Panel 1

Dr Christian Mecklenburg

International Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation

Chris obtained his LLM in International Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation from WLS in 2011. After completing off-cycle internships in private practice (banking in finance) and an investment bank (front office role), he returned to WLS to embark on a PhD supervised by Dalvinder. He briefly worked in private practice before moving to the general counsel division at investment banks in London and Hong Kong. He now heads a team of lawyers advising on counterparty credit risk and regulatory capital relating to clearing, OTC derivatives, prime and securities transactions in APAC and EMEA; and advises on regulatory implementation.

Chris teaches an LLM course on the Legal Aspects of Financial Risk Management at Hong Kong University and has previously taught at SOAS and Queen Mary University of London. He also holds an LLB (London), BSc (TiSEM) and MBA (Bayes formerly Cass).

Mochu Li

International Corporate Governance and Financial Governance

During my junior and senior high school years, I participated in activities such as the Moot Court and the Model United Nations, serving as a delegate and chairperson, which gave me a strong interest in law. Unfortunately, my undergraduate degree was in Economics and Finance, but during my undergraduate studies, I still took a law course, but my undergraduate degree made me think that business knowledge combined with legal knowledge would be very interesting to me and also the direction I want to develop in the future, so with my perseverance and hard work, I made an inter-professional application for my undergraduate degree in International Corporate Governance and Financial Governance in the University of Warwick with a First Class Honours Bachelor, which is very suitable for my interest and career plan. After completing the course, I returned to China in July 2023 and passed the Chinese Judicial Exam, and I am currently working at Longan Law Firm and preparing for the SQE exam.

Varun Lamba

International Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation

Varun Lamba, Partner in the Delhi Office, specializes in Corporate Commercial Litigation, M&A and General Corporate matters. With over 16 years of experience, he regularly advises on shareholder disputes and its off-shoots, corporate frauds, corporate restructurings involving NCLT sanctioned schemes and other general corporate matters. In addition, he has varied experience in advising on commercial law matters which include advisory on Indian foreign exchange laws.

Experience

• Partner, AZB & Partners (2018 – Present)
• Senior Associate, AZB & Partners (2015 – 2018)
• Associate, AZB & Partners (2010 – 2015)

Key Practice Areas

• Litigation & Corporate Restructuring
• White Collar
• General Corporate

Vidya Nathaniel

International Development Law and Human Rights

Vidya Nathaniel completed her LLB from the University of London in 2011 and went on to pursue an LLM in International Development Law and Human Rights at the University of Warwick from 2015 to 2016.

With over 13 years of professional experience, including 6 years in international trade through the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Trade Centre (ITC), she has developed expertise in various aspects of global trade. She is currently based at the ITC, a joint agency of the United Nations and the WTO, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. At the ITC, Vidya works on trade-related technical assistance projects aimed at developing countries in Asia and Africa. Her areas of focus include sustainable trade policy, services trade, investment policy and facilitation, and trade negotiations. In the area of sustainable trade policy, she is leading various initiatives exploring the intersection of trade and sustainable development, specifically looking at how trade policies can be leveraged to support efforts towards low carbon economies, environmental protection, and human and labour rights.

Before joining the ITC, Vidya served in the WTO's Young Professional Programme in 2019, where she was part of the Rules Division, focusing on the implementation of trade remedies agreements.

Her work in international organizations has been enriched by the experience she gained in Sri Lanka, where she began her career. Vidya started as a legal and economic researcher at Verité Research, a think tank providing strategic analysis and policy direction for South Asia. During her time there, she worked on projects covering a range of issues, including financial accountability, budget transparency, gender discrimination in land legislation, involuntary resettlements, trade facilitation and policy reform, and environmental protection. This broad scope of work allowed her to develop an interdisciplinary approach to research and analysis, helping her identify key areas of interest and opportunities for future growth. Notably, she conducted research on bottom trawling and harmful fishing practices in Sri Lanka, leading to a national campaign for legislative reforms to ban bottom trawling.

While at Verité Research, Vidya also worked part-time as a research assistant for a Member of Parliament in Sri Lanka, providing research briefs and materials for parliamentary debates, question time, and media engagements. She qualified as an Attorney-at-Law after completing the Sri Lankan Bar exams and worked on constitutional and fundamental rights cases.

Iulia Nicolescu

International Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation

I am currently a Senior Associate in the Regulatory Framework Policy Team as part of the Cross-Cutting Policy department at the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).

Prior to this, I have been a Senior Associate at the FCA since 2018 in various roles, including Data Governance, Complaints and Wholesale Banks, where I notably supervised Deutsche Bank. This included contributing to supervisory work authorising the bank as a Third-Country Branch in the UK post Brexit and leading on highly technical workstreams such as operational resilience and front office trader controls. Previously, I was an analyst for a tech-based consultancy in London for almost two years after finishing my LLM at Warwick Law School in 2015. My LLM programme was International Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation (ICGFR).

Jiayuan Dong

International Commercial Law

As an international student, I have worked at Taylor Vinters LLP, Mishcon de Reya LLP, and Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, gaining experience as a paralegal in their property team and as an AML analyst in their compliance teams. I have experience in both domestic and international enhanced due diligence (EDD) and have provided training on international due diligence for the department.

