Leslie R. Carratalá
Chief Compliance Officer and BSA/OFAC Officer
Leslie is a BSA/AML/OFAC Subject Matter Expert (“SME”) having spent 37 years in banking, including 13+ years as a senior examiner for the Federal Reserve Bank (“FRB”) in charge of examining domestic and foreign banks in the U.S. and abroad with a focus on BSA/AML and OFAC, as well as 15+ years working mainly as a BSA & OFAC Officer, Chief Compliance Officer, and Internal Audit Head at domestic and international banks in South Florida, and 2 years as an AML Audit Manager for a major international accounting & consulting firm where she lead BSA audits of all sized financial institutions in the U.S., Puerto Rico, and Mexico, and participated on a special year-long BSA consulting engagement for a major bank in New York City. She has extensive experience leading the development and implementation of BSA/AML/OFAC compliance programs in international and domestic banks in South Florida, many of which have been the target of federal and state regulatory scrutiny due to the area’s attraction of capital flight from Latin America and the Caribbean. Leslie is a SME in money laundering risks & drug trafficking in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Venezuela, countries she visited and evaluated as part of her work for the FRB.
Teresita Casellas, CPA, CFE
Chief Financial Officer
Teresita has over 25 years of experience in banking and finance working at major public banks in different roles in the areas of SEC reporting; financial statement preparation; regulatory filings; profitability; credit risk and internal controls as well as controllership functions at international banks. Her earlier career includes experience in public accounting in auditing roles.
Teresita earned her MBA from Bentley University and holds a BS in Accounting from Bentley University. As a Certified Public Accountant (CPA), she is an active member of the Puerto Rico Society of CPAs and is a Certified Fraud Examiner (CFE).
Frederic Folliot
Chief Technology Officer
Frederic has over thirty years’ experience building and supervising technology teams in banks across Europe. In 1986, he entered the private banking sector as the IT Manager at the Banque Privée Edmond de Rothschild, Luxembourg (168 billion CHF in assets) where he supervised the implementation of its core banking software. Throughout the course of his distinguished career in banking, he has overseen programs for FIs from Belgium, Curacao, Luxembourg, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Singapore to the United Kingdom, where he was responsible for running a variety of discrete domains - mutual funds to portfolio evaluation, domestic & international payments, credit risk, value at risk, treasury and MIS reporting.
Frederic developed a great interest in both mathematics and computer technology at a young age, leading him to study
Mathématiques Supérieures in Nantes and to pursue a Bachelor of Applied Mathematics and Information Technology at the University of Aix-Marseilles.
Sunita Mehta
Head of Onboarding
Sunita has over 10 years of experience in sales and trade finance. Her career in trade started at WestLB, a European commercial bank, settling trades and managing documentation. At Intesa Soditic she established the company as an active participant in the secondary market for loan syndications and forfaiting. Most recently at United Bank Limited (UBL), the second largest private bank in Pakistan, Sunita was responsible for FI relationships and compliance for correspondent banking.
Sunita graduated from The University of Reading with a BSc in Business Economics. She is also an ICC Certified Documentary Credit Specialist (CDCS).
Meital Saar Class
Head of Operations
Meital comes to Stern with deep experience overseeing large teams, implementing policies and managing complex processes, most recently as the Ordering Unit Leader with the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”). In her current role at Stern, she oversees all daily transactional activity at the bank – ensuring accuracy, compliance and accountability. Meital is also responsible for implementing changes to the bank’s long-term business plan, including managing the bank’s business continuity plans. Day-to-day, Meital collaborates with Stern’s other department leaders to develop best practices for risk mitigation and ensure uniformity of policy implementation.
Meital completed a B.Sc. in Industrial Engineering and Management with High Honors from the Open University of Israel.
Daniel V. Sanchez:
Information Security Officer
Daniel has over 15 years’ experience in the information technology space supporting various verticals including regulated industries such as healthcare and financial services. He specializes in areas of information security, network design, system implementation, backup and disaster recovery, virtualization, and cloud solutions. Additionally, Daniel has performed and reviewed various types of information technology audits including cybersecurity, applications, management, data and internet security and vulnerability assessments. He has also provided technology management support across these industries by ways of systems consulting, security services, business continuity planning and management of helpdesk support personnel.
Daniel is a graduate of Florida International University where he earned his Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in Management Information Systems. He also obtained a Certificate in Business Intelligence.