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28-29 November
Clifford Chance
London

Accessibility, innovation, efficiency and social impact have become the most looked for goals of modern financial services. Alternative and receivables finance is the industry which has all these ‘must have’ features on offer, hence it will continue to gain more traction in the coming years.

Taking a global perspective, the Alternative and Receivables Finance Forum returns this autumn for a two-day event focusing on the latest trends and developments in the industry, including blockchain, tokenisation, BNPL, DEFi, risk mitigation, regulation and social impact.

It will bring together leaders in alternative finance to explore how the industry is developing and growing following a year of uncertainty.

The forum will be followed by the AI4RF seminar. Presenting an introduction to AI and GenAI, this half day event will provide attendees with a deeper understanding of how these powerful and emerging technologies are impacting the global factoring and receivables finance ecosystem and what this means for your organisation. For more information on the seminar click here.


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Guy Brooks
Head of Capital Raising and Distribution, Pemberton Asset Management

Guy is a Managing Director and Head of Distribution within the Working Capital Finance team at Pemberton. He is responsible for coverage of non-institutional clients and asset managers together with providing product support for the institutional client coverage teams.He brings over 25 years of investment and corporate banking experience within fixed income and trade finance, covering origination, portfolio management, syndications and trading. Prior to joining Pemberton in 2021, Guy was a Managing Director at Deutsche Bank and Global Head of Distribution and Credit Solutions, responsible for all the syndication and hedging activities for their global trade finance business. Guy started his career at Morgan Grenfell in Hong Kong, and then subsequently moved to Deutsche Bank London, where he held a number of positions in the trade finance team. In addition, he held EXCO roles for the Trade Finance and Lending business and the Corporate Bank UK. Guy holds a BSc from King’s College London.

Simon Ellis
Managing Associate General Counsel, Head of Legal GTRF UK and Asset Finance UK, Commercial Banking, HSBC UK

Simon Ellis leads the HSBC UK Global Trade, Receivables and Asset Finance legal team managing legal support for: (i) transactional and other requests for advice involving standard and bespoke documentation for products which include receivables finance, lending, documentary credits, trade collections, bonds/guarantees, supply chain finance, leasing and hire purchase; (ii) resolving complex problems and crisis management which can include operational/business conduct issues, fraud and/or financial crime, litigation, distress in the portfolio, complaints and reputational risk; (iii) structuring solutions for bilateral and syndicated deals, together with participations/disposals both domestic and international.

Baris Karahan
Director, Originator and Structurer, Value Chain Finance, Rabobank

Baris is a dedicated banking professional with international background, currently serving as a Director of Value Chain Finance at Rabobank in London. Previously, he worked in various structuring finance and client coverage roles at HSBC and Rabobank in Istanbul, before relocating to London in 2017. With extensive expertise in structured finance solutions, Baris specialises in designing and implementing structured working capital financing solutions for corporate clients of Rabobank globally, focusing primarily on the trade receivables purchase, securitisation and asset-based lending in the European market. Baris holds a BA (Hons) degree in Business Administration from Bogazici University in Istanbul.

Surath Sengupta
CEO, Aadvos,

Surath is currently CEO of Aadvos Limited, a consultancy firm which specialises in financial supply chains and sustainability. He also holds senior advisory positions in various companies which specialise in financial technology and climate. Previously Surath was a senior banker and was Managing Director and Global Head of Portfolio Management, Distribution, FI and Sustainability for HSBC. He was also a member of the global executive committee of HSBC’s Global Trade and Receivables Finance business. Surath is a recognised industry leader and is Vice Chair of the ICC Banking Commission.

