Who We Are > Advisory Board
Advisory Board
The Advisory Board of the Siracusa International Institute is composed of up to seven members, appointed by the Board of Directors upon the nomination of the President. Members are selected among recognized international personalities to assist the President and the Director General in defining the strategic directions of the Institute.
The Advisory Board plays a key role in fostering relationships with supranational, international, and national organizations, providing guidance and recommendations to support the Institute’s mission and activities.
Members of the Advisory Board serve for the duration of the mandate of the Board of Directors and their decisions are advisory in nature and subject to approval by the Board of Directors.
This Board provides invaluable support to the Institute, leveraging its members’ expertise and networks to advance the Institute’s goals.
The Advisory Board of the Siracusa International Institute is composed of up to seven members, appointed by the Board of Directors upon the nomination of the President. Members are selected among recognized international personalities to assist the President and the Director General in defining the strategic directions of the Institute.
The Advisory Board plays a key role in fostering relationships with supranational, international, and national organizations, providing guidance and recommendations to support the Institute’s mission and activities.
Members of the Advisory Board serve for the duration of the mandate of the Board of Directors and their decisions are advisory in nature and subject to approval by the Board of Directors.
This Board provides invaluable support to the Institute, leveraging its members’ expertise and networks to advance the Institute’s goals.
Judge Rosario Aitalia
Judge of the International Criminal Court
Judge Rosario Aitala is Judge of the International Criminal Court since December 2017. He was previously Senior Adviser to President of the Italian Senate for International and Legal Affairs. Between 2006 and 2014, he was Contracted Professor in Criminal Law at the University of Naples. His most recent positions (2010-2013) include: Senior Adviser to the Italian Foreign Minister on Security, International Crime and Crisis Areas; Italian representative at the Board of Trustees of UNICRI (United Nations Institute for Crime and Research); Coordinator of Assistance Programmes on Security to Central America; Coordinator of the Cocaine Route Monitoring and Support Programme of the European Union; Coordinator of the EU Assistance Mission to the Justice Sector in Albania; Senior expert in the EU Assistance project to Albania on money laundering and economic crime. Among the other positions he held in the past, there are: Senior Legal Adviser to the Foreign Ministry, Asia Directorate; Coordinator for Afghanistan; Coordinator of Italy-China Economic Programme; Coordinator for Organised Crime of EU Assistance Project to the Office of General Prosecutor of FYR of Macedonia; Principal Expert and Director of Criminal Justice for the EU Assistance Mission to Albania for Police and Criminal Justice. He completed over 100 short-term assignments as lecturer and expert in criminal, procedural and international law, transnational organised crime, terrorism, money laundering and international criminal law in 30 countries of Southern and Central America, Caribbean, Balkans, Eastern Europe, Asia, North Africa and Middle East.
Mr. Mariano Federici
Senior Managing Director, AML/CFT Expert (Argentina)
Mariano Federici is a globally respected expert in financial integrity, with over 25 years of experience across government, international organizations, and the private sector. He currently serves as a Senior Managing Director at K2 Integrity, where he advises governments, financial institutions, and virtual asset service providers on developing robust financial crimes compliance programs and financial intelligence units.
He previously was the Chair of the Egmont Group of Financial Intelligence Units, the global network of agencies dedicated to combating financial crimes. He also held key leadership roles within the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), including Chair of the Heads of Financial Intelligence Units Forum and the Risk, Trends, and Methods Working Group. From 2016 to 2020, he served as Head of Argentina’s Financial Intelligence Unit, overseeing the country’s efforts to combat money laundering and terrorist financing.
Earlier in his career, he worked as senior counsel for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and as regional advisor for its Legal Department in Latin America and the Caribbean. He also practiced law in leading firms in New York and Argentina.
A dual citizen of Argentina and Italy, he holds a Juris Doctor from the Catholic University of Argentina and an LL.M. from the University of Virginia. He has lectured at top universities, including Cambridge, Georgetown, and Buenos Aires.
Mr. Michael J. Kelly
Professor | School of Law Senator Allen A. Sekt Endowed Chair in Law - Creighton University (USA)
Professor Kelly holds the Senator Allen A. Sekt Endowed Chair in Law at Creighton University. As a Peace Fellow with the Public International Law & Policy Group, he trained Ukrainian prosecutors and Supreme Court judges to build environmental crimes cases against Russian perpetrators in 2024 and traveled to Lviv, Ukraine with the American Society of International Law for a bilateral summit with the Ukrainian Association of International Law on Human Rights Day 2023, where he presented a white paper on seizing frozen Russian private assets using arbitration mechanisms which will be published in volume 60 of the Texas Journal of International Law. Professor Kelly serves on the Boards of Directors for l’Association Internationale de Droit Pénal based in Paris, the Foundation for Natural Resources & Energy Law based in Denver, the International Scientific & Professional Advisory Council of the United Nations Crime Prevention & Criminal Justice Programme based in Milan, and on the Advisory Board of the Siracusa International Institute for Criminal Justice & Human Rights based in Sicily. Annually, he leads Creighton University’s Nuremberg to The Hague summer abroad program for German and American law students in partnership with the International Nuremberg Principles Academy, Friedrich Alexandre Universität, and the Institute for Holocaust Education. He is a regular contributor to the Lieber Institute’s Articles of War blog at West Point.
