Frances McLeod is a Founding Partner of FRA. She is a former investment banker and has over 28 years of experience advising diverse clients on sanctions, anti-corruption, fraud, internal control, asset tracing, and money laundering issues. She is ranked among the top 100 FCPA Practitioners by Global Investigations Review and recognized by Lexology Index as an industry leader in its Investigations, Consulting Experts, Thought Leader and Global Elite publications, where she is described as a “highly respected expert” and “creative and extremely easy to work with.”​

Frances has been deeply involved in all of FRA's compliance monitorship work. She is currently serving as the DOJ-appointed independent compliance monitor in three separate monitorships: Balfour Beatty Communities LLC, FCA US LLC, and the cryptocurrency exchange Binance. Binance, Frances’ most recent monitor appointment, represents a landmark development in the crypto industry and speaks to the regulators’ confidence in her ability to navigate complex compliance issues in a nascent industry. Frances has also extensively supported numerous US DOJ and SEC FCPA and fraud-related monitorships, including the recently certified IAV GmbH (an automotive engineering firm that pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud US environmental regulations), a New York Department of Financial Services monitorship, the City of Ferguson monitorship, and a PCAOB monitorship.​

She led the team providing technical advice to the Asia Pacific Group on money laundering under a mandate from the Asian Development Bank and has provided expert advice in terrorism financing litigation cases. She served as an expert witness on counter terror financing in litigation involving an international bank and led FRA’s UN Oil-For-Food (OFF) investigation work, including an analysis of the function of the OFF escrow account managed from New York by a global bank.​

Frances has extensive experience in addressing complex international data transfer issues whether in regulatory investigations or cross border litigation. She led the FRA team responding to anticorruption investigation data requests in all jurisdictions for Alstom in the US, the UK, Brazil, Indonesia, Poland, Sweden, etc., which included addressing French data privacy and Blocking Statute issues. She is leading FRA’s GDPR compliance initiative leveraging FRA’s decades of experience in addressing data protection issues in cross-border litigation and investigation. An Oxford graduate, Frances was responsible for the design and implementation of claim evaluation and administration systems for the USD 1.3b Swiss Bank and USD 2.5b German Slave Labor Holocaust settlements.​

Frances speaks English, German, French, and Mandarin Chinese. Prior to co-founding FRA in 1999, Frances worked in the mergers and acquisitions divisions of Lazard and Schroders in London and HSBC in Indonesia. She holds a master’s degree from Wadham College, Oxford.​