From jungles to conflict zones to board rooms, Chris is an experienced professional with a track record for getting things done, more lately in senior advisory roles, policy development, and international diplomacy and cooperation. Trusted by Heads of State, tolerated by Generals, and invited back by both—because knowing when to speak plainly is just as important as knowing when to say nothing at all. In 2018 he was introduced to the conservation sector initially working with TRAFFIC on various matters relating to law enforcement, intelligence, risk management and transnational organised wildlife crime. Between 2022 and 2025 Chris held the role of Lead for Law Enforcement Support at TRAFFIC, a position that covered a wide portfolio of activities.

Well-honed skill in turning big-picture and long term thinking into practical action. Adept at working in different sectors including private, government, academic, charity and international agencies. Used to navigating politically sensitive environments, managing high-level partnerships, and advising at ministerial, head of service, and executive levels. When it comes to stakeholder management, Chris finds that building trust and understanding, navigating personalities, conflicting agendas, and competing priorities is an art form best practiced with careful listening at its helm.

Significant leadership and project management experience working with multinational institutions, including NATO, the EU, and the United Nations, to enhance global security and governance. Specialist knowledge, experience and skills in the field of risk management, intelligence tradecraft, counterterrorism, and transnational organised crime. When it comes to making decisions under pressure, managing sensitive operations, risk and crisis, Chris believes that keeping ones head while others lose theirs isn’t just poetic—it’s the only way to work.

Between 2018 and 2020 Chris was the Security Sector Reform Advisor to the Presidency of The Gambia. This was a senior diplomacy role which included leading a team that developed the countries first counterterrorism strategy and national security vetting agency.

Chris is expert at building trusted human-networks to support professional activities and encouraging a big-team approach in his colleagues and collaborators. His talent for inspiring leadership in others as well as building high-performing teams has been noted as a key competence throughout much of his career.
In the financial services sector, Chris has spent time working as a consultant to financial services institutions helping them establish their AML strategies and standards. More recently he has been responsible for building partnerships between governments, the banking sector, and financial intelligence units.

Between 2005 and 2011 Chris worked at NATO Joint Force Command as the Organised Crime and Border Security Advisor, he was later promoted to Director of the Kosovo Vetting Unit and lastly as the Director of the Maritime Security Forum for the Mediterranean basin.

Throughout his year career, Chris has worked in many countries and with people with incomparable backgrounds, from very different cultures in Europe, W. Balkans, Africa, and Asia. These experiences have taught him to value different perspectives and allowed him to more easily envision a wider range of high impact ways of getting things done. As his career achievements show, Chris has a knack for turning out-of-the-box thinking into action.

Jessica Graham serves as the President of JG Global Advisory, LLC a minority, women-owned small business in the Washington, DC area that provides integrated solutions responding to the challenges of environmental security. Through strategic policy and planning, business development, and project management, Jessica has supported hundreds of conservation NGOs around the globe to secure tens of millions of dollars in funding to protect biodiversity. She previously worked with INTERPOL’s Illicit Trade Sub-Directorate and also served as a Senior Advisor at the U.S. Department of State where she created the wildlife crime program for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) and served as a negotiator working on crime, biodiversity and climate change issues in the United Nations. With over 15 years of dedicated experience working on international issues, she regularly lectures and implements global projects for both the non-profit and private sectors. Her leadership has been instrumental in developing environmental crime programs and facilitating partnerships aimed at counter wildlife trafficking projects. Her work has impacted long-standing policy and capacity-building efforts across continents, from Africa to Latin America and Asia, reflecting her deep commitment to enhancing global security and conservation.
She serves on the Board of several international and locally based organizations in Washington, DC that are dedicated to the environment and empowering youth and founded a non-profit organization aimed at protecting vulnerable communities from global insecurity. Jessica received her Master’s degree from the University of California, San Diego where she studied International Politics, Environmental Policy, and Chinese Studies and holds a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Florida.
Jessica has conducted research and published several pieces on wildlife crime, including co-authoring a chapter in Women and Wildlife Trafficking: Participants, Perpetrators, and Victims, reviewing the zero instances of corruption in all-female anti-poaching units across Africa in an academic textbook in March 2022.

Independent Consultant – Environmental Enforcement and Conservation Management

The Environmental Crimes Financial Toolkit (ECFT) is an online platform that assists financial institutions in monitoring risks related to deforestation and land conversion – and, more broadly, environmental crimes – that could be linked to financial operations.

By highlighting red flags and risks associated with various types of environmental and financial crimes, the Toolkit helps financial institutions (FIs) strengthen their screening processes when reviewing existing clients, onboarding new ones, and assessing sectoral risks.

The Environmental Crimes Financial Toolkit has been developed by WWF and Themis, supported by the Climate Solutions Partnership, a collaboration between HSBC, World Resources Institute and WWF.