Open Ownership welcomes new International Advisory Board

Open Ownership (OO) will soon launch our next five-year strategy, and we are excited and honoured to introduce our new International Advisory Board (IAB) who will support us.

This new Board will supercede our Steering Group, which has overseen OO’s work from the start. Our original Steering Group, made up of civil society organisations committed to beneficial ownership reform, has helped us grow significantly. The new International Advisory Board is the senior advisory board for OO. It provides strategic guidance to maximise the organisation’s impact to achieve its mission, and has been recruited to reflect the many geographies in which we now work and the breadth of the reform on which we work. Read more about our governance here.

We are delighted to introduce our new Chair, Advocate Xolisile Khanyile, a prosecutor with over two decades’ experience. Advocate Khanyile served as Vice Chair and later Chair of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, and as Director of the Financial Intelligence Centre of South Africa. She has held various positions in South African law enforcement agencies over a 23-year period, including a senior role at the Asset Forfeiture Unit for over five years, and was appointed by the President of South Africa as Director of Public Prosecutions, a post she held for eight years.

Joining Advocate Khanyile, we are pleased to welcome four members who together will form the International Advisory Board, each bringing substantial expertise in fields highly relevant to our work.

We are pleased to introduce:

Richard Daniels, Director of Financial Crime and Fraud at TSB. Richard is a senior Financial Services Executive with deep expertise in establishing robust frameworks against economic crime within large, complex, and highly regulated international institutions. He has successfully led the design and implementation of effective financial crime operating models across numerous jurisdictions and business units, navigating intense regulatory oversight and delivering sustainable, efficient compliance solutions.

Cheri-Leigh Erasmus, Co-CEO and Chief Learning and Agility Officer of Accountability Lab. Cheri-Leigh is a seasoned international development professional with experience in the governance and education sectors. Her work has focused on collaborating with communities, civil society, and public service innovators to catalyse reforms that strengthen governance and improve accountability.

Mitali Tyagi, Director of the Asia/Pacific Group on Money Laundering (Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and FATF-Style Regional Bodies). Mitali advises governments across the Asia-Pacific on robust systems to combat illicit financial flows. She has a deep interest in policy issues surrounding anti-corruption efforts, including beneficial ownership information, financial inclusion and de-risking, and regulation of financial service providers.

Anushka Wijesinha, Co-Founder and Director of the Centre for a Smart Future and a member of the Governing Board and Monetary Policy Board of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Anushka is an economist with experience in government, the private sector, and think tanks. He has guided trade, investment, and competitiveness reforms in many countries ranging from Africa to Asia, consulting for international organisations.

The breadth and depth of expertise of this group of individuals is second to none, and we look forward to embarking on this new journey together. Read more about the background of the International Advisory Board members.

OO is deeply indebted to Gavin Hayman, Executive Director of the Open Contracting Partnership, who has been Chair of our Steering Group since 2018. His kindness, support, guidance, and advice has been invaluable as OO has grown from an organisation of just a few people to the 20+ strong team we are today.

“I am so proud of OO’s amazing team and mission. It has been an honour to contribute. This fabulous new International Advisory Board is an important next stage in the organisation’s journey to drive systemic action to end the getaway vehicles for financial crime and corruption.” – Gavin Hayman, Executive Director of the Open Contracting Partnership

We are also indebted our outgoing Steering Group members: Robin Hodess, CEO of the Global Reporting Initiative; Joseph Kraus, Senior Policy Director of Transparency and Accountability at ONE Data and Analysis; Maíra Martini, CEO of Transparency International; and Chris Taggart, Founder of OpenCorporates. We are also grateful to Global Witness and Mark Hays, Associate Director for Cryptocurrency and Financial Technology at Americans for Financial Reform, who for many years were part of the Steering Group.

We look forward to launching and starting to implement our new strategy, which will push us towards achieving a bold goal: that everyone – inside and outside of government – who needs beneficial ownership information has it and can use it to benefit everyone in society.

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