Jonathan Andrew
Global CEO, Bibby Financial Services

With more than 30 years’ experience in commercial finance, Jonathan was appointed as Global Chief Executive Officer of Bibby Financial Services in September 2020. He has an established record of successfully leading, transforming and growing high performing international businesses, in particular as Global Chief Executive of Siemens’ Financial Services Commercial Finance business and a number of GE Capital units. Jonathan has lived and worked Internationally for most of his career and has extensive global experience of the commercial finance landscape and driving values-led change in organisations. He is a founding governor of The Leasing Foundation. Jonathan leads more than 1,000 colleagues throughout BFS operations across Europe and Asia.

Tim Armstrong
Head of Receivables Financing & Data Science, Silver Birch Finance

Tim is a Director and Co-Founder of Silver Birch and leads their Receivables Financing and Data Science team. Tim has 22 years of experience of investment banking and financial services experience, including 8 years in the securitisation teams at Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, syndicating both rated bonds and equity to a wide range of investors. He was also a Managing Director in the Innovation and Incubation team of a UK fintech and spent time in the corporate finance teams of Deloitte and KPMG. Prior to finance, Tim was an officer in the British Army and worked as an engineer with BP. Tim has an MA (Oxon) in Physics from Oxford University and an MBA from London Business School.

Alistair Baxter
Head of Receivables Finance, Taulia

Alistair is Taulia’s Head of Receivables Finance. In this role, he has established and grown a technology-centric family of receivables financing products to further serve their customers’ needs. Before joining Taulia, Alistair spent over ten years in corporate and investment banking at RBS, followed by a short stint at Greensill Capital. He worked in Corporate Advisory, Leveraged Finance, and served as Head of Supply Chain Finance before joining Greensill to bring scale to a structured receivables product line. Alistair is London-based and holds a BSc. (Hons) in Statistics from the University of St Andrews.

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.

Nils Behling
Co-Founder and COO, Tradeteq

Nils is a founder and COO at Tradeteq, the SaaS-enabled marketplace for private debt and real assets. Before entering the fintech space, Nils was a trade finance investor and a portfolio manager for Trafigura’s Galena Asset Management. As a director in Merrill Lynch’s FICC business, he structured complex funding and capital markets solutions for banks and real money clients. Nils started his career as a restructuring attorney with Weil, Gotshal & Manges, working on cross-border debt advisory, business reorganisations and work-outs.

Glenn Blackman
Editor, FundingVoice, Managing Partner, FundInvoice

Glenn Blackman MBA is the Editor of FundingVoice magazine, a free monthly e-publication for SMEs, about business funding and growth. He is the managing partner at FundInvoice LLP, a multi-award-winning business finance quotation search and support service. Having been involved with the business finance sector since 1988, he has worked with a spectrum of lenders from small independent providers to high street banks. He has extensive experience both inside and outside of the finance sector, having been a business strategy and marketing consultant. Glenn is the author of several books, and lives in East Sussex with his wife and young children. He can be contacted at info@fundinvoice.co.uk

Edward Brandler
Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer, Two

Co-Founder and Chief Commercial Officer at Two, the Sequoia and LocalGlobe backed the online B2B invoicing plugin for merchants who want to offer payment terms to their trade customers.

Dominic Broom
Senior Vice President, Working Capital Technology, Arqit

Dominic Broom is a seasoned fintech and transaction banking executive. He has worked in financial services for over 30 years, predominantly at global banks such as JPMC, ABN AMRO and BNY Mellon, where he was EMEA Head of Treasury Services from 2011 to 2019. He specialises in helping businesses optimise their treasury activities. Dominic joined Arqit as Senior Vice President for Working Capital Technology in early 2022, to lead the development of TradeSecure™, the company’s digital negotiable instrument solution. He is a Board Member of the UK’s Institute of Export & International Trade and a former member of the ICC’s Banking Commission.

Soojean Choi
Senior Associate, Clifford Chance

Soojean is a Senior Associate in the Structured, Asset-Backed, Real Estate finance group. Soojean is experienced in advising arrangers, issuers, originators and investors on a range of portfolio acquisitions, and public and private securitisations in the unsecured consumer loan and credit card space, the unsecured SME space, and prime and re-performing RMBS.

