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Receivables finance industry experts, government agencies, financiers, FinTechs, alternative finance platforms, banks, insurers, and corporates will be gathering in London for the 18th annual Receivables Finance International Convention (“RFIx“).

RFIx is the receivables finance industry's flagship event, which brings together market leaders and new entrants, providing an essential update on the latest invoice financing trends, market challenges, and financial innovation, as well as excellent networking opportunities.

The 18th event will also see the launch of the Receivables Finance International Awards

Speakers
Mark Smyth
Chief Investment Officer, Tawreeq Holdings

Mark Smyth leads Tawreeq Holding’s global investment activities. His financial career spans more than two decades in the areas of investment management, corporate lending, sales management, and mortgage banking with leading companies and new ventures across the United States, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. Prior to joining Tawreeq Holdings, Mr. Smyth developed and managed a financial consultancy based in Dubai, UAE. He began his career in 1992 with the Bank of Montreal’s Harris Trust and Savings Bank and later became a partner with The International Investor of Kuwait, managing one of the firm’s investments in New York before becoming involved with the companies’ acquisition strategy from their Kuwait City office.

Bruno Antunes
Head of Cognitive Computing, Novabase

Bruno Antunes is the Head of Cognitive Computing at Novabase. He holds a PhD in Information Science from University of Coimbra, where he worked as a researcher in several projects in the field of Artificial Intelligence. He was co-founder and CTO at Wizdee, a startup that developed a disruptive product where different Artificial Intelligence technologies were combined to make business intelligence as easy as asking a question in natural language. He then joined Novabase, where he leads a team dedicated to applying the latest cognitive technologies to the most complex problems.

Marc Bajer
Senior Advisor to the Board, PetraTrade Finance

Marc has over 42 years of experience in DCM, SCM, alternative lending, syndicated lending, leveraged lending, insurance, asset management, trading and sales. His responsibilities have included Global Head of Debt and Structured Capital Markets, Global Head of Syndicated Loans and Leveraged Loans and Global Head of Conduits/SIVs. He has also founded non-bank lending platforms and has been the CEO of a global insurance business.

Marc currently advises non-bank and next-gen lenders in the development of their fundamental strategy and direction, the assessment of their strategic risk and the evaluation of market opportunities.

Çağatay Baydar
Executive Chairman, Board of Directors, TEB Faktoring, Chairman, Executive Committee, FCI

Çağatay Baydar has 36 years of professional experience in financial institutions, such as banking, factoring, leasing, real estate development and auditing. He has been working in the factoring industry for over 33 years, and is one of the pioneers who introduced factoring to Turkey. Presently, he is the Executive Chairman of TEB Factoring, the largest export factor of Turkey, one of the biggest in the world and a joint venture of the worldwide financial group, BNP Paribas. TEB Faktoring has been chosen seven times as the Best Export Factor of the year by the members of FCI. Çağatay was the chairman of the FCI between 2011 – 2013 and 2016 – 2019, and has been elected three times as Chairman of the Executive Committee of FCI, the biggest factoring chain in the world.

Maurice Benisty
Chief Commercial Officer, Demica

Maurice Benisty joined Demica in October 2017 from Wells Fargo where he was CEO, Commercial Distribution Finance, responsible for a US$2.8bn receivables business with over 12,000 clients across EMEA and APAC. Maurice joined Wells Fargo from GE Capital through the acquisition of the CDF business. At GE he held a number of senior positions including Chief Commercial Officer of GE Capital International and Head of Origination for the EMEA Leveraged Finance Business. Prior to GE, Maurice worked as a senior investment banker at Lehman Brothers, Bankers Trust and Paribas.

Mencía Bobo
Global Head Trade and Working Capital Solutions, Santander Corporate & Investment Banking

Mencía Bobo is the Global Head of Trade and Working Capital Solutions at Santander Corporate and Investment Banking. She joined Santander almost 20 years ago. Since then, she has held a variety of roles in areas such as project finance, receivable finance and structured trade. Prior to this, Mencía worked as a senior auditor at KPMG in Spain. She has a degree in Business Administration by Universidad Pontificia de Comillas (ICADE) and an Intensive Training course by INSEAD.

