Highlights from the World Trade Symposium, June 2016

Ken Ash

Director of Trade and Agriculture, OECD

Ken Ash

Director of Trade and Agriculture, OECD

Prior to becoming OECD Director of Trade and Agriculture in 2008, Mr. Ash had served as Deputy Director since 1999. Mr. Ash leads OECD efforts to develop and communicate evidence-based advice to governments, with the aim at helping them improve the domestic and international performance of their policies in the areas of trade, food, agriculture and fisheries.

Upon joining the OECD Mr. Ash brought with him 20 years of extensive experience from the Government of Canada where he held several senior positions in Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada. As Director General, Economic and Policy Analysis, from 1995-1999, he provided strategic policy guidance on key agriculture and trade policy issues and on government-wide policy and institutional reforms.

Mr. Ash, a Canadian national, holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree and an MBA (International Business and Resource Management).

Roberto Azevêdo

Director-General, World Trade Organisation

Roberto Azevêdo

Director-General, World Trade Organisation

During his time as Director-General, Ambassador Azevêdo has overseen two successful WTO Ministerial Conferences – in Bali and Nairobi – which delivered a series of significant outcomes in support of growth and development.

During his tenure Ambassador Azevêdo has prioritised efforts to increase the trading capacity of developing and least-developed countries. Along with advances in negotiations, he hosted the 5th Global Review of Aid for Trade, supported the renewal of the Enhanced Integrated Framework into its second phase, and created the Trade Facilitation Agreement Facility to ensure that developing and least-developed countries can access the support they need to implement the Agreement.

As Director-General, Ambassador Azevêdo has also overseen the expansion of the WTO membership, with the accessions of Yemen, Seychelles, Kazakhstan, Liberia and Afghanistan. In addition, he has taken steps to strengthen the WTO Secretariat, putting in place a range of reforms to improve the service provided for WTO Members, including increasing resources in the dispute settlement system.

Ambassador Azevêdo holds a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Brasilia. He subsequently attended the ‘Instituto Rio Branco’, the graduate school of diplomacy run by the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Relations, prior to joining the Brazilian Foreign Service. His first diplomatic posting was to Washington, then the Brazilian embassy in Montevideo, before being assigned to the Permanent Mission of Brazil in Geneva. Roberto Azevêdo served on WTO dispute settlement panels and was named head of the Brazilian Foreign Ministry’s Dispute Settlement Unit where he remained for several years. During his tenure he acted as chief litigator in many disputes at the WTO. From 2006 to 2008 he was Vice-Minister for Economic and Technological Affairs at the Foreign Ministry in Brasilia. In that capacity he was also Brazil’s chief trade negotiator for the Doha Round and other WTO issues. In 2008 he was appointed Permanent Representative of Brazil to the WTO and other International Economic Organisations in Geneva.

Steven Beck

Head of Trade Finance, Asian Development Bank

Steven Beck

Head of Trade Finance, Asian Development Bank

Steven is head of trade finance at Asian Development Bank (ADB). In the nine years Steven has been with ADB he managed exponential growth of ADB’s Trade Finance Program and implemented its first supply chain finance business.

Also at ADB, Steven initiated the International Chamber of Commerce’s Trade Finance Register, which compiles the only industry wide statistics on trade finance default and loss rates. These statistics underpinned changes to Basel III regulations, freeing billions of dollars to support trade in emerging markets.

In 2013, Steven led an ADB study that, first the first time, quantified trade finance market gaps and their impact on economic growth and jobs.

Steven started his career in international finance as a Special Assistant to the (former) Canadian Minister for International Trade, Michael Wilson, dealing with issues related to Canada’s export credit agency, Export Development Canada.

He subsequently spent over six years with Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) where he was Senior Manager, originating and structuring a wide variety of short and medium term international transactions largely focused on Latin America.

Steven left CIBC to help design and implement the start-up of a new multilateral development bank, Black Sea Trade & Development Bank (BSTDB), where he focused on Turkey, Russia and former Soviet Union countries. Following four years at BSTDB, he had various assignments as a senior consultant, including with USAID working in southern Africa and a start-up financial institution in Armenia.

Steven is on the Advisory Board of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Banking Commission. He is a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Working Group for Trade Finance.

Steven has an M.A. from The Fletcher School, Tufts University, MA, USA and a B.A from Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada.

Shawn Donnan

World Trade Editor, Financial Times

Shawn Donnan

World Trade Editor, Financial Times

Shawn Donnan leads the FT’s coverage of trade, globalisation, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank from his base in Washington. He previously served as World News Editor, coordinating the FT’s international economic and political news coverage. In that role he oversaw the paper’s award-winning coverage of major news events including the Eurozone crisis and the Arab spring.

Mark Elborne

President & CEO, GE UK & Ireland

Mark Elborne

President & CEO, GE UK & Ireland

Mark is President & Chief Executive Officer of GE UK and Ireland.

GE has over 20,000 employees in the UK and Ireland, with 60 major sites, of which more than 40 engage in R&D, manufacturing and servicing high technology products in the energy, aviation, defence, healthcare, industrial sensing, oil & gas and transportation sectors. The UK is also home for the Global HQ’s of GE Oil & Gas, GE Healthcare and GE Capital International.

Mark joined GE in 2004 as Executive Vice President and General Counsel of GE Insurance Solutions (ERC), based in Kansas City, MO.

In 2006, Mark moved to Brussels as Vice President and General Counsel, Europe and European Regulatory Affairs, GE International and returned to London to his current role in 2009.

Mark graduated with Honours in History & Politics from Exeter University in 1979 and attended the College of Law in London (1979-81). He qualified as a solicitor in 1983. Mark was admitted to the Missouri Bar in September 2004.

Mark is 57, and is married with five children. He lives in the UK.

Philippe Gelis

CEO & Co-founder, KANTOX

Philippe Gelis

CEO & Co-founder, KANTOX

Philippe Gelis is CEO and Co-Founder of Kantox, the foreign exchange specialist company head-quartered in London with a main operations office in Barcelona. Before founding Kantox in 2011 with Antonio Rami and John Carbajal, he was a strategy and management consultant at Deloitte. Philippe began his career working for Renault Suisse as a financial controller. He then gained invaluable experience in the banking industry as a consultant. He is specialised in corporate finance and business strategy. Philippe has a MSc in Business Strategy and an MBA in Corporate Finance, both from Toulouse Business School. Philippe has won a string of awards for contributions to entrepreneurship and finance, among them the Yared Award 2015 to financial innovation and the Digital Entrepreneurship 2014 by FICOD. Philippe Gelis has been recognised as one of the Top 100 Fintech Influencers in 2015.

Pankaj Ghemawat

Economist, Global Strategist, Speaker and Author

Pankaj Ghemawat

Economist, Global Strategist, Speaker and Author

Currently the Anselmo Rubiralta Professor of Global Strategy at IESE Business School and Global Professor of Management and Strategy and Director of the Center for the Globalisation of Education and Management at NYU Stern. Between 1983 and 2008, Pankaj Ghemawat was on the faculty at the Harvard Business School where, in 1991, he became the youngest person in the school’s history to be appointed a full professor. He was also the youngest “guru” included in the guide to the greatest management thinkers of all time published in 2008 by The Economist.

Ghemawat’s books include Commitment, Games Businesses Play, Strategy and the Business Landscape, Redefining Global Strategy, Cases about Redefining Global Strategy and World 3.0, which won the Thinkers50 award for the best business book published in 2010-11. Other recent honors include the McKinsey Award for the best article published in the Harvard Business Review and the Irwin Educator of the Year award from the Academy of Management.

Ghemawat has also written more than 100 research articles and case studies, and helps companies and business schools better understand and address the opportunities and challenges associated with globalisation.

Ghemawat’s specialties include: Global strategy, Globalisation of Business Education, Competitive Strategy, and Game Theory.