Paul Coles
Director – Treasury, Orbian Management; Chair, Market Practice Committee, ITFA

Paul Coles has a specific focus on managing, developing and adding to Orbian's funding relationships for its supply chain finance programmes. Prior to joining Orbian, Paul was responsible for overseeing the transactional distribution activity that supported HSBC’s Global Trade and Receivables Finance business. He has also been the global co-ordinator and EMEA Head for trade risk distribution at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and previously the trade asset management Regional Head at RBS NV, part of the legacy ABN AMRO network, where he was in the London-based trade credit distribution team. He started his career in trade finance over 25 years ago at London Forfaiting Company, where he held a variety of roles. Paul has a BSc in Management Studies from Royal Holloway, University of London and is a member of the Board of the International Trade and Forfaiting Association (ITFA), where he currently chairs the Market Practice Committee.

Simon Connor
Senior Associate, Clifford Chance

Simon is a Senior Associate specialising in securitisations, structured finance transactions, forward flow/factoring arrangements, asset-backed commercial paper conduits and asset-based lending. Simon has considerable experience advising arrangers, originators and investors on complex cross-border securitisations (both public and private in nature) across the spectrum of asset classes, including trade receivables, lease receivables, telecommunication receivables, corporate and consumer loans (including CBILS, RLS and RLS2), and residential mortgages.

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.

Dave Frye
CEO, Levantor Capital

Dave is CEO of Levantor Capital, a leading sales finance provider. With US$13bn+ funded via its large panel of banks and asset managers, Levantor makes it easy for companies to enable their corporate customers to defer payment on invoices. Dave has more than 20 years’ experience helping clients enable sales, manage working capital and efficiently finance assets. Throughout his career, he has worked closely with clients to structure innovative solutions across technology, telecoms, healthcare, consumer products, oil and gas, financial services and other sectors. His experience includes roles at Citibank, State Street Global Markets and McKinsey & Co. Dave holds an MBA from London Business School and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Middlebury College (USA).

Professor Sarah Green
Commissioner for Commercial and Common Law, Law Commission

Professor Green was appointed as Law Commissioner for Commercial and Common Law on 1 January 2020. She was previously Professor of Private Law at the University of Bristol. Prior to that, she was Professor of the Law of Obligations at the University of Oxford. Before embarking on her academic career, she was a software consultant at Accenture. Professor Green has written books and articles on a variety of issues including virtual currencies, blockchain issues surrounding intermediated securities, smart contracts, sale of goods law as applicable to digitised assets, negligence and wage theft.

Dr Rebecca Harding
Independent Trade and Trade Finance Economist; Founder, Rebeccanomics; Senior Fellow, British Foreign Policy Group

Dr Rebecca Harding is a Senior Fellow of the British Foreign Policy Group and an independent trade economist, public speaker and sustainable trade and supply chain specialist. In 2022, she was awarded the Net Zero Entrepreneur of the Year at the annual Scale Up Group’s Enterprise Awards event. She has built three data-based technology businesses in the trade and sustainability space and held senior positions at Deloitte, London Business School, the Work Foundation, and UK Finance, where she was Chief Economist. She acted as Specialist Adviser to the Treasury Select Committee and advised the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Entrepreneurship. She has acted as a trade finance and supply chains expert witness, is a member of the World Trade Board, the ITFA’s ESG Committee and the ICC’s sustainable trade finance technology sub-committee. Between 2004 and 2018, she was a Director and Trustee of the German-British Forum.

Her co-authored books, The Weaponization of Trade: the Great Unbalancing of Politics and Economics and Gaming Trade: Win-Win Strategies for the Digital Era have defined the trade-based nature of modern conflict. She provided the business case for the adoption into UK law the framework to enable digital trade; her work on the ‘regulatory paradox’ of current sustainability reporting requirements has catalysed the establishment of the ITFA’s cross-industry Audit Council to set sustainability reporting and audit standards. She has authored 8 other books on the German economy, global innovation policy, and SME financing and venture capital. Her high media profile includes frequent appearances on BBC television and radio, Sky News, CNBC, and Times Radio, as well as citations in the broadsheet media.