Steve Box
Founder and Managing Director, Kata Executive Consulting

Steve is an industry expert with over 35 years of extensive experience in banking and working capital in global markets. He currently holds several senior strategic positions for a number of NBFI fintech companies and industry associations, including: Chairman of Accelerated Payments, CF2H and Smart Business Link and Strategic Advisor to WOA (World of Open Account), Hitachi Capital, OCI Ltd and Muse Ltd amongst others. Steve has previously held a variety of domestic and international roles, including: Deputy Chair and Head of Origination at Channel Capital Advisors LLP, Head of Europe/UK at Falcon Group, International CEO of Europe/Asia and North America at Bibby Financial Services, Global Head of Receivables Finance at HSBC (operating across 30 countries), European Head of Trade, Supply Chain, Commodities and Receivables Finance and CEO at HSBC Invoice Finance (UK) Ltd, Trade Finance and Equipment Finance Ltd (UK). He was previously Chairman of Asset Based Finance Association (UK), Board and Exec Committee member of International Factors Group and Factors Chain International.

John Bugeja
Managing Director, Trade Advisory Network

John Bugeja is a highly experienced trade, supply chain and invoice finance specialist with more than 40 years’ experience in senior leadership roles with HSBC, NatWest, RBS, Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group. John is now Managing Director of Trade Advisory Network Limited, a trade, supply chain and invoice finance advisory network, delivering product development and innovation, operating model design and implementation, training and education and deal structuring and placement solutions to banks, alternative finance providers, fintechs, technology service providers and corporates. John is often called upon to act as expert witness when trade and supply chain finance related disputes go to tribunal or court. Key areas of expertise include origination, risk and governance, product management and development, business development, organisation design, change management, process facilitation, training and management development. John is passionate about promoting the development of supply chain finance in all its forms and was a member of the drafting group that wrote the ICC rules for Uniform Rules for Digital Trade Transactions (URDTT). John is also co-author of LIBF’s Certificate in Supply Chain Finance, FCI’s Supply Chain Finance online learning module and the  ICC Academy’s Advanced Supply Chain Finance online course, a core module of their CTCP programme.

Oliver Chadwick
CEO, OSMO Data Technology

Oliver is the founder and CEO of OSMO Data Technology, a unique technology solution to the problem of how to connect with and then maintain access to the diverse range of accounting software in use by businesses. He came up with the concept of the OSMO Connector based on his experience of working alongside invoice finance providers and the credit insurance markets when at Aon and Jardine Lloyd Thompson.

Jonathan Croft
Managing Director and CIO, Société Générale Factoring

Jonathan graduated from Pembroke College Oxford and started his IT career in 1991 with a European consultancy firm working in the banking and finance sector. 1996 marked his first factoring experience with solution integrations and Y2K migrations. Over the last 32 years he has played major IT roles across Europe from development and infrastructure to architecture and strategy with a strong business mindset. He has successfully led factoring teams through migrations, integrations, joint venture creations and most recently agile, infrastructure and digital transformations. In February 2017 Jonathan joined Société Générale as CIO heading up the Business and Information Solutions Directorate and as an Executive Committee member.

John Davies
Founder and Chairman, Kompli-Global

As a victim of significant orporate fraud in 2014 (the perpetrators have just been jailed), John Davies, Founder and Chairman of Kompli-Global PLC, was motivated to build a business that exposed potential wrongdoing of corporates and their officers that is simply not easily identifiable with the naked or untrained eye. The insight reports provided by Kompli-Global are commissioned by Magic Circle Law Firms, award-winning corporate advisors and compliance teams globally to help them combat financial crime. He is also heavily involved in a wide range of industry initiatives and is Chairman of the Association of Alternative Business Finance. For example, during the Covid-19 crisis he was asked to join a panel of sector experts, that included the Economic Secretary to the Treasury, for Q&A sessions organised for a wide range of parliamentarians by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Fair Business Banking. Topics discussed included the CBILS/BBLS and post-Covid recovery. John is also a member of the CBI’s SME Council and a member of the Financial Ombudsman SME Advisory Group.

