Enterprise Risk · Governance · Compliance · Transformation
I am a regulatory compliance and enterprise risk executive whose leadership was built from the work itself. My career spans lending operations, compliance testing, regulatory change, examinations, remediation, digital financial services, technology-enabled transformation, and executive advisory work.
My Story
My career is a progression, not a collection of titles. Each stage added a different lens: how work is performed, how risk emerges, how regulation becomes execution, how teams navigate change, and how leaders create durable systems.
My early career in residential lending and mortgage operations covered origination, underwriting, funding, and servicing. That foundation still shapes how I approach compliance: controls must work inside real operations, not only on paper.
At JPMorgan Chase, I supported CRA Emerging Markets lending offices across major U.S. markets. The work required regulatory research, risk assessment, testing, workpapers, fair lending judgment, and practical guidance to the business.
Over 13 years at MUFG Union Bank, my responsibilities expanded across mortgage, home equity, cards, unsecured lending, small-business lending, regulatory change, SAFE Act/NMLS governance, examinations, product and technology compliance, third-party oversight, consumer remediation, and team leadership.
At Experian, I rebuilt North America Compliance Operations after enterprise audit findings. I strengthened testing, remediation, examinations, policies, complaints governance, reporting, training, licensing, risk assessments, and technology-enabled workflows while leading 18 compliance professionals.
Through A. Stokes Consulting, I provide project-based and executive advisory support involving enterprise risk, governance, Compliance Management Systems, regulatory strategy, program assessment, remediation, testing, reporting, and transformation.
How I Lead
I believe strong teams do not require sameness. They require respect, clarity, curiosity, fair standards, and the safety to raise a different point of view.
I do not expect people to communicate, lead, or solve problems in identical ways. I ask questions before making assumptions, seek the context behind a perspective, and create room for people to challenge ideas without challenging one another's dignity. Different backgrounds improve decisions when leaders make it safe to contribute and remain consistent about expectations.
Every person deserves to be heard and treated with dignity, regardless of title.
I test assumptions and seek context before deciding what a situation means.
I address difficult issues clearly without humiliation, ambiguity, or avoidance.
Standards, ownership, and follow-through should be understood and fairly applied.
People must be able to raise risk, question assumptions, and disagree without penalty.
Conflict becomes productive when people understand the shared objective, the evidence, the decision rights, and what happens next.
Executive Impact
Selected Transformation Work
Representative examples of complex work delivered across banking, data, and digital financial services. Details are presented at a high level to protect confidential and proprietary information.
Personally developed detailed testing workpapers across JPMorgan Chase, MUFG Union Bank, and Experian. At Experian, redesigned testing and second-level review worksheets while rebuilding a risk-based program spanning approximately 463 compliance obligations and an annual plan of approximately 100 reviews, with a path toward AI-enabled execution.
Built a comprehensive Excel workbook to catalog aged regulatory MRAs, track actions and supporting evidence, and connect remediation commitments to monitoring used to confirm accurate and complete closure. The structure improved accountability, visibility, and readiness for independent review.
At MUFG Union Bank, assumed ownership of a high-risk regulatory-change implementation that had lost momentum. Translated requirements into business briefings, built the Excel action plan used to coordinate execution, established ownership and tracking, and later partnered with Technology to create a tool and dashboard showing progress.
Defined data requirements, directed SQL extraction needs, and analyzed large data sets to identify potentially affected consumers. Wrote white papers documenting the regulatory requirements, control failure, and impacted population, then partnered with Legal and Risk to design and execute remediation involving interest, customer apology communications, and third-party support.
A second mortgage rescission issue prompted me to look beyond the individual exception. I conducted a retrospective review of seasoned rescinded loans and identified a recurring internal fraud pattern connected to the same employee. I escalated the matter for investigation and supported the control remediation that followed.
At Experian, an employee consumer-data misuse matter required more than executive oversight. I personally reviewed system login and activity records to help assess the scope of potential misuse, then worked with Investigations and Legal on risk management, consumer notification, and credit-monitoring remediation.
