Ashley is an acknowledged expert in asset recovery, global investigations and dispute support with a particular focus on conflicts involving governments.
Sebastian specialises in gathering and analysing evidence in support of fraud proceedings. His work often draws on his extensive global network to advance and protect his clients’ interests.
Yamuna Morton is Chief Operating Officer at Veleda where she leads the firm’s global operations, finance, HR and administrative functions.
Yamuna Morton is Chief Operating Officer at Veleda where she leads the firm’s global operations, finance, HR and administrative functions. With over 15 years of experience, she has held senior leadership roles across multiple industries including corporate investigations, technology and infrastructure. She consistently drives strategic transformation and operational excellence.
Yamuna began her career in operations and logistics, quickly establishing herself as a trusted leader. She later transitioned into senior operational roles, where she oversaw finance and administration for firms operating globally in complex environments. Her expertise spans multi-jurisdictional governance, HR strategy, financial oversight, and the design of resilient operational frameworks.
At Veleda, Yamuna plays a central role in shaping the company’s strategic direction, aligning internal systems with long-term objectives and fostering a collaborative, high-performance culture. She is known for her pragmatic approach, commercial acumen, and ability to deliver results in sensitive and fast-moving environments.
Nicolas has advised clients on litigation and arbitration matters all over the world, with a significant focus on investor-state disputes.
A native French speaker, Nicolas began his career at a Paris-based strategic communications and public affairs consultancy, where he notably advised a major activist fund on strategy relating to two high profile activist campaigns in Europe. Following this, Nicolas joined a London based corporate investigations firm as an analyst in the dispute consulting team and was one of the first to join the company’s Sovereign Debt Advisory division, working on a number of successful high-profile sovereign enforcement and recovery mandates.
Over the past 6 years, Nicolas has advised clients on litigation and arbitration matters all over the world, with a significant focus on investor-state disputes. Nicolas has developed extensive expertise in successfully seizing sovereign assets using creative methods, in addition to routinely building complex alter ego dossiers and supporting clients in successfully challenging sovereign immunity with the courts. Nicolas has particular expertise in identifying and supporting the seizure of non-traditional sovereign assets such as overflight revenue, commodities, and a variety of high-value assets tied to traditionally overlooked state-owned entities.
In addition to his sovereign work, Nicolas also routinely conducts multi-jurisdictional asset tracing investigations into individual and corporate debtors. Nicolas’ core expertise traditionally lies in Francophone Africa, the Middle East and Europe, although he has worked on cases spanning more than 60 jurisdictions.
Anik is an accomplished global communications and corporate relations executive with more than two decades of experience shaping strategy, reputation, and stakeholder engagement in some of the world’s most complex, high-profile industries.
Anik began her career in Canada, where she combined her studies in law with early roles in government and public affairs. She served as a press secretary and political attaché to the Québec Minister for Finance, gaining firsthand insight into policy, media, and the intricate relationship between government and business.
Her corporate career began at Alcan (later part of Rio Tinto), where she spent over a decade in senior communications and external-relations roles. There, she helped shape Alcan’s reputation as a global leader in industrial innovation and sustainability, with responsibilities that spanned internal communications, brand management, and crisis preparedness.
In 2008, Anik joined Anglo American plc as Group Head of Corporate Communications. She was later appointed Group Director of Corporate Relations and joined the Group Management Committee. In this capacity, she led the company’s global communications, government relations, brand, and sustainability engagement strategies. Under her leadership, Anglo American’s corporate relations function evolved from a traditional communications unit into a forward-looking platform for stakeholder partnership and purpose-driven business.
Today, Anik is widely regarded as a leader in corporate reputation management, stakeholder strategy, and purpose-driven business transformation. Her experience spans government, industry, and the global non-financial landscape, giving her a rare understanding of how large organisations earn trust in a rapidly changing world.
She is also the founder of Lemon Appeal, a lifestyle brand, which comprises an e-commerce, hospitality and Agritech businesses, celebrating and collaborating with artisans and producers of lemon-based products in Southern Italy.
Jay is a veteran investor and strategist whose career in global finance spans more than four decades at the intersection of law, markets, and geopolitics. Best known for leading one of the most consequential sovereign-debt recoveries in modern history, Jay built his reputation on the ability to translate complex legal and political challenges into financial opportunity.
A graduate of Yale and Columbia Law School, Jay began his career as an attorney before moving to Wall Street, where he established one of the first trading desks for defaulted sovereign debt at Lehman Brothers. His early work in emerging-market finance helped pioneer the market for distressed-country obligations.
In 1995, Jay joined Elliott Management Corporation, where he became a senior portfolio manager specialising in sovereign-debt enforcement and cross-border recoveries. Over more than twenty years, he led investment strategies across Latin America, Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia.
Jay's leadership in Elliott’s long campaign to recover defaulted debt from the Republic of Argentina became a defining moment in the evolution of sovereign finance—culminating in a landmark settlement valued at roughly $2.4 billion. The case reshaped market expectations around creditor rights and enforcement, establishing precedents still studied by policymakers and investors today.
Since retiring from Elliott in 2016, Jay turned his focus to writing and advising. His debut novel, Undermoney (Scribner, 2022), channels his firsthand experience in global finance into a vivid portrait of how money and power really work.
Today, Jay continues to advise institutions, investors, and policymakers on sovereign debt recovery and in other distressed situations. He is a frequent commentator on international disputes, the politics of debt restructuring, and the evolving balance between creditors and sovereigns in an era of economic volatility.
.svg)