Bertrand de Comminges
Managing Director, Global Head Trade Finance Investments, Santander Alternative Investments, SGIIC, SAU

A renowned industry expert, Bertrand is currently the lead portfolio manager for the global Trade Finance strategy at Santander Alternatives Investments, SGIIC, SAU, Santander Holdings´ private investments arm. Previously, Bertrand worked for eight years at HSBC wherein his last role he was responsible for the European business development activities for Global Trade and Receivables Finance. Previously, he was HSBC’s Global Product Head of Structured Solutions and Global Head of Solutions Structuring, among other roles. Before HSBC, Bertrand worked at JP Morgan as EMEA Head Structured Trade Advisory and for RBS/ABN Amro, where in his last role he was EMEA Head of Trade. Bertrand is Co-Chair of the International Trade & Forfaiting Association´s ITFIE working group (Trade Finance Investment Ecosystem), whose efforts are targeted to make Trade Finance an investable asset class for institutional investors. Bertrand is also a Subject Matter expert in the ICC’s Global Supply Chain Finance initiative. Bertrand is a Chartered Actuary, has a full-time MBA from the London Business School, and an MSc degree in Economics and Business Sciences from UCM. On the private side, Bertrand is a trustee of educational charities and is a single father of five young children.

Sean Edwards
Managing Director, Head of Legal – EMEA, Special Adviser – Global Trade Finance Department, SMBC Bank International, Chairman, ITFA

Sean Edwards is Head of Legal at SMBC Bank International plc, part of the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. He is a Special Adviser to the Trade Finance Department of the bank and in the Trade Innovation Unit. Sean is Chairman of the International Trade & Forfaiting Association (ITFA). He helped draft the Uniform Rules for Forfaiting (URF) and the Standard Definitions for Techniques of Supply Chain Finance published by ITFA, ICC, FCI, BAFT and the EBA. He is a former member of the Executive Committee of the ICC Banking Commission and the ICC Working Group on Digitalisation in Trade Finance. Sean is a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Trade Finance Expert Group. He is a non-executive director of KomGo S.A. Sean has written for all the major trade finance magazines and is on the editorial board of Global Trade Review (GTR). He has presented at many conferences.

Richard Ellison
Head of Business Development - Lending, Validis

Richard joined Validis as Head of Business Development for the Financial Services sector (UK & Europe) in September 2016, following 12 years as a client-facing merchant banker in various Banks including Barclays, Santander and Close Brothers.Richard is also the founder and creator of Wanderlust Wine, an importer and distributor of wine made by small, artisanal producers from around the world.

Sebastian Erich
CEO, Intermarket Bank AG

Sebastian Erich started his corporate banking career in 1990 at CREDITANSTALT in Austria. He worked in sales and risk management in Vienna and CEE before moving to Paris / France in 1998 - running corporate client business for HypoVereinsbank / France. After 2 years in Private Equity he moved back to Austria in 2007 joining Erste Group – as a corporate Banker. For 5 years he was responsible for Large Corporate Client coverage in Austria and CEE. In 2013 Sebastian was appointed as CEO in Intermarket Bank AG – the factoring subsidiary of Erste Group in Austria. Since 2017 Intermarket Bank AG has the overall strategic responsibility for Supply Chain Finance in Erste Group with a strong focus on Large and SME clients all over Erste Groups geography.

Simon Featherstone
Chairman, Funding Xchange

Simon has a diverse range of experience in financial services spanning almost 30 years. Most recently, Simon was the Managing Director of the Business Finance Division at specialist bank Shawbrook. Before joining Shawbrook, he was Global Chief Executive of Bibby Financial Services (BFS), the world’s largest non-bank invoice and trade finance business and prior to BFS, he was Managing Director of Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance and Network Director of Lloyds TSB Commercial Banking. Simon has served as CEO and subsequently Chairman of The Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (AMC) Plc and as the Deputy Chairman of the UK trade body the Asset Based Finance Association (ABFA), as well as on the Board of the global trade body, International Factors Group. He has also served as a Non-Executive Director on Bibby Distribution and Bibby Offshore Boards and currently advises a number of SME-focused businesses.

Bert Goldberg
Executive Director, International Factoring Association

Bert is the Founder and Executive Director of both the International Factoring Association (IFA) and the American Factoring Association (AFA).  With approximately 450 members, the IFA is the world’s largest association serving the Factoring industry.  The AFA is the lobbying group in the U.S.A. that works on behalf of Factors to educate lawmakers of the value of Factoring to the U.S. economy.  Bert has a B.S. degree from Cal State University, Northridge and an M.B.A. from Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.  Bert has over 35 years' experience in the Factoring and Asset Based Lending industry.

