Research Staff

Dr Kuzi Charamba, who has joined as Post-doctoral Fellow in FinTech, RegTech and Digital Financial Transformation, based in the Asian Institute of International Financial Law (AIIFL). Kuzi did his PhD / DCL and LLM at McGill University, Montreal, Canada and his LLB at Kings College London. He has taught a number of courses at McGill during his PhD / DCL studies, including winning McGill’s Teaching Tomorrow’s Professor Award. He also has extensive research experience, in particular with the One Earth Future Foundation in Denver, Colorado, USA, as a Visiting Scholar in Residence at the University of Colorado Law School, and research assistant to several leading professors at McGill. He has delivered papers and presentations in Thailand, Canada, the USA, the Dominican Republic, Spain and the Netherlands.  His first book has been published: Hired Guns and Human Rights (e-elgar.com).

Dr Bryane Michael (FRSA, FCIArb, FCIPS, FRGS, AICP, CIA, CISA) has been a senior research fellow with the AIIFL since 2012.

His legal background includes advising over 50 ministries of justice and finance on drafting financial law. He graduated first in his class at King’s College London School of Law (receiving distinction). He has done over 190 advisory or audit assignments for international firms since 2011, as well as certifications in IPSAS, ICC International Arbitration, the “Constitutional Law of Foreign Countries”. He even served as an advisor the American Bar Association.

His finance/economics background includes work at the World Bank, OECD, Morgan Stanley, and has earned a Series 7, Series 66, and a level 2 CFA candidate. He has worked on tax gap, public budgets and reporting in over 75 ministries of finance, competition, and health; 25 state-owned enterprises; and developed a multi-lateral development bank. He served on 4 boards on the OECD, and over 10 outside – from minerals to transport.

His tech background includes a TechCrunch regular, programming in Python, the usual industry ISO and frameworks, distinguished practice in machine learning, Bayesian and dynamic systems in the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics. He uses ArcGIS and SketchUp to model municipal change.

His academic research includes 10 years of teaching at Oxford University, a year as professor of public finance at Columbia University, at the OECD Istanbul Private Sector Development Centre, the Bank-Fund Joint Vienna Institute and fellowships (visiting professorships at places like the UN (ITC-ILO) Training Centre in Turin and war colleges in the Middle East. Over 200 download his academic content on various plafora per day, and over 80,000 listen to it per month.

Dr Michael speaks English, French, Spanish, some Russian and Turkish and 500 characters in Chinese (as long as they don’t appear together). He speaks at about 100 places per year – so get in touch! Reach him at: https://web.hku.hk/~bmichael/

Jessica Wong is an Assistant Research Officer at AIIFL. Prior to joining AIIFL, Jessica was a Legal Counsel at Yunfeng Financial Group Limited. She has also worked at King & Wood Mallesons for a few years. Jessica’s academic qualifications include a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree and a Postgraduate Certificate in Laws (PCLL) from the City University of Hong Kong. She also has a Master of Laws (LLM) in Corporate and Financial Law from our Faculty.