William G. Rich
Chief Sanctions Officer, Middle East and AfricaCitibank
William G. Rich is Chief Sanctions Officer for the Middle East and Africa at Citi. In this role, he is responsible for Citi’s sanctions compliance program and advisory, oversight, and investigations activities in 29 countries including all of the Middle East and Africa, Central Asia, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Turkey, and Pakistan. He manages diverse and talented teams of sanctions experts in Russia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Poland, Turkey, and Kenya and is based in Abu Dhabi, UAE.
Prior to Citi, Will was Senior Vice President of Kharon, a technology company focused on data analytics in finance national security. In addition to being managing director of Kharon’s Dubai office, he led Kharon’s public sector activities including relationships with the U.S. Intelligence Community, Department of Defense, Federally Funded Research and Development Centers, and National Laboratories. During this time, he was also an adjunct associate professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) and a visiting scholar in the international relations program at New York University.
Will served from 2015 to 2018 as the U.S. Treasury Attaché to the United Arab Emirates and Oman, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s senior-most representative to the largest financial center in the greater Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. In 2019, he was a visiting fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York where he studied issues at the intersection of technology, finance, and national security. Will’s analysis and commentary have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, WIRED, and War on the Rocks.
Will previously worked as a senior policy advisor in the Office of Terrorist Financing and Financial Crime at Treasury. Earlier in his career, he served in a variety of intelligence and counterterrorism roles both domestically and overseas, including as an operational planner with a U.S. military special operations task force and on the staff of the Director of National Intelligence.
Will is the recipient of the National Counterterrorism Center’s highest award, the Director’s Award; the National Intelligence Community Seal; the Department of Defense Joint Civilian Achievement Award; and other performance and unit awards. Will completed his undergraduate and graduate education at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He is a native of Santa Monica, California.