Simon Paris

CEO of Finastra, Chair of the World Trade Board

Simon takes responsibility for Finastra’s strategic direction and growth. His leadership steers the company as it becomes the world’s leading ecosystem orchestrator for providers and consumers of financial services everywhere. With this clear strategic intent, he champions the company’s core technology solutions and open development platform in accelerating collaboration and innovation, to unlock the potential of people, businesses and communities.A firm believer in the principles of doing well by doing good, Simon chairs the World Trade Board and is passionate about how technology and open trade can drive financial inclusion and improve people’s lives. He also serves on the Board of Directors for Everbridge, a critical event management (CEM) software company, and on the Board of Directors for Thomson Reuters.An inspiring and trusted fintech thought leader, Simon speaks regularly at large-scale events including the annual World Trade Symposium, Paris FinTech Forum and The Milken Asia Summit. He is a strong advocate for diversity and inclusion, with refreshing and candid views on equality in the workplace. Featuring in Bank Innovation’s ‘Innovators to Watch’ list back in 2018, Simon has since been named a top 50 financial technology CEO by The Financial Technology Report two years running, as well as a top 20 CEO in Europe by the Software Report. He was also recognized in the CEO Today Awards 2021.Simon joined Finastra (formerly Misys) as President in 2015, was appointed Deputy Chief Executive Officer in 2017 and became Chief Executive Officer in June 2018. He brings more than 25 years of sales, management and global leadership expertise to the company, having previously held the role of President, Industry Cloud, at SAP. Prior to that he was a senior consultant with McKinsey & Company.He holds a Masters degree in Business Administration (MBA) from the INSEAD Business School in France and a Bachelor’s degree in Business & European languages from the European Business School.Simon is married to Mariola (a Spaniard) and together, they have 3 children aged 21, 19 and 16. They have a passion for adventure travel, movies and time in Spain, one of the four countries in which Simon has lived & worked during his career.See Simon in action on stage here.Connect with Simon on LinkedIn here.

Mathias Cormann

Secretary-general, OECD

Mathias Cormann is the sixth secretary-general of the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD). Before his appointment to the OECD, he served as the Australian minister for finance, the leader of the government in the Australian senate, and as a federal senator representing the state of Western Australia. In these roles, he has been a strong advocate for the positive power of open markets and free trade, and of the importance of a rules-based international trading system.

Between 1997 and 2003, he was chief of staff and a senior adviser to various state and federal ministers and the premier of Western Australia. Between 2003 and 2007, he worked for major Western Australian health insurer HBF in a range of senior management roles.

Having been born in the German-speaking part of Belgium, he migrated to Australia in 1996. Previously, he graduated in law from the Flemish Catholic University of Louvain (Leuven), following studies at the University of Namur and, as part of the Erasmus student exchange programme, at the University of East Anglia.

Johannes Schwarzer

senior fellow, Council on Economic Policies

Johannes Schwarzer is a senior officer in the trade relations division of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) in Geneva, where he is responsible for trade analysis and negotiations in services trade, electronic commerce and investment. Before joining EFTA, he was a fellow at the Council on Economic Policies, investigating sustainability aspects of trade policy and services trade in particular. Mr Schwarzer has also worked on assignments for the International Institute for Sustainable Development and the World Trade Organisation. He holds a PhD in international economics from the University of St. Gallen.

John W.H. Denton AO

Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC)

John W.H. Denton AO is the Secretary General of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

He is also a Board member of the United Nations Global Compact, as well as a founding member of the Business 20 (B20), the Australia–China CEO Roundtable and UNHCR in Australia.

Mr Denton serves on the Board of leading global infrastructure group IFM Investors and is Co-Chair of the Trade and Investment Working Group for the G20 Japan.

He co-led the Australian Government’s 2012 White Paper on “Australia in the Asian Century” and previously chaired the APEC Finance and Economics Working Group.