Ambassador Jean-Paul Laborde
Ambassador, Associate Professor, Expert in AML/CFT and Transnational Organized Crime (France)
Ambassador Jean-Paul Laborde is a diplomat and jurist currently serving as Roving Ambassador of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean and Special Advisor to its President on Counter-Terrorism, Transnational Organized Crime, Cybercrime, and Rule of Law promotion. He is also an Adjunct Professor in Political Sciences and International Criminal Law at the Catholic Institute for High Studies and Director of the Specialized Master on New Diplomatic Trends. Additionally, he acts as an international arbitrator for commercial cases, focusing on Asia-Europe disputes, and practices international criminal and business law.
Previously, Ambassador Laborde was the UN Executive Director of the Counter-Terrorism Executive Directorate at the UN Security Council, ranked UN Assistant Secretary-General. He served as Special Advisor to the Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs and chaired the Counter-Terrorism Implementation Task Force. Earlier, he headed the Legal Section at the UN Center for Crime Prevention, leading the Secretariat during negotiations for the UN Transnational Organized Crime Convention.
In the French judiciary, he served as a Judge in the Criminal and Commercial Chambers of the French Judicial Supreme Court, President of a Court of Appeals Chamber, and Assistant Prosecutor General at the Court of Appeals. Ambassador Laborde’s distinguished career reflects a deep commitment to justice and international law.
Mr. Jean-Luc Lemahieu
Director Policy Analysis and Public Affairs – UNODC (Austria)
Jean-Luc Lemahieu served as Director of the Division for Policy Analysis and Public Affairs (DPA) at UNODC from 2013 to 2024. In this role, he led policy design, corporate strategy implementation, and research, overseeing flagship reports such as the World Drug Report and the Global Study on Homicide.
Previously, Mr. Lemahieu was Regional Representative for Afghanistan and Neighbouring Countries and later Country Representative for Afghanistan. He also served as Special Advisor to the UN Special Representative of the Secretary-General (SRSG), addressing Afghanistan’s instability rooted in its illicit economy. Earlier, as Country Representative for Myanmar (2000–2005), he led innovative programs on alternative livelihoods.
From 2006 to 2008, he headed the Europe and Asia Section, launching the “Rainbow Strategy,” a precursor to current regional cross-border initiatives. His career spans over 20 years in countries with political economies tied to criminality, including Afghanistan, Myanmar, and the Caribbean.
Mr. Lemahieu began his UN career in 1990 as a Junior Professional Officer with UNIDO and later worked with UNDP and UNDCP. He is a licensed jurist with postgraduate qualifications in international law from the Université Libre de Bruxelles and Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. He is the father of four children.
Ms. Jeanette Manning
Chief, Training and Research NAAG National Association of Attorneys General, Washington (USA)
Jeanette Manning is a member of the National Association of Attorneys General’s (NAAG) Executive Leadership team, serving as chief of NAAG Training and Research (NTR). She oversees Association operational governance and domestic training for all 56 jurisdictions in the United States and supervises key projects globally. Previously, she served as director of NAAG’s Center for International Partnerships and Strategic Collaboration (CIPS-C). As CIPS-C director, she initiated, coordinated, and conducted domestic and international trainings and technical assistance evaluations, hosted international delegations and study convenings, oversaw special international projects, and developed domestic and international partnerships with key stakeholders to promote the rule of law, collaboration, and assistance building. From 2006-2013, Jeanette served as an assistant attorney general and chief in the District of Columbia Attorney General’s Office. She civilly prosecuted cases protecting children from abuse and neglect and served as chief of the Neighborhood and Victim Services Section in the Public Safety Division, where she supervised attorneys, paralegals, and victim witness specialists surrounding an array of issues involving urban blight, insecurity, and decay to include providing protective services to victims of crime, brothel closures connected to human trafficking, and drug and firearm nuisances. She attended the American University Washington College of Law and received her JD degree in 2003.
Mr. Patrick Stevens
Rule of Law Director of IJD, International Justice Development a global network of justice advisors with the Crown Prosecution Service of England and Wales (UK)
Patrick Stevens was a lawyer in the CPS for 24 years; six years as a senior CT prosecutor immediately post 9/11-, and ten years as CPS international director. He developed an international network of criminal justice advisors as part of a joined-up response to UK national security threats and was a member of numerous UK Government policy, strategy, and governance boards.
He has worked in over 50 jurisdictions, scoping, designing, and agreeing rule of law projects, and represented the UK Government at ministerial level on numerous occasions.
Since leaving the CPS he has worked in the private sector as a consultant and continues to be an expert advisor for the UK Government and partners in the identification and design of rule of law projects globally. He is a Senator of the International Association of Prosecutors and was elected a member of the Advisory Board to the President of the Siracusa International Institute for Criminal Justice and Human Rights in December 2024.
