CEO & Founder of Porta Strategies
As CEO of Porta Strategies, Archana Bae strives to connect organizations with the resources they need to effectively manage risk. If your organization is in search of answers, Archana probably has the solution, or she will connect you to someone who does.
A seasoned executive leader with nearly 25 years of risk management and strategic consulting experience across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, Ms. Bae started her career on the heels of 9/11. Her call to service and national security came early when she realized that her life mission is to protect people, nations, relationships, and assets.
Archana’s experience supporting the U.S. Department of Defense’s Foreign Military Sales programs in the early 2000’s laid the foundation for decade long career in national security with several U.S. government agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the National Counterterrorism Center, the Federal Bureau of Investigations, and the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). Archana’s work with both the U.S. and allied governments in counterterrorism, counterintelligence, counter-narcotics, counter-proliferation, counter-threat finance, sanctions investigations, export controls, and foreign investment risk management set a strong foundation for the second half of her career, which she has spent in the private sector.
In 2013, Archana joined the Financial Intelligence Unit of a large global bank and was soon appointed as the US Head of Sanctions Investigations for the bank, establishing and overseeing high-performance organizations to meet regulatory demands. Working once more with OFAC, only this time from the commercial perspective. Ms. Bae also worked with several additional government agencies, such as the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S. Department of Justice, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, and the Federal Reserve Board. She later channeled her banking and government experience into the consulting space, creating and implementing end-to-end financial crime compliance (FCC) and sanctions risk management programs and training for financial institutions and jurisdictions around the world. Notably, Archana trained private sector employees in the middle east in preparation for a Financial Action Task Force (FATF) Mutual Evaluation.
Archana later leapt into the tech start-up sector and served as a key member of leadership and Managing Director for a behavioral analytics and machine learning start-up. Her deep networks, risk intelligence subject matter expertise, and in-depth understanding of government and commercial technology use cases enabled the expansion of the organization’s footprint into new public and private sector organizations.
Archana holds a Master of Business Administration from The Johns Hopkins University, Carey School of Business, a Bachelor of Business Administration from Towson University, and a Graduate Certificate in Intelligence and Analysis from Mercyhurst University.