A former diplomat, Mr Denton served for two decades as Partner and Chief Executive Officer of Corrs Chambers Westgarth, Australia’s leading independent law firm.

In 2015, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia for his services to the business community, the arts and the rights of refugees, including as a founder of Human Rights Watch (Australia) and Teach for Australia.

Mr Denton is an alumnus of Harvard Business School and the University of Melbourne.

Erik van der Marel

senior economist, European Centre for International Political Economy

Erik van der Marel is a senior economist at the European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE), an associate professor at the Université Libre de Bruxelles and a consultant economist at the World Bank. His areas of expertise are in digital trade, services trade, cross-border data flows and associated digital services trade policy.

Before joining ECIPE, Mr van der Marel was a lecturer at the London School of Economics (LSE), where he taught international trade. He has also been a consultant at the OECD, APEC, the ADB Institute (ADBI) and the trade research department of the World Bank.

Mr van der Marel received his PhD in economics from the Paris Institute of Political Studies and did postdoctoral research at the LSE. He has published articles in peer-reviewed journals, book chapters, working papers and reports, and made contributions to research from the ECIPE, World Bank and ADBI on digital trade and services, domestic regulations in digital services trade, and data flows. He has also delivered capacity-building courses for policymakers in national ministries and taught at the European University Institute and the World Trade Institute.

Nathalie Louat

Director of trade and supply-chain finance, financial institutions group, IFC

Nathalie Louat is the director of trade and supply-chain finance in the financial institutions group at the International Finance Corporation (IFC), and is based in Washington. She was previously the senior manager in charge globally of insurance, innovation, capital markets and the Distressed Asset Recovery Program, and before that a senior manager for portfolio operations in East Asia and the Pacific.

From 2010 to 2014, Ms Louat supported the IFC’s financial-sector clients in East Asia and the Pacific, managing a $3 billion portfolio with exposure to 90 clients and 150 projects from Mongolia to the Pacific Islands. From 1999 to 2010, she worked in the structured finance department within the IFC’s treasury vice-presidency, and she has served on the IFC’s diversity and inclusion steering committee. She was selected as a member of the World Bank Group’s sounding board for the change-management process, and received its diversity and inclusion leadership award in 2012.

Before joining the IFC, Ms Louat pursued a career in the securitisation group at Credit Lyonnais. She holds a degree from the French School of Statistics and Economics and graduated as an actuary from the French Institute of Actuarial Studies.

Bindi Karia

Founder, Bindi Ventures

Bindi is incredibly passionate about all things startup in Europe and connecting the dots between Investors, Founders, Corporates and Government, and as a result, has worked in and around technology startups for most of her career. As a Consultant (PwC Consulting), as a Corporate (Microsoft BizSpark /Ventures), as a Startup employee (Trayport), as an Advisor (Startup Europe, TechStars Startup Weekend, Tech London Advocates, European Innovation Council, WEF), as a Connector (GQ UK, the IoD and Evening Standard have all recognised this) and as their Banker (Silicon Valley Bank). She is deeply inspired by entrepreneurship, and is the founder of a Boutique Advisory Firm, bindi ventures, focused on advising and connecting across four core Innovation pillars (Corporate, Startup, VC Managing Partners, Government) for commercial success.

She currently sits on the Advisory Boards of multiple startups, a Venture Debt fund, and is a Venture Partner at Molten Ventures (formerly known as Draper Esprit). She also sits on Corporate Digital Advisory Boards, the Advisory Boards of European Innovation Council, Startup Europe, Tech London Advocates, ICE, BAP, Ambassador for Innovate Finance, Governor at the University of East London, and was appointed by World Economic Forum to their Digital Leaders of Europe Group. She strongly believes in promoting Women in Tech, and as such, many of her Advisory Board roles are for women-founded businesses.