Alex Hambrook
Strategic Development Director, HPD

Alex is an industry expert with over 15 years' experience within Working Capital Funding, Asset Based Lending and Supply Chain Finance. After amassing 10 years of experience at RBS Corporate Banking he was personally responsible for conceptualising, initiating and successfully delivering the Supply Chain Finance proposition at Europe's fastest growing payments business. In April 2014 Alex founded Tonic Capital Group, advising UK FinTechs on developing and delivering innovative and disruptive lending products to increase income growth, market share and client life. Tonic Capital Group continues to grow its client base. He took on the role of Strategic Development Director at HPD Software in November 2016, taking responsibility for formulating, developing & communicating strategic growth initiatives as well as weighing-up market entry options to existing and new sectors.

Gerard Hartsink
Chairman of the Board, Global Legal Entity Identifier Foundation (GLEIF)

Gerard Hartsink was appointed by the Financial Stability Board as Chairman of the GLEIF Board of Directors. Mr. Hartsink serves as member of the World Trade Board that has the objective to enable global trade. He is active in organizations promoting e-commerce (member of the Digital Economy Commission of ICC) and e-government (member of the Forum Standaardisatie of the Dutch Government). He has broad experience in the payments, securities and forex industry. He served as the Chairman of CLS Bank International, the European Payments Council and of the RMG of ISO 20022 and as Board Member of SWIFT, LCH.Clearnet Group, Euroclear Netherlands, Euro Banking Association (EBA) and Electronic Commerce Platform Nederland. As former Senior Executive Vice President of ABN AMRO Bank he has over thirty years of experience in sales, product development, regulatory affairs, information management and operations. He holds MA degrees in political economy from the University of Amsterdam and in law from the Free University in Amsterdam.

Chris Hawes
Head of Transaction Risk Management – Europe, Global Trade and Receivables Finance, HSBC

Chris has been in Asset Based Lending for nearly 20 years, having been tempted across from mainstream banking. In this time he has worked for International Factors, The Bank of New York, GE Commercial Finance, ABN Amro, RBS and now HSBC.

His experience covers the independent sector, as well as the large commercial bank offerings. Chris has led field exam and underwriting teams as well as having P&L responsibility leading businesses.

In 2008 he moved across to RBS to develop their ABL proposition. In 2010 he was asked to lead the Corporate Business. with a small selected team moved Asset Based Lending into the mainstream of the bank, growing the business from zero to a portfolio approaching £2 billion in a 4 year period.

In 2015 he moved to HSBC to work in their Global Trade and Receivables Finance business, focussing on structured trade and receivables facilities in the Global and Corporate Bank, as well as developing the ABL product in the Bank.

Richard Hawkins
CEO, Atlantic Risk Management Services

Richard established Atlantic Risk Management Services Limited in 1997, the leading provider of ABL ABS Receivables and Trade Finance services including audit, recoveries, training, and work outs. Atlantic RMS works for many of the leading financial institutions in Europe, Asia and the USA. Richard is recognised as one of the leading experts in his field with over 30 years of experience dealing with complex cross border transactions, portfolio management projects, corporate recovery, and credit and tactical risk management. He has published various articles, has spoken at many industry events and is co-author of Asset Based Working Capital Finance, published by Financial World Publishing on behalf of the Chartered Institute of Bankers.

Alice Hu Wagner
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. 

Aaron Hughes
Managing Director, Equiniti RiskFactor

Aaron has over 28 years’ experience as an invoice finance and asset based lending professional. The majority of his career has been spent in senior risk and operational roles, leading large teams and managing diverse portfolios of clients. A former client, Aaron joined RiskFactor Solutions in September 2012 with a remit to widen its reach. His previous roles have included National Head of Portfolio for GE Capital, Head of Operational Credit for Barclays and National Operations Manager at NAB. Whilst at Barclays, Aaron introduced RiskFactor software into the business and so can offer valuable support from personal experience regarding the implementation process for new clients. Aaron has an impressive track record for delivering innovative solutions to loss mitigation in the commercial finance sector. These solutions have ranged from policy refinements to the harnessing of technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of risk management.

Daniel Huszár
Head of Sales, EFCOM

Daniel Huszár is Head of Sales at efcom, a technology company focused on the receivables finance market. Coming from the business and distribution side of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Mr Huszár founded his own advertising agency, before joining efcom in 2012. As Head of Sales, he supports efcom's international business expansion, by defining a global marketing and sales strategy. Mr Huszár is a regular speaker at international conferences hosted by FCI, BCR Publishing and numerous European factoring associations. His main interest and driving force is to add value to the industry through insight about future technologies.

