Dea is Managing Director and Emerging Technology practice lead for Forefront Advisers, a Brussels and London-based political risk and intelligence firm. Her team forecasts and scrutinises the geopolitical and regulatory risks affecting digital finance and critical emerging technologies in Europe.

Dea moved into this role, having led private sector EU advocacy campaigns in digital finance, crypto-assets regulation and AML, as Europe drafted its seminal regulatory frameworks in these areas.

Prior, Dea was part of the FinTech and Innovation Group of the MAS, responsible for market differentiating infrastructure for innovation initiatives. Dea spent 10 years in London, as an adviser on financial regulation in the 2008 re-regulation period as well as Head of Programmes for Innovate Finance, the UK FinTech trade association.

Dea is an affiliate with the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance and Evaluation Committee Member for IFSCA, Gujarat, India. She holds MSc in Financial Regulation from the LSE, and speaks Spanish, Russian, Bulgarian and Portuguese.