Events

Jihad Azour is the Director of the Middle East and Central Asia Department at the International Monetary Fund where he oversees the Fund’s work in the Middle East, North Africa, Central Asia and Caucasus. Mr. Azour served as Lebanon’s Finance Minister in 2005-08, during which time he coordinated the implementation of important reforms, including modernizing the country’s tax and customs systems. Before and since his time as finance minister, he held a wide range of positions in the private sector, including McKinsey and Booz and Co. where he was a Vice-President and Senior Executive Advisor. Prior to joining the IMF in March 2017, he was a Managing Partner at investment firm Inventis Partners. Mr. Azour holds a PhD in International Finance and a post-graduate degree in International Economics and Finance, both from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris. He also did research on emerging economies and their integration into the global economy as a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard. Mr. Azour has published several books and articles on economic and financial issues and taught extensively.

Cathy Bessant serves as vice chair, Global Strategy at Bank of America, and is a member of the company’s executive management team. In this role, Cathy is responsible for working with our European boards, focused on the integration of our global strategy. She is based in Paris and provides leadership within and beyond our European presence. Bessant most recently served as chief operations and technology officer from 2010 - 2021, responsible for delivering end-to-end technology and operating services across the company through a team of 95,000 people in over 35 countries, with oversight of the company’s global information security efforts. Since joining the bank in 1982, Bessant has held a number of senior leadership roles. She was president, Global Corporate Banking; president, Global Product Solutions and Global Treasury Services; chief marketing officer; president, Consumer Real Estate and Community Development Banking; national Small Business Segment executive; and president of the Florida market. Bessant serves as executive sponsor for the company’s Disability Advisory Council. In 2021 Bessant received Disability:IN’s John D. Kemp Leadership Award for her advocacy among businesses for disability employment programs and services. She was formerly the executive sponsor for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) Pride executive board and led the creation of the LGBT Ally program. She was previously named No. 1 among OUTstanding LGBT+ Ally Executives, presented by the Financial Times.

Sanjay Bonde serves as the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of TCC. Sanjay is an expert in strategic finance, supply chain finance, international finance and M&A and corporate development. During his career leading senior-level business roles, he has helped companies develop innovative financial and corporate development strategies driving business growth, globally. He has lived and worked in Europe, Asia, and the US and led several cross-functions in addition to Financial strategies, including Product Development and Marketing, Solution Sales, Supply Chain and Talent Management. Sanjay also serves as the Chairman of Monarch Tractors, Board Advisor to a Pritzker Family holding company and has been CEO of Wintec, a technology-led, semiconductor and supply chain business. His prior experience includes founding of an electric vehicle company, Genze, and Bonde Ventures, a ventures advisory business. He actively supported the formative period of Mahindra Finance, a non-banking finance company with US$11 billion in assets and over 35,000 employees and was Vice President & General Manager at Bristlecone Inc, a Mountain View, California-based inventory and supply chain optimization company catering to global semiconductor and high-tech industries. Called upon for his expertise in both finance and technology, Sanjay has provided strategic advice to varied technology companies in Silicon Valley. Sanjay currently resides in Menlo Park, Silicon Valley and is a Board/CEO Advisor and Board Member. In his personal time, he mentors and teaches entrepreneurs, and has taught Business Strategy at the Presidio Graduate MBA School in San Francisco for disruptive businesses. He received executive leadership training at Harvard Business School and the London School of Economics after earning his MBA/MMS from the University of Mumbai and BE in Electronics and Electrical Power Engineering.

Chris is the Head of Correspondent Banking for the Americas based in New York. He has been with the bank since 2011 when he joined the Financial Institutions team in Singapore. Prior to Standard Chartered, Chris worked for several start-ups in Toronto and Hong Kong in the fields of asset management and television media. 

Tod Burwell is the President and Chief Executive Officer of BAFT. Prior to being promoted to CEO, he served as the Senior Vice President of Trade Products with oversight of all trade-related initiatives including the Global Trade Industry Council, Trade Committees, and other strategic initiatives of the organization. Mr. Burwell has over 25 years of trade, supply chain and cash management experience as a banking practitioner, as well as serving as a consultant to global corporations and suppliers of strategically integrated trade solutions. Prior to joining BAFT, Mr. Burwell was a Managing Director at JPMorgan Chase and held senior global management roles responsible for trade operations, launching the logistics business and managing global product sales for trade finance and logistics management.