Aman Kohli
CTO, Formely at Microsoft FS

Aman Kohli is CTO for Microsoft Services’ Financial Services and Insurance practice. He's a passionate technologist and comes from leading the architecture of the Innovation Labs of a Tier 1 Full Service Bank. He has interests in Fintech, Digital Banking and Decentralised Distributed Computing. He has spent the last number of years working in the Bank's Office of the CTO, focused on mobile and disruptive technologies like Blockchain, API as well as defining routes to the introduction of PSD2. He also chaired the technical working group of the Fintech and Payments Association Ireland (FPAI). Prior to joining the Bank he worked in the FSI practice for HP Enterprise Services where his main focus was on Front Office Cash trading systems. And his professional journey began with IONA Technologies, a distributed systems and integration, software technology company.

Alexandros Kontopoulos
CEO, NBG Factors S.A & Chairman, Hellenic Factors Association

Alexandros Kontopoulos has a factoring experience of over twenty years. He is founding C.E.O of NBG Factors S.A, a 100% subsidiary of National Bank of Greece, the oldest banking institution in Greece with over 170 years of history. He has served as Head of Factoring Division in Bank of Cyprus (Greece 2002-2008) and Account Manager in ABC Factors (Greece 1997-2002). He is currently chairing the Hellenic Factors Association in which he has served as member of the BOD since 2009. He is also member of the Economics and Statistics Committee of EUF. He has lectured a number of conferences and authored various articles on Factoring. He holds a Master’s Degree in Accounting and Finance from the University of Manchester, UK and a Bachelor’s degree in Financial and Banking Management from the University of Piraeus, Greece.

Jeff Longhurst
Consulting Director, Finativ; Non-Executive Director and Advisor, Invoice Finance and SME Finance

As a Non-Executive Director and Advisor in the Invoice Finance and SME Finance sectors, Jeff works with traditional and Fintech invoice finance providers such as Muse, and with suppliers to those providers such as Credebt and itsettled. He is a Consulting Director within the business services and strategic advisory group, Finativ. Jeff has over 40 years of experience in invoice finance and asset-based lending – over 20 years as CEO/Managing Director working in clearing bank subsidiaries, specialist asset-based lenders and independent invoice finance providers. Responsibility to shareholders ranged from those in the UK to the USA, South Africa and France. His track record sees him focused on growing businesses, including setting up and selling his own invoice finance business and helping businesses that are underachieving to reach their full potential. A past Chair of the Invoice Finance and Asset Based Lending Board of UK Finance and former CEO of The Asset Based Finance Association, he was also a member of the Executive Committee of the EU Federation for Factoring and Commercial Finance. Jeff has an MA in Law from Trinity Hall, Cambridge and is a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Credit Management.

Margrith Lutschg-Emmenegger
Advisor, Quaterback

Margrith Lütschg-Emmenegger has worked in Trade Finance with a special focus on Forfaiting and Factoring for most of her professional life, first with Barclays Bank, and then Midland Bank Aval in London before joining West Merchant Bank where she had Global responsibility for forfaiting and factoring. Margrith joined FIMBank as EVP, responsible for Business Development and was appointed to President in 2004. She retired to become an Advisor to the FIMBank Group and other industry members. In 2014 Margrith was awarded the highest decoration of the Republic of Malta, the National Order of Merit, in recognition of her 'exceptional contribution towards the common good of the Maltese and the development of Malta as a financial centre.' Margrith was educated in Switzerland and was a member of the board of the Swiss Association of Forfaiters in 1983, and also founding Chairman of the Association of Forfaiters in the Americas in 1995. More recently in 1999, Mrs. Lütschg-Emmenegger co-founded the International Forfaiting Association (IFA) were she served as Deputy Chairman until 2003. In 2013 Margrith was elected as Chairman of International Factors Group (IFG). She has also been a regular speaker on the subject of trade finance for many years travelling around the World teaching audiences the benefits of Factoring and Forfaiting.

