SUMMARY

Ariel is President, COO, and CEO of RKA Worldwide Group LLC, which includes RKA Worldwide USA in Washington, DC; RKA Worldwide Brasil in São Paulo, Brazil; and company in formation RKA Worldwide Middle East LLC, in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia, and Dubai, UAE. RKA Worldwide’s professional services and management consulting firms provide high-risk forensic and special investigations, integrity and risk assessments, executive security/protection, white-collar and financial crime litigation support, eDiscovery and digital forensics, and compliance consulting.

At RKA, he is responsible for guiding rainmakers and senior business generation and development leaders, as well as technical specialists, in prospecting, originating, closing, and overseeing projects across North America, Latin America, and the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region, while building sales channels; overseeing RKA’s eight global service delivery practices; managing all corporate functions, with ultimate responsibility for global profit and loss (P&L), the firm’s profitable growth and cost optimization, as well as the execution of the annual strategic plan; and formalizing core corporate business processes with oversight of all corporate functions.

Ariel is also Chairman and CEO of Mavins Latin America, the LATAM presence for Mavins International LLC, a global network of independent accounting, auditing, tax, and strategic consulting firms, offering professional services worldwide, which also includes two companies in formation, Mavins Brasil Consultoria Ltda, and Mavins Brasil Serviços de Contabilidade Ltda with ultimate responsibility of the day-to-day Brazil and LATAM firm’s business.

With over 25 years of experience, he is an internationally recognized leader managing multinational and cross-border issues. Ariel has worked in diverse services such as anti-corruption/bribery, FCPA (USA), similar laws such as the UK Anti-Bribery Act (UKBA), the Brazil Clean Company Act, the United Arab Emirates penal code and Arab Convention to combat corruption, and comparable anti-bribery relevant statutes in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Argentina and Saudi Arabia; policy violations, financial crimes, workplace violence, due diligence, employee/supplier/executive misconduct, economic sanctions, complex white-collar defense, government enforcement, including parallel actions, and special investigations mandated directly by Board of Directors, senior executive levels, as well as audit committees.

He has collaborated with risk managers and internal and external legal counsel, including major international law firms, as well as national and international law enforcement and other police agencies. He has led beginning-to-end investigation services in the aforementioned areas, as well as in procurement, supply chain, manufacturing, with workplace violence issues, substandard quality of products, drug spoilage, money laundering, tax fraud, gap analysis, loan covenant violations, disaster recovery / SBA and COVID-19 claims, compliance program review and creation, consulting on controls and ethics program development, across a wide range of industries. He has served Fortune 500 companies, private entities, multilateral institutions, development banks, federal agencies, royal families, and foreign governments. Ariel has worked as principal investigator, and in expert support team roles, on some of the world’s largest fraud and corruption cases, and/or related global monitorships and testing.

He has lived and worked abroad for extended periods on international corporate projects and in executive roles as an expatriate, easily connecting with diverse cultures and geographies. He has worked in many countries, including Spain, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Ecuador, Puerto Rico, Mexico, South Africa, Greece, Canada, Russia, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Singapore, Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, and the USA.

UNIVERSITY TEACHING

Ariel is a multiple award-winning adjunct professor in corporate investigation, fraud examination, and forensic auditing at the University of Maryland, Robert H. Smith School of Business, Department of Accounting and Information Assurance (Washington, DC), in the masters of accounting program; visiting professor of same topics at Rutgers University (US CPA track) graduate public accounting and auditing degrees, New Jersey; and, professor of general anti-corruption/anti-bribery and corporate investigation topics, as well as teaching in the MBA of Compliance degree program, at LEC Legal, Ethics, and Compliance (São Paulo, Brazil).

UNITED STATES ARMED FORCES MILITARY SERVICE

He is a veteran and, concurrently with his corporate career, served for 21 years in the U.S. military reserves. First enlisting in the Marines and graduating from Parris Island and from Marine Corps Engineering School (Class Honor man) and receiving multiple early merit promotions. After enlisted service, he graduated from Navy Officer Training and Supply Corps Officer School and became a Senate confirmed US military commissioned officer, assigned to the Pentagon and DLA. Also served in the Army and Air Force National Guards.