Michael C. Doran serves as the Chief Financial Officer and General Counsel of TCC. He is a seasoned international corporate securities lawyer based in Silicon Valley. He has spent his career at the intersection of finance, law, and technology. He began his career in 1983 with the investment bank Salomon Brothers in London. Michael was at the center of the action in the dotcom bubble of the 90’s, at Brobeck, Phleger and Harrison, an AmLaw top 20 law firm specializing in tech funding transactions. In 1996 he worked on the IPO of E*Trade, which disrupted the brokerage business by automating the process of buying and selling stock, making the stock market accessible to hundreds of millions of people around the world. He was also a partner of Fish & Richardson, an AmLaw top 100 firm which specializes in intellectual property. Michael served as general counsel for a publicly traded investment bank and FINRA regulated broker dealer for seven years. He was the legal architect of the Digital Capital Network, launched in 2013, which pioneered a revolution in private placements, allowing issuers and investors to connect online without the need for a broker to call. Michael resides in Menlo Park, CA, where he is the Chairman of the city’s Planning Commission and oversees many large development projects including Facebook’s headquarters. Since 2016, he has had his own practice helping tech companies raise capital and navigate complex securities regulations. Michael has handled over $3 billion in funding transactions. He has a B.A. in Economics from Drury University, studied International Trade at the London School of Economics, and has a law degree from Stanford Law School.

Stephen Grainger serves as Executive Vice President, Business Partnerships, New Payments Platform at Mastercard. He is responsible for expanding the business’s vision to enable domestic and cross-border payments from every funding source, to every destination, for any need. Mr. Grainger also plays a key role in building out Mastercard’s bank account-based payment capabilities as the company intensifies its efforts to identify new opportunities beyond cards. Mr. Grainger is also responsible for determining how the organization utilizes its existing network and capabilities to attract new business.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres announced on 4 February 2020 the appointment of Selwin Hart of Barbados as Special Adviser to the Secretary-General and Assistant Secretary-General of the Climate Action Team. Climate change remains at the top of the Secretary-General's priorities and one of the core priorities of the Decade of Action to Deliver the Sustainable Development Goals. In ensuring enhanced levels of ambition on climate change within the Decade, the Special Adviser, leading the Climate Action team will focus on Member State support, coalition-building, UN system engagement and public mobilization necessary to implement the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and achieve a successful 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, United Kingdom in 2020. The Special Adviser will ensure delivery of the Secretary-General’s priorities on climate change, from enhanced Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), fossil fuel and coal phase-out, ensuring public and private finance shifts and the transitions necessary to shift the world’s energy, transportation, land and natural systems in alignment with the goals of the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals

Josh Kroeker is the Chief Product Officer of Contour, a network to lead a global adoption of blockchain-based trade solutions. Josh has 15 years of experience in Hong Kong and Canada in senior positions across trade finance business development, learning and development, trade finance product management and corporate banking innovation at HSBC, one of the world’s leading trade finance banks. Josh’s passion is to increase the accessibility of trade finance through technology and has been involved in a majority of the industry’s trade digitisation efforts in the past decade, particularly in regards to traditional trade products. Most recently he has led a global innovation team pioneering the use of blockchain to provide a breakthrough for trade and trade finance, a notoriously difficult to change industry.

Andreas joined SunTrust Robinson Humphrey, which is now Truist, in January 2019, after four years at Standard Chartered Bank in San Francisco. Prior to that he spent 28 years at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. in New York, Chicago and Germany, including as Head of Corporate Banking North America and Head of Telecommunications, Media and Technology (TMT). Mr. Neumeier is responsible for origination and corporate banking franchise expansion with TMT clients and leads a team of bankers in San Francisco and Los Angeles. He holds an MBA from Fordham University in New York with a major in Finance and Information Technology as well as a diploma in Economics and Marketing from Verwaltungs- und Wirtschafts Akademie in Munich.

Rob Nichols is the president and CEO of the American Bankers Association, which represents banks of all sizes and charters and is the voice for the nation’s $20 trillion banking industry. Rob joined ABA in August 2015 following ten years at the helm of the Financial Services Forum, a non-partisan financial and economic policy organization. Before joining the Forum, Rob served in the George W. Bush administration as the assistant secretary for public affairs at the Treasury Department, a position requiring confirmation by the United States Senate. In this role, he acted as chief spokesperson and head of the office of public liaison, serving as Treasury’s lead representative with the media, business, professional trade organizations, consumer groups and the public. Rob’s earlier career highlights include working as communications director to U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton and press secretary to the late Rep. Jennifer Dunn, a former member of the House leadership, and in the West Wing as an aide in the Office of the Chief of Staff in the George H.W. Bush administration.

Mary is the Director of the Sustainability (ESG) and Gender Solutions department at the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group and the largest global development institution focused on the private sector in emerging markets. Since 2006, an estimated $4.5 trillion in investments across emerging markets have adhered to IFC’s environmental and social standards, or principles inspired by them. Prior to her current role, Mary was the Director of the IFC’s Global Advisory Solutions department, has served as Regional Head of Advisory Services in Latin America & the Caribbean, and Regional Head of Sustainable Business Advisory in the Middle East & North Africa. Before joining IFC, Mary held various positions across public and private sectors, including: Market Access International, an economic development consulting firm; St. Genevieve Group, a group of international mining companies; and the US Agency for International Development. Mary holds a Bachelor’s degree from George Washington University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and an MBA from the University of Oxford.