Mark Mandula
Senior Vice President, United Capital Funding; Chief Learning Officer, BCR Publishing

Mark is an internationally recognised factoring expert, speaker, author, serial entrepreneur and servant leader. He is Senior Vice President of United Capital Funding, a Tampa Bay, Florida B2B and B2G SME commercial finance professional services firm. He was Principal/ Managing Partner from 2000 to 2017 when the firm was acquired and has also served in a National Sales Director capacity. Since formation, United Capital has grown 80 times in annual employed capital to B2B and B2G SMEs and is projected to exceed US$1 Billion in NFE in 2022. Mark has also become an equity owner of BCR Publishing, and will serve as Chief Learning Officer. In this new role, he will lead the expansion of programmes and best of breed events for BCR on a global basis. He believes that “power in knowledge, but only when shared.”

Prior to joining United Capital in 2000, he was principal and shareholder in an investment banking firm that completed over 200 bank industry mergers and acquisitions over a 20+ year span. Following that, he was owner and CEO of a leading credit industry business and was nominated as an Entrepreneur of the Year. He holds an MBA and BBA in Finance and is a 2012 graduate of the Certificate in Private Capital Markets from the Graziadio Graduate School of Business at Pepperdine University, Malibu, California. He has been actively involved in multiple non-profit boards including Eckerd College, Tampa Bay Research Institute and others.

Mark is a regular speaker and has participated in over 250 international conferences and has had more than 1,200 articles published online and in ABA Banking Journal, Mergers & Acquisitions, BCR, FCI and other commercial finance global industry publications both online and in hard copy. He has also contributed to several editions of the World Factoring Yearbook, published by FCI and BCR on a global basis.

Robert Meters
Director, SCHUMANN International

Robert Meters is Director Global Business at SCHUMANN and Director at SCHUMANN International Limited in London. He studied Business Administration and International Management at the University for Economics and Management. He has been in the credit risk management industry since 1993 and has worked for leading information service providers as well as in the telecommunications industry. At SCHUMANN, he advises and takes care of customers in the automation of credit decisions and the implementation of a fully integrated credit management workflow system that also supports onboarding and ESG KYBP processes. SCHUMANN offers the leading credit risk management solution for the financial services sector covering leasing, factoring, banking and trade credit insurance.

Derek Morrison
Chief Revenue Officer, Rimilia

Derek Morrison is the Chief Revenue Officer for Rimilia and is responsible for growing the business across Europe, USA and Asia Pacific. Rimilia is the global solution provider for intelligent cash application, reconciliation and collection solutions. Derek began his career in consumer finance before moving to commercial finance with Edinburgh Financial Trust and James Finlay Bank where he focussed on both on and off-balance sheet leasing and invoice discounting. Derek coupled his passion for both sales and technology and led IBM Software group in their growth markets in Africa and the Middle East. More recently Derek was responsible for Oracle Hyperion Financial Application solutions in the UK and has engaged in countless digital transformations in finance.

Peter Mulroy
Secretary-General, FCI

Peter Mulroy is Secretary General of FCI, the world’s largest network of factoring companies, with its headquarters in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Peter was previously Senior Vice President, International Regional Manager and Managing Director with CIT. He is a past Chairman of FCI, and has served on the FCI Executive Committee for over a decade. Peter has an MBA from Thunderbird, School of Global Management in Arizona. As Secretary General, Peter assists banks, regulators and governments in introducing the concept of and educating people about the role of factoring. He addresses audiences around the world on the subject of factoring and international trade and is generally regarded as an ambassador for the factoring industry.

Anand Nagaraj
Founder and CEO, Invoice Bazaar

Anand Nagaraj is the CEO of Invoice Bazaar, a fintech Supply Chain Finance platform based out of Dubai, UAE. Anand worked as Senior Vice President at Citi’s Commercial Banking division heading its Middle East Products before cofounding Invoice Bazaar. Invoice Bazaar’s team has years of work experience across banking and technology in global organizations like Citi, HSBC and Goldman Sachs. The platform provides opportunity for large buyers to help their SME suppliers by having their receivables paid early. The platform has partnered with London based Advance Global Capital as well as RAKBANK - a leading local bank in the UAE for providing liquidity towards purchase of receivables. Invoice Bazaar has presence in the UAE, India and a recently founded factoring entity at Singapore. 

