João Paulo Leça
2 Caldecott Road, Maidstone, ME16 9GD
Mobile: 07903776475 Email: paulololeca@gmail.com
Nationality Portuguese
Languages – Portuguese (Native language), English (written and spoken) and Spanish (spoken)
Personal Profile
Graduated in journalism, highly motivated, with excellent communication skills, a can do attitude and
team spirit.
I am working at Activtrades Plc, a regulated broker by the FCA, as an Account Executive.
My role includes the process of onboarding and talking to potential new customers and make sure that
their trading accounts are opened in a timely manner, and through this ensuring that their professional
relationship with us, starts in a timely and professional manner.
Building a relationship with Retail, Corporate and key clients is one of my strong points since I am the
first point of contact when they first enquire about our company or services.
Besides dealing with customers, I do have a very strong communication background within our
company since we do liaise with other departments, which makes me a great team player.
Liaising with Compliance for reporting any red flags and to make sure we mitigate any potential risks,
onboarding new customers, and the opening of new trading accounts (retail, professional or corporate
trading accounts).
I am currently seeking a similar position, or an entry position in Compliance, within the Financial
Industry.
Work Experience
Client on Boarding Assistant/KYC
May 2017 – Present
ActivTrades Plc (London)
– Assist in the process of opening new accounts (with a focus on Elective Professional applications) in
a timely manner. This ensures that our relationship with the customer starts strongly;
– Assist in the process of opening corporate accounts in line with our procedures. Through my years of
experience I developed and achieved more efficient processes to benefit the company and clients;
– Assist in the process of opening IB accounts in line with procedures and deal with any queries,
maintaining good relationship with those clients;
– Liaise with client services to obtain missing or additional documentation, and, where necessary doing
so in a second language;
– Liaise with the other departments regarding any account applications queries;
– Update internal systems as per procedure;
– Deal with any queries from Client Services relating to new accounts;
– Liaise with Compliance regarding any red flags, inconsistencies, any suspected fraudulent activity;
– Be fully aware and up to date with FCA regulations regarding account opening and AML requirements
– Processing new clients applications (retail, professional, IB’s and Corporate trading accounts);
– Performing Due Diligence/Enhanced Due Diligence to our potential customers;
– Looking for any red flags in the upcoming applications and raise any concerns to our Compliance
department, in order to mitigate any potential risks to the business;
– Experienced using GBG systems;
– Experienced using Salesforce as CRM system;
– Large experience with Brazilian/Portuguese, French, Spanish, English and Italian client data
processing;
– Experienced translating documents and information in several languages.
– Familiarized with MT4 and MT5 platforms and Managers;
– Working in a fast-paced environment allowed me to be able to constantly adapt to new procedures, as
FCA and ESMA are very strict;
– Last projects I worked in: MIFID II, Customer Report Standard, ESMA leverage changing in
Regulated brokers;
– Experience in training, successfully, new colleagues enhancing the company’s role in the industry and
explaining the role that regulators play within what we do, as well as covering all aspects of account
opening procedures, user interface experience, by being quick and smooth in account opening;
– Experience in calling/cold calling different customers for any further information needed about the
opening procedure;
Assistant Account Manager
September 2016 – April 2017
Interserve (London)
– Working as part of a team, supporting primarily on Account Manager or Senior Managers on our
projects, providing excellent administration and coordination within our contracts;
– Liaising with our customers and provide them with a daily service. This includes dealing with subcontractors and suppliers, making sure that everything goes smoothly, and service excellence can be
met;
– Providing regular reports and management information for team briefings and project updates.
– Confirming order acknowledgements and timescales for delivery to our contracts, ensuring 100%
accuracy with documentation;
– Liaising with Health & Safety. This includes the use of Sevron Safety Solutions to
create/change/update Risks Assessments and Method Statements;
– Ability to work with Moore Pay (leading supplier of payroll and HR solutions, serving over 10000
businesses, large or small);
– Some experience in sales. In 6 months, I was able to generate extra profit to our business, by providing
one-off jobs to our clients;
Area Supervisor (Specialist Cleaning)
February 2013 – September 2016
Interserve (London)
– Working within critical environments carrying different tasks to achieve desirable standards every day
to a specific client.
