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RFIx 22 - Day 1 Replay

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RFIx 22 - Day 2 Replay

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Description

Lockdowns and disturbances of supply chains have forced receivable financiers to reorganise and adjust to new ways of doing business, some of which will remain even after the covid crisis ends. Higher risks and costs, further consolidation of the markets, digitalisation, lead banks and independent receivables financiers to deploy new strategies to ensure long-term survival and growth. Held by BCR publishing, the 22nd Receivables Finance International Convention (RFIx ’22) will bring together the top minds of the industry to discuss what it takes to make the best of the current situation, better manage and grow client portfolios as well as the role of technology as a facilitator. RFIx ’22 will be held in London on 26-27 May and will bring together in person, senior receivables finance executives from around the world, with live streaming also available.

Speakers
John Omoti
Vice President – Supply Chain Finance, Bank of China Limited, London Branch

John currently heads up the development of supply chain finance for Bank of China’s London branch. He previously worked in trade finance teams in Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC), Zenith Bank UK Ltd, GTBank UK, Bank of America, and MUFG Bank (UK). John has over 20 years’ experience in all aspects of trade finance operations, implementation and product management and development working mainly within transaction banking for various banks. He is a Certificated Professional Banker (CCBI) with the Chartered Bankers Institute and is a Certified Documentary Credit Specialist (CDCS), PRINCE2 with an MBA in Finance.

Filiz Unal
Deputy Secretary General, Association of Financial Institutions

Filiz Unal represents the factoring sector at the Turkish Financial Institutions Association (FKB), with 30 years of professional experience in the banking and factoring sectors. Beginning her career in the banking sector she worked in factoring companies for 18 years, specialising variously in marketing, international factoring, client and correspondent relations.

Before joining the Turkish Factoring Association in 2010 as the Secretary General, she was Executive Vice President at Garanti Factoring, responsible for marketing and international departments, and was a member of the Marketing and Development Committee of International Factors Group, Brussels. She is honoured to be the current Deputy Secretary General at the Turkish Financial Institutions Association, which is a semi-governmental organisation for all leasing, factoring and financing companies established in 2013 following the Law on Financial Leasing, Factoring and Finance Companies of December 2012.

Daouii Abouchere
Head of ESG and Sustainable Finance, Channel Capital

Daouii Abouchere is Head of ESG and Sustainable Finance at Channel. In her role, she is responsible for implementing Channel’s ESG framework and driving the sustainable finance strategy across the group, working with clients to develop and execute new ESG and sustainable financing solutions. Daouii is a member of the World Economic Forum, Royal Society of Arts, and is a Senior Advisor at the International Economic Forum of the Americas. She holds an Honours BA in Political Economy from the University of Toronto.

Federico Avellán Borgmeyer
Chief Partner Officer, efcom

With nearly 30 years banking technology experience, such as transaction and payment processing, credit card personalisation, payment and other transaction terminals, AI applications in finance, cryptography, DLT and factoring solutions in many C-suite positions across business planning, finance, M&A, R&D, marketing and sales, operations and after-sales with World Card International, DataCard Corporation, Gemplus/Gemalto, FidelioNetworks, FirstData Corporation, Postbank POS Transact, Tech4Fin Deutschland and Factoring Blockchain Solutions, Federico is the strategic architect and now executer for efcom's new global marketing and sales approach. Federico is also Senior Partner at the Amontis Consulting Group, Executive Board Member at Sevar AG, Board Member at Meshed Systems and holds an MSc from Technische Universität Berlin, MBA Visiting Scholarship from University of Illinois and lectures in Entrepreneurship at the Computer Science Department at the University of Applied Sciences in Darmstadt. He has lived and worked in the Americas, EMEA, mainland China and speaks Spanish, English and German.

