About Aldervane
Investigators first. Since 2014.
Aldervane was founded by a financial crimes prosecutor's investigator and an investigative journalist who kept meeting at the same dead end: open-source research that found plenty and proved nothing. We built a firm to close that gap.
Our story
Built to finish the work.
In 2014, the open web already held the answer to most of the questions our founders were asked. What it lacked was discipline: a way to collect it lawfully, preserve it properly and reason about it carefully enough that someone could act.
Catherine Vale had spent eighteen years tracing money for prosecutors and had watched promising leads collapse because nobody could prove where a screenshot came from. Tomas Reyner had run a verification desk and knew that a confident answer and a correct one are not the same thing. They started Aldervane with four analysts, a written methodology and a rule that has never changed: we do not report what we cannot prove.
Twelve years later, that rule runs through a team of 160 investigators, analysts, linguists and engineers, a platform built around evidence, and more than 2,600 closed investigations.
We do not report what we cannot prove. When we cannot prove it, we say so, and we say what it would take.
Catherine Vale, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder
By the numbers
Twelve years of measured results.
What we value
How we behave when nobody is checking.
Finish the work
A list of leads is not a deliverable. We stay with a question until it is answered or until we can explain precisely why it cannot be.
Prove it
Every claim traces to preserved evidence. Every judgment carries a confidence level. Every attribution survives an independent challenge.
Say no
We decline roughly one in seven requests because the purpose, the method or the client does not meet our standards. That is a feature.
Stay independent
Our fee never depends on what we find. Clients receive the answer the evidence supports, including when it is not the one they wanted.
Look after our people
Our analysts see the worst of the internet. Structured welfare support, rotation and counseling are part of the job, not a perk.
Teach what we know
We publish our methods and train client teams, because a field with better tradecraft is safer for everyone it touches.
Leadership
The people accountable for the work.
Every member of our leadership team has run investigations themselves. Most still review casework every week.
Catherine Vale
Chief Executive Officer and Co-FounderSpent eighteen years in financial investigations before founding Aldervane, most recently leading a financial investigations unit at a national prosecution service.
Tomas Reyner
Co-Founder and Head of InvestigationsFormer investigative journalist and verification editor. Leads the investigations practice and reviews every high-profile attribution.
Dr. Amara Okafor-Lind
Chief Methodology OfficerDoctorate in intelligence analysis and a former analytic standards lead. Owns our methodology, confidence language and red-team program.
Jonah Whitlock
Chief Technology OfficerFifteen years building collection and evidence platforms. Architect of the Aldervane platform, from Capture in 2018 to Screen and Atlas.
Daniel Okoro
Chief Operating OfficerFormer intelligence operations officer. Runs the 24/7 watch floor, staffing and delivery across 14 time zones.
Lena Fairbanks
Director, Financial Crime and Due DiligenceFormer head of a bank financial intelligence unit. Leads fraud attribution, asset tracing and ownership investigations.
Priya Sandoval
Director, Protective IntelligenceFormer protective operations planner. Leads threat assessment, executive exposure reduction and protective monitoring.
Nadia Ferreira-Holt
Director, Screening and Insider RiskRan personnel security and vetting programs for a critical infrastructure operator. Leads identity integrity screening and insider risk investigations.
Mei-Lin Castellanos
Director, Supply Chain IntelligenceFifteen years as a trade compliance investigator. Leads sub-tier supplier mapping and forced labor, sanctions and diversion work.
Henrik Aslaksen
Director, Geopolitical RiskFormer foreign correspondent and crisis analyst. Leads the six regional desks, event verification and country risk assessment.
Marek Halloran
General Counsel and Head of StandardsChairs the standards committee that screens engagements and oversees evidence handling, data protection and ethics.
Milestones
How we got here.
Growth has always followed method. Each new practice opened only once we could deliver it to the same standard as the last.
Our team today: former law enforcement and prosecution investigators, journalists and researchers, financial crime specialists, analysts and linguists, and the engineers who build the tools they rely on.
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2014
Founded with four analysts
A written methodology and one rule: do not report what you cannot prove.
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2016
First government and law enforcement clients
Evidence packages built for disclosure become a standard deliverable.
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2017
Due diligence practice launched
Ownership and integrity work for banks, funds and law firms.
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2018
Aldervane Capture goes live
Every item collected is now hashed and logged at the moment of capture.
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2019
24/7 watch floor opens
Threat monitoring and protective intelligence move to round-the-clock coverage.
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2020
Influence operations practice formed
Coordinated campaign detection and attribution for governments and platforms.
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2021
Training academy opens
Our investigators begin teaching tradecraft to client teams.
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2022
Supply chain intelligence practice formed
Sub-tier supplier mapping for forced labor, sanctions and diversion exposure.
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2023
Pro bono program launched
Dedicated analyst hours for organizations fighting trafficking and exploitation.
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2024
Screening and insider risk practice opens
Aldervane Screen goes live for identity integrity checks at volume.
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2025
Regional desks and Aldervane Atlas
Six desks begin verifying events against client sites and routes.
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2026
2,600 investigations closed
Eleven disciplines, 160 people, 41 working languages and clients in more than 30 countries.
Pro bono
The same standard, given freely.
Since 2023, two percent of our analyst hours each year have gone to organizations fighting human trafficking and the exploitation of children and vulnerable workers.
Pro bono cases receive the same methodology, the same evidence handling and the same red-team review as paid work. The only difference is the invoice.
Start an engagement
Bring us the question nobody else could answer.
Tell us what you need to know and why. A senior investigator will scope it with you, tell you candidly what open sources can and cannot establish, and propose a plan with a fixed fee and a firm timeline.