She joined Silicon Valley Bank where she launched SVB’s early stage banking efforts in Europe, as well as driving the Bank’s relationships with Corporate & Emerging VCs. Her passion for entrepreneurship was cemented as Venture Capital/Emerging Business lead at Microsoft UK. For five years, she lead and grew the Microsoft Startup business in the UK where she focused on how Microsoft could drive success for early-stage technology companies, and partnered extensively with the UK Investor Community.

Thomas Boué

Director-general, policy, EMEA BSA, The Software Alliance

Thomas Boué oversees the public-policy activities of the Software Alliance (BSA) in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. He advises BSA members on public policy and legal developments, and advocates for the views of the ICT sector to European and national policymakers. He leads on security and privacy issues as well as broader efforts to improve intellectual-property protection and promote open markets, fair competition and technology innovation in new areas such as cloud computing.Before joining the BSA, he served as a consultant at Weber Shandwick, where he advised clients on a wide range of technology and ICT-related policy issues and represented them before EU institutions and industry coalitions. In this role, he also served as a policy and regulatory adviser for telecom operators in Europe and the United States. He previously worked for the EU office of the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry, where he was responsible for lobbying activities towards EU institutions in the areas of trade, education and labour, and for organising and running seminars on EU affairs for professionals and small and medium-sized businesses.Mr Boué holds an MBA from the Europa-Insitut in Saarbrücken, a certificate of integrated legal studies from the Universities of Warwick, Saarland and Lille II, and a bachelor’s degree in law from the University of Lille II.

Christoph Gugelman

Co-founder and chief executive, Tradeteq

Christoph Gugelman is a co-founder and the chief executive of Tradeteq, a technology firm serving banks and institutional investors. He was previously a portfolio manager at Galena Asset Management, owned by Trafigura, and a managing director at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, where he headed all public and private side market solutions teams for Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Before that, he held management positions at Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley in London, Frankfurt and New York. He graduated in finance and business administration from the University of St. Gallen.

Anne McElvoy

executive editor, The Economist

Anne McElvoy is a former foreign correspondent and columnist. She began her career on the Times, covering east Germany, German unification, the Balkans and Russia before becoming Deputy Editor of the Spectator and Political Columnist of the Daily Telegraph. Most recently she was Executive Editor of the London Evening Standard and the newspaper’s political columnist. She joined The Economist in January 2011. Ms. McElvoy also presents the BBC arts and ideas programme “Night Waves” and is a regular panellist on the BBC Radio 4 “Moral Maze” and BBC2 “Review Show”. She also makes political documentaries.

John Ferguson

practice lead, globalisation, trade and finance, Economist Impact

John Ferguson is the head of the globalisation, trade and finance practice at the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). He leads the EIU’s strategic efforts focused on globalisation across sectors and geographies. A sought-after commentator, his delivery style provides context to global issues in an insightful and accessible way, supported by his 15 years in policy and economic analysis.

Previously, as director of macroeconomics, he guided the EIU’s global economic analysis across 200 countries. Before this, he was the director of country analysis and global forecasting. A trained economist, he has a breadth of research experience using econometrics, macroeconomic analysis and political-economy analysis. His research has covered many of the major factors affecting the global economy: climate change, geopolitics, flows of foreign direct investment, artificial intelligence and global employment patterns.

Mr Ferguson holds a master’s degree in international economics from the University of Sussex, where he specialised in macroeconomics and trade, and an honours degree in psychology from the Australian National University.

José Viñals

Group chairman, Standard Chartered

José Viñals is the group chairman of Standard Chartered. He began his career as an economist and a member of the faculty at Stanford University before spending 25 years at the Central Bank of Spain, where he rose to be the deputy governor. He has held many other board and advisory positions, including chair of Spain’s Deposit Guarantee Fund, chair of the international relations committee at the European Central Bank, member of the economic and financial committee of the European Union, and chair of the working group on institutional investors at the Bank for International Settlements.