Michael Gidney

CEO, Fairtrade Foundation

Michael Gidney

CEO, Fairtrade Foundation

Michael had previously worked in international development for 20 years, with a particular focus on poverty reduction and small enterprise development, helping producers identify and access markets. This has led him to believe that there is no better model for ending poverty than through enabling fairer trade and that Fairtrade, when it works well, can be transformational.

Before joining the Fairtrade Foundation as Deputy Executive Director in 2009, Michael spent eight years as Director of Policy at Traidcraft, where he led their research and advocacy programme on issues including international trade policy, corporate accountability, competition and responsible sourcing.

Pascal Lamy

President Emeritus, Jacques Delors Institute and Former Director-General, World Trade Organisation (WTO)

Pascal Lamy

President Emeritus, Jacques Delors Institute and Former Director-General, World Trade Organisation (WTO)

From September 2005 to August 2013, Pascal Lamy served for two consecutive terms as Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO). A committed European and member of the French Socialist party, he was Chief of Staff for the President of the European Commission, Jacques Delors, from 1985 to 1994. He then joined the Credit Lyonnais as CEO until 1999, before returning to Brussels as European Trade Commissioner until 2004. Mr. Lamy holds degrees from HEC School of Management, the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (IEP) and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA).

In 2015 Pascal Lamy was appointed interministerial delegate for the preparation of the French candidature for the Universal Exhibition 2025. He shares his other activities between the Jacques Delors Institute as President Emeritus, the Presidency of the World Committee on Tourism Ethics, the Vice-Presidency of the Foundation for European Progressive Studies (FEPS), the Co-chair of the Equitable Access Initiative (Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria), his participation to the Global Ocean Commission and UNAIDS as well as different subjects related to international affairs. He is also President of the Board of Directors of the Musiciens du Louvre of Grenoble MDLG (Orchestra of Marc Minkowski), member of the Board of Directors of the Fondation Nationale des Sciences Politiques, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the Thomson Reuters Founders Share Company, Transparency International France and the Center on Regulation in Europe (CERRE), member of the Advisory Board of Transparency International and of the Oxford Martin School and affiliate Professor at HEC. He also currently serves as chair of the Global Agenda Council on global governance at the World Economic Forum.

Pascal Lamy is author of various books and reports on global governance, Europe and international trade. His latest publications are: Oxford Martin Commission: “Now for the long term” (2013, http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/commission/Oxford_Martin_Now_for_the_Long_Term.pdf ); “The Geneva Consensus” (Cambridge University Press, 2013); “Quand la France s’éveillera” (Odile Jacob, 2014)

In a recent poll casted by the British magazine Prospect (April 2014), Pascal Lamy is in the top 50 of the world’s leading thinkers. He is also ranked among the 100 most influential thinkers of the “Thought leader Map 2015” published by the Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute.

Hosuk Lee-Makiyama

Director, European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE)

Hosuk Lee-Makiyama

Director, European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE)

Hosuk Lee-Makiyama is the director of European Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE) and a leading author on trade diplomacy, EU-Far East relations and the digital economy.

He is regularly consulted by governments and international organisations on a range of issues, from trade negotiations to economic reforms. He appears regularly in European, Chinese and US media, and is noted for his involvement in WTO and major free trade agreements. He was also named “One of the 20 most influential people for open internet” by the readers of the Guardian UK in 2012. He was the first author to argue for a WTO case on internet censorship in China.

Prior to joining ECIPE, he was an independent counsel on regulatory affairs, competition and communication, Senior Advisor at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, representative of Sweden and the EU member states towards the WTO and the UN, including WIPO and UNECE. Lee-Makiyama is also a Fellow at the department International Relations at the London School of Economics, and currently shares his time between LSE and ECIPE.

Douglas Lippoldt

Senior Trade Economist, Global Research, HSBC Holdings

Douglas Lippoldt

Senior Trade Economist, Global Research, HSBC Holdings

Douglas Lippoldt is Senior Trade Economist in the HSBC Global Research economics team. He joined HSBC in August 2014 coming from the OECD in Paris where he worked for 22 years in various roles as a senior economist. Prior to that, he served seven years as an international economist with the US Department of Labor in Washington, DC.

Doug’s central focus is on international trade issues. He has published extensively on trade topics as well as related aspects of economic development, labour market adjustment, innovation and intellectual property.

Doug holds a PhD in Economics from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po), an MA in International Studies from the University of Denver, and a BA in International Studies from Washington College in Maryland, USA. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Cologne, Germany. He represents HSBC as the deputy delegate on the B20 Trade and Investment Taskforce.

Alexander R. Malaket

President, OPUS Advisory Services International and Deputy Head of the Executive Committee, ICC Banking Commission

Alexander R. Malaket

President, OPUS Advisory Services International and Deputy Head of the Executive Committee, ICC Banking Commission

Alexander R. Malaket, CITP, is President of Canadian consultancy OPUS Advisory Services International Inc., established in 2001, focusing on international business, trade and investment with a specialism in trade finance. Alexander has undertaken a range of consultancy assignments, from operational and tactical to technology, to global strategy, for clients around the world and has developed and delivered training seminars and programs in numerous markets including Toronto, New York, London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Dubai and Taipei among others.

Mr. Malaket is an internationally recognized expert in international business, trade, investment as well as trade finance and supply chain finance, contributing regularly to industry publications like Trade Finance Magazine, Trade & Forfaiting Review, Global Trade Review, Cash & Trade Magazine and Trade and Export Finance. Alexander speaks and chairs panels at top-tier conferences and events around the world, and is the author of “Financing Trade and International Supply Chains”, Gower/Ashgate Publishing, UK 2014.

Mr. Malaket has been nominated, elected or invited to contribute to various organizations in several capacities, including:

• Member of the Board of Directors and the Board Nominating Committee, FITT Ottawa
• Deputy Head of the Executive Committee, International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) Banking Commission, Paris
• Co-Chair of the Academic Committee, ICC Academy (Trade Finance and International Banking), Singapore
• Nominated National Expert, Trade Finance, UN/CEFACT, Geneva
• Member of the Trade, Finance and Development Experts Group, E15 Initiative (World Economic Forum and ICTSD), Geneva
• Canadian Delegate, B20/G20 Consultations for 2015 (Financing Growth Task Force) and 2016 (SME Development Task Force) and Co-Chair, ICC Banking Commission B20/G20 Consultations
• Member of the International Affairs Committee, Canadian Chamber of Commerce, Ottawa

Áine Markham

International Board Member, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Áine Markham

International Board Member, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Áine Markham trained as a general and paediatric nurse in Ireland. She worked with MSF in the field between 1994 and 1998, before moving to the headquarters in Brussels where she held the position of Operational Coordinator and later Director of Operations. In 2004, she became an independent consultant, a move that coincided with her living in Ghana and Bolivia. Since returning to Belgium in 2011, she has worked with a number of international NGOs, Foundations and Academic Institutions on different public health issues. In 2014, Áine was elected to the board of MSF Belgium.

In 2015 she was elected to the MSF International Board where she now serves as Vice-President.

Simon Paris

Joint Chair, World Trade BoardPresident and Chief Sales Officer, Misys

Simon Paris

Joint Chair, World Trade Board
President and Global Sales Officer, Misys

As President and Chief Sales Officer, Simon has responsibility for the entire Misys go-to-market organisation including sales, pre-sales, partners and marketing. Simon joined Misys in June 2015 and brings more than 15 years’ sales, management and leadership expertise to the company.

Simon came to Misys from SAP where he held a number of senior sales and leadership positions including Global Head of Banking and Global Head of Financial Services. He was then appointed President of Strategic Industries and served most recently as President Industry Cloud with responsibility for driving SAP’s global go-to-market efforts for its applications portfolio across 25 industries and two core lines of business. He was also responsible for driving SAP’s simplification efforts around strategic pricing, solution marketing and solution management; and specific business development / co-innovation.

Simon was formerly a senior consultant with McKinsey & Company.

Simon holds a master’s 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.

