Events

Mark’s experience in Supply Chain leadership spans 40 years. In that time, he has worked in sales, customer service, logistics, distribution, global trade operations & compliance, procurement, sustainability, supplier diversity, supply chain training, and supply chain strategy leadership. Additional experience includes 20 years with the Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP). He also serves as Vice-Chairman St Louis University Center of Supply Chain Excellence and co-leads the Executive Global Supply Chain Certificate Program and is an adjunct professional instructor. He recently completed a 4-year term as global board member for WEConnect International, consistent with his belief in the value diversity brings to the supply chain. He has facilitated supply chain policy development at the EU & US Federal level, teaches executive courses at the university level and speaks at conferences worldwide. In 2018 Mark was inducted into the DC Velocity Rainmakers.

Mansour Davarian is Head of Platform Sales at Demica, leading a team of senior individuals selling SaaS services to financial institutions and large corporates globally. Mansour joined Demica in 2016 having spent most of his career at HSBC Bank plc working across structured finance and TMT global client coverage.

Chris Hale is Founder and CEO of Kountable, Inc., a San Francisco-based trade and technology company actively solving the world’s distribution problem by building digital ecosystems. Kountable’s cloud-based global trade platform delivers transparency, governance and efficiency in trade by connecting the biggest global sellers with the most qualified buyers in fast growing economies. Hale has consulted some of the top Silicon Valley technology startups, targeting the financial services sector in the areas of asset management and reporting, CRM, programmatic trading and digital advisory services.

John joined BPL in 2016. He is a Director of BPL –Global LLC the America’s subsidiary of BPL Global. He is responsible for relationship management and new business development within BPL’s Structured Trade Credit and Political Risk Insurance practice, with a specific focus on financial institutions. Immediately prior to joining BPL, John was the Deputy Managing Director of Willis Towers Watson’s Structured Trade and Political Risks group, where he managed and was responsible for Willis America's Trade and political risk practice. Before joining Willis, he served as National Sales Manager and Northeast Regional Manager for the Export-Import Bank of the United States (EximBank) where he spent over 10 years with the Eximbank. The last 3 years he was with Eximbank he served on the privatization committee which looked into whether certain parts of the bank should be privatized. John has over thirty years’ experience, including time as a bond trader, merchant banker, insurance underwriter and broker.

James Li joined Linklogis as the CEO for Linklogis International Company Limited in 2019. Before Linklogis, he was EVP for a Digital Bank in China, Z-Bank for 2 years managing digital commercial banking business. From 2010 to 2017, James was managing director as head of trade and supply chain for greater china market for Bank of America Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong. Prior to that, he had worked in JPMorgan China as head of trade for 5 years from 2005 to 2010. He started his banking career with ANZ China on various roles in credit risk management and corporate banking relationship coverage.

Alexander R. Malaket, CITP, is the President of OPUS Advisory Services International Inc., in Canada, and Founder and Managing Director of Trade Finance Associates Pte in Singapore. Mr. Malaket is recognized internationally as a specialist and senior consultant in international trade and trade finance, having advised top-tier financial services, corporate, government and international institution clients across the globe, and having developed and delivered a variety of training seminars on an international basis. Mr. Malaket serves as a member of the Executive Committee and Technical Advisor to the ICC Banking Commission in Paris, as Secretary/Treasurer of the World Trade Centre in Winnipeg and is a long-time member of the Toronto Regional Board of Trade/World Trade Centre, as well as a member of the SWIFT/ICC Industry Education Group on the Bank Payment Obligation. Alexander is a member of the Board of Directors of the Forum for International Trade Training, Ottawa, Canada. Alexander is the author of “Financing Trade and International Supply Chains”, published by Gower/Ashgate UK.

Juan Martin is a market executive for Wells Fargo’s Commercial Banking Global Advisory team. Based in New York, he leads global industry teams across the United States all focused on serving the financial needs of middle-market banking customers. Before his current role, Juan was head of Trade Finance & Lending, head of Trade Flow, and head of Natural Resource Finance – Americas at Deutsche Bank. Prior to Deutsche Bank, Juan served in leadership roles at ABN AMRO Bank and Grupo Financiero Bital. Throughout his career, he has gained extensive experience in loan syndication and risk distribution. Juan has managed teams in New York, Miami, Jacksonville, São Paulo, and Mexico City.

