Alternative & Receivables Finance Forum

Partner, Mayer Brown

Kate Ball-Dodd has a wide-ranging corporate practice that encompasses corporate finance, mergers and acquisitions (including public takeovers), equity fund raisings, joint ventures, and corporate governance. She acted on the acquisition of the commercial distribution finance business from GE Captial by Wells Fargo in 2016. Kate is recommended in numerous directories including as a leading individual in Legal 500 2016 and 2017.

Head of Supply Chain and Trade Finance, AIG

Marilyn is head of supply chain and trade finance for AIG Europe and in that role also leads the global trade finance centre of excellence as well as the trade-related blockchain applications. Marilyn joined AIG in 2015 to focus on implementing AIG’s funded and unfunded supply chain finance product and to support AIG’s trade finance receivables and securitization transactions. Marilyn previously worked in the international banking and finance practice for global law firm Hogan Lovells in London and New York. Marilyn was also seconded in-house to Citibank’s trade transaction services EMEA team including commodity trade finance, supply chain finance and risk optimisation divisions. Marilyn specialises in trade and commodity finance law focussing on working capital solutions as well as general lending with a variety of security structures for a range of financial instructions, alternative financiers and obligors across numerous jurisdictions.

Executive Chairman, Banco BNI Europa

Pedro is an innovative, agile and multi-award winning banking leader with over 25 years' international financial services experience with leading blue-chip institutions across three continents in progressive leadership roles, both executive and NED, in Investment Banking, Wealth Management, general management, business development, strategy and latterly in FinTech.

Director BDRC Continental & Editor, SME Finance

Shiona Davies is an acknowledged expert on SME finance and the author of the SME Finance Monitor, a half-yearly report looking into SMEs and their access to finance. This independent report, published by BVA BDRC since 2011, is used by government, banks and business groups to inform the debate around lending to SMEs. It has been quoted widely in the national and international press and Shiona regularly presents its findings at events and conferences. Shiona’s background is in financial services: having started her career with NatWest, she moved to the research agency in 2000 and has been involved in a number of major assignments for financial and public sector clients, including the SME Finance Monitor and the new Independent Service Quality Survey for business current accounts, with results published online and in all major bank branches.

Leading Researcher & Journalist in Alternative Finance

Andy Davis is a UK-based writer on investment, finance and business. He spent 15 years as a journalist on the Financial Times, where he held a series of senior roles including Development Editor and most recently editor of FT Weekend. Andy writes for a range of newspapers and magazines and is the author of several research reports on alternative sources of finance for small businesses including the first Beyond the Banks report, published by the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts in September 2011; Seeds of Change, published by the Centre for the Study of Financial Innovation in July 2012; and Crowdfund Investing Platforms, an edition of the US Online Banking Report published by Finovate in May 2013, which examines 16 platforms from the UK and US, and Innovations in Access to Finance for SMEs, published by the Assocation of Chartered Certified Accountants’ Global Forum for SMEs in February 2014. He is associate editor and investment columnist for Prospect, the monthly current affairs magazine, and in May 2012 was named Personal Financial Journalist of the year in the Wincott Awards.

CEO, ArchOver

Angus Dent is the CEO of ArchOver, the peer-to-peer business lending platform which connects businesses requiring finance with investors seeking a secure and favourable return. Angus co-founded ArchOver in 2014, having seen the opportunity to use technology to match businesses requiring finance with investors seeking higher returns. ArchOver has now lent over £40million to UK SMEs and delivered over £1.6million in interest to its network of Lenders, with no Borrower defaults, no losses and no late payments. ArchOver is a member of the long-standing, privately owned Hampden Group. Angus qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Price Waterhouse, and has held a number of senior directorships in AIM and TSX listed companies. Angus was CFO of OneClickHR PLC (1999 – 2006), which provided human resources software to small and medium sized enterprises. He was CFO of Synchronica (2006 – 2011) before becoming CEO (2011 – 2012). Synchronica originated and licensed software to the telecoms industry, and was acquired in 2012.

CEO, Funding Options

Conrad Ford is Founder and CEO of Funding Options, the UK's leading business finance marketplace and a Bank Referral Scheme platform designated by HM Treasury. Funding Options helps firms to raise £ tens of millions in finance each year from dozens of lenders. Previously, Conrad served in the group strategy team at Barclays.

Head of Strategic Partners, Iwoca

Colin is currently the Head of Partnerships at iwoca, the award-winning alternative lender. He is responsible for growing iwoca's loan book through partnerships and oversees collaborations with the likes of NatWest/RBS, Tide, Xero and Funding Options. He is also responsible for sales through commercial finance brokers and accountant referrals. Prior to joining iwoca, Colin was the Commercial & Product Director, at Redbus Media Group, a specialist media owner, where he was responsible for partnerships with Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's. Colin started his career as a strategy consultant at Accenture and has also worked in commercial roles at Littlewoods Gaming and betfair.

MD Strategy, Economics and Business Development, British Business Bank

Alice Hu Wagner leads Strategy, Economics and Business Development at the British Business Bank. She is responsible for the overall strategy of the BBB, all economic forecasting and analysis, as well as leadership on business/product development and innovation. Alice joined the BBB in April 2015 from Barclays plc, where she was the senior lead director for Group Strategy. Prior to spending 5 years at Barclays and Barclaycard, she worked in London for Lloyds Banking Group and Prophet, a strategic marketing and brand consultancy. She began her career at McKinsey and Company, latterly specialising in corporate finance and strategy. 