Interactive Leadership Portfolio
Open any domain to see how I define it, representative work I have performed, and the value it created.
Enterprise risk leadership helps decision-makers see how regulatory, operational, consumer, third-party, technology, and reputational risks connect before they become isolated problems.
Value: Clearer visibility, better prioritization, and more defensible decisions.
Governance turns expectations into decision rights, accountable ownership, reliable escalation, and reporting that allows management and boards to act.
Value: Accountability that is visible, measurable, and sustainable.
Regulatory strategy connects interpretation with business impact, implementation, evidence, and long-term control sustainability.
Value: Requirements move from interpretation to accountable execution.
A strong compliance program combines sound governance with testing, monitoring, evidence, issue management, complaints, policies, training, and effective challenge.
Value: Compliance conclusions supported by evidence rather than assertion.
Consumer protection requires understanding the product lifecycle, operational realities, and responsibilities shared across banks, fintechs, and service providers.
Value: Customer outcomes remain visible across product and partner boundaries.
Hands-on experience investigating and resolving fraud, misconduct, and financial-crime risk across mortgage, credit card, unsecured lending, branch banking, and consumer-data environments. Reviewed investigative evidence and system activity, identified patterns and root causes, conducted employee interviews, assessed regulatory and control implications, supported SAR-related matters, escalated significant findings, and developed and strengthened preventive and detective controls.
Value: Brings both executive oversight and hands-on investigative judgment to complex fraud, misconduct, and financial-crime risk.
Operational excellence makes complex work understandable, repeatable, measurable, and resilient under pressure.
Value: Greater consistency, transparency, execution speed, and review readiness.
Technology creates value when governance, human accountability, data integrity, monitoring, and escalation are designed alongside it.
Value: Technology strengthens judgment without obscuring ownership.
Transformation requires a clear future state, credible governance, coordinated execution, and the ability to bring people through change.
Value: Change becomes embedded capability rather than a temporary initiative.
Credible challenge is most effective when Compliance understands the business, explains the risk clearly, and helps identify a workable path.
Value: Compliance becomes a source of sound decisions and responsible growth.
Leadership means setting direction and standards while creating the conditions for people with different backgrounds and working styles to contribute fully.
Value: People understand what success requires and know their perspective can improve the work.
Executive advisory turns complexity into a clear assessment of what matters, what is missing, what should happen next, and who must own it.
Value: Leaders receive a defensible path from assessment to action.
Writing & Published Work
Original articles, multi-part publication series, and externally published work on enterprise risk, governance, regulatory compliance, artificial intelligence, fair lending, and consumer financial services.
A practical series on building scalable AI governance programs that support innovation, regulatory readiness, enterprise risk management, accountability, and consumer protection.
View the three articles →What the CFPB's fair lending shift means for banks and fintechs using artificial intelligence.
Read article →Five developing compliance areas involving fee governance, DFPI oversight, digital assets, AI governance, and community investment.
Read article →A review of origination speed, fraud risk, documentation standards, and the controls that protect the bank, the borrower, and the SBA guaranty.
Read article and publication details →Executive Validation
In my 25+ years of working with Compliance professionals, Alison stands above them all. She does not lean on the second-line compliance team to do her job. Instead, she conducts her own analysis of each regulatory question and provides it to second-line when their concurrence is needed. Anyone who hires her will be extremely grateful they did.
It’s amazing how much you accomplished and contributed to the Bank. You were absolutely instrumental in transforming the business to a ‘Top 10’ Bank.
Your thorough approach, grounded in actual regulatory citations, is a model for how to deal with many such issues. This is the sort of work that elevates the company and allows all parties to focus on real risks rather than creating self-inflicted spirals.
Connect
Open to 100% remote compliance and governance leadership roles, including Head of Compliance and Chief Compliance Officer opportunities, as well as board advisory conversations and select strategic engagements.