Matthew Hatton
Head of Product Innovation, Traxpay

Matthew has been with Traxpay for over ten years and is responsible for developing innovative and unique solutions in SCF. Prior to this, he was a consultant in international development, implementing financial infrastructure in various emerging and frontier markets. The first fifteen years of Matthew's career were spent at Standard Chartered Bank, where he held various posts in operational and technology departments.

Christian Hausherr
Product Manager Supply Chain Finance EMEA, Deutsche Bank, Chair, Global Supply Chain Finance Forum

Christian Hausherr is the European Product Head of Supply Chain Finance for Deutsche Bank’s Payables Finance solution, bringing to the role over 20 years of experience in Banking, In-house Consulting and Product Management for Cash Management and Supply Chain Finance. Christian spent his career within Deutsche Bank in various divisions and regions, mostly spanning across Europe and the Transaction Banking business. He holds a diploma in business administration from the University of Bayreuth and has worked in Germany, The Netherlands, Great Britain, Spain, the US, as well as in India and Uganda on Corporate Social Responsibility assignments in the financial and educational sector. Christian contributed to the Standard Definitions for techniques of Supply Chain Finance and authored the open account section of the Wolfsberg Trade Finance Principles. He also acts as the chair of the Global Supply Chain Finance Forum (http://supplychainfinanceforum.org/) and as a technical advisor for the Supply Chain Finance section of the ICC Trade Register.

Suresh Hegde
Head of Structured Private Debt, Goldman Sachs Asset Management

Suresh is Head of Structured Private Debt at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. Prior to joining GSAM, he worked at NN Investment Partners where he founded both the Structured Private Debt and Insurance Solutions businesses. He previously held roles in structured finance origination and credit structuring at J.P. Morgan, Bear Stearns, and Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, and as a credit analyst at Standard & Poor’s. Suresh started his career at Linklaters in London. He holds a BSc (Hons) in Political Science from the University of Bristol.

Maya Hennerkes
Director, Green Financial Systems, Climate Strategy and Delivery, EBRD

Maya Hennerkes is Director for Green Financial Systems at the Climate Strategy and Delivery Department of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). She is responsible for EBRD’s sustainable finance methodologies such as Paris Alignment and Green Economy Transition approaches; climate-related lending to financial intermediaries; green capital markets as well as green policy support for financial regulators. She represents EBRD in relevant international forums such as the EU Sustainable Finance Platform and NGFS. Prior to this role, Maya led EBRD’s ESG risk management work with financial institutions and private equity funds. She promotes sustainable financial systems and the integration of climate, environmental and social matters in investment decisions and management. Maya is a sustainable finance and ESG expert with almost 20 years of experience, with previous positions at the Inter-American Development Bank Group in Washington DC and Bloomberg L.P. in London.

She is a member of the Club of Rome’s Think Tank 30 and serves on the Advisory Boards of SustainableFinance.Live and WeShyft. Maya studied economics, political science and Latin America studies in Germany and Spain and holds an Executive Masters in Public Management from the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin.

Dr. Gabriella Kindert
Board Member and Non-Executive Director, Alternative Credit Expert

Dr Gabriella Kindert is a senior banking and investment professional specialising in alternative credit and private markets. She gained over 20 years of international experience in managing investment portfolios over the cycle for leading institutional investors and global investment teams of alternative and fixed income strategies. She held various managerial positions at Fortis Investments Structured Credit, BNP Paribas Asset Management as Global Head of Loans and at NN IP as Head of Alternative Credit. She is currently a Non Executive Director, advisor and board member at several companies focusing on private credit markets (CVI, Neptune Leasing, SME Finance, EG, VER Capital, Dot Investing, ThirdSphere). She holds an M.A. in History, Economics, MBA in Accounting and Finance and a Ph.D. in Finance.