Eli is a recognized payments leader deeply involved in re-architecting the infrastructure of money flow. She is Founder and CEO of Nivelo; a NYC-based digital payment start-up helping businesses move money securely and fast via the internet. Prior to starting Nivelo, Eli was an Executive Director at J.P. Morgan where she led various research & development initiatives often in fintech partnerships with start-ups, universities and government entities. Eli Polanco was born and raised in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. She graduated from Washington and Lee University with degrees in economics and mandarin. In addition to Tech:NYC Eli is a member W&L’s Entrepreneurship Advisory Board and Big Brothers & Big Sisters of America. She lives in Brooklyn.

Sabry Salman is Global Head Financial Institutions & Non-Bank PSPs and responsibilities spanning Banks, Brokers AltFI & Fintechs. Sabry has 25 years of experience in global corporate banking, having lived and worked in Asia and the UK. Prior to his current role, he was Global Head of Banks Coverage and Head of UK MNC for 6 years, covering client markets in the Americas, UK, Europe, Middle East and Asia. Since joining Barclays in 2004, he has held many leadership roles spanning industry sectors and geographies including Africa for 7 years. Prior to Barclays he worked at Standard Chartered and RBS Group. Sabry is a member of the Corporate Bank Sustainability Council & The Digital Execution Board.

Isabel Schmidt is a senior executive with over 20 years of experience in global cash management driving strategic planning and business development, product and market management and risk and regulatory management. She has a strong track record of driving change and generating sustainable bottom line contributions and proven experience building and managing diverse, highly motivated and results oriented teams. Isabel Schmidt responsible for BNY Mellon’s Global Clearing and Asset Account Services products. In this capacity she shapes and executes the product strategy for our global clearing and FX payment services for domestic and global clients and our banking and cash management services for NBFIs. Isabel and her team drive market and industry engagement related to major transformation initiatives affecting our clients in the coming years in the cross-border payment space to ensure alignment with BNY Mellon strategic objectives.

Tom is the Chief Innovation Officer with responsibility for growing and championing SWIFTs innovation capabilities. He joined in January 2020, and is charged with driving new growth opportunities across the company and in collaboration with the SWIFT Community and partners. Prior to joining SWIFT, he was the Chief Information Officer at CLS Group based in London where he was responsible for the technology function and for further developing the organization’s technology vision. He served on the Executive Management Committee at CLS. Prior to CLS, he was the Chief Information Officer for LCH.Clearnet, one of the world’s leading multinational clearing houses. Tom worked for more than twenty years in several investment banks including Bank of America / Merrill Lynch as Head of Rate and Currencies Technology and at Barclays Capital as Managing Director in Technology and Global Head of Equities, Prime Brokerage and Client Technology.

Marissa Adams leads HSBC’s Global Trade and Receivables Finance business for North America. Her team supports customers with innovative working capital solutions and risk mitigation tools to enable both regional and international trade. She is focused on ensuring that trade finance supports the ESG ambitions of companies of all sizes and promoting the further democratization of trade finance for the benefit of all members of the global supply chain.

Mike Barbary is a commercial technology attorney specializing in contracts, IP, and data licensing. Mike has built his career supporting technology companies' efforts to deliver solutions to market, drive adoption, and build revenue across client organizations while maintaining the highest standards of trust and partnership. As a front office executive, Mike is responsible for building long-term relationships with customers, negotiating enterprise software deals leveraging AI, machine learning, and other emerging technologies. Mike is passionate about helping industry stakeholders digitally transform their global trade businesses, harnessing the power of data, automation, and machine learning to unlock operational efficiency and reduce regulatory risk.

Bob Bench is an assistant vice president in the Secure Payments group for the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. In this capacity, Bob is tasked with performing FinTech market research and experimentation to inform Federal Reserve System policy and decision makers about the implications of FinTech on the financial services industry and Federal Reserve’s mission broadly. The group’s current focus is blockchain or Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) and private and fiat digital currencies. Bob brings over 15 years of experience across the intersections of financial regulation, law, and technology. Prior to joining the Boston Fed, Bob was the chief compliance officer and associate general counsel of Circle Internet Financial, a consumer internet company focused on financial services and blockchain technology. While at Circle, in addition to leading the compliance and regulatory functions of the firm, Bob closely engaged with U.S. and global lawmakers, regulators, and law enforcement on blockchain technology and its impact on current legal and regulatory frameworks. Before his role at Circle, Bob’s career focused on the regulation of U.S. banks and foreign banking organizations. Bob began his career as an examiner with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.

Rosanna Boyle is Head of Product, (Risk and Compliance) at Lloyd’s List Intelligence. Over the past 3 years, Rosie has worked with compliance professionals globally to develop our most advanced risk and compliance solution. Starting her career in 2011 working in the events division, Rosie quickly progressed and in 2015 moved into the role AIS Research and Procurement Manager. Her natural ability to understand customer needs, organically moved her into a Senior Product Manager role, focused on maritime risk in 2019. Rosie is now our Head of Product and owns all our Risk and Compliance solutions.

