James H. Freis, Jr. has pursued a career dedicated to promoting the integrity of the global financial markets.  He currently leads Market Integrity Solutions, a consulting firm providing executive advice on global financial regulation, good governance, and innovative technology solutions; and is co-founder and Chairman of CRINDATA, a fintech startup providing operational risk management solution for outsourcing by financial institutions including structured cybersecurity incident notifications.  

From 2014 to 2020 he was based in Frankfurt, Germany with the Deutsche Börse Group, Europe’s largest provider of systemically significant financial market infrastructures. As Managing Director and Chief Compliance Officer, he was responsible for overseeing compliance and relations with global regulators for a range of exchanges, including the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and Eurex derivatives exchanges, central counterparties, and the Clearstream International Central Securities Depository. In June 2020, he was asked to join the management board of the FinTech payments services provider headquartered in Germany, Wirecard AG, to professionalize the company and oversee its regulated businesses. Within his first day, he exposed internal fraud, was promoted to CEO, and then initiated a global restructuring and eventual insolvency proceedings of what had been a blue-chip company. 

Mr. Freis previously was the longest-serving Director (2007 to 2012) of the United States Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), overseeing regulations covering the broadest range of financial institutions for anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing purposes, as well as the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of the United States supporting law enforcement investigations and prosecutions at Federal, State, local and international levels. Earlier in his career, he worked at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York; seven years at the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland; and the law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton. Mr Freis is a graduate of Georgetown University, earned his Juris Doctor from Harvard University, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) charterholder.