Wisam Salih

Founding Director, Council on International Policy (CIP)

Wisam Salih

Founding Director, Council on International Policy (CIP)

Wisam Salih is a Founding Director, Council on International Policy (CIP). With an interest in security, trade, and the politics of the Middle East and North Africa, he completed his Master’s of International Trade (M.I.T.) degree from the University of Saskatchewan (2013). Wisam sits on the Executive Board with the Canadian International Council (NCB). Wisam is an Alumni Ambassador of the Center for Global Politics (CGP) with the Freie Universität Berlin, having completed a Summer School programme in Jordan (2011) and Alumni Workshops in Poland (2013) and Cambodia (2014). Wisam has written opinion pieces for OpenCanada.org, Embassy Magazine, and given a radio interview for CBC Radio.

Nadeem Syed

Chief Executive Officer, Misys

Nadeem Syed

Chief Executive Officer, Misys

As Chief Executive Officer, Nadeem has overall responsibility for the company including its strategic direction, growth and financial results.

Nadeem joined Misys in June 2012 as President and Chief Operating Officer (COO). He came to Misys from SumTotal, where he most recently served as COO. Nadeem led the company’s strategic initiatives overseeing services, support, hosting, product management and engineering since early 2010. Before this, he spent over 19 years in numerous positions at Oracle.

Nadeem’s most recent position at Oracle was Group Vice President of Products with responsibility for leading a large, multicultural, globally distributed team. In this role, Nadeem significantly evolved the supply chain management suite to a position where Oracle became the second largest supply chain solutions provider. In addition, Nadeem also held pivotal positions on the acquisition and integration executive teams for several key Oracle acquisitions.

Henrik Von Scheel

CEO & Co-founder, LEADing Practice, Board Member, Google EMEA, Gazprom, Global University Alliance and Capital Investment Partners and Bestselling Author

Henrik Von Scheel

CEO & Co-founder, LEADing Practice, Board Member, Google EMEA, Gazprom, Global University Alliance and Capital Investment Partners and Bestselling Author

Recognized as one of the most influential thinkers on strategy execution and as a pioneer in pattern recognition of the outperformers and underperformers over the past 30 years. Through his academic research, publications and efforts in standard bodies he has evolved the mainstream thinking of how leading organizations master the discipline of outperforming.

As a patternicity scientist, he is specialized in identifying repeatable patterns of anti-patterns (what not to do), best practices (what works well), industry practices (performance accelerators) and leading practices (outperforming & value patterns).

For most Fortune 500 & public organizations, Henrik von Scheel, is synonym as a thought leader, visionary and game changer that challenges and defies outmoded business models.

His trademark is the unique ability to enable organizations to master the rare discipline of developing their core competitive and core differentiated aspects to design tomorrow’s enterprise.

CEO and cofounder of LEADing Practice – #1 Enterprise Standard provider, setting the agenda for 56 Industries

Board Member at Google EMEA, Gazprom, Global University Alliance, Capital Investment Partners, Global Aquaponics, MITRE (EABOK), Tinkers & Thinkers …

Author of 6 books and multiple publications, such as

1. The Complete Business Process Handbook (3 Volumes)
2. Future of Danmark or Danmarks Fremtid (Competitiveness of a Country)
3. Passports to Success in BPM; Real-World, Theory & Applications
4. Applying real-world BPM in an SAP environment (BESTSELLER)

AWARDED “The NEXT 100 Top Influencers of the European Digital Industry in 2012” among the most important Europeans shaping our digital future.

Adjunct Professor and Head of the Department of Advanced Business Management at Global University Alliance.

Markus Wohlgeschaffen

SVP Product Management, TrustBills GmbH

Markus Wohlgeschaffen

SVP Product Management, TrustBills GmbH

Markus Wohlgeschaffen is Senior Vice President and Head of Product Management at TrustBills GmbH, Hamburg, Germany. He is a Senior Trade Finance & Service Expert who has previously worked for more than 30 years for UniCredit Group and its predecessor banks. He has gained an indepth 360° know-how in all areas of Trade Finance as well as Financial Risk Management. He started his international career in Japan, where he covered all sales activities of Trade Finance & Service Products (LCs, Documentary Collections, Guarantees, short-, mid- and long-term Trade Finance) to multinational corporates and to correspondent banks with trade links to Japan. As a next step he has set up a nation-wide sales network for Trade Finance & Service Products in Italy. He successfully acted as an external consultant for the Italian Export Credit Agency (SACE) in order to facilitate the without-recourse purchase of SACE-insured Supplier Credits. After more than 11 years of managerial sales responsibility, he assumed the role as Global Product Head in charge of all traditional and innovative Trade & Supply Chain Finance Products of UniCredit Group. His responsibility comprised the development and management of all Trade Products, the Portfolio Management of all Trade Assets and the optimization of complex, large-scale business processes to improve productivity through centralized IT-platforms and processing centers as well as the outsourcing of non-core activities. He positioned UniCredit Group as an Application Service Provider for new client-centric IT-solutions for the administration of Trade Processes. In addition to that, he developed a new Target Operating Model for the Trade Finance Business. Fully convinced about the benefits of new technology, he created new products based on the new message format MT798 of SWIFT and the Bank Payment Obligation (BPO).

As a senior member of various industry shaping bodies, Markus Wohlgeschaffen has actively worked on many initiatives that gear the Trade Finance Industry. Amongst others, he was the Chairman of BAFT’s Global Trade Industry Council (GTIC) as well as member of the Advisory Board of the ICC Banking Commission, the Board of Trustees of the Fraunhofer-Institute for Material Flow and Logistics in Dortmund, the SWIFT Corporate Advisory Group (CAG) and is still active in the World Trade Board. Moreover, he was a consultant for the Italian export credit agency (SACE) and the ICC Banking Commission. He regularly publishes articles and occurs as a speaker and panellist on national and international conferences.

Speakers

• Tram Abramov – Head of Product, MarketInvoice

  Tram Abramov

  Head of Product, MarketInvoice

  

  Tram leads product development at MarketInvoice, where he has worked for over year. He leads multiple teams across the product life-cycle, tracking ideas all the way from strategy, to roadmap, to delivery. Previously, he has worked at other tech companies including Transferwise and Skype.

• Rakesh Bhatia – Advisory Board Member, Fintonia Group and Former Global Head of Trade, HSBC

  Rakesh Bhatia

  Advisory Board Member, Fintonia Group and Former Global Head of Trade, HSBC

  

  Rakesh Bhatia is the Advisory Board Member at Fintonia Group where he advises the management team on fundraising, deal origination and evaluation. He is also a Business Mentor for Startupbootcamp, FinTech and Global EXCO Member of DigiVation Digital Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Digivision has built Globallinker – a platform for large global companies to connect with their SME franchise.

  Prior to this, Rakesh was the MD & CEO of Catholic Syrian Bank and also served as the Global Head, Trade & Receivables Finance and Head, Strategy and Propositions, Commercial Banking – Asia-Pacific at HSBC. He was also CEO at HSBC Indonesia and Chairman of the Foreign Bankers Association of Indonesia.

• Enrico Camerinelli – Senior Analyst, Aite Group

  Enrico Camerinelli

  Senior Analyst, Aite Group

  

  Enrico Camerinelli is a senior analyst at Aite Group specializing in wholesale banking, cash and trade finance, and payments. Based in Milan, he brings a strong European focus to Aite Group’s Wholesale Banking practice.

  Mr. Camerinelli has been widely quoted by publications ranging from American Banker to the Financial Times. He has contributed editorial content to publications such as Supply Chain Europe, serves as a consulting editor with gtnews, and is the author of Measuring the Value of the Supply Chain, a book about linking financial performance to the supply chain. He has spoken at leading trade shows and conferences in Europe, including Sibos and EuroFinance.

  Mr. Camerinelli has extensive experience within his areas of coverage as well as in providing research and consulting services to clients. Most recently, he served as a senior analyst with Celent, focusing on the financial supply chain and Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA). Prior to that, he was the European director and chief analyst at the Supply Chain Council, a non-profit serving the logistics and supply-chain industry. In that capacity, Mr. Camerinelli provided independent research and advisory services as well as business development and budget control for the organization. Before that, he was a vice president and research leader at META Group’s Electronic Business Strategies service, tracking trends in supply chain management, product life-cycle management, e-procurement, and sourcing. He also spent 10 years working as a supply chain manager at various manufacturing and automotive companies.

