Long term vision.
Committed to our client success.
Sabrina Benyagoub
PARTNER
Sabrina Benyagoub has more than 15 years of professional experience and is Partner at Palana leading our RC and AML Services.
Before joining Palana, Sabrina was an Advisory & Consulting Director at KPMG in Luxembourg where she headed up the investment fund industry team for regulatory and compliance topics with emphasis to AML themes combined with due diligence and oversight of counterparties in liquid and illiquid investment management business with different asset classes (PE, RE, infrastructure, private debt…). Sabrina has assisted some asset managers in the implementation including the licensing of AIFMs/Management Companies in Luxembourg. She led technical regulatory reviews carried out by local and international teams and was responsible for the set-up and maintenance of analysis of regulatory developments.
Prior to this, Sabrina was Head of Compliance and AML (RC role for AIFM and Funds, TA/ FA and PM not delegated, first and second line of defense) for a UK Private Equity Group, where she had the opportunity to reinforce her experience to assist clients in their challenges. Additionally, Sabrina began her professional career as an external auditor where she could gain experience and knowledge of the overall financial sector in Luxembourg and Europe: she was Senior Manager in Audit (including ISAE 3402/ controls reports reviews) and in Advisory/Consulting at PwC Luxembourg in the Asset Management sector. She also worked in Audit in AM sector at PwC New York and in Mergers & Acquisitions in an Investment bank in Paris.
Sabrina served international clients of different sizes and has experience in working in various countries and on various subjects, such as compliance, AML/CTF/KYC, audit (external and internal audit), implementation of regulatory substance, regulatory due diligences, gap analysis, delegation, and oversight of different type of delegates.
Sabrina holds a “Mastere specialise” in Finance (“Conference des grandes ecoles”) and a master’s degree in business administration, and she is a Certified Charted Accountant. She is a member of ILA (Luxembourg Institute of Independent Directors) and provides regular trainings and conferences on AML and compliance topics. Sabrina is member of ALCO.
Languages: French, English.
Nicolas Buck
CO-FOUNDER AND PARTNER
Nicolas Buck is a co-founder and Partner at Palana.
Nicolas is a passionate technophile who understands the need for the asset management industry to take products to market swiftly and effectively.
In 2004, he won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award for his innovative approach to reporting services tailored to the investment fund industry. Avanterra, and now Palana, was the next natural step to provide clients with fintech solutions for managing data, reporting and disclosures.
Keen to share his knowledge with the wider business sphere, Nick was president of FEDIL, a multi-sectoral business federation with some 700 members, from 2016 to 2019. Following this, he spent two years as president of UEL, the Luxembourg Union of Enterprises, which regroups all major sectoral lobby groups of Luxembourg. He is currently chairman of Banque de Luxembourg Investments.
Nick set up the Luxembourg #StartUpNation initiative and was president of Nyuko, a start-up accelerator. Fluent in English, French, German, and his native Luxembourgish, he is a passionate rugby and football follower and keen competitive golfer.
Florence Buron
PARTNER
Florence Buron has more than 30 years of professional experience in the financial sector in Belgium and Luxembourg and is Partner at Palana.
Florence is in charge of the Regulatory reporting managed services operations in a team serving 40+ international clients.
Before joining Palana, Florence was, for more than 6 years, an Advisory & Consulting Partner at Deloitte in Luxembourg, in charge of regulatory reporting services.
Prior to this, Florence served as Head of investment compliance & monitoring at Lombard International Assurances for more than 12 years and in a tech company as Business Analyst for the development of fund platforms.
She began her professional career at JP Morgan in Brussels.
Florence is part of various working group at EFAMA, ALFI, CSSF, ACA and LuxFlag.
Florence holds a master’s degree in Economics from the University of Liège.
Languages: French, English
Bastien Collette
CO-FOUNDER AND PARTNER
Bastien Collette has more than 20 years of professional experience and is a co-founder and Partner at Palana.
Before creating Palana, Bastien was an Advisory & Consulting Partner at Deloitte in Luxembourg, specialised in FinancialCrime (AML/CTF, Open Source Intelligence, background check, due diligence, fraud, anti-bribery & corruption, etc.).
Prior to this, Bastien served as Head of TA Register with FundPartner Solutions (Europe) SA (Pictet Group) and as AML/CTF due diligence team leader with Schroder Investment Management (Luxembourg) SA.
He began his professional career at the Belgian “Gendarmerie” and Secret Service (Sûreté de l’Etat) where he was exposed to diverse aspects of the investigation and secret service activities (investigation, surveillance, shadowing and counter-surveillance, networking, etc.). In the Belgian Police, he was in charge, among others, of the investigation aspects of the drugs trafficking. Bastien worked also for Maitland Management Services (Luxembourg) SA and Kredietbank Luxembourg.