Mr Viñals joined the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2009 and stepped down in 2016 to join Standard Chartered. At the IMF he was the financial counsellor and the director of the monetary and capital markets department, and was responsible for the oversight and direction of the fund’s monetary and financial sector work. He was the IMF’s chief spokesman on financial matters including global financial stability. During his tenure at the IMF, he was also a member of the plenary and steering committee of the Financial Stability Board, playing a key role in the reform of international financial regulation.

Charly Gordon

Global Policy Lead, International Chamber of Commerce

Charly Gordon is Global Policy Lead at the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris where he focuses on policy issues linked to small and medium-sized enterprises and the digital economy. Prior to taking on this role, Charly Gordon held several posts within the UK Foreign Office and Department for International Trade. He is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Sciences Po.

Julian David

chief executive, techUK

Julian David is the chief executive of techUK, the leading technology trade association that aims to realise the positive outcomes of what digital technology can achieve through innovation and collaboration, and serves on its board of directors.

Julian led the transformation of techUK from its predecessor Intellect in 2015, putting an increased focus on the growth and jobs the technology industry offers in a global economy. He has since led its impressive expansion driving forward the tech agenda in key areas such as skills, digital ID and public sector transformation, now leading techUK’s 70-strong team and representing over 850 member companies, comprising of global and national champions and more than 500 SMEs. In 2020, techUK joined forces with TechSkills, the employer-led organisation that aims to improve the talent flow of talent into the digital workforce, of which Julian is now interim CEO.

Julian has extensive executive experience, being a member of the UK Government and Industry Cyber Growth Partnership, the Digital Economy Council, and the Department of International Trade’s Strategic Trade Advisory Group. As an expert in healthcare tech and international trade, he sits on the Executive Board of DIGITALEUROPE and is a member of the Board of the Health Innovation Network and the South London Academic Health Science Network.

Julian has over thirty years of experience in the technology industry. Prior to joining techUK, he was Vice President to SMB and the Public Sector at IBM for eight years, covering central and local government, healthcare, education, and defence and public safety, and worked as a consultant helping SMEs establish successful operations in the UK.

Linda Yueh

Economist, Oxford University and London Business School

Dr Linda Yueh is Fellow in Economics at St Edmund Hall, Oxford University, Adjunct Professor of Economics at London Business School, and Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

She is Chair of Baillie Gifford’s The Schiehallion Fund Ltd and Non-Executive Director of Rentokil Initial plc, SEGRO plc and Fidelity China Special Situations plc. She is an Adviser to the UK Board of Trade and Member of the Independent Review Panel on Ring-fencing and Proprietary Trading.

She has written/edited 10 books. Her latest book is The Great Economists: How Their Ideas Can Help Us Today, which was The Times’s Best Business Books of the Year, and Newsweek magazine’s Best Books of the Year.

Guy Platten

Secretary general, International Chamber of Shipping

Guy Platten has been the Secretary General of ICS since August 2018.

He has extensive experience in the maritime industry both at sea and ashore and is a qualified Master Mariner. He has held a number of senior positions including Chief Executive of the UK Chamber of Shipping, Chief Executive of Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (a ferry and port owning company providing lifeline ferry services to communities in Scotland) and Director of Marine Operations for the Northern Lighthouse Board which is responsible for lighthouses, buoys, beacons and Aids to Navigation throughout Scotland and the Isle of Man.

Guy’s career at sea began in 1982 with the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Service. He joined the RNLI in 1993 as an Inspector of Lifeboats, latterly as Inspector for Scotland training and overseeing lifeboat crews around the coast and following this he served with the MOD as a Salvage Officer and led or contributed to a number of projects including the removal of oil from a sunken World War 2 battleship, recovery of ditched aircraft and the refloating of a grounded warship.

Charlotte Hogg

Chief executive, Europe, Visa

Charlotte Hogg is an executive vice-president at Visa and chief executive of its European operations. She brings more than 25 years of experience in financial services, bank operations and management consulting to her roles, having most recently served as chief operating officer of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2017. She previously led retail distribution for Santander in Britain and worked at Experian as the managing director of its British and Irish operations. She also served as chief executive of Goldfish Bank at Discover Financial Services, and earlier in her career was a managing director for strategy and planning at Morgan Stanley and a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, based in the United States.

