Directors
Obdulio Piedra
Lead Independent Director
Obdulio Piedra recently served as a member of the Board of Directors of International Finance Bank (“IFB”), an FDIC-insured bank headquartered in Miami, Florida, where he was a member of the bank’s Enterprise Risk Management Committee. He later joined IFB’s Management Team as Executive Vice President where he was responsible for administration of retail banking and domestic/international preferred banking ensuring day-to-day operation followed the bank’s policies and procedures. Obdulio also chaired IFB’s Optimization Committee directing many initiatives that modernized the bank.
Prior to his tenure at IFB, Obdulio was a key participant in the organization of Great Florida Bank (listed on the NASDAQ Global Market) where he served as Market President for over nine years. Prior to that, he served as Senior Vice President at Bank of America (formerly Barnett Bank).
Obdulio received his A.A. degree from Miami-Dade College, Miami, FL. and earned his B.A. degree from St. Thomas University, Miami Gardens, FL.
In addition to his professional endeavors, he currently serves as Chairman of CareerSource South Florida and President’s Advisory Board of St. Thomas University. He has served as a board member for the American Red Cross, the South Florida Council of the Boy Scout of America. Obdulio is past chairman of the Florida Financial Literacy Council and served on the executive committee of the Greater Miami Chamber of Commerce, where he was chairman of the Hispanic Business Group. Additionally, he served as president of the Kiwanis Club of Little Havana. He is a proud Eagle Scout.
Obdulio was born in Cuba and emigrated to the United States at the age of 2. He grew up in Miami and currently resides in Miami, Florida. He is a proud parent of two adult children.
Patty O'Connor
Independent Director
Ms. O’Connor is the owner and President of the Compliance Strategy Group ("CSG"), a consulting firm providing advisory services to the financial services sector relating to financial crime risk management, including the disciplines of Anti-Money Laundering (“AML”), Economic Sanctions (“Sanctions”) and Anti-Bribery/Anti-Corruption (“ABC”). CSG also serves as an Independent Monitor for firms subject to regulatory actions.
Previously, Ms. O’Connor was the U.S. Head of Financial Crime Compliance (“FCC”) and BSA Officer at HSBC North America Inc., a subsidiary of HSBC Holdings plc. In her role, Ms. O’Connor led the U.S. in the build-out of its FCC Program, and most significantly, the successful remediation and closure of three U.S. regulatory Consent Orders (OCC and Federal Reserve Board) specific to AML and Sanctions. Ms. O’Connor also led the U.S., in conjunction with the global teams, to satisfactorily conclude the requirements of the U.S. Department of Justice Deferred Prosecution Agreement ("DPA").
Prior to joining HSBC, Ms. O’Connor held senior executive FCC positions at Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Goldman Sachs, in both the U.S. and Hong Kong. Ms. O’Connor had the privilege of serving as a Special Agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”) for 13 years, where she primarily investigated complex financial crime, securities fraud and money laundering cases, and served as a Supervisory Special Agent in the Terrorist Financing Operations Section (“TFOS”) at FBI Headquarters after 9/11.
Ms. O’Connor started her career as an attorney, and is admitted to the Bar in New York, California and New Jersey. Ms. O’Connor graduated from Fairfield University with a BS degree in Finance and Economics. Ms. O’Connor received a joint Juris Doctorate degree and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of San Diego.
Ms. O’Connor serves as an Advisory Board member to Fairfield University's College of Arts & Sciences. She volunteers her expertise in fighting financial crime as a guest lecturer and trainer for a variety of organizations. Ms. O’Connor is a Guardian Ad Litem Volunteer and a Pet Partners Volunteer.
Drew Cohen
Executive Director
Mr. Cohen is an investment and trade finance attorney with experience in a wide range of industries and deal types. He is responsible for structuring and executing complex cross-border transactions as well as providing legal and regulatory advice. He is a former law clerk to the Chief Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa as well as to a federal judge at the United States Court of International Trade.
Mr. Cohen is a graduate of The George Washington Law School and School of Business where he earned his JD and MBA as a European Union Research Center Scholar. He graduated with a BA in Economics and Political Science summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from the same institution where he was a George Gamow Fellow.
Liora Silver
Director
Mrs. Silver began her technological career serving in the Israel Defense Forces as a member of an elite computer unit. Since then, she has worked for some of Israel’s biggest industrial companies as a project management specialist for a national airline, large insurance company as well as a credit card firm where she developed a new product for VISA Israel. Ms. Silver has experience managing projects in various jurisdictions, often deployed to specific locales to implement and operationalize complex systems.
Mrs. Silver graduated from Ben Gurion University with a BA in Health Policy and Management and received her MA in Information Science with a specialization in information technology from Bar Ilan University.
Alexander J. Silver, CDCS, CSDG
Director
Mr. Silver has vast experience across all verticals of trade finance having acted as importer, exporter, and financier. He spent the early part of his career arranging the export of cashew nuts and other agricultural commodities from West Africa, as well as assisting West African importers source alternative finance for their imports from Asia and Europe. In 2008, Mr. Silver founded a trade finance brokerage firm that specialized in assisting clients to procure finance facilities for their international trade transactions. Mr. Silver’s firm arranged hundreds of millions of dollars per year in letter of credit and guarantee financing for importers, and assisted exporters in obtaining forfaiting and factoring facilities.
Mr. Silver is an International Chamber of Commerce Certified Documentary Credit Specialist (CDCS) and a Certified Specialist in Documentary Guarantees (CSDG).
Advisors
Milton Méndez Falcón, Esq., CFE
Advisor and Independent Member of Compliance Committee
Mr. Falcón is a lawyer, notary, and Certified Fraud Examiner. He holds a law degree from the University of Puerto Rico Law School and has worked as a fraud examiner for governments and businesses, as well as a compliance officer for international and commercial banks in Puerto Rico. In the course of his duties as a Compliance Officer, Mr. Falcón has performed due diligence assessments of third-party bank compliance programs in the United States, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Costa Rica, Panama, and Nicaragua.
Today, Mr. Falcón is a sought-after speaker, lecturer and independent consultant in ethics, fraud and general AML matters and serves as the Vice President of Puerto Rico's Chapter of Association of Certified Fraud Examiners.