Tim Nicolle
CEO, PrimaDollar

Tim has approaching 30 years experience in asset-based lending and financing, and in the systems and technologies that power these industries. He is well-known internationally as an expert in securitisation and emerging markets. Prior to founding PrimaDollar, Tim was an equity partner at PwC (CEE region) and was a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank in London responsible for securitisation across emerging Europe, Middle East and Africa

Humphrey Nwugo
Syndications Manager, Afreximbank

Humphrey is a seasoned Banker with over 17 years’ experience in the Financial Services Sector. He holds an MBA from the University of Leicester in the U.K and Bachelors in Accounting from the University of Calabar, Nigeria. He is a member of the Chartered Management Institute (“CMI”) of the United Kingdom and an Associate Member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (“ICAN”). Currently the Manager of Syndications in the Syndication and Agency Department of the African Export Import Bank (“Afreximbank”), he has spent the last eight years working in various departments of the Afreximbank. His work experience includes stints in Investment Banking, Advisory Services, Trade Finance, International Operations and Syndications. He is currently a member of the Forfaiting Working Group of the Afreximbank which is tasked with the responsibility of rolling out the Forfaiting product in the Bank and helping to deepen the Forfaiting in Africa

Richard Olver
Global Head of Invoice Finance, Commercial Finance, Siemens Financial Services

Richard is the Global Head of Invoice Finance in the Commercial Finance Unit of Siemens Financial Services, an organisation with locations in 14 countries across Europe, Asia and the US. Richard started his career at Barclays Bank in the mid-1980s. In 1990 he joined Transamerica Commercial Finance in their risk organisation, and later became the Director of Operations, Quality & IT for EMEA. He went on to join General Electric Distribution Finance as the Central Processing Director for Europe in January 2004. In 2006 Richard furthered his career with Siemens Financial Services in the UK, as Head of Corporate Transformation. In 2008 he joined the UK Executive Management team as Director of Operations, IT & Corporate Transformation before moving to Munich in 2011 to take up the Global Head of Platforms role for the Commercial Finance Unit. In 2016 Richard took up his current role as Global Head of Invoice Finance.

Lasma Orlovska
Director Head of Trade and Working Capital Product Management, Barclays

Lasma is a Director at Barclays, heading up the Trade and Working Capital Product Management team which is part of the Transaction Banking Products and Services within Barclays Corporate. With a background in strategy and management consulting for large international financial services businesses around the world, she joined Barclays five years ago, first working in the UK Retail and Business Banking Strategy and M&A team and later taking on the responsibility for SME client strategy within the Trade and Working Capital business. Currently she is responsible for existing product managements as well as innovation across Documentary Trade, Working Capital and Supply Chain Finance solutions.

Jonathan Parfitt
Director, Origination Corporate & Institutional Banking, ABN AMRO Asset Based Finance

Jonathan has over 25 years’ experience providing asset-based lending (ABL) and trade finance solutions. Based in London, he works with corporate and international clients to provide both receivables purchase solutions, as well as ABL. He generates opportunities from the external market by working with ‘Debt Advisory’ and internally with the Coverage team at ABN AMRO Bank, identifying clients that can benefit from its receivables purchasing and ABL products.

Rudolf Putz
Head of Trade Facilitation Programme, EBRD

Rudolf Putz is Head of EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Programme and has more than 30 years’ experience in financing trade with Eastern Europe, the CIS and the southern and eastern Mediterranean.

Rudolf started his professional career in 1983 as Deputy Head of Commodity Trade Finance at Centro Internationale Handelsbank AG Vienna, a subsidiary of Raiffeisen Bank International.

In 1993 Rudolf joined HELM AG Hamburg as Head of Structured Trade Finance, and from 1996 to 1997 was Deputy Head of Structured Trade Finance at Bank Austria International Trade Services Vienna, a subsidiary of Unicredit.

In 1997 Rudolf became Director Trade Finance at Deutsche Handelsbank AG Berlin, a subsidiary of Credit Agricole, and since 2000 has been developing EBRD’s Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP).

Rudolf Putz holds a Doctor’s Degree from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration.

Mirka Skrzypczak
Head of Working Capital & Trade Products, RBS

Mirka is an experienced Product Head with 14 years’ experience in the banking industry; currently leading Open Account product suite for RBS covering Supply Chain Finance, Invoice Finance and Overdrafts. Her team manages all stages of the product lifecycle including new product development, product strategies, pricing, distribution and servicing of existing products. She joined RBS in 2010 having previously worked for GMAC and GlaxoSmithKline. Mirka has Masters Degree in Economics from University of Economics, Poznan, Poland.

