Hawk Appoints Marshall Billingslea, Former U.S. Treasury Assistant Secretary for Terrorist Financing, as Strategic Advisor

Hawk, the leading global provider of AI-powered anti-money laundering (AML) and fraud prevention technology, today announced that Marshall Billingslea has joined the company as Strategic Advisor.  

Billingslea brings over two decades of senior government and private-sector experience in sanctions enforcement, financial crime policy, and countering terrorist financing to Hawk as the company scales its footprint among banks and payment firms globally.  

Billingslea served as U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorist Financing from 2017 to 2021, where he led U.S. policy on money laundering and WMD proliferation financing, and directed sanctions actions against terrorist financial networks. 

From 2018 to 2019 he served as President of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global setter of standards for AML and counter-terrorist financing policy, where he oversaw the introduction of FATF's first cryptocurrency standards. He later served as U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Arms Control, leading negotiations on the New START treaty.  

"We're honored to welcome Marshall to Hawk," said Tobias Schweiger, CEO and Co-Founder of Hawk. "Few people understand sanctions, terrorist financing, illicit finance, and FATF standards as deeply as he does. Hawk has led the way in demonstrating how AI can strengthen the fight against money laundering and fraud. Marshall's experience and perspective will help us to take that even further, to the benefit of our customers and society as a whole." 

Marshall Billingslea commented, "AI is enabling financial institutions and governments to tackle challenges that once seemed daunting in the fight against financial crime. I've been deeply impressed by the progress that Hawk has made in using AI to detect more criminal activity at scale, while ensuring that every AI decision can be explained. I look forward to working with the Hawk team and helping to make further advancements in this important area."   

Hawk's growth has continued throughout 2026, driven by accelerating global demand for AI in financial crime and compliance. The company recently unveiled a number of new solutions enabling banks and payment firms to leverage the power of agentic AI for AML investigations and risk screening, bringing down the cost of managing false positives while simultaneously increasing risk detection.