Sunil Mascarenhas works at Asian Development Bank as a Relationship Manager of Trade and Supply Chain Finance Program since 2019. Sunil manages ADB's Supply Chain Finance Program (SCFP). His main responsibility is to manage relationships with global banks to maximize transaction volumes, provide excellent client service, and ensure constant vigilance in assessing and monitoring risk. Aside from that, Sunil is responsible in driving initiatives to deploy Supply Chain Finance to newer developing markets and helping local banks in those developing markets to launch supply chain finance businesses with a view to making finance available to SMEs. Sunil has been working in the banking sector since 1998. Before joining ADB, Sunil worked at the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) across multiple countries and has worked in various roles in Trade and Supply Chain Finance, Commercial Banking and Risk Management.

Caryn Pace is a Managing Director in Global Payments Solutions at Bank of America. She heads Global Portfolio Management & Product Risk in Global Trade & Supply Chain. In this role, she has responsibility for the trade portfolio including monitoring, development of risk mitigation strategies, forecast impacts, and balance sheet management. Her team has oversight of risk mitigation on a portfolio and transaction level, including routines involving high risk transactions, asset quality, and business control. To drive and influence the global trade business strategy, she engages with clients and potential third party partnership opportunities to understand market perspective and evolving product needs. Caryn is a part of Bank of America’s Hispanic-Latino Executive Council. She serves on the GPS Social & Economic Action Council and is an active leader in junior talent initiatives. Previously, she held positions within global trade at J.P. Morgan where she worked for 12 years. She currently serves as a Vice-Chair on the International Chamber of Commerce Banking Commission. Caryn received her bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and is based in New York.

Wasif is the Global Head of Distribution for Taulia Inc. In his current role Wasif is responsible for the management of all Syndication & Distribution related activities for Taulia. His role is focused on building and managing strategic relationships with financial institutions and a diversified, sustainable and cost-effective funding base for Taulia’s clients globally. He is also responsible for building new structures for funding Taulia’s expanding range of working capital finance products. Wasif has about 23 years of experience in banking and trade finance. In particular, he is an industry veteran in the arena of Trade syndication and distribution.

Ken is the Founder & CEO of Tillful, an SF-based fintech startup that is modernizing SMB credit using AI and alternative data. Prior to founding Tillful, Ken has over 10 years of experience in business development and M&A as a corporate development executive at companies including Qualcomm, Ericsson, and Citi. He started his career as an engineer and became one of the inventors of the world's first 3D non-volatile memory chip. Ken holds over 13 patents. He received his MBA from UC Berkeley, Masters in Electrical Engineering from University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, and BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Michael Sugirin is the Global Head of Open Account Trade at Standard Chartered based in Singapore. He is responsible for the strategic direction, execution and product performance of SC’s open account trade product suite which spans across supply chain finance, receivable finance, payable finance, and commodity finance. He is also leading several strategic third-party partnership collaborations and data initiatives to deliver new client value propositions and experiences. Aside from his extensive product management experience, Michael held roles as transaction banking country head, global head of trade implementation and leading product sales roles. Prior to Standard Chartered, he has worked for more than 18 years at Deutsche Bank and JPMorgan in multiple locations across New York, Singapore and Jakarta.

Rebecca Trotter is part of the Working Capital Innovation & Trade Transformation team at Lloyds Bank. The team are responsible for solution development, innovation and customer journey. She has over 10 years of experience in commercial banking in various roles across Trade, Working Capital and Asset Finance. Rebecca works on a portfolio of customer-centric core, incremental and transformational projects, in collaboration with a network of strategic partners, which includes fintechs, banks, consortia and most importantly customers. Rebecca sits on the BAFT Supply Chain Finance Council and holds certificates in International Trade & Finance as well as Supply Chain Finance. Rebecca has a BSc. in Psychology from Cardiff University.

Katrina Vasilenko is an experienced banker with 18+ years of hands-on practice in the financial services industry, Katerina is skilled in international trade, risk management, and client relations. She started her banking career with BNP Paribas. Katerina has led multi-cultural teams and spent the previous 14 years at JPMorgan where she was an MD, heading trade finance sales in Europe & CIS.

