward decisions.
Mr. Aleman has led as auditor-in-charge numerous examinations and audits in countries throughout the Caribbean, Central America, South America, Asia, and Europe. In addition to his roles and responsibilities as senior auditor, Mr. Aleman has participated in internal, complex, cross-jurisdictional AML investigations that resulted in exiting account relationships and high-risk products to avoid potential enforcement actions. Mr. Aleman also led audits that included methodical risk-reward analysis which identified elevated risk associated with offshore private banking and bearer share personal investment companies.
Fluent in Spanish and English, Mr. Aleman is a sought-after speaker on the topics of AML/CFT compliance and audit. He has presented at conferences hosted by the Mexican Bankers Association and the Costa Rican Bankers Association. Mr. Aleman is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist (CAMS), Certified Fraud Investigator (CFE) and holds a Six Sigma Green Belt Certification. He recently retired as a Senior Vice President/Audit Manager S.M.E. with Bank of America Global Financial Crime Audit.