Tod Burwell is the President and Chief Executive Officer of BAFT. Prior to being promoted to CEO, he served as the Senior Vice President of Trade Products with oversight of all trade-related initiatives including the Global Trade Industry Council, Trade Committees, and other strategic initiatives of the organization. Mr. Burwell has over 25 years of trade, supply chain and cash management experience as a banking practitioner, as well as serving as a consultant to global corporations and suppliers of strategically integrated trade solutions. Prior to joining BAFT, Mr. Burwell was a Managing Director at JPMorgan Chase and held senior global management roles responsible for trade operations, launching the logistics business and managing global product sales for trade finance and logistics management.

Venkat B.V. is Head of StoneX Technology Services, a dedicated technology unit within the StoneX group that serves both external and internal customers. Venkat previously co-founded Akshay Software Technologies Ltd,, whose US subsidiary provided SWIFT services to the Global Payments Business unit of StoneX before it was acquired by StoneX in September 2018.

Member of GCB Executive Committee. Managing a team with both a local and global approach, bringing together product specialists and sales managers from multiple countries with skills in a wide range of asset classes to provide customer-focused solutions in cash management, lending and working capital solutions and trade finance. Currently Board Member of IBOS Association, member of Transaction Banking Global Leaders (TBGL) and the Association of Spanish Treasurers (ASSET). Joined Santander in 1997, working in the Operations Department for 6 years with varying responsibilities. In 2004 moved to Global Banking & Markets where held the responsibility of managing cash management and supply chain finance projects in Spain. From 2008 holding different positions including Product Manager of GTB Europe, Head of GTB Iberia and Head of GTB Europe.

David is an advisor to banks and Managing Director in EY’s Financial Services Organization based in Chicago. At EY he leads their Trade Finance and Working Capital Finance practice in North America as well as EY’s Trade Automation Platform solution. David is has over 30 years of experience in the banking industry, primarily in Transaction Banking, including developing new innovative growth strategies, achieving revenue growth, improving efficiencies, deploying leading-edge technology and leading large-scale global transformation programs. He recently led EY’s Trade Finance and Working Capital Finance practice in North America. Previously he held global executive roles in at Citibank and ABN AMRO/LaSalle Bank as well as consulting firms advising the sector. He has served as a Director of bank subsidiaries focused on Trade and was a Founder / Director of the Trade Information Network, an industry consortium designed to improve small to medium-sized enterprise access to funding.

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.

Gabriel Esparza has been selected to serve as Associate Administrator for the Office of International Trade at the U.S. Small Business Administration. In this role, Mr. Esparza will be responsible for leading Export Loan Programs; the State Trade Expansion Program (STEP) and assisting small businesses in trade. Previously, Mr. Esparza served as a public official in the City of Los Angeles, appointed by the Mayor to the Board of Civil Service Commissioners, and as Vice President of Global Business Development in the Commercial Payments division at American Express. A seasoned executive with over 25 years of experience leading businesses, spanning both large corporations and nimble startups, Mr. Esparza has also spent the past five years as an investor, advisor, and operator in a variety of entrepreneurial ventures. In addition, Mr. Esparza played an integral role at RapidSOS, a government tech platform that provides a data-driven way for people to communicate with 911.

Llenay is CEO of Bhavana World Project Inc. She has more than twenty years of experience in international business development, product design, fashion, and is experienced in Fair Trade standards and certification. Llenay served as CEO and Executive Director of Ten Thousand Villages, the largest Fair Trade organization in North America, working with more than 120 MSMEs in 35 countries using trade as a solution for poverty alleviation. Prior to her work in economic development, Llenay was the Creative Design Director of Chico’s FAS, a national women’s apparel retailer. Llenay also served various roles at Liz Claiborne Inc., including as Vice President of Design, where she led product design for the fashion brand and directed a design staff in all aspects of apparel development with a global factory base. Llenay has focused much of her development efforts in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). She has partnered with the private sector and government programs to facilitate successful business relationships for African companies. Since 2011, Llenay has consulted on projects focusing on MSME business development in the Textile, Fashion and Personal Accessories sectors. Her work in SSA includes market access programs for more than 400 companies and capacity building interventions for more than 150 MSMEs in the region. Over the course of her work business revenue exceeded $50 million within Bhavana’s MSME portfolio with significant increases from the top 30% performers.

Michelle Knowles is the Pan Africa Head of Trade Finance Product and Governance. During her 23 years in the Banking industry, Michelle has spent the major part of her career in International Trade at Standard Bank, First National Bank and the Absa Group, holding a number of different roles and responsibilities. Michelle has a Master’s Degree in Business Leadership with an elective in e- Business and has completed the SAFEX Registered Persons examination for Bond market, Equity market and Future markets. In addition, she holds a certificate in Business Psychology and human behavior, completed numerous leadership and trade finance courses, and is currently a member of the Institute of South African Financial Markets. Some of her key achievements include being nominated deputy chairperson for TSAG user group for Europe, Middle East and Africa in 2011 and Co- Chair of the International Chamber of Commerce Bank Payment Obligation Consulting Group in 2012. She is a member of the global advisory committee for Factors Chain International 2020. She is also a regular speaker at conferences and contributes to articles on the topic of Trade Finance.