Girdhar Bagri
Head, SCF, Product & Anchor Coverage, IndusInd Bank

Girdhar leads SCF business functions of anchor coverage, product design and implementation, digitisation, fintech and other external partnerships for IndusInd. He provides strategic guidance to the SCF teams and has worked closely with leading corporates for structures across supplier/vendor finance, dealer/channel finance, factoring / AOR and other propositions in the SCF domain. Girdhar also has extensive experience in priority sector lending and worked at Axis Bank and ICICI Bank before joining IndusInd. Girdhar has been instrumental in guiding teams to structure innovative solutions for corporates across these sectors – auto and related ancillaries, FMCG, white goods, metals, textiles, agriculture, retail, IT and e-commerce. He brings with him expertise in building business from upcoming themes and adapting to the ever-changing business and technological environment.

Alejandro Battistotti
Fund Manager, Structured Private Debt, NN Investment Partners

Alejandro is a fund manager at NN Investment Partners Structured Private Debt team. Lawyer and sales trader by background with a hybrid set of competences including structuring, trading and business development. Within his role he has a track record of originating and investing several hundred million euros in trade and receivables finance assets. He is a member of Fasanara Capital Advisory Board and ITFA Emerging Leaders Committee. He holds an LLM from the University of Cambridge.

Anil Berry
Group Board Member – Chief Commercial Officer, Allianz Trade

Anil is an Allianz Trade Board Member responsible for Commercial Underwriting, Marketing and Distribution.

Anil has been at Allianz Trade, the global leader in trade credit insurance, for the past 20 years and during this time held leadership positions in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, including being CEO of Allianz Trade in Dubai, Hong Kong and their Multinational business.

A UK Graduate in Economics from the University of East Anglia, Anil began his career at Sun Alliance Insurance in London. He also qualified as an Associate Chartered Insurer. Today he is based in Paris.

James Binns
Managing Director, Global Head of Trade and Working Capital, Barclays

James Binns is the Global Head of Trade and Working Capital for Barclays Bank, which serves corporate, non-bank FI and FI clients globally with teams located in UK, Europe, Americas, Asia and the Middle East. Prior to joining Barclays, James spent 4.5 years at Deutsche Bank where he headed Working Capital Advisory and Trade Finance for EMEA and latterly Global Cross Product Solutions. This followed 20 years at HSBC where James was based across Asia Pacific, the Middle East, USA and UK in a number of senior corporate banking and trade finance roles.

Daniela Bonzanini
Head of International, Banca IFIS SpA, Italy, Chair, FCI

Daniela Bonzanini is the Chairman of FCI. She has had a long career in international trade and factoring with more than 30 years’ experience in international factoring. Her knowledge of the factoring industry has greatly contributed to the development and implementation of new projects mainly focused on innovative products and services. In 2002 she joined Banca IFIS, Italy to start the international activity. She is currently Head of International, responsible for the development of the business and international network. She is also a Member of the Board of the bank’s foreign subsidiaries in Poland and Romania. She was Director of India Factoring and Finance Solutions which was established in India in 2009. From 2006 till 2015 she was a member of the board of A.I.C.E., (Associazione Italiana Commercio Estero) in Milan. She is a speaker at international conferences as well as at FCI Seminars and a lecturer at various universities. After serving the FCI as Chair of the Education Committee, Member of the Executive Committee and Vice Chair, she was appointed Chair of FCI in June 2013 and is currently serving a second term in this role.

Frédéric Bourgeois
Managing Director UK&I, Global Head of Single Risk Business Development, Coface

Frédéric Bourgeois was appointed Managing Director of Coface UK & Ireland in September 2012. He joined Coface in 2004 after 7 years as a financial analyst at Natexis Bleichroeder, covering French, Swiss and German banks and insurance. First in charge of investments and reinsurance within Coface, Frédéric added treasury and refinancing responsibilities, as well as the trading desk specialised in Foreign Exchange guarantees on behalf of the French State, to become Group Finance & Reinsurance Director in 2011. Since joining Coface UK&I, Frédéric also added the responsibility of developing the Single Risk business globally.

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.

Jesse Chenard
Founder and CEO, MonetaGo

Jesse Chenard is a technology entrepreneur and investor with a host of start-ups and exits under his belt including Tremor (NYSE: TRMR) and Image Space Media. Jesse has been focused on using blockchain technology to solve real-world problems since founding MonetaGo in 2014. Earlier this year, MonetaGo deployed its Fraud Mitigation Network in India. Based on Hyperledger Fabric, it is one of the first blockchain networks anywhere in the world to be used for day-to-day operations in the financial services industry. In his role as CEO and chief spokesperson, Jesse has played a key role globally in the education of bankers and regulators on distributed ledger technology with speaking engagements at leading conferences such as SIBOS, the Paris Fintech Forum, Money 20/20, Decoding Digital India and Consensus.

