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Ashley Allen, Vice President and International Banking Manager for Arvest Bank, graduated from Oklahoma State University with a Master of Business Administration, in addition to holding a Bachelor’s in Marketing from the University of Oklahoma. Ashley thrives on providing technical advice for payment risk mitigation and coaching those new to international trade on best practices. She is experienced in all aspects of international banking and trade finance, including import and export commercial letters of credit, international and domestic standby letters of credit, documentary collections, and foreign currency advisory services. Ashley maintains a CDCS certification (Certified Documentary Credit Specialist) from the International Chamber of Commerce. Actively involved in the community, Ashley serves as Treasurer of the Oklahoma District Export Council, which utilizes business experience in support of the Nation’s export expansion effort. In her personal time, Ashley enjoys spending time with her husband and daughter, reading, and traveling.

Gabe Amundson is a Director in Cargill’s Trade and Capital Markets (TCM) business group. He joined Cargill in 1999 and has held various roles within the company including his current role managing relationships as part of TCM’s Risk Investors Group. His primary focus is working with partners interested in supporting Cargill’s trade finance activities including banks, non-bank investors, and ECA’s.

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.

Unal Baysal has been with SEBA Holdings since 1995. Prior to joining SEBA, Unal was SVP & Deputy Chief Credit Offider with Charter National Bank Houston for 10 years.

Kalyani Bhatia is the Global Head of Payments & PMI Go To Market in Business Development at SWIFT. Her team of payment and payment market infrastructure experts execute the SWIFT Strategy through data driven prioritization, standardized programmes and global expertise. She is responsible for supporting global business product programmes including gpi, ISO20022, transaction management, SWIFT GO and Instant payments. Kalyani is on the US Advisory Board for Women In Payments and is the Co-Sponsor of the Race & Ethnicity Chapter at SWIFT. Prior to joining SWIFT in 2020, Kalyani spent 18 years at Deutsche Bank, holding senior positions in technology, product and client implementations & service. Her expertise lies in running large global change initiatives supporting global transaction banking. She also has experience in the oil & gas, automotive and retail industries delivering systems as a technical consultant with Price Waterhouse LLP.

Marcos is Global SPOC (single point of contact) on the Go To Market team at SWIFT, based in New York. He supports global adoption of the ISO 20022 Cross Border Payments and Reporting messages as part of SWIFT’s ISO Adoption Programme. Marcos works closely with banks and other financial institutions, promoting and supporting innovation of the end user’s payment experience, harmonizing systems/schemes and refining efficiency of operations. All with the goal of helping to achieve the SWIFT Strategy of Fast and Frictionless Payments.

Since 2015, Rita Carleton has been the Director of Risk and Asset Management in the Credit Programs Division of USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS). She and her staff are passionate about FAS’s mission to support U.S. agricultural exports. They are responsible for analyzing and underwriting country risk and foreign bank risk for two commercial export credit guarantee programs: GSM-102, a short-term trade finance program, and the Facility Guarantee program. They are also responsible for reviewing U.S. banks for program participation. Ms. Carleton has spent her professional career in different capacities all within USDA. She is originally from Michigan (Detroit and the surrounding area) and graduated from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, with a bachelor’s degree in economics and a master’s degree in public policy. During her free time, Ms. Carleton loves to read and take walks and hike.

Bill Glassford is a Senior Vice President in International Banking for Zions Bancorporation. His professional career began in Washington, D.C. where he was engaged in trade policy and trade promotion activities for the federal government. He left government service for a banking career which included 10 years managing offices in in Manila, Taipei, and Hong Kong. Later he ran North American trade finance offices in Seattle, Los Angeles, Portland, New York, and Vancouver, B.C. Over a career spanning 4 decades in banking, he has been associated with all aspects of international banking including trade finance, international private banking, correspondent banking, and commercial credit.