Jonathan Vojtecky is a Director in the Global Trade and Supply Chain business at Bank of America Corporation. He leads a sales team responsible for the origination and structuring efforts across the North America large-cap client segment. Jonathan and his team deliver the entire trade product suite to the firm’s corporate banking franchise to provide liquidity, working capital optimization and risk mitigation. Jonathan has over 20 years of experience advising clients on the implementation and execution of large-scale, globally complex Supply Chain Finance, Receivables Finance, Export Agency Finance and Traditional Trade solutions. Prior to joining Bank of America, Jonathan spent 17+ years at J.P. Morgan where he most recently served as Global Trade North America Sales Head. Jonathan is based in Pittsburgh, PA and graduated from Robert Morris University with a B.S. in Business Administration.

Merlin is a Vice Chair on the ICC Banking Commission where he both sponsors and chairs the Commercialisation Working Group. In his capacity as chair of this working group Merlin leads several initiatives primarily focusing on the digitization of trade. As of August 2023, Merlin also became a member of the ICC Digital Standards Initiative Advisory Board. Alongside his role at the ICC, Merlin Dowse is an Executive Director and a Global Product Manager within the Core Trade Product team. In this capacity, Merlin leads a global team responsible for the management of proprietary and 3rd party digital solutions J.P. Morgan offers across the globe to both Corporate and FI clients. Merlin has over 20 years of experience in banking always with a focus on product development and digitalisation. He is an active contributor to both BAFT and ITFA industry associations and a regular industry speaker on the topics of trade digitalisation and innovation.

Christian Hausherr is the European Product Head of Supply Chain Finance for Deutsche Bank’s Payables Finance solution, bringing to the role over 20 years of experience in Banking, In-house Consulting and Product Management for Cash Management and Supply Chain Finance. Mr. Hausherr spent his career within Deutsche Bank in various divisions and regions, mostly spanning across Europe and the Transaction Banking business. He holds a diploma in business administration from the University of Bayreuth and has worked in Germany, The Netherlands, Great Britain, Spain, the US, as well as in India and Uganda on Corporate Social Responsibility assignments in the financial and educational sector.

Mr. Joon Kim has 25+ years of experience. He has held various senior positions at Standard Chartered Bank and American Express Bank, most recently as Managing Director and Head of Transaction Banking Sales for Corporate and Commodities for the Americas region. His various experiences include leading Trade Sales, Trade Product Management and Relationship Management teams, with an emphasis on development and sales of trade finance, supply chain financing, receivable services, trade processing and cross-border cash and liquidity management solutions to global financial institutions and corporations.

Steven Lotito is Managing Director and Head of Trade Finance in Transaction Banking for the Americas at MUFG Union Bank, N.A. In his role, Steven manages the sales and product management organizations responsible for advising the bank’s client’s in the Corporate, Commercial and Japanese Corporate Banking segments in North America navigate some of the most important trade markets by delivering timely information on international markets, bringing innovative products to market, and providing trade financing solutions and risk management strategies. Steven has more than 30 years of experience in commodity finance and international trade finance. Prior to MUFG, he served as Senior Vice President and Head of Sales, Global Trade & Receivables Finance, North America; and Director and Head of Transaction Banking for the Americas at HSBC Bank USA and Australia & New Zealand Banking Group respectively. In addition, he has held senior trade and commodity finance roles at ABSA Banking Corp., Ecoban Finance Ltd., Phibro Inc., and Chase Manhattan Bank.

Vinod Madhavan is currently Group Head: Trade, Standard Bank. In this role he is responsible for Trade, one of the universal capabilities identified by Standard Bank, to be delivered across the Group. Thereby, allowing Standard Bank to show up as one universal financial services organization, wherever they are based and whichever client segment they are servicing. He also has P&L responsibility for Trade across the Group (i.e., across sectors in Corporate & Investment Bank and divisions in Personal & Business Banking units). Standard Bank franchise (spanning 20 markets in Africa) offers trade and supply chain finance services and solutions, to clients in Institutional, Corporate, Commercial, Business and Enterprise client segments.