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.

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.

Kevin Day
CEO, Lendscape

Kevin is committed to making Lendscape the technology partner of choice for banks and independent funders operating in the invoice finance, factoring, supply chain finance and asset finance markets.He has spent over 30 years at the company, and during this time, he has held positions as Software Developer, Business Analyst, Product Manager, Product Director, Board Member and COO. Kevin’s detailed understanding of the business, deep knowledge of the complex nature of secured lending products and the dynamics of an ever-changing market has given him a measured and unique perspective on technology and finance. He leads Lendscape with a continuous programme of R&D and investment, working closely with its growing client base to ensure simplified SME finance solutions. This focus on investment has enabled significant company growth and Lendscape now employs a global team to support its technology, business development, and customer support initiatives. While frequently requested for speaking engagements, as an author, Kevin has contributed to industry publications, including the Financial Times, Business Money, and Euromoney, writing on topics such as digitalisation, open architectures, and cloud computing to drive new technology innovation.

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.

Waldo de Vleeschauwer
Founder & CEO, Artis Finance

With over 15 years' in buy-side private debt and equity experience across EMEA and Asia, Waldo has deep knowledge in structured trade and working capital finance, securitisation, loan syndications, origination, asset and portfolio management spanning multiple sectors, commodity groups and finance products. Prior to founding Artis, he co-founded Africa Merchant Capital’s Trade Finance business, where he was Managing Director and Chairman of the Credit Committee. He was formally Head of Structured Finance and Credit and GLI Finance and served on the board of Legion Trade Finance. He holds a B-Tech (Honours) in Financial Information Systems from Cape Peninsula University of Technology.

Hannes Deusch
Counsel, Clifford Chance, Frankfurt

Hannes Deusch has been with Clifford Chance's Frankfurt Banking & Capital Markets practice since January 2011. Hannes is part of Clifford Chance's Frankfurt Structured Finance Group and advises major banks, international corporations and professional service providers on international structured finance transactions and real estate restructuring transactions. Hannes’ particular focus lies on advising on the securitisation of trade receivables in various industry sectors.

Ian Duffy
Founder and CEO, Accelerated Payments

Ian Duffy is the founder and CEO of Accelerated Payments, a company that delivers working capital to SMEs in Ireland, the UK and North America. Through Accelerated Payments, Ian is committed to deliver more flexible and cost-effective funding to the SME market by leveraging leading edge technologies. He is also chairman of a number of high growth companies in the tech and fintech sector. He has significant expertise and experience in supporting the promoters and management of high growth companies to develop and deliver their respective strategies. He also assists and supports the fundraising of capital and debt for these and other companies and has a particular interest in the tech and fintech sectors. Ian has been involved in a number of successful exits for investors and shareholders of private companies including FeedHenry, of which he was Chairman, and Fastway Couriers. Ian completed a B.A.I. in Engineering and Maths and at Trinity College Dublin, has a diploma in Applied Finance from the IMI and is a Chartered Director with the Institute of Directors in Ireland.

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.

Scott Ettien Scott B. Ettien
, Executive Vice President, Financial Solutions & Global Head of Trade Credit, Willis Towers Watson

Scott is the US Trade Credit Practice Leader for Willis Towers Watson. Scott and his team specialize in providing Trade Credit insurance expertise for financial institutions and corporations. Scott joined Willis in 2010 and has built a strong team, mostly made up of former Trade Credit policy and risk underwriters to place and service programs for our various clients.

Prior to joining Willis Towers Watson in 2010, Scott worked at Atradius Trade Credit Insurance, Inc., which is the second largest credit insurance company worldwide. Over his 25 years at Atradius, he held positions in accounting, direct sales, and was the head of sales for the East Region. Scott spent the last five years as the Director of Global for North America. In that role, he was responsible for the commercial development of large global business from both a sales and commercial underwriting perspective. Scott was elected to the Atradius Trade Credit Insurance, Inc. Board of Directors in 2005.

