Melissa Wisner

Melissa Wisner has a diverse work experience spanning various industries and roles. Melissa currently holds the position of Vice President - Crypto Risk at Ciphertrace, a Mastercard company, starting in May 2023. Prior to this, they worked at Paxos as the Director - Internal Controls and Governance from March 2022 to May 2023.

From January 2021 to March 2022, Melissa served as the Director of Operations - Legal and Compliance at BlockFi. Before joining BlockFi, they held multiple positions at HSBC. Melissa was the Head of Strategy, External Engagement and Internal Governance from January 2019 to September 2020. In this role, Melissa reported to the COO of HSBC's financial crime function and spearheaded the implementation of FCTM's governance program globally. Melissa also developed principles on the ethical uses of data and facilitated their integration into HSBC's compliance function.

Prior to this, Melissa served as the Chief Of Staff to the Global Head of Financial Crime Threat Mitigation at HSBC from June 2017 to December 2018. In this capacity, they played a pivotal role in establishing and restructuring the new financial crime function, overseeing its operations and preparing materials for the HSBC Board. Melissa also served as the Head of External Engagement at HSBC from October 2015 to June 2017.

Melissa's career started in the public sector, where they worked at the U.S. Department of the Treasury. As a Senior Advisor to the Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence from March 2014 to March 2015, they coordinated policy, regulatory, and enforcement activities. Melissa was instrumental in imposing new sanctions and strengthening existing ones. Melissa also served as the Deputy Treasury Attache/Acting Treasury Attache in Beijing from December 2012 to March 2014, where they briefed diplomatic counterparts, engaged with Chinese government officials, and contributed to the development of U.S. strategy. As a Policy Advisor from August 2010 to December 2012, they provided counsel on counterproliferation and counterterrorism issues.

Melissa's earlier experience includes working as an Associate and Press Secretary at The Cohen Group, where they provided strategic counsel and served as Press Secretary to former Secretary of Defense William Cohen. Melissa also worked as a Senior Analyst at Penn Schoen Berland, designing public relations and crisis management campaigns for multinational clients and conducting research for CEO Mark Penn.

Overall, Melissa Wisner has a strong background in risk management, compliance, financial crime, and government policy, with experience in both the public and private sectors.

Melissa Wisner obtained their Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in History from Yale University, where they were enrolled from 2001 to 2005. Later on, they pursued a Master of Arts (MA) degree at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), attending from 2007 to 2009. The field of study for their MA degree is not specified.