Chris Rowley

Chris is the Chief Executive Office of The Risk Advisory Group. He has 20 years’ experience advising clients on the risks of doing business internationally. Having managed over 600 complex investigations in his career, he specializes in advising clients on how to identify and mitigate regulatory and reputational risks.

Chris established our US business during the 2010s, opening offices first in Washington DC and then in New York.  For the last seven years, Chris has held a strategic board position, leading the growth of our investigations and intelligence business across new markets and service lines. 

Prior to joining Risk Advisory, Chris ran the Latin America and Caribbean division of a risk management company. In that role he advised special risks underwriters in the Lloyd’s insurance market on the continent’s political and security threats, drawing on his experience of having lived in Chile and travelled extensively throughout Latin America.

Project highlights:

• Led a team of investigators in uncovering $70 billion in government subsidies provided to US airlines.  Our findings helped inform the Gulf carrier’s ultimately successful strategy in dispute with major US airlines in 2016. 
• Advised the board of a large European gas business on the above-ground risks of establishing a presence in Port Harcourt, Nigeria.  Our work spanned physical security risks such as kidnap and ransom and terrorism, as well as anti-corruption challenges in interactions with foreign officials.  
• Advised the M&A team of a European power business on the dynamics at play in a competitive tender for the construction of a power station in Turkey. Who else was bidding? Who were the key decision makers on the panel and what were their motivations? Ultimately, our client elected not to bid having concluded that the chances of success were too slim.  
• Led a team of specialists exposing the illegitimacy of new regulations imposed on IOCs operating in Angola’s energy sector.  Our team successfully identified the ultimate beneficial owners of a new insurance company IOCs were being mandated by the government to use.  The chief protagonist of that scheme was in 2023 convicted of embezzlement, tax fraud and money laundering.  
• Led a team of investigators in identifying widespread public procurement fraud and collusion in Ukraine’s health sector on behalf of a US medical devices firm.