Malta Gaming Authority CEO and leadership

Peter Spiteri is the Chief Officer - Finance & Programme Management at the MGA. Peter is an ACCA qualified accountant with almost 10 years’ experience in the finance sector. He started his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers where he worked in the Corporate Administration Services department. He then moved to Deutsche Bank (Malta) as Head of Finance, where he was responsible for the overall finance function in Malta. At the MGA, he is responsible for the overall finance function of the Authority namely, revenue assurance, tax compliance, corporate finance, treasury, financial planning and control, management accounts and reporting, as well as procurement. He is also responsible for programme delivery as well as for the overall knowledge and strategic information management of the Authority.

Antiopi Vogiatzi is the Chief Risk Officer at the MGA and her duties encompass the development and overall management of the Risk Management function with the primary focus to support the Authority in developing and maintaining a risk-based approach to its operations.

Antiopi is also a member of the MGA’s Supervisory Council, the committee responsible for overseeing the regulatory function of the MGA.

During her previous years with the Authority, Antiopi has worked within the MGA’s Compliance and Enforcement Directorates, where she occupied the positions of Compliance Manager and Head of Investigations respectively. Her main areas of work included monitoring of the licensees’ compliance with gaming laws and regulations through compliance audits and ad-hoc checks, overseeing the carrying out of investigations on suspicious gaming activities, managing of the respective teams and drafting of policies and procedures.

Antiopi is a lawyer by profession, having graduated from the University of Thessaloniki in Greece in 1996 and subsequently admitted to the Athens Bar Association, and has since practiced actively as a legal professional until 2015 when she relocated to Malta.

Her work experience as an attorney-at-law in Athens included litigation and provision of legal services through own practice. She has a vast legal and regulatory background in telecoms, having been employed as an in-house lawyer of Vodafone Greece, where she also served as Anti-Bribery Champion and Compliance Specialist.

James Grech is the Chief Officer Internal Audit of the Malta Gaming Authority. James graduated with Honours in Accountancy from the University of Malta in 2003, and is a Certified Public Accountant and Registered Auditor in Malta. James is also a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA), as well as a Certified Internal Auditor (CIA), which is the only globally recognized certification for internal auditors. He is an associate member of the Malta Institute of Accountants and member of the International Institute of Internal Auditors and ISACA.

James started his professional auditing career as an associate with EY Malta during which time he was also seconded to work with EY in Rome and London. In 2015 James joined the National Audit Office (NAO) of Malta as a Senior Auditor and was later promoted to Principal Auditor within the Financial and Compliance Directorate.

In 2007 James opened his own advisory and internal auditing practice and in 2009 he was appointed as internal auditing services contractor to the then Lotteries and Gaming Authority (LGA). James continued to offer internal audit services to the Authority up to June 2017, when he was eventually employed by the MGA as Chief Officer Internal Audit.

In 2012 James also founded LEAD Training Services which over a short period of time has established itself as one of Malta’s most reputable Further and Higher Education Institute licensed by the Malta National Commission for Further and Higher Education (NCFHE).

www.leadtraining.com.mt

Main Areas of Expertise:

Finance

Internal Auditing

Corporate Governance

Risk Management

IT Governance

Business Strategy

Management Consulting

Training and Professional Development

Jason Farrugia is the Chief Technology Officer at the MGA. In his role, Jason is responsible for developing, implementing, managing and evaluating the Authority’s technological resources. He is also responsible for overseeing all technical aspects of the Authority by directing all employees to attain the company’s strategic goals established in the Authority’s strategic plan.

Jason joined the Authority in 2011 as a Licensee Relationship Executive, and then proceeded to occupy the positions of Systems Monitoring Executive and Information Systems Manager respectively, prior to being appointed Head - ICT & Records and later as Chief Technology Officer.

He possesses a Bachelor’s Degree in Business and Computing and also a Master of Science Degree specialising in Information Security around E-commerce both from the University of Malta. Jason is also a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA).

Prior to joining the MGA Jason held various positions within the ICT industry, specifically within the IT software design and systems implementation sphere.