Scott holds a BA in Accounting from the University of Baltimore.

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.

Terry Franklin
EVP, Qualco Technology

Terry Franklin has been in the credit risk and collections industry for 27 years and has deep industry expertise spanning many continents and sectors. He has spent over 15 years consulting with major banking and financial institutions around the globe on their collection and recoveries functions in order to define and implement transformational programmes. Terry’s successes include a number of system implementations for different client organisations in order to deliver significant financial benefit, improved process management, reduced exposure to conduct risk and greater levels of efficiency.

Ignacio Frutos
Global Head of Receivables, Santander Corporate and Investment Banking

Ignacio has over 13 years' experience in corporate investment banking performing different roles in London and Madrid in Structured Trade Finance and Receivables Solutions. Currently as Global head of Receivables, he leads the Receivables business within Santander CIB helping corporates to optimise their working capital needs.

Bob Gravestijn
Strategic Ideator and Business Booster, The Value Department

Bob Gravestijn is a digital business model enthusiast and specialises in business model innovation, ecosystems, partnerships and platforms. He is recognised for his expertise on supply chains, working capital, business sustainability management, and web3: the blockchain-based web including cryptocurrencies, NFTs, decentralised finance, and more. At present, Bob works both as a strategic ideator and business booster at The Value Department, and as a business developer for ABN AMRO Bank. In addition, he's a subject matter expert for the Global Supply Chain Finance Forum, has been featured in BCR's World Factoring Yearbook 2022 and has spoken at several events, including WTO's Global Trade and Blockchain Forum, and SCCMP EDGE conference. For Bob, helping others and businesses reaching their full potential is the most rewarding part of his work.

Christoph Gugelmann
CEO and Co-Founder, Tradeteq

Christoph is CEO and Co-Founder at Tradeteq. He was a managing director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, leading distribution in Europe, Middle East and Africa. He also held senior management positions in sales and trading at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley in London, Frankfurt, and New York. He further served as investment manager in multiple structured credit funds. Christoph holds a Master's degree from the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland.

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.

Alison Harwood
Head of London Branch and Vice-Head of Marketplace Banking, Varengold Bank

Alison heads the London branch of Hamburg-based Varengold Bank, a leading financier of European fintechs, and is Vice-Head of the bank’s Marketplace Banking division. In these roles she is responsible for developing Varengold’s fintech lending business across Western Europe. Widely connected within the European fintech ecosystem and the market for fintech financing, she is always on the lookout for bold and innovative new clients with customer-centric products or services that add significant value. Alison is an expert on the nuts & bolts of setting up and maintaining successful bank-fintech financing relationships and a regular speaker on podcasts and at industry events. Prior to joining Varengold in 2015, Alison worked in structured finance at Barclays and as a tax / financial services regulation lawyer at Linklaters.

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.

Richard Jones
Fineon Exchange

Richard is a senior figure in the Banking, Investment and Insurance markets. In his corporate career Richard has led EU and UK-regulated Investment, Insurance and Banking businesses as CEO. Having led the exit of a bank to private equity, he has more recently advised, led and invested in innovative new businesses across the FinTech sector. He has worked extensively with regulators around the world to improve financial inclusion and to help support sustainable investment and trade flows.

Phillip Kerle
Advisory Board Member, INVIOU
Merisa Lee Gimpel
Managing Director, Head of Innovation & Trade Transformation, Working Capital, Client Products, Lloyds Bank

Merisa Lee Gimpel is responsible for trade solution development, innovation and customer journey at Lloyds Bank. She has over 14 years of experience in commercial banking, with a focus on product development and improving customer journeys in trade finance and cash management. She runs a portfolio of customer-centric core, incremental and transformational projects, in collaboration with a network of strategic partners, which includes fintechs, banks, consortia and importantly customers. Merisa and her team engage customers along the entire solution development cycle, from understanding their biggest pain points (jobs to be done) through to designing and implementing solutions and ensuring these stay relevant through continuous feedback. She sits on the ITFA Fintech Committee, the ICC UK Banking Committee representing the Sustainable Trade Finance Working Group and the BAFT Innovation Council. Prior to joining Lloyds Bank in 2018, Merisa was most recently Product Head of Supply Chain Finance at Citi for the European, Middle East and African region. Merisa holds certificates in International Treasury Management and International Cash Management from the ACT, as well as a BSc. in Economics from the London School of Economics.