Manish Kohli joined HSBC in October 2021, as the head of Global Liquidity and Cash Management [GLCM]. GLCM is a strategically important business for HSBC serving 40k large corporate and mid-market companies and 1.5m business banking clients, in over 50 markets globally. Before joining HSBC, Manish spent 24 years working for Citibank in a variety of senior roles across the global transaction banking business. Manish is passionate about building Digital business models based on collaboration, building high performance diverse teams, financial market infrastructure enhancements and Sustainability. Manish has worked in Mumbai, London, New York in a range of country, regional and global roles and is currently based in the outskirts of Manhattan where he lives with his wife and two sons.

Nathalie Louat is the Director of Trade & Supply Chain Finance in the Financial Institutions Group at IFC, based in Washington. Prior to this role she was the Senior Manager in the Financial Institutions Group in charge globally of Insurance, Innovation, Capital Markets, and the Distressed Assets Recovery Program. She was previously a Senior Manager for East Asia and the Pacific Portfolio Operations in the Financial Institutions Group, based in Hong Kong. From 2010 until 2014, Nathalie was supporting IFC's clients in the financial sector in East Asia Pacific. She managed a $3 billion portfolio with exposure to 90 clients and 150 projects located from Mongolia to the Pacific Islands. From 1999 until 2010, Nathalie worked in IFC's Structured Finance Department within the Treasury Vice-Presidency. She served on IFC's Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee and was selected as a member of the World Bank Group's sounding board for the change management process. Nathalie received the World Bank Group's Diversity and Inclusion Leadership Award in 2012. Prior to joining IFC, Nathalie pursued a career in Credit Lyonnais' Securitization Group. She holds a degree from the French School of Statistics and Economics and graduated as an Actuary from the French Institute of Actuarial Studies.

As the Executive Vice President, Mr. Lowery oversees the departments responsible for macroeconomic analysis, international financial regulation, financial technology, and specific policy areas such as debt policy and analysis and sustainable finance. In addition, he oversees the membership recruitment and retention department. Prior to joining IIF, Mr. Lowery was a founder and Managing Director of the Rock Creek Global Advisors international economic consulting firm. Previously, he served as the Assistant Secretary for International Affairs at the U.S. Treasury Department, where he was the Finance Deputy to the G20, G7, International Monetary Fund, and the Financial Stability Board, chaired CFIUS, and was the point person on U.S. trade policy for financial services and toward Sovereign Wealth Funds. Mr. Lowery served over 15 years in the U.S. government including being the Director of International Finance at the National Security Council. He also serves on the Advisory Board to the Batten School of Public Policy at the University of Virginia and as a Senior Advisor to the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Mr. Lowery received his B.A. in Economics and Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia (Phi Beta Kappa) and his M.Sc. in Economics at the London School of Economics.

Jai Massari is a Partner in Davis Polk's Financial Institutions Group and the trading and markets practice, based in the Washington DC office. She advises major global banks, asset managers, and corporations on the requirements, impact and implementation of financial regulation, including reforms, focusing on derivatives regulation and the Volcker Rule. Ms. Massari also advises financial institutions and technology companies on regulatory considerations for digital asset and blockchain businesses and investments. She frequently works with individual firms and industry organizations in connection with advocacy efforts on legislative and regulatory proposals.

Tony McLaughlin is responsible for Emerging Payments and Business Development in Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) business. Tony is responsible for the TTS Ecommerce proposition and is deeply involved in new methods of payment, Distributed Ledger and Fintech engagements. He joined Citi in 2004 and has been Core Cash Head for Asia Pacific based in Hong Kong and the Global Transaction Services Head for the United Kingdom, spearheading Citi’s engagement with large public sector clients and payment aggregators. Tony was responsible for the design and development of ABN AMRO’s Third Party Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS) offering, core electronic banking platform and transactional FX solution. At HSBC Holdings, he fulfilled a global strategy role for the Payments and Cash Management business. Before that he was a Senior Product Manager for Barclays Bank with responsibility for electronic collections products including International Direct Debits.

Tom is the Director responsible for Central Bank Digital Currency at the Bank of England. He took on this positon when it was established in January 2021. His previous roles at the Bank include Director of Fintech, Head of International Policy & Strategy, Head of Division in Prudential Policy and time as a Senior Manager responsible for the supervision of major international firms. He was educated at the London School of Economics.

Steven Ricchiuto is a Managing Director and Chief Economist of Mizuho Securities USA (MSUSA). As Chief Economist, Mr. Ricchiuto is responsible for formulating and marketing the firm’s macroeconomic and interest rate forecasts and providing clients with a strategic outlook on the U.S. economy and financial markets. Prior to joining Mizuho Securities USA, Mr. Ricchiuto worked at Svenska Handelsbanken and at ABN AMRO, where he was Chief U.S. Economist and Head of Fixed Income Research for the region. He has more than thirty five years of experience in the financial services industry. Mr. Ricchiuto is a well-known and highly regarded economist, with extensive appearances on various business news television and radio programs and is regularly quoted in the print media. His latest book:” Symptomatic to Systemic traces the history of post war business cycles and how financial debacles have evolved from being caused by the cycle to leading the cycle.