Bastien served international clients of all sizes and of all industries and has experience in working in various countries, including Luxembourg, Ireland, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Bahrain, the United States, Azerbaijan andDenmark.
Bastien holds a Bachelor in Law from Haute the Ecole Leon-Eli Troclet, a Detective diploma from the Royal GendarmerieAcademy, ha graduated from the Secret Service Intelligence Academy and from the Federal Police Academy and Training Center as well as a diploma of Private Detective - Fraud Expert in insurance from Assuralia / IFA PME.
Bastien is a Certified Fraud Examiner and Open Source Intelligence and is a lecturer at ILA (Luxembourg Institute ofIndependent Directors) and several universities and provides regular trainings and conferences worldwide on financial crime topics. Bastien is member of ALCO and ALFI.
Languages: French, English
Benjamin Collette
CO-FOUNDER AND PARTNER
Benjamin Collette has more than 25 years of professional experience and is a co-founder and Partner at Palana.
Before creating Palana, Benjamin was a Partner at Arendt in Luxembourg and Chief Executive Officer of Arendt Services, a Trust and Corporate Services company.
Before joining the Arendt Group, Benjamin was an Advisory & Consulting Partner at Deloitte in Luxembourg, specialised in Strategy, Corporate Finance, Regulatory and Operations set-up and efficiency engagements for alternative and vanilla investment funds and wealth managers. He was a member of the Executive Committee in charge of Strategy, Clients and Industries. Benjamin led the Strategy, Corporate Finance and Regulatory consulting practices. In the Deloitte network, Benjamin served on the Global Financial Services Industry Council and led Deloitte’s EMEA AIFMD and Wealth and Private Banking Practices.
Prior to this, Benjamin served as Management Consultant with McKinsey and Company Inc. and as Director for the company servicing Independent Financial Advisors, Moventum. He began his professional life at Fortis, where he worked in the Trading Room as a currency options trader and in the Corporate Finance Department on various M&A files.
Benjamin served international clients of all sizes and has experience in working in various countries, including Luxembourg, Ireland, France, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, Malta, the United Arab Emirates, the United States, the Cayman Islands, Russia, Azerbaijan, Singapore and Hong Kong.
Benjamin holds a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Liège.
Languages: French, English
Renaud Jamar
CO-FOUNDER AND PARTNER
Renaud is a co-founder and Partner at Palana.
Renaud has worked with Nicolas Buck Buck for more than 25 years, together they founded Victor Buck Services in 2000.
A serial entrepreneur, Renaud has business ventures in real estate, fintech and finance, in which he takes a leadership role. He provides Avanterra with expertise and knowledge from these outside sectors, keeping them abreast of inter-industry innovation and developments.
Renaud is fluent in English, French and Dutch.
Alice Lehnert
PARTNER
Alice Lehnert has more than 20 years of professional experience and is Partner at Palana,.
Before joining Palana, Alice was an Advisory & Consulting Director at Deloitte in Luxembourg where she headed up the investment fund industry team for regulatory topics with emphasis to financial crime themes combined with due diligence and oversight of counterparties in liquid and illiquid investment management business with different asset classes (PE, RE, infrastructure, private debt, renewables.
Alice led technical regulatory reviews carried out by local and international teams (Germany, UK, France, Ireland) and was responsible for the set-up and maintenance of analysis of regulatory developments in the regulatory area of financial crime (for Luxembourg, Germany, and other EU countries).
Alice served international clients of different sizes and has experience in working in various countries and on various subjects, such as implementation of regulatory substance, delegation, and oversight of different type of delegates, AML/CTF/KYC, cross-border marketing, investment, marketing and business compliance.
Prior to this, Alice served as Chief Compliance Officer at Vontobel Asset Management S.A. where she was responsible for adherence with relevant regulatory requirements by implementing compliance requirements in existing and new business initiatives as well as identifying compliance risks, establishing and maintaining of compliance monitoring controls according to regulatory requirements and internal rules applicable to a regulated UCITS Management Company/AIFM (with 4 branches within Europe) domiciled in Luxembourg.
Alice began her professional career as an external auditor at PWC and EY in Luxembourg where she could gain experience and knowledge of the overall financial sector in Luxembourg and Europe.
Alice holds a Diploma in Business Administration and is a Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist as well as Certified Charted Accountant. She is a lecturer at ILA (Luxembourg Institute of Independent Directors) and provides regular trainings and conferences on financial crime topics. Alice is member of ALCO and ALFI.
Languages: German, English, Russian
