Languages:
- English
- Chinese
- French
- Spanish
Regional expertise:
- Europe
- Middle East and North Africa
- Asia Pacific
Education:
- MA Oriental Studies (Chinese), Balliol College Oxford
- MSc Global Governance and Diplomacy, St Cross College, Oxford
Ariana Issa plays a global leadership role in the firm’s due diligence practice. With over 20 years of professional experience, she advises clients across sectors on reputational, regulatory, and commercial risk, and has led investigative assignments in more than 50 countries.
Ariana works closely with investment firms, private and investment banks, development finance institutions, and multinational corporates, providing strategic insight across a wide range of due diligence and integrity themes. Her areas of expertise include pre-transactional and reputational assessments, ESG and supply chain exposure, anti-bribery and corruption (ABC), anti-money laundering (AML), source of wealth (SoW) analysis, and sanctions compliance.
Drawing on her early career in executive search, Ariana specialises in the identification and engagement of high-value sources across complex and opaque markets. Her ability to extract nuanced insight through well-targeted conversations underpins many of Risk Advisory’s most sensitive client engagements.
She joined the firm following seven years at another corporate intelligence consultancy.
Project highlights
- A detailed investigation into Serbia’s technology sector, analysing regulatory risk, sector dynamics, and the implications of EU accession.
- An integrity review of a senior telecoms executive in Scandinavia, including confidential enquiries into allegations of workplace misconduct.
- A targeted investigation into the use of commercial agents by international defence firms operating in Egypt, including on-the-ground source engagement and legal framework analysis.