Events

Stephen Alsace has over 20 years’ experience providing advice on financial crime, AML and sanctions issues. He recently assumed the role of Global Head of Sanctions at RBC in May of last year. Prior to joining RBC, Stephen was a Director in the Global Investigations and Compliance practice of Guidehouse consulting since 2018. While at Guidehouse, Stephen led projects relating to AML and sanctions gap assessments for global financial services and digital asset clients, and was embedded as a Senior Leader on the Compliance Team for a global payments service provider. Stephen also spent over 18 years at CIBC, starting in the Legal Department as the lead lawyer on AML and Sanctions, then as the Global Head of Sanctions and Terrorist Financing. Stephen has spoken at numerous conferences in Canada, the US and UK on sanctions matters, provided sanctions and terrorist financing instruction to the RCMP, FBI and MI-5, and has testified as an industry expert on sanctions matters Canadian Parliamentary and Senate Subcommittees in 2017 and 2022. Stephen has law degrees from the University of Windsor and University of Detroit Mercy and a Master’s degree on European Integration from the University of Strasbourg.

Maram Al-Jazireh is SVP/ Global Head of Financial Institutions at Arab Bank and is responsible for relationships and business development activities with financial institutions globally. She is also a member of the Financial Institutions Credit Committee. Maram grew up in Kuwait and graduated from Oklahoma State University with a major in Accounting. Prior to joining Arab Bank in 2001, she worked at Talal Abu-Ghazaleh International, Cairo Amman Bank, Citibank N.A, Amman and ABN Amro Bank, Dubai. She is co-chair of BAFT MENA Council and an advisory board member of Beyond Capital’s governance committee. She is also a fellow of the Middle East Leadership Initiative, a member of the Aspen Global Leadership Network and founder of Mid The Art Reach Project.

Andy joined Huntington Bank in 2009. He has responsibility for Huntington’s Global Advisory segment; consisting of the Structured Working Capital Finance and Global Trade & Treasury lines of business. He is a member of the board of directors at Huntington International Inc. He has extensive corporate banking, structured finance, financial institution risk, country risk and cross-border business experience dating back to 2001, primarily at GE Corporate Finance and ABN AMRO prior to Huntington. He earned an MBA from the Carey School of Business at John’s Hopkins University and is a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking. He earned post-graduate certificates in Executive Leadership from the Wharton School of Business and Fintech from Harvard University. Andy holds several industry certifications including Certified Treasury Professional (CTP) as well as the Certifications in Supply Chain Finance (CSCF) and Payments (CertPay), both issued by the London Institute of Banking and Finance.

Patrick DeVilbiss is a subject matter expert in trade finance and oversees product management of CGI Trade360, a SaaS-based end-to-end trade finance platform utilized by global financial institutions to deliver trade services. He has supported the development of large-scale platforms delivered to top 10 global financial institutions in the trade finance space. Previously he worked for the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade, where he helped to position the transaction banking industry for long-term growth and success by developing best practices and delivering education and training to member institutions.

Idrissa DIOP is the Director Compliance of Afreximbank since June 2019. He before used to be the Group Head Compliance of Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), the Pan African bank headquartered in Lome, Togo, holding company of the Ecobank group present in 36 African countries, with internal offices in Paris, London, Dubai and Beijing. At ETI, he managed a team of around 180 compliance staff across the Ecobank country platform from June 2011 to his departure to Afreximbank headquartered in Cairo, Egypt. Before Ecobank, he worked during 10 years in Luxembourg where, he handled senior manager compliance roles at Schroder IM (Luxembourg), Amundi Luxembourg and at Societe Generale Bank & Trust (SGBT) as a senior internal auditor. Idrissa started his internal audit career in 1998 in Paris with Amundi France (formally Credit Agricole Asset Management) and has worked with the CIC Est bank (Strasbourg-France) as internal auditor before moving to Luxembourg.

Umar Farooq is the Global Head of Financial Institution Payments and CEO of Onyx by J.P. Morgan. Onyx is a J.P. Morgan business unit that leverages cutting-edge technologies like Blockchain to develop innovative products, platforms and marketplaces. Prior to this Umar was the Global Head of Digital Wholesale Payments and Head of Blockchain for the Corporate and Investment Bank (CIB). Previously he was the CFO responsible for financial oversight and business management across CIB Technology, Operations, and Controls. Umar has also held leadership positions in Chase Bank in the past including Head of Small Business Segment and National Sales Manager for Chase Business Banking. Umar holds a B.S. in Computer Science, B.S. in Economics and M.Engg. in Computer Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Umar received his JD from Yale Law School.