Fadzai Mandaza
Senior Associate, Clifford Chance

Fadzai is a Senior Associate in the Structured, Asset-Backed and Real Estate Finance team. Her experience includes advising arrangers, originators and investors on securitisations and structured debt transactions including residential mortgage-backed securitisations, commercial mortgage-backed securitisations, lease receivables financing, credit card/consumer loan receivables transactions and real estate finance transactions throughout Europe.

Mindaugas Mikalajūnas
CEO, SME Finance

Mindaugas Mikalajūnas is the CEO of SME Finance, a pan-European financial marketplace dedicated to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Under his leadership, the company has provided over €1.5 billion in working capital to more than 3,000 growing businesses across Europe. With 13 years of experience at one of the largest Scandinavian banks, Mikalajūnas is an experienced fintech and banking executive. He and the SME Finance team are committed to broadening access to lending and supporting European businesses in their growth by offering tailored working capital solutions, including factoring, loans, and leasing packages.

Wayne Mills
Founder and Managing Director, Atom Advisory

After a successful 30+ year banking career, Wayne Mills founded Atom Advisory Limited in 2022. Wayne has held various senior leadership positions in Transaction Banking, most recently leading the build-out and growth of the Transaction Banking Solutions team at Lloyds Bank, supporting clients across the UK, EMEA, US and Asia. Combining strategic, technical and commercial acumen, Wayne oversaw the delivery of innovative, risk-appropriate solutions across trade, supply chain finance and receivables. Atom Advisory creates value through expert, real world advice and training on trade, receivables and supply chain financing to banks, NBFIs and corporates. A core focus is to deliver ROI through actionable outputs aligned to strategy and purpose. Wayne also sits on the advisory board of an international training company and is passionate about supporting the next generation of talent to ensure diversity of teams and thought.

Martin Opfermann
CFA, Director, Lead Portfolio Manager Trade Finance, Allianz Global Investors

Martin Opfermann is a senior Portfolio Manager within the Alternative Asset Management team at Allianz Global Investors and is leading the firm’s trade finance activities. Martin joined the firm in 2017 from Allianz Investment Management SE, where he was Head of Credit and in charge of Allianz Group’s credit allocation. In 2009, he spearheaded Allianz’s strategic shift into private markets and executed several debt investment strategies. Prior to that, Martin worked in the Fixed Income team of Allianz Lebensversicherungs-AG. Martin graduated from University of Mannheim as a Diplom-Kaufmann in 2002. He is also a CFA charterholder.

Özlem Özuner
Head of Operations and Finance, Allianz Trade

Özlem joined Euler Hermes in 2011 as CEO of Euler Hermes Turkey where she had worked for 9 years before joining Allianz Trade UK and Ireland as Commercial Director in 2020. As of October 2022, Ozlem joined Allianz Trade E-Commerce team as Head of Operations and Finance.

Özlem has more than 25 years of experience in financial services. She has held several leading roles in banking and finance, including Group Head of Corporate Banking, Group Manager of Retail Banking at HSBC Turkey. She is also familiar with the UK market as she spent time working in the UK as a Global Relationship Manager, Corporate Banking, HSBC, from 2001 to 2002.

Özlem is experienced in driving growth in SME portfolios as well as successfully establishing and managing relationships with large corporates. Ozlem’s area of interest are credit risk, payments and BNPL.

Ben Rieder
Co-founder and CEO, Levenue

Ben Rieder is CEO of Levenue and a seasoned entrepreneur currently disrupting the balkanised start-up financing landscape. He made waves at 25 by founding Bubble Post, later acquired by BPost in 2016. Since then, he's become a prominent angel investor and venture capital partner, specialising in the SaaS industry. Ben's leadership extends to roles within Young-VOKA and several start-ups, earning him accolades such as the esteemed Belgian Entrepreneurship Award. Outside the boardroom, he embraces challenges, navigating mountains on the slopes during winter and lakes as a wakeboarder during summer. Ben embodies resilience and ambition, constantly pushing boundaries both professionally and personally.