– Interact with clients, building good relationships, meeting their requests as well as managing their
expectations.
– Oversee the quality of team members’ work, ensuring it complies with current legislation and policies,
e.g. supply documentation related to data protection, information security, health and safety, and
confidentiality.
– Meet our client’s needs, organize staff and workload in an efficient and professional way.
– Liaising with several clients as well as the line manager and carry out requests from both parties.
– Good interpersonal skills and a positive approach to customer care and service delivery including
audits and KPI’s.
– Able to Survey and quote different sites regarding new businesses within the company
– Able to communicate clearly with fellow employees and with clients Travel between a several number
of different sites in an organized manner and manage my time efficiently.
Internship Journalist (Sports Journalism)
August- November 2011
Record Newspaper (Lisbon – Portugal)
– Writing news articles about several sports, but mainly European football.
– Carrying interviews or Vox pops to personalities or supporters.
– Translating press releases from English, Spanish, French or Italian to Portuguese, updating results,
scorers, positions, reactions to matches, etc. in live football matches.
– Record newspaper is the biggest sports newspaper in Portugal, it provided an excellent opportunity to
work within a fast-paced environment and develop my skills to work under pressure.
Junior Sports Journalist
November 2008 – October 2012
ESTA Newspaper (Abrantes – Portugal)
– Working in a demanding environment to write and edit news/ big stories, conducting face-to-face
interviews and covering the biggest events in Abrantes City.
Education
Escola Superior de Tecnologias de Abrantes (Portugal)
2007-2012
Journalism
(Bachelor’s degree)
14 *
Vilnius University (Lithuania)
February- June 2011
Erasmus
School B+S Bispo D. Manuel Ferreira Cabral (Portugal)
2005-2007
Technology Sports Course
(Equivalent to A-level)
14 *
* The grades in Portuguese education system ranges from 1-20, 1= unsatisfactory and 20= excellent
Personal skills
– Creative, articulate, good listener, problem solver and very good organizational skills.
– I.T. Skills including Microsoft Office, social network.
– United Kingdom driving licence.
– Ability to use social networks as a platform to reach a different kind of targets.
– Drone video footage. Video footage editing enthusiast.
Certificates/Courses
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) (EU)
Date of Completion: Aug 2018
Provided by Thomson Reuters Accelus
Information Security and Cyber Risk Awareness (Global)
Date of Completion: Mar 2018
Provided by Thomson Reuters Accelus
Anti-Bribery and Anti-Corruption (Global) 2017
Date of Completion: Mar 2018
Provided by Thomson Reuters Accelus
Sanctions (Global)
Date of Completion: Sep 2017
Provided by Thomson Reuters Accelus
Anti-Money Laundering (AML) – Investment Firms (UK and Europe)
Date of Completion: May 2017
Provided by Thomson Reuters Accelus
Treating Customers Fairly (UK and Europe)
Date of Completion: May 2017
Provided by Thomson Reuters Accelus
Regulations Essentials (UK and Europe)
Date of Completion: May 2017
Provided by Thomson Reuters Accelus
Costumer Care
Date of Completion: Feb 2017
Provided by: Interserve
Managing Safely – License 504935
Date of Completion: Dec 2016
Provided by: IOS
QA Level 2 Award in Emergency First Aid at Work (QCF) – License 600/7620/3
Date of completion: Nov 2016
Provided by: Qualsafe Awards
Data Centre Training
Date of Completion: Mar 2015 – Present
Provided by: Interserve
IT Hygiene Health&Safety Course
Date of Completion: Mar 2015
Provided by: Interserve
A Level Sports Course
Date of Completion: Jun 2007
Provided by: Escola Superior de Desporto de Rio Maior – ESDRM
Degree in Journalism
Date of Completion: Oct 2012
Provided by: Instituto Politécnico de Tomar