More recently, I transitioned into the energy industry and currently work at Centrica plc, the parent company of British Gas, as an LNG Contract Administrator. In this role, I handle client communication, KYC processes, and contract drafting related to LNG trading.

Mary Wanjohi

International Economic Law

Mary is an international development professional with 10 years of progressive experience in donor assurance. Mary began her career at KPMG Kenya in the Audit-Public Sector and Development department, and in 2020, left as an assistant manager to pursue her master’s in International Economic Law at the University of Warwick. She graduated in 2021 and joined BDO, the fifth-largest accounting network in the world, and is currently a Senior Manager in the International Institutions and Donor Assurance Department (IIDA) based in London, UK.

Panel 2

Zainab Khan

International Commercial Law

I started my journey into law at the Lahore University of Management Sciences, where I completed a combined Bachelor of Law and Arts. Following that, I pursued my desire for a career in the field further by completing a master’s degree in international commercial law at the University of Warwick. I now work full-time at Deloitte as a business tax analyst, alongside completing my professional qualifications as a Chartered Accountant and a Chartered Tax Advisor.’

Tanaka Denise Choto

International Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation

A highly accomplished compliance professional with a wealth of experience in financial regulation and risk management. Tanaka has built a diverse career working across leading financial institutions. She holds a BA (Hons) in Accountancy and Finance from the University of Lincoln and an LLM in International Financial Regulation and Corporate Governance (ICGFR) from Warwick University, earning recognition for her dissertation which was published in the Financial Regulation International Journal.

Having secured her graduate scheme in Compliance during her LLM at the London headquarters of a Japanese Investment Bank, Tanaka took on a generalist compliance role, before holding positions in the Control Room and Central Compliance department. Her next role in Compliance Advisory culminated in her fulfilling the role of Interim Deputy Head of Compliance at a UK firm that provided Wealth Management, corporate broking and institutional broking for public and private growth companies.

A passionate advocate for social justice both inside and outside the workplace, Tanaka has provided commentary in the Telegraph, on the BBC, Times Radio and Linkedin News focusing on working parents, especially mothers. Within the workplace, Tanaka has managed several impactful Diversity and Inclusion initiatives, leading the EME Compliance Sponsorship Programme for Women, and the Race and Ethnicity Working Group at different firms. Outside of work, she enjoys home décor and spending time with her son.

Rui Ye

International Commercial Law

Rui Ye is a first-year PhD student at the School of Law, University of Warwick. Her research primarily focuses on corporate governance and the legal regulation of artificial intelligence (AI). She is currently conducting a comparative legal study on AI participation in corporate governance, analyzing regulatory frameworks, governance implications, and liability issues in China and the UK. Her broader research interests include corporate law, financial regulation, and the intersection of emerging technologies with legal frameworks.

Rui completed her undergraduate studies in Supervisory Law at Southwest University of Political Science and Law, China, before earning a Master’s in International Commercial Law with Distinction from the School of Law, University of Warwick. She has also gained practical experience through internships at two prestigious law firms and a court, where she developed a deeper understanding of legal practice in corporate and regulatory matters.

Leon Hurd

International Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation

I commenced my career in the City where I trained and qualified as a solicitor at Linklaters LLP. Following qualification, I practiced as a Litigation lawyer with a heavy focus on banking and contentious regulatory disputes given the challenging economic and financial regulatory environment for banks and other financial institutions at the time. In the early years after qualification, I was fortunate to gain experience working as an inhouse lawyer at a multinational HR business and a blue-chip financial services provider, in addition to working on substantial regulatory investigations in private practice.

I became fascinated with policy developments and approaches to global financial regulation and in 2013 I decided to undertake the University of Warwick LLM in International Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation. I graduated with distinction and was awarded the prize for Best Graduating Student. Most importantly the LLM gave me an opportunity to engage in detailed research around the purpose, and effective implementation, of financial regulation and the policy considerations underpinning regulatory frameworks in the UK, EU and North America. Having a robust academic understanding of financial regulation and governance has been of great assistance to me when advising internationally operating clients in relation to typically novel and complex regulatory matters.

After completing my LLM, I opted to move offshore to Jersey in the Channel Islands where I predominantly advised clients on financial regulation, financial crime compliance and governance matters. I subsequently became a specialist financial crime prosecutor for the Government of Jersey's Economic Crime and Confiscation Unit (ECCU), where I worked on high-profile cross-border money laundering and financial crime investigations.

I returned to practice in the UK in 2021 and I am currently a senior consultant at Keystone Law where I primarily assist tech sector clients with advisory and contentious matters arising in respect of their disruptive and emerging tech businesses, with particular expertise in blockchain and digital assets. I often assist clients with regulatory compliance, legal diligence and advice in respect of the rollout of innovative products and services and the drafting of governance policies and procedures to help ensure that their businesses are being operated in a compliant manner. I am recognised in the Legal 500 2025 for my work in FinTech.

In 2023 I co-founded Cybersandbox, a company that provides strategic assistance to businesses aligning innovation with regulation, helping them develop and scale in a compliant and commercially successful manner. I often work with early-stage founders, start-ups and established businesses to help them along their scaling and growth journey.