Vishal Shah
Head of Embedded Finance, SAP Fioneer

Vishal is the Head of Embedded Finance solutions at SAP Fioneer. SAP Fioneer, a joint fintech venture between SAP and Dediq that began operations in September 2021. Prior to SAP Fioneer, Vishal was the founder of a successful fintech start-up, now called SAP Supplier Financing, which facilitated working capital finance to MSMEs leveraging the Embedded Finance paradigm. He has over 24 years of experience in the financial technology industry.

Rebecca Shepherd
Senior Associate, Clifford Chance

Rebecca is an English law qualified senior associate in Clifford Chance’s banking and finance practice. She is 15 years qualified, spent 6 years in the Istanbul office and is currently based in London. Rebecca specialises in financings in growth markets across Africa, Turkey and the Caspian region. She focuses on projects, trade and export finance. Rebecca works with a number of industry bodies in the development of policy, recommended forms and industry know-how. She also works with clients on their LIBOR remediation and LIBER transition projects.

Abis Soetan
Director, Fund and Asset Manager Group, Fitch Ratings

Abis is a Director in Fitch Ratings’ Fund and Asset Manager Group. His responsibilities include assigning ratings to money market and bond funds, as well as publishing timely research on analytical and regulatory developments affecting the sector. Prior to Fitch, Abis worked in banking and corporate treasury, as well as asset management. Abis holds a BEng & Com from the University of Birmingham and is an alumnus of the Lagos Business School. He also has a Diploma in Treasury Management (AMCT) and Certificate in Financial Mathematics and Modelling (CertFMM).

Chris Southworth
Secretary General, ICC United Kingdom

Chris Southworth is Secretary General at the International Chamber of Commerce UK and a regular voice for business in the international media. He is also Co-Chair of the Legal Reform Advisory Board at the ICC Digital Standards Initiative, Co-founder of the UK Centre for Digital Trade and Innovation and ICC Representative to The Commonwealth. He is a member of the ICC World Council as well as the International Advisory Boards of the Digital Trade Network and Queen Mary-UNIDROIT Institute of Transnational Commercial Law.

Chris is a leading international expert on creating modern digital trade ecosystems, the founder of the ICC Digital Trade Roadmap, a member of the global team supporting the ICC Digital Standards Initiative, ICC G7 United Kingdom representative, a member of the ICC G7, G20, Digitisation and Ecommerce Working Groups. He is also a lead independent adviser to the UK government on the digitisation of trade on behalf of industry working with the Department for International Trade, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, Her Majesty’s Treasury and Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

Prior to joining ICC, he was Executive Director for Global Partnerships, at the British Chambers of Commerce, Head of the International Chambers of Commerce Unit at UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and a Senior Policy Advisor to Lord Heseltine, former Deputy Prime Minister, for his independent review of UK competitiveness. In 2011 he was advisor to the Minister for Trade and Investment for the government review of mid-size businesses and consequent establishment of the mid-size business export programme. Former roles have encompassed deregulatory and social enterprise policy at the Department for Business.

Lorna Strong
Lead global counsel for HSBC Global Trade and Receivables Finance (GTRF)

Lorna Strong, is lead global counsel for HSBC Global Trade and Receivables Finance (GTRF), a business that annually facilitates over USD740 billion of trade with access to 90% of all global trade flows. She provides legal advice and risk management to the business and senior executives; playing a lead role in shaping HBSC's contribution to current regulatory and policy debates on trade finance. As Deputy General Counsel, she manages HSBC legal counsel in over 50 jurisdictions, advising on areas as diverse as digital transformation and electronic commerce, blockchain technologies, international disputes, economic sanctions, and ESG financing. As an adjunct to her practice, she presents and participates in industry and academic forums, including as a member of the ICC (International Chamber of Commerce), Legal Committee.

