Senior staff 
Alex Leslie
Director, Business Intelligence
Alex Leslie received a joint honours degree in modern languages from Bristol University. He has lived in Germany, Belgium and France. He joined Risk Advisory at its inception and since then has undertaken assignments covering all of the principal business intelligence services including competitor intelligence, due diligence and corporate contests. His areas of geographic expertise include Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Prior to joining Risk Advisory he worked for an international investigations business.
Chris Rowley
Director, Business Intelligence
Chris Rowley is a Director in the Business Intelligence practice of Risk Advisory. Since joining the company in September 2003 he has undertaken a wide variety of assignments across a raft of different sectors and countries. These span due diligence assignments - increasingly driven by our clients' regulatory concerns - but also include a diverse range of other types of intelligence gathering. Prior to joining Risk Advisory, Chris worked in the political risk arm of a business risk management company, where he held specific responsibility for the company's Latin America and Caribbean division. The post involved advising a range of international clients on the various political and economic risks associated with doing business on the continent. Chris graduated from Exeter University in 2000 with a BA in Political Science. He has lived in Chile and travelled throughout Latin America and Spain.
Chris Ferguson
Senior Associate, Business Intelligence
Chris Ferguson is a Senior Associate in Risk Advisory's Business Intelligence division. Chris joined the company in 2006 and primarily covers the extractives sectors in sub-Saharan Africa, identifying regulatory, reputational and strategic risks for companies operating in the continent. He has developed a key expertise in West Africa and has completed numerous assignments for Risk Advisory's clients throughout the region, notably in Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Angola, DRC and Ghana. Currently based at the firm's London office, Chris has travelled extensively; both throughout West Africa and more widely. He graduated from Leeds Metropolitan University in 2001 with a BA in Economics & Public Policy and previously worked in the insurance and corporate recovery industries.
Youri Smakouz
Senior Associate, Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia - Moscow
Youri is responsible for research and analysis on investigative cases in Russia and the CIS with a particular focus on the financial sector and IT; responsible for case management and operational matters. He has a three years' experience within the Russian banking sector; experience in financial analysis and risk management.
He previously worked for Russian Standard Bank as head of the coporate risks department, responsible for estimating the risks of the bank's largest clients, including industry enterprises, credit organisations, insurance companies and other businesses.
Oleg Dolgov
Associate Director, Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia - Moscow
Oleg Dolgov has a significant experience in operational and casework matters; conducting and managing integrity due diligence assignments in Russia and the CIS with a particular focus on the mineral resource sector and on political risk assessment. He has also worked on a large number of projects in many jurisidictions including Russia and the former Soviet republics providing due diligence, risk analysis as well as client and employee screening.
Alexey Yugai Senior Associate, Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia - Moscow
Alexey conducts research and analysis on investigative cases in Russia and the CIS. Heisresponsible for case management and operational matters.He also has experience of conducting and managing integrity duediligenc eassignments in Russia,other countries of the FSU (particularlyKazakhstan) and Eastern Europe. He previously worked as an investment analyst for INEX GmbH in Germany.
Valery Shturmarevich
Senior Associate , Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia - Moscow
Valery conducts research and analysis on investigative cases in Russia and the CIS with a particular focus on the mineral resource sector and on political risk assessment and he is responsible for case management and operational matters. In addition, he has experience conducting and managing integrity due diligence assignments in Russia, Ukraine and Eastern Europe.
Elizabeth Stubbs
Senior Associate, Business Intelligence
Elizabeth Stubbs is a Senior Associate within the Business Intelligence practice of Risk Advisory. Prior to joining Risk Advisory, Elizabeth worked for two years within the Major Projects Team at Benfield Group, the reinsurance intermediary. While at Risk Advisory, Elizabeth has undertaken numerous projects focusing on a number of African jurisdictions. She has built up a specific expertise in South Africa especially in the financial and extractives sector. She has also undertaken a number of investigations into Black Economic Empowerment enterprises and has a good understanding of the South African political climate. Additionally, she has a good network of contacts in the DRC, Congo-Brazzaville and Nigeria. Elizabeth graduated from Cambridge University in 2003 with a BA in Economics.
Veronica Echeverri
Senior Associate, Business Intelligence
Veronica Echeverri is a Senior Associate within the Business Intelligence practice of Risk Advisory. Before joining Risk Advisory, Veronica worked as a research assistant on Latin American politics at Tufts University in Boston. She also taught a course on the history of Colombian violence to undergraduate students at this same university. Prior to that, she worked at the United Nations Development Programme as a justice consultant for a project on justice reform in Latin America and the Caribbean. Veronica has a Master's Degree in International Affairs from Columbia University in New York City. She also graduated from Los Andes University in Bogota, Colombia with a Law Degree and a Minor in History. She is a native Spanish speaker and has a working knowledge of French and Italian.
Henry Wilkinson
Associate Director, Janusian Security Risk Management
Henry Wilkinson is the Senior Intelligence Analyst at Janusian Security Risk Management plc. Janusian is the security and political risk subsidiary of Risk Advisory: a transnational intelligence, investigations and security group with offices in London, Moscow, Dubai, and Al-Khobar in Saudi Arabia. At Janusian, Henry leads a team of analysts and researchers. He is responsible for all political and security intelligence gathering and analysis, both in support of Janusian security operations and directly for clients around the world.
Matthew Hunt
Senior Associate, Janusian Security Risk Management
Matthew works on a range of political and security risk projects at Janusian, including the monitoring of terrorist incidents across the world. Matthew contributes articles on security related issues to a number of publications and comments on international security issues in the media. He is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) and Chatham House. Matthew has lived, worked and studied in Latin America, Turkey, Spain and the US. He speaks fluent Spanish and is competent in French.