Padhraic Garvey is the Regional Head of Research, Americas. He's based in New York. His brief spans both developed and emerging markets and he specialises in global rates and macro relative value. He worked for Cambridge Econometrics and ABN Amro before joining ING. He holds a Masters degree in Economics from University College Dublin and is a CFA charterholder.

Lynette Gillen is the Vice-President of Commercial Solutions and Trade Finance for RBC Royal Bank. She is responsible for leading Trade Finance across all platforms, from Commercial Banking through Capital Markets. Lynette has held progressively senior and leadership roles in the areas of Wealth Management, Retail Banking, and most recently Global Services. Lynette is passionate about improving access to resources for people experiencing mental health issues and sits on the Board of Governors of the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Center. Lynette holds an MBA from Dalhousie University.

Amy Horack is a Director at Bank of America within the Global Transaction Services organization. She works with the Global Card & Intelligent Payables team to develop informative and inspiring messaging for internal and external stakeholders and drive solution adoption with clients. In her role, Amy collaborates with partners in all areas of the bank to create marketing, servicing, and internal communications through a variety of channels with the goal of global consistency and user clarity. Through multiple channels and internal promotion, Amy has driven app adoption, solution revenue and internal engagement. Her primary goal is to translate the deep, technical knowledge of the product team into the language of users with a focus on their desires. Amy does this through pulling from the diverse experiences she has gathered in her non-linear career. Who says that an event planner with a degree in Nutrition and Dietetics cannot be a banker?

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.

Graduated from the ESCEM Tours and the University of Ottawa, Jean-François joined Société Générale in 1993. He held various managerial positions in the French retail network, essentially on the SME and large corporate segments. In 2011, he was appointed Senior Banker on a portfolio of key agribusiness corporate clients, most of them belonging to the cooperative sector. In November 2015, he joined GTB division as co-Head of Cash Clearing Services, before being appointed Head of the same business line one year later.

Miriam Ratkovicova is a Managing Director in the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Sanctions practice of Deloitte Transactions and Business Analytics LLP. She has more than 20 years of experience advising US, Canadian, European and Asian large financial institutions on various Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)/AML, Sanctions, Anti-Bribery & Corruption and other Financial Crime compliance matters. Specifically, Miriam has led multiple large and complex projects involving historical transaction investigations, Know Your Customer (KYC) remediations, AML and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) risk assessments, and customer risk ratings. Miriam has delivered AML/Sanctions engagements in numerous countries throughout Europe, including Germany, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Latvia, Romania, Bulgaria, Russia, Ukraine, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Italy, Spain, Portugal, UK, Cyprus and Slovakia. Currently, Miriam is serving several large financial institutions based in China, Japan, Singapore and Malaysia.

Shane Riedel is the co-founder and CEO of Elucidate, the regulated financial crime risk quantification platform. Prior to Elucidate, Shane was the Head of Financial Crime Compliance for Financial Institutions and Correspondent Banking at Standard Chartered Bank. He started his career in Finance with Goldman Sachs. Prior to his career in Finance, Shane was a diplomat with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

Jordane started his career leading online payment gateways and B2B portals in Europe, before moving to China in 2005 to lead Business development and Partnerships for Groupe BPCE Oney Banque. He has held various trade finance roles at Standard Chartered in Singapore since 2010, including leading global Trade digital initiatives for three years. He is based in New York since 2019, and is currently Head of Trade & Working Capital, Americas.