NLN Swaroop
Global Product Head – Sustainability, Innovation, FIs and Asset Distribution, Global Trade and Receivables Finance, HSBC; Co-Chair, Trade Finance Investment Ecosystem Working Group, ITFA

Mr Swaroop has over 16 years of rich experience across banking and insurance in varied roles ranging from risk underwriting, trade financing, business development, general management and coverage banking in India and the UK. He is an active industry voice at ICC, BAFT and ITFA in developing trade as an investible asset class by attracting greater institutional capital and embedding ESG in trade finance. Mr Swaroop is a chemical engineer by training and holds a Master’s degree in Management for FMS from Delhi University. He has a keen interest in the area of sustainable development, has several papers to his credit and is a regular speaker at various industry forums on sustainability.

Matteo Tarroni
Co-founder and CEO, Workinvoice

With a career spanning over three decades, Matteo is a seasoned financial expert. He is the Co-founder and CEO of Workinvoice, Italy's pioneering invoice trading platform, which has empowered SMEs to access cash through innovative financing models. His extensive experience in corporate financing issues is evident through his roles at Credit Suisse, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, and Mediobanca, where he played a pivotal role in debt capital market origination and corporate finance.

Federico Travella
Founder and Executive Chaiman, NoviCap

Federico is a Belgian-Italian technology entrepreneur and co-founder and executive chairman of Novicap, a venture capital-backed financial technology platform that is building the operating system for working capital. Federico was previously a Managing Director at Rocket Internet where he was pivotal in scaling technology ventures in Asia Pacific and Africa. His most notable involvements were in Lazada (acquired by Alibaba; NYSE: BABA), Jumia and The Iconic. He holds a Master’s Degree in Marine Geology from Ghent University and is a Young Talent Fellow at IESE Business School. Federico also advises the EU Commission on its innovation and entrepreneurship agenda.

Mar Turrado
CEO and Founder, Findango Finance

Mar founded Findango Finance in 2019 and is CEO of the company. Prior to that, she was Managing Director at Ahorro Corporación/Stormharbour LLC, CEO of Savia Financiación Non-Bank Lender and Managing Director at JB Capital Markets Group. Other roles have included CEO of Bravo Capital Non-Bank Lender, Corporate Bank Head at Instituto de Crédito Oficial/ICO, Head of ICO’s agency roles, including Funds for International Cooperation, Board Member of Compañía Española de Financiación al Desarrollo, Board Member of AXIS, the Spanish Government´s main vehicle for venture capital investments and Head of Strategic Clients at the Arcano Group. From 1993 to 2009, she had held various roles in private banking and alternative investment at Citibank. From 1990 to 1993, she was a Senior Equity Analyst at FG Inversiones Bursátiles, acquired by Merrill Lynch and she worked at Arthur Andersen iun Auditing and Special Services from 1988 to 1990.

Michael Vrontamitis
Founding Partner, T3i Partner Network

Michael Vrontamitis is a founding partner of T3i Partner Network LLP. T3i Partner Network is a global collective of industry leading specialists in trade, treasury and technology with a focus on digital innovation. He also advises several start-ups, including Kountable Inc and Silver Birch Finance, and is Deputy Chair of the World Trade Board. A renowned industry thought leader, he is particularly passionate about the intersection between sustainability, technology and finance and the impact digitalisation can have in narrowing the trade finance gap and enabling sustainable supply chains. In his last role, Michael was the lead industry principal for Finastra’s Lending Business Unit, which covered cash management, trade and working capital management, retail and corporate lending at Finastra. Michael spent 25 years with Standard Chartered, spanning both wholesale and retail clients, as well as investor relations, working in Hong Kong, London, and Singapore in a number of leadership positions. His transaction banking roles included the Head of Product Management for cash management, trade and securities services for Asia; the Global Head of Trade Finance Product; and Regional Head responsible for the bank’s trade finance business with European and American headquartered companies, where he led sales, product, distribution, service and implementation in Europe and the Americas. Michael has been a member of the BAFT Board of Directors and BAFT’s Global Trade Industry Council. He was also part of the ICC Banking Commission Advisory Board, where he co-chaired the ICC Working Group on the digitalisation of trade finance and chaired the SWIFT Offshore CNY Best Practice Working Group on Cash and Trade. Michael was recognised by The Asset as The Renminbi Banker of the Year in 2014. He has a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Warwick.