• Brian Caplen – Editor, The Banker

  Brian Caplen

  Editor, The Banker

  

  Brian Caplen has been Editor of The Banker since 2003. He joined the Financial Times Group from Euromoney in 2000 where he was Executive Editor of Euromoney magazine for five years. He also worked as a business editor and journalist in Hong Kong and the Middle East for 10 years. He has travelled extensively and done numerous high level interviews with prime ministers, finance ministers, central bank governors and senior executives. He has a first-class honours degree in Development Studies from the University of East Anglia.

• Nicolas Cary – Co-Founder, Blockchain

  Nicolas Cary

  Co-Founder, Blockchain

  

  Nicolas holds degrees in Business with an emphasis in Leadership Studies and International Political Economy. He’s taught English and conducted poverty reduction assessments in rural India prior to spending the past decade growing start-ups. A life long technologist and serial entrepreneur, he’s trilingual, and has a deep passion for positive digital disruption. He was a founding Partner at PipelineDeals where he focused on product development and management. In 2013 he Co-Founded Blockchain. More recently he Co-Founded YBUSA, the leading youth business accelerator.

  Winner of the 2015 European Digital Leader award for his inspiring and innovative contribution to initiate progress in the digital world, Nicolas accumulated over 300K miles last year doing FinTech advocacy, keynoting conferences, and attending grass roots meet ups across the Europe and around the world. His media appearances include the NYT, NPR, WSJ, Financial Times, Wired, Forbes, Entrepreneur, CNN, CNBC, TechCrunch, CNET, World Economic Forum, Marketwatch and many more.

  His company Blockchain is the world’s leading Bitcoin software company. Blockchain has over 7 million users, they run the most widely trusted block explorer, and manage the most widely used developer platform in the Bitcoin eco-system. In 2014, Blockchain raised the largest first outside capital round in industry history announcing over $30.5 million closed from leading venture capital firms.

• Rita Clifton – International Branding Expert and Chairman, BrandCap

  Rita Clifton

  International Branding Expert and Chairman, BrandCap

  

  Rita Clifton’s early career was in advertising, during which time she became Vice Chairman and Strategy Director at Saatchi & Saatchi with high profile clients, including British Airways, BT, Procter & Gamble and the British Army. Rita also set up the ground breaking Green Unit helping clients develop an effective environmental strategy rather than “greenwash”.

  Rita has featured on a wide variety of TV and radio programmes on business, brand, marketing and communication issues, including CNN, BBC Breakfast, Channel 4 News, BBC World Service, Sky, Radio 4 Today programme and Radio 5 Live.

  She has been a regular guest on The Bottom Line with Evan Davies, and on Sky News with Jeff Randall.

  Rita speaks around the world on how brands are the most important assets any organisation has, in any sector, and why branding should be the central organising principle in any business seeking to generate sustainable value. She also speaks on subjects as diverse as leadership, innovation, corporate reputation and communicating sustainability as well as all aspects of branding and marketing. Her writing has included the best selling book ‘The Future of Brands’, and two editions of The Economist book ‘Brands & Branding’

  Rita has been a regular contributor, reviewer and columnist in national and international press and magazines including the Financial Times, Management Today, The Observer, Retail Week, Admap and Marketing Week.

  In addition to speaking and writing about brands, Rita’s current portfolio of chairing and non-executive directorship roles, include Bupa, Nationwide, ASOS and Populus. Her pro bono activities include the boards of WWF, The Henley Festival and Chair of the leading practical sustainability organisation, The Conservation Volunteers.

  She has worked with Sir Jonathon Porritt for many years on environmental and sustainability issues, including as a member of the Government’s Sustainable Development Commission and the Assurance and Advisory Board for BP’s carbon offset programme ‘targetneutral’.

  Rita was recently invited to join the Speaker’s Council for the Public Engagement in Parliament, which looks at promoting understanding of, and engagement in, democracy.

  Rita has been voted one of the 75 Women of Achievement in the fields of advertising, media and marketing over the past 75 years, has been named in the Power 100 list by Marketing magazine, and shortlisted for the Credit Suisse Outstanding Business Woman of the Year.

  Rita has been recognised in the Debrett’s 2015 list as one of Britain’s 500 most influential people.

  In 2014 Rita was awarded a CBE in the New Year’s Honours List for Services to the Advertising Industry.

• Clarissa Dann – Editor-in-chief, Trade & Forfaiting Review (TFR)

  Clarissa Dann

  Editor-in-chief, Trade & Forfaiting Review (TFR)

  

  Clarissa Dann is editor-in-chief of Trade & Forfaiting Review (TFR), the specialist trade and receivables finance information service now in its 19th year. TFR includes a monthly magazine, an online information service, events, books and two annual awards competitions. Clarissa’s former roles have included running legal and regulatory publishing teams at Thomson Reuters and Lexis Nexis before completing her MBA in 2004 from Cass Business School in London and retraining as a financial journalist. Based in the UK (but travelling most months), she is regular participant in and reporter on trade and commodity finance events around the world, chair of trade and receivables finance conferences, and moderator of trade discussion panels both on and off broadcast media. She is currently studying for the Certificate in International Trade Finance (CITF).

• James Doran – Senior Editor and Head of Content, DMCC (Dubai Multi Commodities Centre)

  James Doran

  Senior Editor and Head of Content, DMCC (Dubai Multi Commodities Centre)

  

  James Doran is the Head of Content at DMCC, the authority on trade, enterprise and commodities in Dubai, and author of The Future of Trade, the first Thought Leadership study to analyse the impact of digitalisation on global trade.

  Prior to joining DMCC James worked on Fleet Street for more than two decades, with the majority of his career spent at The Times, where he led the Wall Street Bureau from 2001 to 2009. He also worked at The Financial Times, the London Evening Standard, Conde Nast Magazines, The Guardian, The Observer and NPR Radio.

• Edle Everaert – Senior Executive, Accenture

  Edle Everaert

  Senior Executive, Accenture

  

  Edle is a managing director in Accenture’s Banking practice, and is the global lead for transaction banking and trade finance. She has 15 years of experience in management consulting in different domains, including growth strategy, online and mobile strategy, product innovation, cost reduction, process and organization redesign, with a strong focus on corporate banking.

• Courtney Fingar – Editor-in-chief, fDi Magazine, Financial Times Group

  Courtney Fingar

  Editor-in-chief, fDi Magazine, Financial Times Group

  

  Courtney Fingar is the editor-in-chief of fDi Magazine, a specialist publication from the Financial Times, and the head of content for its associated data division, fDi Intelligence.

  She is also the presenter for the ‘fDi On Location’ video series, and a regular contributor to EM Squared, the Financial Times’ data-driven news and analysis service focused on emerging markets.

  As a trained journalist, Ms Fingar has covered business stories in all major regions of the world and has been on assignment to more than 70 countries in her career. She is a popular panellist and moderator at international economic gatherings and has appeared on television and radio in dozens of countries as a commentator on international investment.

  Before joining fDi in 2004, she served as the editor of Trade & Forfaiting Review, a London-based magazine focusing on trade finance. She worked previously as a journalist in Washington, DC.

• Rt Hon Dr Liam Fox MP – Member, Vote Leave Campaign Committee and former Conservative cabinet minister

  Rt Hon Dr Liam Fox MP

  Member, Vote Leave Campaign Committee and former Conservative cabinet minister

  

  Liam Fox studied medicine at the University of Glasgow, before he joined the Royal College of General Practitioners and worked as a Civilian Army Medical Officer and a volunteer divisional surgeon for St Johns, prior to moving to Buckinghamshire and Somerset to work as a GP.

  Liam was elected as the Member of Parliament for Woodspring (renamed North Somerset for the 2010 General Election) in 1992. In 1993, he was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to Michael Howard, then Home Secretary. In 1994, he became an Assistant Government Whip, being promoted to the position of Senior Government Whip the following year. He was a Minister at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1996 until the 1997 General Election.