Roberto Leva
Trade and Supply Chain Finance Relationship Manager, Asian Development Bank, Co-Chair, ICC Sustainable Trade Finance Initiative

Roberto Leva joined ADB in Manila, Philippines, in 2019 as a relationship manager in the Trade and Supply Chain Finance programme, covering Bhutan, Cambodia, Mongolia, Nepal and Sri Lanka and managing the sustainability initiative of the programme.

Roberto is a banking and trade finance front office professional, who started his career back in 2007 after graduating in management engineering at the Politecnico di Milano, Italy. During his university studies, Roberto also attended Universität Stuttgart, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and KTH Royal Institute of Technology of Stockholm, before being accepted as trainee in A.P.Moller Maersk in Denmark.

Roberto started his career at J.P.Morgan in 2008 as a graduate, rotating for two years in different positions in Frankfurt, London and New York, followed by eight years in the trade finance team in London: until his move to ADB, Roberto looked after the relationships with financial institutions and Asian multinationals located in Europe.

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.

John Lorié
Chief Economist, Atradius Credit Insurance

John Lorié is Chief Economist at Atradius Credit Insurance, having joined the company in that role in April 2011. He is also affiliated to the University of Amsterdam as a lecturer. Previously, he was Senior Vice President at ABN AMRO, where he worked for more than 20 years in a variety of roles in commercial and investment banking. He started his career in the finance department of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. John holds a PHD in international economics, a masters’ degrees in economics (honours) and tax economics as well as a bachelor’s degree in marketing.

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.

Anna-Lena Marx
Associate, Clifford Chance

Lena is an Associate in Clifford Chance's structured debt team. She specialises in structured receivables finance transactions and acts for a wide range of corporates, lenders and intermediaries on factoring, supply chain finance as well as securitisation transactions. Lena also has extensive experience in advising on the financings of other related asset classes including letters of credit, corporate loans and consumer loans. She has particular expertise in the regulatory aspects of structured finance.

Kristin Maxwell
Solutions Consultant, Solifi

Kristin Maxwell is on a mission to help working capital providers grow borrower loyalty and conquer common challenges with dynamic technology. Trained as a commercial loan service provider, she has a unique 15 year background in specialty finance, which includes asset-based lending (ABL), factoring, healthcare finance, payroll finance, staffing services, syndications, as well as software-as-a-service (SaaS) and cloud technology solutions.

A key product advisor, Kristen consults with working capital providers to identify and resolve business challenges, opportunities, and objectives. Her areas of focus are legacy application modernisation, process improvement, automation, and client advocacy. She presents solutions and functional strategies to resolve various challenges via detailed software demonstrations and educates working capital providers about industry trends and how Solifi technology can help them mitigate risk, optimise workflows, make better business decisions, save money, and create better customer experiences.

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.

Pushkar Mukewar
Co-founder and CEO, Drip Capital

Pushkar Mukewar is the Co-Founder and CEO of Drip Capital. At Drip, he is responsible for defining the strategic direction and managing the product, business development, and operations of the company. In his 13-years-long career, he has worked across various geographies and has an in-depth understanding of the global financial services industry. Pushkar realized the huge potential of addressing the working capital gap for small businesses in emerging economies and this became his inspiration behind starting Drip Capital in 2016. Drip offers a unique trade financing product targeted towards small businesses engaged in cross-border trade by making the underwriting and financing of international B2B transactions seamless.

In the past, Pushkar was a venture capitalist at Saama Capital and was involved with several high growth start-ups in India, including Paytm, Snapdeal, and Bluestone. He has also been a Consultant with Oliver Wyman in the US, UAE, and Switzerland, where he advised many financial services clients on strategic and operational issues. He started his career at Capital One where he developed credit risk analytics for the subprime consumer loans business.