James Watkins
Senior Associate, Clifford Chance

James is a Senior Associate in Clifford Chance’s Structured, Asset-Backed and Real Estate finance group, specialising in structured finance and securitisation. He has experience advising arrangers, originators and investors, including banks, corporates and financial investors, on the financing and securitisation of a range of asset classes. James also has experience advising on related EU and UK regulation, with a particular focus on the EU and UK securitisation regulations.

Richard Wulff
Executive Director, International Credit Insurance & Surety Association (ICISA)

After completing a Master’s degree in Economics, Richard Wulff started his career in 1989 as trade credit insurance underwriting manager and reinsurance director of NCM, a precursor of Atradius, in his native country, the Netherlands. He founded a reinsurance captive for the company in Ireland prior to moving on to Munich Re in Germany. At Munich Re, he managed the non-European credit, surety and political risk reinsurance department until 2008. He then moved to India to become the Chief Underwriting Officer of HDFC-ERGO Insurance Company, a general lines insurance business. Richard subsequently became Group General Manager, heading up the worldwide credit lines at QBE Insurance in Australia, before moving to Hong Kong in that role. He returned to Holland in 2017 to found RW Consulting, a consultancy company for trade credit insurance, surety and political risk (re)insurance. In February 2021, Richard joined the International Credit Insurance and Surety Association (ICISA), an association with which Richard has been actively involved throughout his career in trade credit insurance, surety and political risk insurance, where he currently holds the title of Executive Director.

Geoffrey Wynne
Partner, Sullivan & Worcester

Geoffrey is Head of Sullivan & Worcester’s London office and also Head of its award-winning Trade & Export Finance Group. Geoff is one of the leading trade finance lawyers. He has extensive experience in many aspects of banking and finance, specifically trade, structured trade and commodity finance, and related legal and compliance issues. Geoff has recently been involved in a number of initiatives for trade finance in the digital world including digital payment obligations. He is currently Co-Chair of the ICC Committee which wrote the recently published Uniform Rules for Digital Trade Transactions (URDTT). Geoff sits on the editorial boards of a number of publications and is a regular contributor and speaker at conferences. He is also the editor of and contributor to The Practitioner’s Guide to Trade and Commodity Finance published by Thompson Reuters. He is General Editor and contributor to A Guide to Receivables Finance, a multi-authored publication co-published by Sullivan, Deutsche Bank and the International Trade and Forfaiting Association (ITFA). The team which Geoff leads has won numerous awards, including Best Trade or Supply Chain Finance Law Firm at the Global Trade Review (GTR) Leaders in Trade Awards 2022, and Best Trade Finance Law Firm by Trade Finance Global (TFG) in its International Trade Awards 2022. Geoff is ranked both in Chambers UK 2023 in Tier 1 as a Leading Individual for Commodities: Trade Finance and included in the Hall of Fame by The Legal 500 UK, 2023.


A&RF 2023 - Standard

£1,195.00

A&RF 2023 + AI4RF* - Standard

£1,450.00

Previous sponsors include:

Clifford Chance

10 Upper Bank St Canary Wharf
E14 5JJ London
United Kingdom

Sponsorship

Daniel Huszar: dh@bcrpub.com

 

Speaking

Noreen Meehan: noreen.meehan@bcrpub.com

 

Booking

Yongmei He: yongmei.he@bcrpub.com

 

Other enquiries:

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