  In June 1997, Liam was appointed Opposition Front Bench Spokesman on Constitutional Affairs. From 1999 to 2003, he served as Shadow Secretary of State for Heath before being appointed Co-Chairman of the Conservative Party in 2003. Subsequently, from May 2005 to December 2005, he served as Shadow Foreign Secretary, and then as Shadow Secretary of State for Defence from December 2005 to May 2010.

  Following the 2010 election, he became Secretary of State for Defence from May 2010 to October 2011. In September 2013, he published his first book, entitled “Rising Tides: Facing the Challenges of a New Era”. In 2012, he founded the Military charity ‘Give Us Time’.

• Jonathan T. Fried – Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada, World Trade Organisation (WTO)

  Jonathan T. Fried

  Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada, World Trade Organisation (WTO)

  

  As Canada’s Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the WTO, Mr Fried plays a key role in multilateral trade negotiations, having served as Chair of the WTO’s General Council in 2014 and as Chair of the Dispute Settlement Body in 2013. He is currently the co-Chair of the G20’s Trade and Investment Working Group. Formerly Canada’s Ambassador to Japan; Executive Director for Canada, Ireland and the Caribbean at the IMF; Senior Foreign Policy Advisor to the Prime Minister; Senior Assistant Deputy Minister for the Department of Finance and Canada’s G7 and G20 Finance Deputy, Mr. Fried has also served as Associate Deputy Minister; Assistant Deputy Minister for Trade, Economic and Environmental Policy; Chief Negotiator on China’s WTO accession; Director General for Trade Policy; and chief counsel for NAFTA. He chairs the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Trade and Investment, and is a member of the Steering Committee the e15 initiative on Strengthening the Global Trading System. He serves on the Advisory Board of the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment and the International Advisory Board of the Central and East European Law Institute. Mr. Fried was named in 2015 as the inaugural recipient of the Public Sector Lawyer Award by the Canadian Council on International Law to honour his service and contribution to public international law.

• Ruediger Geis – Head of Product Management Trade Transaction Services and Financial Institutions, Commerzbank AG

  Ruediger Geis

  Head of Product Management Trade Transaction Services and Financial Institutions, Commerzbank AG

  

  Ruediger Geis is heading the Product Management Trade within Transaction Services and Financial Institutions at Commerzbank AG and is located in Frankfurt.In this position he is covering all aspects of trade solutions, including guarantees, letters of credit, buyer’s credit as well as various ways of new and evolving trade communication methods.

  Throughout his more than 20 years in banking, Ruediger has played different functions in the area of international trade and business and has held various assignments within the bank in Frankfurt, Bahrain, and New York. Ruediger is a member of the Executive Board of the ICC’s Banking Commission. Furthermore, he is an active member in various trade initiatives and was one of the drivers of the BAFT Master Participation Agreement for Trade Transactions. He holds a Bachelor Professional of International Trade & Management (CCI).

• Anabel González – Senior Director – Trade & Competitiveness Global Practice, World Bank

  Anabel González

  Senior Director – Trade & Competitiveness Global Practice, World Bank

  

  Anabel González is Senior Director of the World Bank Group’s Trade & Competitiveness Global Practice (from July 2014). In this capacity, she leads a team of 500 people to design and implement the World Bank Group’s global and country agenda in the areas of trade, investment climate, competitive sectors, and innovation and entrepreneurship.

  Previously, she served as Costa Rica’s Minister of Foreign Trade (2010-14), where she lead efforts to join the OECD, implemented six major free trade agreements, and contributed to attracting over 140 new foreign direct investment projects. She also had a lead role in Costa Rica’s Competitiveness and Innovation Council. During her more than 15 years of service with the Ministry of Foreign Trade, she held various positions including Director General for International Trade Negotiations, Vice-Minister of Foreign Trade and Ambassador-Chief Negotiator. She also served as Director of Costa Rica’s Investment Promotion Agency, Director to the Agriculture and Commodities Division of the World Trade Organization, and Senior International Consultant on Trade and Investment at the Inter-American Development Bank.

  Anabel is a member of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Future Council on Trade and Investment and served as chair of both the Global Council on Competitiveness and on Trade and Investment. Anabel has lectured in over 50 countries and written on many trade and competitiveness issues.

• Martin Haering – Chief Marketing Officer, Misys

  Martin Haering

  Chief Marketing Officer, Misys

  

  Martin Haering joined Misys in October 2013 as Chief Marketing Officer and brings more than 20 years’ technology marketing and executive leadership experience with global market players to the company. He came to Misys from Akamai Technologies Inc. where he was the Vice President Marketing and Channels responsible for all marketing functions and channel sales divisions across EMEA. Prior to this he was the Worldwide Marketing Vice President for Oracle’s Hardware Line of Business and the EMEA Vice President Marketing for Sun Microsystems.

• Hugh Halford-Thompson – Chief Technology Officer, BTL Group

  Hugh Halford-Thompson

  Chief Technology Officer, BTL Group

  

  Hugh co-founded Quickbitcoin in 2013, which allowed UK customers to buy bitcoin quickly and easily by establishing trust in a challenging industry. He then partnered with Canadian firm Cointrader.net to bring a bitcoin brokerage, bitcoin ATM, and bitcoin exchange to the UK market. Hugh regularly participates in talks with the HMRC and UKDCA around bitcoin regulation. He works out of BTL Group LTD’s London office where he is responsible for all technical aspects of the company as well as all aspects of Interbit.

• Eddie Harding – Investment Director, ICON Corporate Finance

  Eddie Harding

  Investment Director, ICON Corporate Finance

  

  Eddie joined ICON in 2000 and specialises in raising funds for and selling high growth tech companies, with particular focus on Financial Trading Platforms (Enterprise, SaaS, Mobile), Ultra Low Latency Financial Messaging Architecture, Mobile/Smart Card Payments technologies, FX Trading, Risk Management, Settlement systems, Security/ID Authentication software, and Cloud offerings.

  He has over 17 years corporate finance experience having previously worked in the Corporate Finance and Private Equity Transaction Support teams at Arthur Andersen in both London and Sydney, specialising in the Technology and Media sectors. Eddie has advised on over 100 transactions ranging from venture capital funding rounds, international disposals, management buy-outs, corporate acquisitions, private placings and public company listings.

  Recent deals include the sale of low latency financial messaging company, my-Channels to Software AG (£n/d, >6x Revenue multiple) and raising $4m VC funding for SaaS based FX trading system provider, Velsys from US based TL Ventures and Pentech VC.

• Michael Hogan – General Manager and Regional Head of Transaction Banking Sales – EMEA, MUFG

  Michael Hogan

  General Manager and Regional Head of Transaction Banking Sales – EMEA, MUFG

  

  Michael Hogan has over 25 years’ experience in banking and finance, with a proven track record across general management, relationship management, transaction banking sales and management and marketing. He has recently returned back to his native UK after 20 years in Asia.

  Educated at the University of Aston in Birmingham and at L’Ecole Superieure de Commerce in Bordeaux, he received a joint honours degree in International Business and Modern Languages. He speaks French and German.

  He started his career as an options trader on the London Stock Exchange before moving to Standard Chartered Bank, where he worked for 17 years. He worked in London, Indonesia and Singapore across a range of Wholesale Banking roles, including Corporate & FI Relationship Management, Product and Sales. As Managing Director, he was a member of the Business Leadership Teams for both the Wholesale Bank and the Group and played leadership roles in some of the bank’s most significant alliances and relationships.

  In 2008 he joined National Australia Bank as Head of Trade for Asia, where he helped lead the group’s Trade Finance strategy and built a successful franchise in trade finance and commodities across the region, especially in the area of natural resources and electronic trade.

  In May 2015 he joined MUFG, one of the world’s top five largest banking groups, to lead the coverage of the transaction banking business across the EMEA region.