Pushkar holds an MBA degree from The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and an MS degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta.

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.

Claudia Perri
Regional Commercial Director, Southern Europe, DACH, Czech Republic and MENA, Lendscape

Claudia is Regional Commercial Director covering Southern Europe, DACH, MENA and Czech Republic at Lendscape, the world's leading technology provider for all forms of secured finance. Over the last 15 years, Claudia has worked with some of the largest banks and financial institutions around the world, helping clients to grow and make SME finance more accessible through digital transformation and process reengineering. She has also been involved in multiple projects aimed at introducing factoring, SCF, and other commercial finance products to developing countries. Prior to joining Lendscape in 2017, Claudia held various roles in factoring software product development, training, and project management. Claudia holds a BSc in Computer Science for Economics and an Accounting & Statistics Certificate.

Simeon Radcliff
Partner, Clifford Chance

Simeon is a Partner in the London Global Financial Markets Group. Simeon has been a Partner at Clifford Chance since 2006. Between 2008 and 2011 Simeon was seconded to Clifford Chance’s Moscow office. He has also worked in Frankfurt and Tokyo. Simeon has extensive experience in the sphere of the financing and securitisation of a wide range of asset classes including trade receivables, lease receivables, operating businesses and loans. He also advises on the restructuring of securitisation and other structured finance transactions.

Baljit Rai
Director of Insurance Litigation, Clifford Chance

Baljit Rai has over 21 years' experience of acting in commercial litigation and arbitration disputes in relation to insurance and reinsurance matters, specialising in advising insureds on policy wordings and policy coverage issues. Baljit has particular specialisation in and regularly advises a number of major banks and other financial institutions on the use of credit insurance as a credit risk mitigant under the Basel Accords and the Capital Requirements Regulation.

Bart Ras
Managing Director, Working Capital Finance Origination, Pemberton Capital Advisors

Bart Ras is Managing Director in Working Capital Finance at Pemberton. He is responsible for solving clients’ most pressing issues related to the financial flows in supply chains. Prior to joining Pemberton in 2021, Bart held senior positions at Greensill Capital, HSBC London, Citibank, Philips NV and ING Bank. He has over 10 years’ experience in supply chain finance and was Head of Business Development for HSBC Global Trade and Receivables Finance in 2013 and 2016. Bart has been a part-time research fellow since 2017 at Windesheim University of Applied Sciences in The Netherlands.

Ali Shafqat
CEO, Qbera Capital

Ali founded Qbera Capital in 2017 having worked for 19 years in banking and financial services, primarily with HSBC and KPMG. Ali has completed transactions in over 6 different jurisdictions across Europe and MENA and has extensive experience in deploying capital across Asset Finance, Structured Debt and Structured Commodity Financing. Ali has worked across various sectors predominantly in oil and gas, metals and mining, agri, infrastructure and transport. Prior to founding Qbera Capital LLP, Ali was based in Dubai with HSBC Middle East heading up their Commodity and Structured Trade Financing, building relationships and executing multi-billion dollar deals across MENA and Africa. With the full P&L responsibility, Ali has experience of actively working with work-out teams for legacy non-performing loan portfolios. Ali spent 6 years of his career working extensively in credit and portfolio management in global roles in HSBC which provided him with a solid risk and operations foundation that has been his strength when structuring and executing complex deals in emerging markets. Ali has demonstrated his ability to develop high performing teams in his senior roles in Saudi Arabia, UK and Dubai. Ali is a fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and has a BA in Economics and Statistics. He has taken various courses for professional development in the areas of risk management (Cambridge University Judge Business School), Trade Finance, Advanced Financial Modelling, Corporate Finance and Funding and International Treasury Management.

Clair Smith
Associate Director, Sustainable Trade Finance, Global Trade & Receivables Finance, HSBC

Clair has over 15 years banking experience gained in key markets including the UK and USA. The majority of her career has been spent directly supporting customers with their working capital and trade finance requirements. In her current role, Clair is bringing sustainability into the heart of trade finance, evolving our solutions to meet the transition needs of our customers and supporting new learning needs across the business. She holds a Honours/Masters degree in Medical Biochemistry from the University of Glasgow.