Daniel Pische serves as the National Director of Trade Finance within the SBA’s Office of International Trade in Washington, DC. As Director, Daniel is responsible for the design and delivery of SBA’s export loan programs and oversight of SBA’s national staff of Export Finance Managers. Prior to joining the SBA, Daniel worked at First American Bank for over 15 years where he led their Trade Finance Division and served as a member of the bank’s Senior Loan Committee. Daniel served on Department of Commerce’s Trade Finance Advisory Council during the second charter term and continues to serve as the SBA’s ex-officio representative where he assists with recommendations on improving access to Trade Finance for small and midsized exporters.

Jean-Francois Denis is Global Head of Trade Solutions for BNP Paribas. He was previously Deputy Chief Transformation Officer at BNP Paribas Fortis after close to a decade acting as Deputy Head of Cash Management at BNP Paribas, in particular in charge of Payments and Collections products. Before integration in BNP Paribas, he was Global Head of the Electronic Payments Operations at Fortis Bank, in charge of the operations on all geographies. He previously led major programs in the Fortis group: the implementation of a Shared International Payment Center and the setup of the core-banking platform of the Belgian Postbank. He started his career with Siemens where he hold during 8 years engineering positions in the banking and telecom lines of businesses.

Marie-Laure Gastellu is the Global Head of Trade Services since November 2016. Engaged in the transformation of trade finance, she is an executive banker with 30 years of experience in banking, transformation, innovation and management of large French and international teams. Marie-Laure joins Societe Generale in 1989 within the internal consulting department. In 1994, she takes responsibility for a portfolio of corporate clients in Paris and then in New York, and runs SG Americas’ Marketing division from 2001 to 2004. Until 2006, Marie-Laure is Global COO of Societe Generale’s division for corporate clients and investors, and then Chief of Staff to Chairman and CEO Daniel Bouton between 2006 and 2009.

Christian Hausherr is the European Product Head of Supply Chain Finance for Deutsche Bank’s Payables Finance solution, bringing to the role over 20 years of experience in Banking, In-house Consulting and Product Management for Cash Management and Supply Chain Finance. Mr. Hausherr spent his career within Deutsche Bank in various divisions and regions, mostly spanning across Europe and the Transaction Banking business. He holds a diploma in business administration from the University of Bayreuth and has worked in Germany, The Netherlands, Great Britain, Spain, the US, as well as in India and Uganda on Corporate Social Responsibility assignments in the financial and educational sector.

Anirudha Panse (Ani) is the MD & Head of GTB Trade Finance Product Innovation (TPI) at First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB). The TPI team is responsible for launching innovative, and digitized Trade products and solutions globally for FAB across the traditional trade products and open account solutions. Ani’s maintains oversight on the team responsible for structuring and commercializing the complex trade solutions in the trade and commodity finance domain. Risk Management forms a critical part of Ani’s domain wherein the Trade Risk Distribution as well as the Trade Business Risk functions form part of Ani’s responsibilities. During this career, Ani has successfully launched several innovating and complex solutions in the Supply Chain Finance (SCF) / Receivables Finance / Inventory Financing space and commercialized them into multi-million $ businesses. Ani was part of the founding team that launched industry wide initiatives like UAE Trade Connect, a blockchain based AI/ML driven solution for reducing frauds in Trade, and in the past has represented his bank in national FATF assessments with Central Banks and also through Steering Groups related to SCF with No 10 Downing Street, and the NHS.

Daniel Pische serves as the National Director of Trade Finance within the SBA’s Office of International Trade in Washington, DC. As Director, Daniel is responsible for the design and delivery of SBA’s export loan programs and oversight of SBA’s national staff of Export Finance Managers. Prior to joining the SBA, Daniel worked at First American Bank for over 15 years where he led their Trade Finance Division and served as a member of the bank’s Senior Loan Committee. Daniel served on Department of Commerce’s Trade Finance Advisory Council during the second charter term and continues to serve as the SBA’s ex-officio representative where he assists with recommendations on improving access to Trade Finance for small and midsized exporters.

Rich Tomusk is the Product Owner of API Lifecycle at SWIFT, looking after product management of SWIFT’s API portfolio and API best practices. With a background in systems integration and product management, he works with the SWIFT community, leveraging the unique value of APIs in payments, cash management, trade and securities.