• Dr. Marion Jansen – Chief Economist, International Trade Centre (ITC)

  Dr. Marion Jansen

  Chief Economist, International Trade Centre (ITC)

  

  Marion Jansen is the Chief Economist of the International Trade Centre (ITC). Prior to this she served as a counsellor in the Economic Research and Statistics Division of the World Trade Organization and in this role she was one of the co-ordinators of the WTO Chairs Programme. From early 2009 to September 2012 she led the International Labour Office’s Programme on Trade and Employment. She has co-edited a number of volumes on the theme globalization and employment including “Trade and Employment: From Myths to Facts”. She holds lead roles in international research networks on the use of economics in international economic law, on non-tariff measures in the context of trade and on employment effects of different policy instruments. Marion Jansen holds a PhD in economics from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona, 1998) and lectures at the University of Geneva and the World Trade Institute (Bern).

• Michael King – Chairman, Credits and CEO, PeerPay Limited

  Michael King

  Chairman, Credits and CEO, PeerPay Limited

  

  Michael King is Chairman of a blockchain company and a partner and owner in both a consultancy and a software business.

  Prior to running his own businesses, Michael worked at SWIFT in multiple leadership roles in Europe, US and Asia. His interest in all things digital started when he was Managing Director e-commerce responsible for delivering SWIFT’s e-commerce portfolio, which included corporate STP, Trade Services, TrustAct, a secure web-based messaging service, and e-paymentsPlus, a portfolio of online payment initiation and identity instruments.

• Robert Koopman – Chief Economist and Director of Economic Research and Statistics Division, World Trade Organisation

  Robert Koopman

  Chief Economist and Director of Economic Research and Statistics Division, World Trade Organisation

  

  Mr. Robert Koopman is the Chief Economist and Director of the Economic Research and Statistics Division at the World Trade Organization. In this post Bob provides the Secretariat and Member Countries with analysis and information that promotes a deeper understanding of trade and trade policy’s role in economic growth and development. Prior to this post he served as the Director of Operations and Chief Operating Officer for the United States International Trade Commission. Bob oversaw the Commission’s trade policy research and negotiation assistance to the President, the U.S. Trade Representative, and Congress; antidumping, countervailing duty, and safeguard; investigations; intellectual property investigations; maintenance and analysis of the Harmonized Tariff System, as well as the agency’s strategic planning and performance measurement initiatives. He also previously served as Chief Economist at the USITC, and various leadership positions at the Economic Research Service of USDA. He is also currently a visiting Professor at the Graduate Institute in Geneva.

• Iza Lejárraga – Head of Unit, Investment Policy Linkages, Investment Division – Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs, OECD

  Iza Lejárraga

  Head of Unit, Investment Policy Linkages, Investment Division – Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs, OECD

  

  Iza Lejárraga is Head of Investment Policy Linakges Unit in the Investment Division of the Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs of the OECD, where she currently leads analytical work on global value chains, infrastructure connectivity, and inclusive growth. During her tenure at the OECD, Iza previously served as Senior Economist at the Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, and Local Development and as a Trade Policy Analyst at the Trade and Agriculture Directorate, contributing to studies on SMEs, regional trade agreements, services trade, and transparency. Before joining the OECD in 2010, Iza worked as a trade economist for the African Development Bank, the World Bank, and the Organisation of American States, with hands-on experience throughout Africa, the Middle East, India and Latin America.

  As a trade policy specialist, Iza has worked on a wide variety of trade-related knowledge products and capacity-building programmes, and has provided technical and analytical support to trade negotiation processes such as the Free Trade Area of the Americas, Economic Partnership Agreements, and other bilateral and regional integration initiatives. Her recent publications include articles on regional trade agreements, SMEs, services trade, growth diagnostics, export diversification, and tourism. She holds an advanced degree in economics and international development from Harvard University, and has been a post-graduate Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Center for International Development.

• Steve Leonard – CEO, SG Innovate

  Steve Leonard

  CEO, SG Innovate

  

  Mr Steve Leonard is a technology-industry leader with a wide range of experiences, having played key roles in building several global technology companies in Software, Hardware and Services. In his current role as Chief Executive of SG Innovate, Mr Leonard has been chartered to help translate some of the early tech R&D innovations that Singapore has gained a global reputation for, into commercial success by connecting them with the relevant industry corporates, start-ups and funds across sectors such as Digital Tech, FinTech, CleanTech and MedTech.

  Prior to his current role, Mr Leonard served as the Executive Deputy Chairman of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) within the Singapore Government, focusing on further developing the Smart Nation vision for the nation.

  Prior to joining IDA, Mr Leonard served as President of EMC Asia Pacific and Japan for six years, and as President of Asia Pacific and Japan for Symantec/Veritas Software for three years. Mr Leonard also spent 18 years with EDS, where he led various European and Asian operations for the majority of that period.

• John Longworth – Chairman, Vote Leave Business Council

  John Longworth

  Chairman, Vote Leave Business Council

  

  John Longworth is Chairman of the Vote Leave Business Council and resigned as Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce in March 2016 after nearly five years in post. Over the course of his career, John has done business on every continent and has had Executive Board positions at Asda Group and Tesco.

  In 2009 he embarked on a Portfolio career and founded a science, IT and professional services business, SVA Ltd, which in 2015 employed 200 scientists and professionals when, as Chairman, he steered to a successful exit.

  John also holds a number of company non-executive director positions including Board audit and risk committee, remuneration committee and has always been active in public roles including as a panel member of the Competition Commission, a Council Member of the World Chambers Federation, a Board member of the U.K. India Business Council and as Chairman of the Paris based CIES International Product Standards Committee.

• Joy Macknight – Transaction Banking and Technology Editor, The Banker

  Joy Macknight

  Transaction Banking and Technology Editor, The Banker

  

  Joy Macknight is transaction banking and technology editor at The Banker. Previously, she was features editor at Profit & Loss, a foreign exchange and derivatives magazine and conference producer. Before that she was editorial director at Treasury Today, following her editorship at gtnews, both publications that cover corporate treasury. She also worked as staff writer on Banking Technology and IBM Computer Today, as well as a freelancer on Computer Weekly. She has a BSc from the University of Victoria, Canada.

• Tim Martin – Chairman, JD WETHERSPOON PLC

  Tim Martin

  Chairman, JD WETHERSPOON PLC

  

  Tim Martin is the founder and chairman of Wetherspoon. In 2005, he was voted the fifth most influential person in the UK pub industry. Tim attended Nottingham University and opened the first Wetherspon pub when he was 24. He later floated Wetherspoon on the London Stock Market with 44 pubs and today there are 921 pubs open.He is an admirer of Sam Walton’s business philosophy.

• Melodie Michel – Deputy Editor, Global Trade Review (GTR)

  Melodie Michel

  Deputy Editor, Global Trade Review (GTR)

  

  Melodie Michel is the deputy editor of Global Trade Review (GTR), a global publication covering trade, export and commodity finance. She was part of the team spearheading GTR’s recently-launched fintech section, which keeps track of the most recent developments in financial and supply chain technology.

  In her role, Melodie regularly chairs roundtables and panel discussions on technology, regional trade developments and regulation, including trade sanctions. She will soon move to Brazil to take on the role of Americas editor at GTR.

• Dr. Simon Missiri – Regional Director, Europe International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

  Dr. Simon Missiri

  Regional Director, Europe International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies

  

  Dr. Simon Missiri joined the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in 1987 as a Field Delegate in Sudan, and has since served in a variety of management functions including Desk Officer for Africa; Deputy Director and later Director of Asia & Pacific Region; Director of Preparedness and Response Department; Director of Resource Mobilisation; Chief of Staff of the Under-Secretary General, Programmes; and Head of South Asia Regional Representation.

  His current responsibilities as Regional Director, Europe, comprise of setting the strategic direction of the IFRC Regional Office for Europe in Budapest and several sub-regional and Country Offices in providing IFRC support and policy work with National Red Cross Red Crescent Societies in the 54 countries covered by the Europe Region.