Amy Sahm joined Fulton Financial’s International Group in 2002 following a long-term career in the Japanese banking and trade industry. She works as department manager, overseeing product development, operations, sales and risk management. The International Group at Fulton is responsible for foreign exchange risk management and all international transactional products and services including Trade Finance for Fulton’s customer base. The International Group primarily serves import / export SME clients within Fulton’s five state footprint. She serves as a Board Member and Treasurer of both the World Trade Center of Harrisburg and the Mid-Atlantic District Export Council supporting the US Commercial Service Export Assistance Center. Amy is a member of the International Business Advisory Board of Elizabethtown College where she mentors students and presents guest lectures on international finance. Amy also holds a Board seat at BAFT as well as a Co-Chair position on the North American Council. In addition to BAFT, Amy is active throughout the North American regional bank network in several international banking industry groups.

Based in Frankfurt, Daniel Schmand drives Deutsche Bank’s Institutional Cash Management business well as Corporate Bank’s Operations including all branches. He is responsible for setting the strategy and overseeing the entire organisation. In this capacity Daniel is a member of the Corporate Banking Executive Committee. Daniel joined Deutsche Bank in 1987 as a trainee.

Nick Smit is a Managing Director, Head of Financial Institutions North America, with responsibility for originating and executing transactions for financial institution clients in North America, including asset managers, insurance companies, and banks. Nick has 18 years experience in the financial industry, primarily in corporate and global client relationship management. After he joined ING in 1995 as an Account Manager in Global Clients based in Amsterdam, he held various management roles within ING’s global banking network, including Head of Corporate Banking in Geneva, Head of Global Clients and Head of Corporate Clients for the Nordic Region based in Brussels, and Chief of Staff for ING’s global corporate and institutional business based in Amsterdam. Prior to joining ING, he worked in international trade and export finance at Standard Merchant Bank in Johannesburg.

Sue-Ellen Speight is a Senior Vice President at StoneX Inc, a global Fortune 500 financial services institution. Sue-Ellen specializes in Global Cross-Border Payments in emerging markets with a focus on Regional Banks and Fintech. Having been with StoneX in the Global Payments team for eight years, Sue-Ellen offers keen insight into the challenges facing the Banking Sector, prevailing technology trends and payments best practice. The global payment sector has benefited from recent initiatives to increase transparency and innovations spurred by Fintechs though in many Frontier Markets the regulatory and operational challenges remain. Sue-Ellen and StoneX are committed to bringing access and efficiency to the ‘final mile’ of payments in challenging markets. For Financial Institutions, this means accessing local market insight as well as improving operational efficiency to deliver payments to almost all markets within two days. Formerly a Partner in a UK Consultancy specializing in Operational Efficiency, then transplanted to San Francisco as Strategy & Operational roles in several start-ups, Sue-Ellen brings a global perspective and practical understanding of how human processes can be given Super-Powers through technology. She is an active participant in the Bay Area Payments community, regular contributor to the Australian-American Incubator Mentorship program run by the Australian Consulate and Activator for the SHE-EO Investment Network. In her down time, Sue-Ellen is an amateur astronomer and enthusiastic hiking buddy to an intrepid ten-year-old Brittany pointer. Sue-Ellen holds a Bachelor of Commerce - Business Finance & Commercial Law from the University of Queensland in Australia, graduated the Executive Program in Strategy & Organization Stanford University Graduate School of Business, and holds Certificates in Foundations of Design Thinking and Organizational Thought to Action from IDEO.

Edward Abbo has served as C3's Chief Technology Officer since July 2011. He previously served as Chief Executive Officer from September 2009 to July 2011 and a member of our board of directors from August 2009 to November 2020. Prior to joining us, Mr. Abbo served as Senior Vice President of Engineering and Chief Technology Officer for Siebel Systems from July 1994 until it merged with Oracle Corporation in January 2006, and Senior Vice President of Oracle Corporation from January 2006 to July 2009. Mr. Abbo holds a B.S. in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering from Princeton University and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

John Ahearn joined Falcon Group in June 2020 as Vice Chairman of Falcon Group and CEO of Falcon America where he is responsible for establishing and growing the business across the Americas. Prior to Falcon, John ran Citibanks Global Trade as part of their Treasury and Trade business having worked there for 16 years. Prior to joining Citi, John worked for ABN Amro in Chicago IL where he ran the US Trade franchise and their Financial Institutions for the Trade Group globally. John also held a senior position at the Bank of New York/National Community Bank (merger). He started his career at Morgan Guarantee as a management trainee. John also held various board seats including Chairman for BAFT (Bankers Association for Finance and Trade) and PEFCO (Private Export Funding Corp) of which he is still a member.

Rowan Austin is Head of Trade Origination & Advisory in the Corporates & Institutions team of Natwest Commercial Banking. Along with his team, he is responsible for working with large corporate customers across the UK, Western Europe and the US to deliver working capital solutions supporting domestic and cross-border trade. With extensive cross-product and sectoral knowledge, and having worked for four banks across six continents, Rowan started his banking career with Goldman Sachs before joining Barclays and performing roles across Corporate, International and Investment Banking. He then joined Europe Arab Bank, where he built a commodity and trade finance function across Europe and the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region before joining NatWest in 2011. Rowan has a BA (Honours) in History from the University of Wales. He is also an Associate Member of the Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT).