Gerardo Gutierrez-Olvera joined BANORTE 6 years ago as Managing Director, responsible for Trade Finance and International Business. BANORTE is the second largest bank in Mexico, and the only one among the 6 largest banks in the country that is managed locally without any influence of foreign head offices. Gerardo joined Banorte in 2013 after more than 20 years of comprehensive and substantial experience in the local and international banking arena with Banco Santander and Bank of America, working for those institutions in Mexico, New York City, Madrid and the Asia-Pacific region based in Hong Kong, with main focus on the development, management and sales of products and business lines related to trade & receivable finance, international treasury services, corporate banking, financial institutions and correspondent banking. He studied Public Accountant at ITAM (Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de México), and prior to becoming involved in banking, he worked at PwC (PriceWaterhouseCoopers) Audit and International Trade & Taxes Practice in Mexico City. Gerardo is a Director of the Board and the current Chairman of the Banking Commission at the INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE (ICC) Chapter in Mexico.

Mr. Chris Johnson is the Vice President of Sales for CXI, responsible for all business, agent and partnership relationships at CXI. Mr. Johnson has been with the company since 2007 and has extensive experience in providing international payment and foreign currency exchange services to financial institutions and corporations in the USA. He continues to execute on CXI’s goal to deliver technology-focused, system integration solutions to modernize inefficient, manual environments. Additionally, Chris exemplifies CXI’s positive company culture within the Executive, Sales and Relationship Management teams to create a proactive team environment that emphasizes CXI’s Customer First positive client experience.

Allan Matamis is Senior Vice President and Manager of the Enterprise Letter of Credit Operations team at Zions Bancorporation. He is responsible for the day-to-day operations, processing, and delivery of all trade products for Zions Bancorporation and is in charge of three processing centers: Los Angeles, Salt Lake City and Houston where he is permanently based. He joined ZB in May of 2019 and has 40 years’ experience in international banking. Before joining ZB, Mr. Matamis was Director of Trade Services, Payments Servicing and LC Operations at CoBank, ACB in Colorado and has been the Vice President and Manager of Export Letters of Credit at Deutsche Bank AG, New York. Mr. Matamis also worked for Standard Chartered Bank, UBS AG, CSFB, JP Morgan Chase, and Bank of America. He is a member of the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade (BAFT) Regional Bank Council, the Southeast and West Coast Letter of Credit committees

Luis Noriega, CICP, has more than 25 years of experience in risk, credit product and relationship management roles in commercial banking and is a lender account manager for the Office of Small Business (OSB) at the Export-Import Bank of the United States. In this role, Mr. Noriega works with more than 50 delegated authority lenders across the United States in support of U.S. exporters. He can be reached at https://grow.exim.gov/luis-noriega . Learn more at exim.gov.

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.

Mr. Michael Salerno is the Vice President of Global Banking at First National Bank of Omaha where he manages a diverse portfolio of corporate and correspondent bank customers. He consults with trade and treasury management professionals to help define, create, and implement effective trade finance, global payments and international risk management solutions. Mr. Salerno specializes in providing foreign exchange and international payment solutions for financial institutions. He is the Treasurer for both the Nebraska District Export Council and the National Association of District Export Councils.

Raised in The Woodlands, Rami Touma has been a resident of Texas since immigrating to the state as a toddler in the late 1970’s. Rami attended the University of Houston, studying International Marketing, and started working in the oilfield industry in 2000 first working for Conestoga Supply pipe company in Dubai UAE. In 2002 he and Maher Touma founded CECA Supply & Services Inc. as an US exporting company with a focus on American made oilfield products destined for North Africa. Our business interests are in Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco.

Paul Warfield’s current role is to expand and grow product offerings within global trade products and global treasury services. He joined Huntington National Bank in June of 2021 and has more than 30 years of international banking experience working with trade services, trade finance, foreign exchange, and correspondent banking. Throughout his career he has been focused on looking for innovative solutions and technology enhancements that provide regional banks with competitive solutions. He is an active member with BAFT working on various committees and is past co-chair of the Regional Bank Council and past Board Member.

Katherine Zaveri is Senior Vice President at StoneX Payments, where she specializes in helping financial institutions, corporates, and development organizations make payments around the world. In 2019, Katherine was the first from StoneX to participate in the BAFT Future Leaders Program. Since then, she has spoken on several BAFT panels, speaking on topics ranging from cross-border payments to the future of the workplace in a post-pandemic world. Prior to joining StoneX, Katherine worked under Ray Dalio at Bridgewater. She has lived and worked throughout Latin America and is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.