  Dr. Missiri holds a Ph.D. in Economics (Russian Academy of Science); Executive MBA in Management (McGill University, Canada, and INSEAD, France); and a Masters in Economic Geography (Moscow State University).

• Kevin Murray – Managing Director, Greenlight Commerce

  Kevin Murray

  Managing Director, Greenlight Commerce

  

  Kevin leads the team of technical experts who undertake eCommerce consulting advisory and enterprise implementations across leading eCommerce platforms, and has worked on projects in multiple sectors including retail, travel and financial services. Kevin began his career as a design analyst at Zurich Financial Services and during his 15+ years in the digital and eCommerce space, he has overseen various major enterprise projects, achieving many awards and accolades along the way including winning Hybris Global Partner of the Year two years in a row.

• Marco Nindl – Principal Banker – Trade Facilitation Programme, European Bank for Reconstruction (EBRD) Financial Institutions

  Marco Nindl

  Principal Banker – Trade Facilitation Programme, European Bank for Reconstruction (EBRD) Financial Institutions

  

  Marco Nindl is a Trade Finance Banker at the European Bank for Reconstruction (EBRD) within the Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP). Having joined the TFP team in January 2005, he worked on various projects within the TFP; his current role involves not only the day to day operations but also liaising with financial institutions worldwide within the framework of the Programme (www.ebrd.com/tfp). Prior to joining the EBRD and during his academic studies, Marco gained extensive experience on the trade finance and banking market by working for RZB in New York, Coface Credit Insurance and Oesterreichische Kontrollbank (OeKB) in Vienna. Marco graduated from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration with a Master of Science in Economics, where he specialised in Banking and International Business.

• Brian Pallas – CEO & Founder, Opportunity Network

  Brian Pallas

  CEO & Founder, Opportunity Network

  

  Prior to creating Opportunity Network, Mr Pallas worked at the Boston Consulting Group (“BCG”), a global top management consulting firm. During his time at BCG, he dealt with a variety of projects, both strategic and operational across several sectors including consumer goods, retail, banking, insurance, energy and media.

  He also gained experience in Private Equity and Investment Banking by working for three different funds and managing the sales process of two companies. Mr Pallas started his career as a scriptwriter for a prime-time Italian TV show, Zelig, with an audience of over 3 million viewers.

  In May 2014, Mr Pallas earned his MBA from Columbia Business School, which was sponsored by BCG as a result of being one of the best young talents in the company. Mr Pallas earned his BS in Show Business Management and an MS in Economics, graduating cum laude from Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. While still in school he worked for his family business, 9PM, where he helped organize events for multinationals and tours for world class musicians.

  Mr Pallas has been nominated in 2014 for the Wired Audi Innovation Award by Wired Italy as one of the most promising Under 35. In addition, Family Business Network International, one of the main networks of family businesses worldwide, honored him with the 2nd prize for the NxG (Next Generation) Award.

  In 2015 the business newspaper “Milano Finanza” included Mr Pallas among the 70 Italian managers leading global giants, one of the most popular Italian daily newspaper “ La Repubblica ” listed him among the 20 young Italian innovators in their 20s.

  In October 2015, Mr Pallas’ story was featured on Forbes in an article about how he built a $ 100M worth business. For more info: http://onforb.es/1WkVCpN

  In 2016, Mr Pallas, at the age of 28, has been nominated judge by Forbes to identify the best 30 Under 30 for the first European edition of the ranking and Opportunity Network was featured on the Financial Times (http://on.ft.com/1VxOgjn).

• Richard Reed – Co-founder – innocent drinks, Art Everywhere, JamJar and The Reed Page Foundation

  Richard Reed

  Co-founder – innocent drinks, Art Everywhere, JamJar and The Reed Page Foundation

  

  Richard Reed is the co-founder of innocent, the No.1 smoothie brand in Europe. The business was started from a market stall in 1999 by Richard and two friends and has grown into a business with a turnover of over £200m, selling in 15 different countries across Europe.

  The innocent business is led by a mission to ‘taste good and do good’, and gives ten percent of profits each year to charity. The founders recently sold their controlling stake in innocent to Coca Cola in a deal valuing the business at over half a billion dollars and remain on the board as minority shareholders.

  As well as co-founding Innocent, Richard is the co-founder of Jam Jar Investments, a company that backs young entrepreneurs; the co-founder of Art Everywhere, the world’s largest art show; and the co-founder of The Reed Page Foundation, a personal charity that funds peace-brokering and environmental protection initiatives across the world.

  Richard is also Chairman of the innocent foundation, a Patron of Peace One Day and has at various stages in his career been a non-Executive at the Department of Energy and Climate Change, a director of the human rights charity Videre and a government advisor on entrepreneurship. Richard and innocent’s awards include winning E&Y’s Young Entrepreneur of the Year; Britain’s Greatest Business at ITV’s Great Britons Awards; Most Admired Business Leader by Marketing magazine; National Business Awards’ Small/Medium Business of the Year, and Orange Innovative Company of the Year.

• Philipp Rossberg – Chief Operating Officer, Euler Hermes Aktiengesellschaft Federal Export Credit Guarantees

  Philipp Rossberg

  Chief Operating Officer, Euler Hermes Aktiengesellschaft Federal Export Credit Guarantees

  

  Philipp Rossberg is a Partner in PwC’s Finance & Regulation Advisory Practice and serves as Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the German Export Credit Agency (jointly managed by EulerHermes Aktiengesellschaft and PwC). Prior to his return to the German ECA, he headed up Citi’s Export & Agency Finance activities across Russia/CIS & Turkey and managed the Bank’s relationships with German-speaking exporters and Export Credit Agencies globally. Before joining Citi, Philipp was in charge of building and developing the relationships of JPMorgan with Export Credit Agencies (ECAs), Multilateral Agencies (MLAs) and Development Finance Institutions (DFIs) in the EMEA region. Prior to that he held different senior positions within the German ECA.

  Over the last decade, Philipp has worked extensively with a broad range of ECAs, MLAs and DFIs around the globe in the context of structuring and executing agency-supported debt and trade finance transactions across various industries with a particular focus on developing countries and emerging markets. He has also been a frequent lecturer and speaker on international trade, trade and export finance as well as the establishment and financing of foreign direct investments. Philipp holds a German degree in business administration with a special focus on International Management and Foreign Trade. He has lived and worked in the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany.

• Gadi Ruschin – CEO, Wave

  Gadi Ruschin

  CEO, Wave

  

  Gadi Ruschin is an active member in the international trade industry. For the past 12 years he managed a buying office in China and took an active part in his family’s sourcing activities in Egypt and India. He is currently the CEO of Wave, a company which allows members of the supply-chain a direct exchange of documents in a decentralized environment. It supports paperless trade for all members of the supply-chain without changing any current workflows or documents. Using the blockchain technology, Wave tracks the ownership over shipping documents without damaging their negotiability or the need to trust a third party.

• Markus Rupprecht – Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Traxpay

  Markus Rupprecht

  Founder and Chief Strategy Officer, Traxpay

  

  Traxpay’s founder, Mr. Rupprecht boasts a distinguished track record of leading innovation in the financial services industry. After spending over a decade at Deutsche Bank and becoming one of the company’s youngest ever Assistant Vice Presidents, his passion for disruptive technology led him into senior roles with multiple tech pioneers. He has previously served as Director at Hitachi Consulting, Sales Director at Software AG and as a Partner at ePayCom. Beyond shaping digital strategy at these major players, Mr. Rupprecht has found an outlet for his entrepreneurial spirit by founding two German-based FinTech start-ups since 2009 – namely Traxpay and InvoiceAuction. As well as working full-time as Chief Strategy Officer at Traxpay, he continues to explore fresh ways of overhauling the industry he was worked in for more than 20 years by acting as an advisor and business angel for other FinTech start-ups worldwide.