Head, Esme Loans

MD of Esme Loans Ltd a leading and fast growth SME unsecured digital lending platform. Richard is an innovative Senior Banker with deep knowledge and experience across the breadth of Retail, Commercial and Institutional Banking and senior representation in the financial services industry. Prior to founding and launching Esme Loans, Richard headed up the RBS Structured Finance business focused on providing structured lending solutions to the Global Financial Services and Funds industries, including wholesale funding to the alternative lending market.

CEO, Afaafa

Geoff Miller spent twenty years in the UK financial services industry, as an analyst and as a fund manager, focused within the Financials sector. As an analyst he led the number one-rated UK small and mid-cap Financials team, and as a fund manager ran the largest listed Financials fund in London. He moved offshore in 2007, working in Moscow and Singapore before moving to Guernsey, from where he built GLI Finance into a leading investor in the alternative finance sector. Leaving at the end of 2015, he is now a Director, Adviser, Mentor and Investor across the alternative finance and broader fintech sector. In addition, he serves as Chairman of Globalworth, a Guernsey-registered real estate business investing in Romania, as well as acting as a Non-Executive Director of a number of other finance companies.

Co-Founder and CEO, Tallysticks

After a successful career as a quantitative analyst at JP Morgan and as a US-diplomat, Kush caught the entrepreneur bug starting a successful, small business. An outside-the-box thinker, he saw the potential of the blockchain in trade finance as an importer, exporter and investor and founded Tallysticks.

Partner, Norton Rose Fulbright

James is a partner at Norton Rose Fulbright in its Sourcing and Technology team. He specialises in outsourcing, information technology, and intellectual property law. James has extensive experience advising financial services and fintech clients in IT and business process outsourcing, block chain, DLT, systems procurement, network infrastructure and cloud computing. He has advised on some of the largest projects which include a $2.2bn middle and back office outsourcing as well as on a wide range of non-contentious technology and outsourcing matters.

Managing Director, CODIX Group

Laurent is Managing Director of CODIX Group, an international commercial finance software provider, editor and integrator of the iMX solution. The technology supports all aspects of corporate/commercial finance, including PO finance, factoring, international/two-factors, reverse, classical, invoice discounting, asset-based lending, supply chain and inventory finance, leasing, as well as sophisticated debt collection capabilities. With a staff of 880+ business and technical experts located in 16 countries, CODIX delivers its iMX solution worldwide to clients of various sizes from SMEs to international groups, and always with a comprehensive suite of services, including system customisation, on-site training and assistance, as well as expert-level business recommendations and project management. Laurent’s entire career has been in IT for the financial/SCF industry, first in the business systems analysis space, then projects and products management, evolving into management roles. Laurent has been CODIX Group’s COO since 2010.

Managing Director, Trade Advisory Network

Lionel Taylor is a trade, supply chain and invoice finance specialist with more than 30 years experience in senior leadership roles with major financial institutions including RBS, Rabobank, Citibank and Lloyds Banking Group and with non-bank independents.

Now Managing Director of Trade Advisory Network Limited, which specialises in the strategic development of global supply chains, trade and invoice finance with a client base of regional banks, independent finance providers, fintechs and technology providers, his key areas of expertise include new business strategy, turnaround, organisation design, new product design, product management, marketing, origination, credit, team building and training.

He has extensive experience of operating in Asia where he led the cooperation on trade and supply chain finance between RBS and Bank of China, established an independent finance company facilitating trade between Asian and Western SMEs and assisted in the development of the Chinese factoring industry. Today, he continues his close involvement in the region, working with government agencies, banks, independent funders, investors and others who are looking to promote and extend trade and supply chain finance in the region.

He currently is a Non-Executive Director of a growing UK-based fintech, sits as the independent credit committee member for another non-bank finance provider and is also co-author of the ICC Academy’s Advanced Supply Chain Finance online course, a core module of their CTCP programme.

He continues to be engaged in advising a number of financial institutions, fintechs and technology providers on the development of their trade and supply chain finance businesses and is frequently invited to comment and write for specialist international trade publications as well as chairing and speaking at international events.

Managing Director UK & Benelux, Spotcap

Niels Turfboer is the Managing Director of Spotcap and has over 20 years of experience working in financial services. After time at ABN AMRO and ING, he founded and grew an education business, going on to join MarketInvoice as Head of Investor Development. Today, in addition to leading the revolution in fintech with Spotcap, he is on the advisory board of Fiduciam and Alterest Investment Technologies. Niels has an MBA from IE in Madrid, with a specialisation in strategy and finance at the Leonard N Stern School of Business, New York University.

COO, Trade River

Guy has extensive experience across all sizes and sectors of business, having worked with a range of companies; from start-ups through to £20bn turnover businesses. An experienced financial services professional he has lent over £500m to all size businesses including FTSE 100 & FTSE250. He has led businesses and worked on boards in London and SE England and has worked globally in the USA, Middle East, Australasia and the EU. Guy’s love of both technology and challenge saw him working in an AIM-listed tech company in the 2000s and now at a growing fintech business.