Richard Nash is RTI’s Senior Anti-Corruption and Accountability Specialist, responsible for providing technical thought and leadership on anti-corruption, transparency, and accountability across the Institute’s international portfolio of governance projects. He serves as the senior project manager on work related to anti-corruption, rule of law, accountability and governance, and provides mentorship to field-based teams on effective programming and implementation.
Mr. Nash is a governance, environment and social development expert with 13 years of international development experience in Eastern Europe, Central, East and South Asia, sub-Saharan and North Africa and Latin America.
In his prior role with the World-Wide Fund for Nature International, he led capture and design efforts for a multi-regional $45 million project focused on driving out corruption in natural resource management. He also led the development and delivery of the global “Environment and Social Safeguard Framework”, which was unanimously adopted by the WWF network globally and provided new corporate governance arrangements to enhance internal accountability.
Previously, Mr. Nash served as a Governance Advisor with the U.K. Department for International Development, leading the organization’s counter-fraud and anti-corruption efforts in Somalia. His work included a range of issues from illicit financial flows, security sector expenditures, illegal weapons, government procurement reforms, money laundering, remittances and representational government.
Serving as the Counsel to the World Bank Group, Mr. Nash designed and delivered an $85 million justice sector reform project in Afghanistan with a focus on improving access to justice for indigent persons. He also oversaw key investments in justice sector reform around the world, including multi-million-dollar initiatives in Mongolia and Nigeria.
As part of a World Bank, International Monetary Fund and U.S. Treasury working group, Mr. Nash advised the Government of Afghanistan on rehabilitation plans, following the collapse of its largest bank and $1 billion in fraud. He developed and implemented the $8 million Financial Sector Strengthening Project focused on improving Central Bank functions and supporting creditor rights.
Mr. Nash began his career as a lawyer, with experience in a trial setting as well as in alternate dispute resolution and prosecutions for fraud and money laundering. He also worked as a legal advisor to major banks and financial institutions on regulatory issues, including money laundering, internal fraud and terrorist financing. He is a Certified Fraud Examiner and a barred barrister in England and Wales.