• Yasmin Saadat – Product Head for Trade & Commodity Finance, International Finance Corporation (IFC) Financial Institutions Group

  Yasmin Saadat

  Product Head for Trade & Commodity Finance, International Finance Corporation (IFC) Financial Institutions Group

  

  Ms. Saadat is Product Head for Trade & Commodity Finance at the IFC’s Financial Institutions Group. She oversees various trade facilities supporting critical commodities in emerging markets, and has successfully launched different solutions for strategic trades and landmark deals in frontier countries, a number of which received global recognition and won industry awards. Prior to this, she managed the operations of the Global Trade Liquidity Finance Program, a $4 billion public-private initiative to support trade in emerging markets during the financial crisis. In the 30 years of her career at the World Bank Group, she has worked in Africa, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe, has extensive experience in assessing banks and companies for investments by IFC, as well as conducted economic policy analyses. As a portfolio manager in IFC’s Treasury, she invested in a variety of fixed income assets, including sovereign, corporate bonds in the US, European and Japanese markets, and co-founded a global macro hedge fund during a personal leave from the IFC. Ms. Saadat holds a PhD and MALD in International Development Economics from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, Tufts University, Massachusetts, with a Bachelor’s degree in Economics from University of Grenoble, in France.

• Chandrakant Salunkhe – Founder and President – SME Chamber of India

  Chandrakant Salunkhe

  Founder and President – SME Chamber of India

  

  Mr. Chandrakant Salunkhe has a commerce background with extensive experience in business management and development. He founded the Macro Group of Companies in 1991, which are involved in manufacturing, packaging, exports, distributorship and marketing of capital goods, industrial products and processed foods as well as IT, branding and promotions.

  Mr. Salunkhe has also founded SME CHAMBER OF INDIA and various organisations to support SMEs, young entrepreneurs and start-ups for business growth, export opportunities, business education and knowledge, capacity building, interface with policy makers, channelise finance and investment, joint ventures, technology transfers, and setting up industries. He has been in the forefront to resolve the issue and challenges of SMEs and Industry and provides suggestions and recommendations to various government agencies for policy change and policy implementation. In addition, he has initiated various bi-lateral trade promotion divisions for enhancing connectivity between Indian and overseas entrepreneurs and SMEs, investors, government agencies, multinational companies and other industries. He frequently around the globe to continue developing business connections and opportunities.

  Mr. Salunkhe was a speaker at the G-20 Conference on SMEs and the SME Assembly by European Commission, in addition to sitting on the judging panel for various events.

• Dinesh Sharma – Senior Manager, Accenture, Capital Markets

  Dinesh Sharma

  Senior Manager, Accenture, Capital Markets

  

  Dinesh Sharma is a senior manager, working as the UK lead for two of Accenture Capital Markets’ largest clients. Since joining the company in 2004, he has worked solely within capital markets gaining a wealth of experience in projects focused on operating models, process design and strategy, and developing particular expertise in equity, equity derivatives, commodities and front to middle office. Dinesh also has responsibility for developing and managing the Innovation capability within the capital markets practice. Before joining Accenture, Dinesh worked in consultancy at EDS and at State Street bank, experiences that helped him gain a valuable external perspective as well as in-depth industry knowledge. Over the years, he has developed strong communication skills, often drawing together both operations and technical experts to deliver outstanding results. With teams based across Europe, North America and the UK, Dinesh works on an international stage. Dinesh holds a degree in Business Operation and Control at the University of Salford.

• Kati Suominen – Founder & CEO, Nextrade Group; Founder, TradeUp Capital Fund; and Senior Advisor, World SME Forum

  Kati Suominen

  Founder & CEO, Nextrade Group; Founder, TradeUp Capital Fund; and Senior Advisor, World SME Forum

  

  Kati Suominen is Founder and CEO of TradeUp Capital Fund, a data-driven growth capital platform for globalising, export-driven companies, and Nextrade Group, LLC, a research firm on trade and digitisation. TradeUp enables globalising companies to raise $2-50m in growth capital, providing critical financing for companies looking to scale their production and international sales. Nextrade Group helps governments, multilateral development banks, and corporations optimise public policy and investments to accelerate trade, eCommerce, and digitisation worldwide.

  Kati is also Adjunct Professor at UCLA Anderson School of Management, and Adjunct Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a leading Washington think-tank. She has published over 80 articles and 9 books on trade and globalisation with leading academic presses, and is finalising her 10th,Globalisation 4.0: How Disruptive Technologies Reshape Business and Policy in the Hyperconnected World.

  Kati previously served as Fellow at the German Marshall Fund and Trade Economist at the Inter-American Development Bank. She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations, serves on the advisory boards of four trade-related organisations, chairs a global expert group on regional trade agreements for the International Center for Trade and Sustainable Development and World Economic Forum, and is a member of the ICTSD-WEF global expert groups on global value chains and on the global digital economy, and of the T20 working group of thought leaders on the Internet.

  A business and policy entrepreneur, Kati is the idea-woman behind three global initiatives in the nexus of trade and digitisation – RTAexchange.org, Aid for eTrade, and eTrade Track.. She is currently spearheading the generation of new data, investments and policy innovation in eCommerce, trade facilitation, and small business trade – such as her idea, based on a social impact bond model, for a Global Fund for Ecommerce.

• Lucy Thomas – Deputy Director, Britain Stronger In Europe

  Lucy Thomas

  Deputy Director, Britain Stronger In Europe

  

  Lucy Thomas is Deputy Director of Britain Stronger in Europe. Previously, she was Campaign Director of the pro-European business group Business for New Europe. Lucy is a former BBC journalist, covering EU politics in the Brussels for four years, as well as working on Newsnight and Radio 4 News programmes. She served a Head of Communications for the World Dementia Envoy & Council appointed by the Prime Minister and the G8 to speed up drug discovery and investment into dementia research. She has degrees from King’s College London, The London School of Economics and Sciences Po Paris.

• Michaël Van Steenwinkel – Global Credit Manager, BP Petrochemicals

  Michaël Van Steenwinkel

  Global Credit Manager, BP Petrochemicals

  

  Michaël Van Steenwinkel is a Chemical Engineer and a Petroleum Economist. After several roles in financial and commercial analysis at BP in Belgium, in Germany and in the UK (with a side-step to Ineos), he is transitioning from his role as Global Credit Manager for BP Petrochemicals to his new role of Finance Manager of the BP site in Geel, Belgium.

  During his career with BP, Michael has gained extensive experience in credit enhancement and mitigation, particularly within an international trade credit environment (from a corporate perspective).

• Nick Williamson – CEO and Founder, Credits

  Nick Williamson

  CEO and Founder, Credits

  

  Nick Williamson is the CEO & Founder of Pythia, the company behind Credits. Nick started his career working in a Hedge Fund Administration while attending Illinois Institute of Technology on a Cross Country & Track scholarship. Eventually Nick realized his first true calling and became an online professional poker player. Through his unique skillset and leadership qualities, Nick caught the eye of Pokerstars and was hired to manage the Product & Operations of Ring Games; the largest real-money online poker product in the world. It was during 2010 when Nick was first introduced to Blockchain technology via Bitcoin and quickly became a leader in the space, contributing to numerous open source projects. This work would eventually lead to conceptualizing and building Credits, a hybrid framework providing interoperable, built-to-purpose blockchains.

• James Zhan – Senior Director of Investment and Enterprise, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

  James Zhan

  Senior Director of Investment and Enterprise, United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)

  

  James Zhan is senior Director of Investment and Enterprise at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). He also leads the team that produces the United Nations’ annual World Investment Report.

  Dr. Zhan has rich, hands-on experience, both at the national and international level in the areas of trade, investment, technology, business facilitation and enterprise development, including directing policy research, international consensus-building and technical assistance to governments and institutions in over 160 countries.

  Dr. Zhan has held a number of advisory positions with academic institutions, including Cambridge University, Columbia University, Oxford University and the University of Geneva. He is Global Agenda Council member of the World Economic Forum. He has published extensively on trade and investment-related economic and legal issues. He holds a PhD in international economics, and was a research fellow at Oxford University. Dr. Zhan is a regular speaker at academic, business and policy forums, as well as parliamentary hearings. He appears frequently in international media outlets.

Full List of Organisations Who Attended World Trade Symposium 2016, London