Nick Stainthorpe
Partner, Reed Smith

Nick is a finance partner who advises clients across the globe on a wide range of structured and asset backed financings. He has significant experience in trade receivables securitisation and warehousing for banks, corporates and factoring companies, receivables finance and supply chain finance, collateralised financing and risk transfer trades, receivables platforms, tokenisation and block chain, inventory finance, emerging markets and Islamic finance. Nick participates actively in industry bodies and speaks regularly at events on matters such as the implications of regulation on the finance sector and specialty finance. He hosts the Alternative Finance Investor Roadshow, which is a leading forum for the non-bank finance sector. Nick is listed as a Leading Lawyer by Legal 500 UK 2020 and states that “Nick Stainthorpe consistently excels. He has a strong commercial focus and a thorough understanding of both the law and complex transactional processes. He builds strong client relationships through a very open, two-way communication process.” Legal 500 UK 2019 states that Nick “has very broad experience, is approachable and finds creative solutions to any problems while balancing legal risks”.

Cédric Teissier
Co Founder & CEO, Finexkap

Cédric is co-founder and CEO of Finexkap an alternative financing platform (receivables financing and B2B BNPL) service based in France and with operations in Western Europe. Since launching in 2015, over 20,000 companies have become clients of Finexkap. Prior to that, Cédric was co-founder and Deputy CEO of Palico.In an earlier life, he was a private equity attorney with Debevoise & Plimpton LLC in New York and a placement agent for private equity funds. Cédric is widely recognised as a leader of the French Fintech ecosystem. He is A co-founding member and Vice President of France Fintech, a Fintech advisory member to the World Economic Forum, Vice President of the Fintech Commission of the French Association of Treasuries, and a member of the Forum Fintech of the French financial and prudential regulatory authorities. Cédric is a graduate of Cornell University. He is a member of the French and New York Bar, and a mentor at accelerators Wilco, The Family, and Numa.

Alecsandra Valasuteanu
Head of Factoring, UniCredit Bank Romania

Alecsandra is currently at UniCredit Bank Romania, a member of UniCredit, a leading European bank, and one of the leading providers of factoring, forfeiting and supply chain financing solutions in Romania, holding a market share of 20%. With more than 15 years of experience in the financial sector, Alecsandra started in UniCredit Leasing Romania as Senior Relationship Manager, part of the Equipment and Project Financing Division.

Dirk van Strijthem
CEO, KBC Commercial Finance

Dirk began his career as a Tax Consultant at PWC in 1989 and worked in Brussels, Budapest and London before moving to KBC Bank’s Corporate Banking division in 1993. He worked as a Global Relationship Manager for Multinationals until 2003, when he took on the role of General Manager of Corporate Banking in Brussels. In 2006 he was promoted to General Manager of Group Strategy of KBC Group and assumed his current role, CEO of KBC Commercial Finance, a year later. KBC Commercial Finance has been delivering credit management solutions within a business-to-business environment since 1963 and today offers solutions to companies across the EU and the USA.

Nikolaos Vasilonikolidakis
CEO & Deputy Chairman, Neurosoft

Mr Vasilonikolidakis was born in Athens, Greece in 1965. He holds a Ph.D in Computing and an MSc in Analysis Design and Management of Information Systems from University of London – London School of Economics and Political Science. He has published extensively in international scientific journals in dynamic systems and computer graphics. He was a founding member and partner of Neurosoft and since 1998 he has served as the Company’s CEO. Prior to joining Neurosoft, he was involved in a number of projects as Technical Project Manager in the areas of medical imaging, image processing, visual databases and computer animation. His current interests are in Supply Chain Finance with focus in Blockchain and IoT integration and algorithmic trading.

Venue

The Royal Horseguards Hotel

2 Whitehall Ct Westminster
SW1A 2EJ London
United Kingdom

A stunning five-star hotel overlooking the River Thames near Embankment recommended by Forbes Travel Guide and Condé Nast Johansens. This majestic hotel presides over the River Thames with outstanding views. From glittering chandeliers to contemporary design, this central London hotel opposite the London Eye reflects a proud heritage and fully refurbished Victorian elegance. Enjoy the original tiled floors and discover a hotel with a secret past. Stay in the building that was once the home and office to the first ‘Chief’ of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), Sir Mansfield Cumming, now commemorated with an English Heritage Blue Plaque.

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