Karen O’Brien is the founder and Managing Director of GCS Advisory (GCS). She was a police officer for sixteen years with the Toronto Police Service, Ontario, Canada, and spent the last five years of her career in the Fraud and Forgery Squad. She spent two years investigating financial crime in the Cayman Islands as a Detective with the Royal Cayman Islands Police before branching out to the private sector and specializing in compliance, anti-money laundering and regulatory issues. As a professional consultant for the past 19 years, Karen dedicates her time to the financial services industry in connection with regulatory compliance, design and implementation of anti-money laundering (AML) policies and procedures, Know-Your Customer program reviews, risk analysis and risk management strategies, AML training and financial investigations stemming from allegations of fraud. Her experience covers all classes of financial institutions and licenses and a variety of Designated Non-Financial Businesses (DNFBPS). Karen has conducted over 400 workshops in the past decade both locally and internationally and provided training to government bodies, Caribbean Financial Action Task Force (CFATF), financial services and law enforcement. Karen participated in the Cayman Islands National AML/TF Risk Assessment as a member of the Other Financial Institutions sub-committee. Karen is the founder of the International Association of Certified Compliance Specialists (IACCS), President of the Cayman Islands Compliance Association and an Expert Witness in Anti-Money Laundering.