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”.

Laurent Tabouelle
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.

Lionel Taylor
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.

Johannes Thanner
Chief Operating Officer, Talaria

Designing and executing innovative business models for Munich RE over the last decade, Johannes’ current focus lies on empowering small and medium sized businesses through convenient access to receivables finance. Following the lean startup methodology he has successfully led the journey from prototyping to building one of Munich Re´s top innovation ventures – Talaria. As Chief Operating Officer of Talaria, Johannes has been forming a talented team to unlock the worldwide business potential of this segment. Talaria has entered the Spanish market and is looking to expand next throughout Europe. Partly interlinked but also beyond are his interests in the rise of #Web3 and #WealthTech. Johannes is a CFA charterholder with a German and French diploma in European business studies and an executive education from the University of St. Gallen.

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.

Corine Troncy
Global Head of Trade Credit, American International Group (AIG)

Corine joined AIG as Global Head of Trade Credit in January 2021, overseeing Trade Credit globally for AIG. She has an impressive track record in the trade risk and credit insurance sectors and is a key recognized member of the Trade Credit Insurance community globally.

Previously at Coface Group, where she began her 30-year long career Corine’s acumen and ability to drive sustainable profitable growth led to her managing major international territories. These international responsibilities included serving as Director, UK & Ireland; General Manager, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan; Regional Chief Revenue Officer, North America; Group Chief Commercial Officer and Special Advisor to the Group CEO, France with a seat in the Executive Committee; and CEO, Finland and Sweden.

Corine has a Postgraduate Diploma in European Law jointly awarded by the Law Faculty of LYON III, France, and the Facultat Autonoma of Barcelona, Spain. She also has a Master’s in Marketing and International Trade from LYON III.

Kjell Vegard Opheim
Business Area Manager for Factoring and Executive Vice President, Aptic

With extensive industry knowledge and a deep interest in new technology solutions, Kjell joined Aptic in September 2021. Prior to joining Aptic, he spent more than 20 years at SG Finans AS in Norway (later Nordea Equipment Finance AS) and a decade as Head of Factoring. He is known as “Mr Factoring” in the Nordics and runs courses in Factoring, Working Capital and Receivable Finance for the financial companies organisation, FinFo in Norway. His leadership is based on his deep passion for the importance of combining both technical knowledge and insight in how to motivate people for successful growth and develop an inspiring business culture. Kjell Vegard holds a Bachelor in Management from the BI Norwegian Business School.

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.

Igor Zaks
Co-Founder and Chief Risk Officer, 40Seas

Igor is the Co-Founder and Chief Risk Officer of 40Seas, a fintech platform that digitises and simplifies cross-border trade financing for SMEs around the globe. Igor is a seasoned finance professional, with extensive experience in banking, blue-chip corporates and consulting. Prior to joining the 40Seas founding team, Igor held senior banking roles at Citibank, Daiwa and Eurohypo/Commerzbank, and served as a senior executive at Dell on the financing and risk management teams. He was also a Managing Partner at SCF Capital, where he played a key role in launching one of the first supply chain financing platforms, and is an experienced consultant to many companies in the fintech space. Igor is a frequent speaker at major corporate events and sits on the advisory/editorial boards of TRF News and World of Open Account. Igor holds a Sloan Fellowship MSc with distinction from the London Business School and a Global Professional LLM from the University of Toronto.

Yair Zehavi
Co-Founder & CTO, INVIOU

Yair is an experienced tech entrepreneur with vast background both as corporate and as startup executive. He is the co-founder and is leading the technology areas at INVIOU, an innovative fintech registry platform for financial records. Prior to founding INVIOU, Yair was a key figure in building the revolutionary Israeli National Savings Exchange, where he served as Deputy CEO. Formerly he held executive and managerial positions at both startups and leading tech companies such as NICE Systems and Amdocs.

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Clifford Chance

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E14 5JJ London
United Kingdom


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Hilton London Canary Wharf
South Quay Marsh Wall
E14 9SH London
United Kingdom

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