As director of cargo marketing for the Port of Los Angeles, Eric Caris is responsible for marketing, sales, and promotional programs designed to attract and retain shipping business to the Port. A significant activity involves the negotiation of container terminal leases in collaboration with the Cargo and Industrial Real Estate Division. On the efficiency side, Cargo Marketing plays an integral part of implementing the Port Optimizer™ program, which provides supply chain stakeholders with added visibility to the supply chain.

John Ciccarone is Senior Vice President and Deputy Head of the Technical Solutions and Network Management team in Wells Fargo’s Global Payment Services Group. John’s team is responsible providing technical support and setting the strategic direction of the Treasury, Foreign Currency Payments and Multi-Currency Account products for Wells Fargo’s Financial Institution and NBFI clients. John’s team is also responsible for supporting enterprise level initiatives such as the application of DLT, API’s and the impact of Open Banking.

Joan Gelpi is a managing director and head of Global Data in Global Transaction Services at Bank of America. In this role, he leads a team of data scientists, data engineers and data product managers focused on harnessing data and artificial intelligence to deliver value and strategic advantage to clients. Gelpi joined Bank of America in February 2020. He has more than 20 years of experience working with complex corporate data and driving effective data strategies. He has worked at American Express and AIG where he established and led multiple Data Science organizations. Gelpi has successfully developed innovative solutions leveraging large scale data to drive improvements in product development, growth, customer service, automation and operational efficiency. He has been an early adopter of artificial intelligence and machine learning techniques with impactful implementations of natural language processing, predictive analytics and sentiment analytics.

Brian Gordon started his banking career at National Bank of Commerce in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1989 while attending the University of Nebraska. In 2000 he joined Wells Fargo (via acquisition) where he focused his calling in the 7 states surrounding Missouri as a business development officer for the Wells Fargo HSBC Trade Bank. He then joined Sovereign Bank in the Mid-Atlantic & New England markets to build from scratch a structured trade finance group. Before returning to the Midwest to join Commerce Bank, he was with HSBC in New York City as an international business development officer covering CT, NJ, NY, PA, MD, VA, and Washington DC.

David is the Chief Data & AI Officer at UnionBank Philippines, and acting in capacity as both Chief Data and Innovation Officer for Aboitiz Group as well as Managing Director for Aboitiz Data Innovation. Concurrently David is an external advisor to Singapore's Corrupt Investigation Practices Bureau (CPIB) in the capacity of Senior Advisor (Artificial Intelligence) and to Singapore's Central Provident Fund Board (CPF) in the capacity of Senior Advisor (Data Science). Prior to his current roles, David was Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) first appointed Chief Data Officer and Head of Data Analytics Group reporting to the agency Deputy Managing Director for Financial Supervision and subsequently Special Advisor (Artificial Intelligence) reporting to Deputy Managing Director for Markets and Development. In these roles he led the development of the AI strategy both for MAS and Singapore’s financial sector as well as driving efforts in promoting open cross-border data flows. David pioneered the regulator and central bank adoption of data science as well as establishment of the Fairness, Ethics, Accountability and Transparancy (FEAT) principles, first-of-a-kind guidelines for adopting Artificial Intelligence in the financial industry, as well as establishing the MAS-backed Veritas consortium.

Patrik has a long and extensive experience in corporate banking prior to joining Visa in 2022. He has been leading Nordic and international teams for Nordea, SEB and Danske Bank. Focus has been on the Transaction Banking landscape, where he has earned a strong reputation for his strategic vision and commercial development expertise. He has been very engaged in the international bank to bank community in various boards and partnerships. He is member of the Board of Directors in BAFT. He has a track record of strategy, sales excellence, crossed new frontiers in service and concept development and in online banking services. Patrik is well-known for his success in developing industry leadership within financial services. He has a wide-ranging and well-established network throughout the banking business, nationally and internationally. Over the years, Patrik has appeared as a speaker and panelist at numerous industry events.

Alan Koenigsberg is global head of new payments flows for the Visa Business Solutions team. In this role, Alan is leading all aspects of commercialization of Visa B2B Connect, a unique multilateral cross-border B2B payments network, as well as opening up new payment opportunities within accounts receivable and payables space, as well as overall account-to-account B2B payments. Prior to this role, Alan was Chief Revenue Officer for Traxpay, a payments and supply chain Fintech based in Germany. During his tenure, he grew the startup to over 100 employees, playing a key role in platform development and initial go-to-market relationship building with financial institutions. Alan is an experienced payments and treasury professional who was previously Managing Director and Corporate Banking Group Executive at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (BAML). In this role, Alan worked with global corporates to provide corporate lending and treasury management solutions to them around the world. Prior to BAML, Alan held Transaction Banking leadership roles, along with product management positions, at JPMorgan in New York and London. Prior to JPMorgan, Alan held Product Management and Operations roles at American Express.