Ms Hogg holds a bachelor’s degree in economics and history from the University of Oxford, has been a Kennedy Memorial Trust Scholar at Harvard University, and received an honorary doctor of laws from Warwick University. She serves on the board of Now Teach and as a non-executive director of RELX.

Tom Delay

Chief executive, The Carbon Trust

Tom Delay was appointed as the first chief executive of the Carbon Trust in 2001. Since then, he has grown the company as it advises businesses and governments on reducing carbon emissions and developing low-carbon technologies, markets and businesses. More recently, he has taken the company’s unique capabilities to China, Singapore, Mexico, Brazil and South Africa, extending its mission to speed the move to a sustainable, low-carbon future.

A chartered engineer, Mr Delay worked for Shell for 16 years in commercial and operations roles in Africa and Europe before moving into management consultancy with McKinsey and A.T. Kearney. He is a member of Britain’s Energy Research Partnership and the advisory boards of the Centre for Climate Finance and Investment at Imperial College London and the Global CO2 Initiative at the University of Michigan. He studied mechanical engineering at the University of Southampton and completed an MBA at INSEAD, Fontainebleau. In 2018 he was appointed as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for services to sustainability in business.

Bunmi Bajomo

Chief operating officer, CIB

Bunmi Bajomo is the chief operating officer and group head of corporate banking at Ecobank Transnational Inc. (ETI). She has over 20 years of experience in corporate, investment, private and business banking, trade finance, credit administration, stockbroking, and portfolio and asset management. She joined ETI from First Bank of Nigeria, where she was group head of corporate banking for manufacturing, with direct responsibility for Nigeria and subsidiaries across the bank’s global footprint.

Her previous roles included divisional head and director of corporate banking at Coronation Merchant Bank of Nigeria, senior relationship manager at Citibank Nigeria, where she also established the local corporate business, head of business banking at Stanbic IBTC, various senior roles at the Investment Banking & Trust Company, and relationship officer for institutional banking at Guaranty Trust Bank. She started her career as a research analyst at First Bank of Nigeria.

Ms Bajomo is an economics analyst on Nigerian television and radio and an honorary senior member of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, and is a chartered stockbroker and authorised dealing clerk of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics with first-class honours, and a PhD in international monetary economics, from Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria, and a master’s degree in economics and finance from the University of Warwick, where she was a Chevening Scholar.

Stanislav Shmelev

executive director, Environment Europe Foundation

Stanislav Shmelev is an ecological economist, chief executive of Environment Europe Ph.D.Limited. He has a Ph.D. in Ecological Economics and Mathematical Methods (2003), is a LEAD Europe Fellow (2007), and was named one of the top four most promising young economists in the world by the Handelsblatt Newspaper and the Institute for New Economic Thinking. He is a member of the TRIUM EMBA 2021 cohort at the London School of Economics and Political Science, New York University Stern School of Business, and HEC Paris. Dr Shmelev is focusing on macroeconomic sustainability, sustainable cities, circular economy, environmentally extended input-output modeling, multicriteria decision aid, environmental policy issues, renewable energy and impact, and ESG Investment.

Graham Floater

chair, G7 digital trade group

Graham Floater is the UK’s Chief Negotiator for Trade with the United States. He is also the Policy Director for Trade in Services, Investment, and Digital. Graham was Chair of the Digital Trade programme under the UK’s G7 Presidency, culminating in the G7 Digital Trade Principles. He was also Chief Negotiator with Switzerland and Singapore, including for the UK-Singapore Digital Economy Agreement. Previously, he was Deputy Director at the Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit and held various posts in HM Treasury including Head of Banking and Risk and Head of European Economic Negotiations.