Senior Management Team

Christopher Donohue is the CEO of GARP. Previously, he served as Managing Director of the GARP Benchmarking Initiative, a data analysis utility for financial services companies to aggregate and analyze sensitive data, and leader for GARP’s Educational and Research Programs, where he supervised all of GARP’s educational and research programs, including the FRM^® Certification. He earned a Ph.D in Operations Research from the University of Michigan and in his free time enjoys playing ice hockey.

Priscella Cervantes leads the finance and administration functions of the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP) as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Administration Officer. As CFO and CAO, she oversees the organization’s financial strategy, planning, and reporting, as well as its administrative operations that support GARP’s global activities and long-term objectives.

Prior to joining GARP in 2012, Priscella spent more than a decade at Merck and Co., Inc., where she began as an Internal Auditor and advanced into senior finance and operations roles, including Director of Operations for Europe and Canada and Senior Finance Manager for multiple international business units. She started her career as an Auditor at Wiss & Company, LLP.

Priscella is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) and holds a BS in Accounting from Kean University.

Rachel Lerner serves as General Counsel, Corporate Secretary and Co-Chair of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee. She has more than 20 years of experience as a financial services regulatory attorney. Prior to joining GARP, she was the Global Head of Regulatory Affairs at S&P Global Ratings where she was responsible for the interpretation, implementation, and compliance with newly adopted credit rating agency regulation.

Before going in-house, Rachel was Of Counsel at a mid-sized law firm where she established a broker-dealer practice focused on a variety of regulatory issues, including those related to trading practices, clearance and settlement, research activities, compliance audits, and AML. She also counseled clients in response to regulatory examinations and inquiries. Rachel’s early experience was gained as a Senior Associate in the broker-dealer practice area of the corporate department at Proskauer Rose LLP, an international law firm.

She received her J.D. from Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and her B.A. in Political Science from Syracuse University. In her free time Rachel enjoys cooking (and eating), traveling, running, and spending time with her family and friends.

William May is Managing Director and Global Head of Certifications and Educational Programs at GARP. Prior to joining GARP, William had over 20 years of market experience including serving as a Senior Director in Fitch Ratings’ credit market research group and as a Senior Research Officer at UBS Wealth Management. He has worked for several buy-side and sell-side firms including Bank of America and Federated Investors as well as specialty firms like Andrew Kalotay Associates and Law and Economic Consulting Group. He began his career in the research function of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and has worked on the Open Market Trading Desk and as a bank examiner. William holds a BS in applied mathematics and economics from Stony Brook University; an MBA and an MA in economics from Fordham University; an MS in financial engineering from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering; and an MS in applied statistics and MEd in applied psychology from Columbia University.

Jo Paisley, President, GARP Risk Institute, has worked on a variety of risk areas at the Risk Institute, including stress testing, operational resilience, model risk management, and climate and nature risk management. Her career prior to joining GARP spanned public and private sectors, including working as the Director of the Supervisory Risk Specialist Division within the Prudential Regulation Authority and as Global Head of Stress Testing at HSBC.

Michael Sell leads the global outreach team in building industry relationships that strengthen awareness of GARP and the importance of risk education. His more than 20 years of financial market experience provides perspective when discussing current trends, challenges, and opportunities for supporting risk management capacity building within firms.

Prior to joining GARP, Sell was the Operating Officer at a privately held investment fund. He launched his career at Citigroup, focusing on credit, market risk, and product solutions for institutional clients.

Michael holds a Master’s in Finance from New York University and recently completed GARP’s Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR^®) Certificate. In his spare time, he enjoys triathlon, tennis, cross-country skiing, and traveling with his family.