Michael Laws is responsible for the BNP Paribas Trade Finance global eBanking platforms that serve BNP Paribas corporates clients across the globe. Michael has been leveraging experience in Cash Management and IT Implementation to increase the bank footprint in terms of global reach and services proposed for both interactive eBanking channels and non-interactive channels, such as SWIFTNet Trade, for the diverse trade finance instruments proposed by BNP Paribas. Michael is a member of the BNP Paribas Trade Finance Competence Center and will be joining remotely from Paris, France.

Philipp heads the Supply Chain Finance Product Team for Santander in the US. He has been working in various Trade & Working Capital Solutions roles since 2011, covering Corporates as well as Non-Bank Financial Institutions globally. Previously also at Deutsche Bank and JP Morgan, Philipp spent several years in Frankfurt and London before moving to New York with broader experience across Corporate & Investment Banking. His educational background is in Economics (University of Freiburg, Germany) and an MBA from the University of Bayreuth, Germany.

Vanessa Lin is the Global Head of Commercialization and Digital Products for Treasury Services. She is responsible for the end-to-end view of the digital client experience and ensuring the strategy is cohesive across all TS products and client-facing channels. Vanessa also owns the commercialization and digital engagement strategy whereby we will map each client persona, allowing us to target our messaging and deepen our relevance in each segment. With more than 20 years of transaction banking experience, Vanessa worked for several global banks prior to joining BNY Mellon in September 2020 as the Regional Head of Relationship Management and Business Development for North American Banks. In that role, she was responsible for growing and managing the segment, architecting and driving go-to-market strategies, and solutioning to meet the Payments, Receivables, Liquidity and Trade needs of clients. Prior to BNY Mellon, Vanessa worked for JP Morgan where she was the Global Product Head for Multi-currency Clearing responsible for several product lines that service thousands of institutional clients around the world. Her main focus was setting and driving the overall product strategy, leading a team of product managers to develop best-in-class solutions, and improving the overall business risk framework. Before JP Morgan, she was with HSBC for over 5 years managing the Payments, Receivables and Commercial Cards businesses for the North America region. Vanessa started her career at Citi where she spent 13 years in progressively senior roles ranging from Sales & Account Management to Strategy & Planning to Product Management. Her last role at Citi was Global Head of USD Clearing & CLS Services.

Teresita Meza joined HSBC in 1997. Today with 25 years of experience in the financial sector focused on product development, marketing, reengineering processes, customer relationship management, regulatory payments products, cash management and regulatory reports. Some of the tasks that she has been in charge of are the management of the entrepreneurial, corporate and retail in treasury management focused on the design of local, regional and global strategies to increase the revenue, acquire new clients and grow the cross sell. She has been working on the creation and redesign of products, improvement of processes, massive and tactic advertising campaigns, financial analysis of projects and strategic management of training products Investment, Transactional Banking, Demand Deposit and Currency exchange.

Ishaan Nerurkar is the CEO of LeapYear, a platform for privacy- preserving machine learning on sensitive data. LeapYear enables the world's largest financial institutions, healthcare, and technology companies to safely leverage, share, and generate insights on previously restricted information. Before founding LeapYear, Ishaan led a consulting firm which partnered with government agencies, large corporations, and non-profits to apply mathematics research to enhance their data strategy. Prior to that, Ishaan worked on a Department of Defense initiative as a researcher at MIT.

Aldwyn L. Wayne graduated from Georgia College & State University with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Masters of computer applications from the University of Georgia. He hails from the twin Island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, and is originally from the quiet town of Point Fortin. He is the founder and CEO of Color Bank and WiPay which provides innovative solutions for e-commerce, online payments and facilitating digital transactions for the unbanked in Trinidad & Tobago, he has extended the service to other countries such as Jamaica, Guyana and St. Lucia where he has devoted 90 percent of his practice to a ‘cash less’ future for the last five years. He has extensive experience in unusual and innovative financings.

Romain is French, 49 years old, and holds a Master’s Degree in Engineering from Grenoble Institute of Technology (France). He’s married with 4 children and lives in Copenhagen, Denmark. He has been working with data, insights & analytics in a commercial context for the past 15 years in financial services, including several senior management roles at Saxobank within digital marketing & digital wealth management. Since 2017, he leads Nordea Center of Excellence for Data Science, AI & Digital analytics, as a part of Nordea’s Group Data Management Office.

Ken Wong is Head of Product Strategy and Innovation for the Global Transaction Bank at TD Bank that encompasses the Financial Institutions, Cash Management and Trade Finance lines-of-business. He has been in the financial Industry for over 30 years in different business divisions from Consumer Banking to Corporate and Institutional Banking with roles from Front Office Financial Services Sales and Relationship Management to Back Office Operations and Technology. He is a seasoned Treasury, Cash Management and Payments practitioner with extensive experience in the Foreign Exchange integrated Payments and Clearing space. He has extensive international exposure with working assignments in Asia, Europe, Middle East and North America.