Filippo Musca joined the Siracusa Institute in 2008 as Coordinator of the Afghanistan Program and has been the Deputy Director General of the Institute since February 2014. From September 2018 he has served as the Acting Director General and in December 2020 he became Director General. He is responsible for the development and effective implementation of the Institute’s strategies, plans and priorities by directing and being accountable for the technical assistance, educational and research projects while managing and supervising the work of up to 10 staff members at the Institute.
He supports the Siracusa Institute President and Board of Directors for all administrative and financial issues related with the Institute’s overall budget and the coordination of the development and implementation of agreed fundraising strategies with public and private donors. He holds a degree in International Relations and a Master in International Strategic Studies.
Assia Buonocore is the Office Manager of the Siracusa Institute. She has a pivotal role in the office, being in charge of all logistical aspects while organizing workshops and conferences at the Institute. She follows and updates the agenda of the President and Director General. She keeps the office organized, makes sure the various appointments and meetings on the schedule are kept straight and manages the flow of visitors or employees who need to meet the management staff.
She negotiates with vendors and performs more advanced executive functions. Occasionally, she travels in Italy and abroad accompanying foreign delegations in study visits to foreign institutions.
Stefania Lentinello has worked at the Siracusa Institute as a Program Officer since 2006. She has significant experience in the organization and coordination of technical assistance projects, specialization courses, meetings of experts and high-level conferences. Her responsibilities include providing administrative support to the drafting of project proposals and implementation of technical assistance programs in cooperation with the European Commission and/or other international funders, comprising the mobilization of experts and the preparation of budgets and final financial statements.
Graduated in Foreign Languages and Literatures with further specializations on management of the mass communication and the importance of public relations in a business, she is also responsible of the Institute’s scientific reporting, publications and library.
Tobias FREEMAN is an international lawyer and investigator who thrives on the intersection of law, policy and multidisciplinary practice. He joined the Siracusa International Institute in 2016 and has since led its work on emerging and converging criminal threats to national and international security, the rule of law and human rights. More specifically, Tobias is passionate about empowering national and global actors to tackle some of the most corrosive, profitable and often entrenched crime-security challenges worldwide, namely transnational organized crime, corruption, terrorism and related exploitation of international financial and trade systems.
Tobias also serves on the advisory board of the International Institute for Justice and the Rule of Law in Malta, which provides expertise on terrorism matters, as a member of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime’s expert network, and as a rostered expert for Justice Rapid Response, which supports investigations into atrocity crimes. To these endeavours, Tobias brings more than a decade’s experience in investigations, technical assistance, legal and political analysis, and training in international criminal justice and transnational criminal law and policy, traditionally distinct fields that increasingly converge in the real world.
Prior to joining the Institute, Tobias co-founded the International Crimes Evidence Project to investigate war crimes and crimes against humanity in connection to Sri Lanka’s armed conflict. This painstaking work contributed to international consensus on the need for accountability and was instrumental to the establishment in 2014 of a comprehensive UN inquiry.
Stefano BETTI is an expert on transnational criminal law and policy. He collaborates with several UN entities including the UN Counter Terrorism Executive Directorate, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI). He is currently Deputy Director General at the Transnational Alliance against Illicit Trade (TRACIT) and a member of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime. He is Visiting Lecturer at the University of Toulouse I Capitole. From 2013 to 2016, he headed INTERPOL’s legal program on illicit trade. Before then, he held various positions at UNICRI and UNODC where he provided extensive legislative and capacity-building assistance to countries on the implementation of international criminal justice treaties. He holds a Master degree in “EU Studies: EU Policy-Making” from the London School of Economics, an honor diploma in International Nuclear Law from the University of Montpellier (France) and a Law Degree from the University of Milan (Italy). He is fluent in English, French, Spanish and Italian and has contributed scholarly articles for several international journals.
John M. SELLAR OBE FRGS was engaged in law enforcement for almost four decades, initially in the Scottish Police Service and then the United Nations. As a Detective, he investigated murders and other serious crime but also dealt with human rights abuse in Scotland’s maximum security prison. Before transferring to the UN, he was Officer-in-Charge of a police area where royal security and anti-terrorism matters featured significantly. In 1997, Mr Sellar moved to Switzerland, handling anti-smuggling, fraud and organised crime issues for the Secretariat of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), ultimately becoming Chief of Enforcement. During 14 years with CITES he conducted 234 missions to 66 countries, assessing enforcement in the field and designing strategies to tackle wildlife trafficking. He was instrumental in establishing the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime in 2010, a partnership of CITES, INTERPOL, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the World Bank and the World Customs Organisation. He has lectured extensively worldwide and his book, ‘The UN’s Lone Ranger: Combating International Wildlife Crime’, was published in January 2014. He is Senior Advisor of the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime.
Flavio BELLIO joined the Institute in 2018 as a member of the Institute’s legal and policy team. He is currently working on several of the Institute’s global and regional projects to strengthen the fight against illicit trade. He graduated in Law at Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) with a specialization in public and international law and holds an L.L.M. in Law and Government of the European Union from LUISS Guido Carli (Italy). Before joining the Institute, Flavio was a research collaborator for World Bank Legal Advisor Giulio Zanetti and also collaborated with a law firm in Belgium. He has significant research experience on international and European law as well as organised crime and illicit trade.
Stefania Mangiafico manages the overall accounting operations of the Institute; fulfils the requirements foreseen by the current national financial legislation and by the Institute’s regulations; drafts the annual budget and the final balance sheet of the Institute; collaborates, according to her specific duties, to the internal audit of the administrative and accounting management of the Institute; processes payments in accordance with their deadlines and deals with the bank; provides support and specialized assistance to the other offices on accounting and financial matters.
After graduating in Political Science with a specialization on political and economic matters at the University of Catania, Stefania Mangiafico has worked as an accountant for several years at an accounting firm, gaining significant experience in accounting for partnerships, corporations and cooperatives. She also has extensive experience in tax consulting and tax litigation.
