Dr. Jacob Daniel Portelli

Jacob joined E&S Group as a legal trainee in March 2018. Prior to joining E&S Group, Jacob had interned at a leading law firm in Malta, assisting in criminal, family and civil law matters. Jacob holds a Bachelor of laws with Honours and a Master of Advocacy degree from the University of Malta. Jacob completed his studies with a legal paper on Investor Protection in Financial Services. He has also completed a Master’s degree in International Business and Corporate Finance Law at the Liverpool John Moores University with a dissertation on Anti-Money Laundering Legislation and Cryptocurrency within the European Union. Jacob has been greatly involved in student organisations, previously occupying the role of President of the Malta Law Students’ Society, Education Commissioner of the National Students’ Council and the Faculty of Laws Student Representative. Jacob was also a Board Member of the Refugee Appeals Board. Jacob is now focusing on client relations and business development to help maintain a holistic relationship between E&S and its clients.

Jacob is fluent in English and Maltese.

Karl Schranz

An accountant by profession, Karl spent 10 years working for a reputable audit firm in various audit roles before joining JP Morgan Chase in London in 2005, specifically working in Credit Hybrid Derivatives. He then returned to Malta to head the corporate finance arm of a local audit firm. In 2009, together with Christian, he was one of the founding members of a Corporate Services Provider in Malta, leaving to set up E&S Consultancy in 2010. Karl heads E&S’ ICO and Tokenomics department, however, his competences include advising and assisting in all MFSA licensing processes, accountancy, Token structuring, iGaming, and all aspects of corporate finance.

Karl is fluent in English, Italian, Maltese.

Dr. Deborah Vella

Deborah graduated as Doctor of Laws in 2015, admitted to the bar in 2017 and has been working with E&S Group for the past six years within the Corporate and Legal Department. Her main areas of practice are corporate and commercial law. Deborah also takes particular interest in gaming, employment, residency matters and intellectual property issues. In the professional field, she is subscribed as a member of the Malta Chambers of Advocates and the Malta Institute of Taxation where she has read the Professional Certificate of Taxation. In 2017, she took a managerial role within E&S Group heading the corporate team. Her responsibilities were managing and supervising the corporate team, as well as assisting with legal expertise and client relationships together with the Board of Directors. In the first quarter of 2019 Deborah continued to exercise her abilities and corporate expertise by heading also the Corporate Legal Team.

In light of the above, the Directors have promoted Deborah to be the Chief Business Development Manager of E&S Group. Whilst she will continue to be of support towards the corporate and legal team within the firm, her main focus will shift to being the interface with top tier clients and ensuring that such are serviced in the best possible way. Deborah will nonetheless continue to oversee and supervise all that is related to gaming, employment and IP. As the company’s CRM she will also be engaged in a business development role which involves the planning and executing of offline business development and marketing for the Group.

Deborah is fluent in English and Maltese with a proficient understanding of Italian.

Deborah specializes in corporate, commercial, restructuring, gaming, tax, IP and private client matters.