Started my banking career in the dealing room of ABN Amro Amsterdam in 2005 and never left the Banking industry. Held various risk positions in Global Financial Markets and Ops & IT Banking. After Risk Management, I entered the world of Payment & Cash Management in 2013 as a Product Manager of Payment products; Account reporting, Digital Channels and recently started focusing on Cross Border Payments, SWIFT GPI, Correspondent Banking. I was part of the Future Leaders Class 2022 and researched the topic Commercialization of Data in Global Transaction Banking. The experience of being part of an international platform striving for continuous improvement within the Banking industry led to becoming a mentor for Future Leaders class 2023 exploring The Evolution of Correspondent Banking

Jim Toffey has more than 30 years of experience in Fintech building and operating electronic marketplaces around the world. As a founder and CEO of TradeWeb Markets, he grew them into a global exchange platform spanning 18 different asset classes. Jim received an M.B.A. from the Amos Tuck School of Business Administration and a B.A. from Dartmouth College. He has also served as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Warburg Pincus, LLC and the CEO of Benchmark Solutions.

David leads the New York Banks and FinTech Teams within the International Corporate Bank at Barclays. He works with Banks and regulated US headquartered payment firms to support their banking requirements in UK, Europe, India and UAE. David and his team are focused on understanding clients' strategic ambitions and delivering bespoke solutions across Barclays Corporate and Investment Bank and coordinating the global teams.

As the manager of the International Banking Department at First Citizens Bank, Aaron is responsible for Trade Finance, Foreign Exchange and International Operations. Prior to his role at First Citizens, he was the Director of FX Sales in the Southeast US for TD Securities. Over the past 25 years he has had managerial and sales roles with The South Financial Group, Commerce Bank, and Bank of America. Aaron earned a master’s degree in International Business Administration from Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida and a bachelor’s degree in Geographic Trade and Commerce from the State University of New York at Buffalo.

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.

Chris Hill joined SWIFT in 2020, and is currently Head of Business Development for North America. In this role, Chris and his team are responsible for managing and developing global, long term, strategic relationships with customers based in the US and Canada, as well as with foreign customers with operations in North America. Chris has over 28 years of experience leading Sales and Relationship Management teams across Cash Management and Securities Services for several large global banks. Prior to joining SWIFT, Chris was responsible for Solution Sales of Cash and Liquidity Management services to Insurance Companies, Asset Managers and Mortgage Servicers at Citibank. Prior to Citibank, Chris led the Non-Bank Financial Institution (NBFI) Sales and Relationship Management team at Deutsche Bank. This involved delivering Cash and Liquidity Management solutions to Insurance Companies, Asset Managers and Specialty Finance companies while also driving opportunities for Trade, Trust, Custody and Securities Lending.

Dave joined Form3 in 2022 in order to lead the charge to bring Form3's platform and capabilities to bear on the US market. Dave has worked in transaction banking for over 25 years and joined Form3 from SWIFT where he was Chief Executive for the Americas, UK and Ireland with responsibility for the company's largest relationship as well as its global securities business. Prior to SWIFT, Dave was the Global Head of Financial Institutions at Barclays, responsible for the bank's correspondent banking, FI trade, flow FX, and liquidity management businesses for FIs. He has also worked at Deutsche Bank and Bank of New York in both product and strategy roles and across various products lines including cash, trade finance, custody and corporate trust.

Valeria has over 20 years of experience in Trade, based in New York and is currently the Global Trade Services Head for Citi. She is responsible for the product management of all trade services products around the globe for Corporate and Financial Institution’s Citi clients. She works with product managers in the regional teams in Asia, EMEA, NA and Latin America to ensure global consistency and quality delivery to the clients. As Global Trade Services Head she is focusing on key initiatives to drive efficiency into the business like the deployment of OCR (Optical Character Recognition) technology. Valeria is now leading a project that will use Enhanced Analytics to detect red flags, compliance concerns and resolution of sanctions hits in the trade business.

Sriram is a passionate entrepreneur looking to bring efficiencies to Trade Finance. He is the Founder & CEO of Skuchain. He has previously built a company selling risk management solutions to wall street firms, founded an ecommerce startup during the dot-com heyday and played Entrepreneur-In-Residence with a small silicon valley fund. He has been a qualified Captain of ocean going merchant ships, enjoys hackathons and has done the Executive Program at Stanford GSB.

Scott Stevenson is the Senior Vice President of Trade at BAFT. Stevenson leads the association’s trade-focused policy, practices, and education initiatives, and supports its trade-related councils and committees. Prior to joining BAFT, Stevenson was a senior advisor for AF Capital Partners, which provided expertise in emerging market structured and project finance for development banking institutions. For two years, he consulted development banks and export credit agencies following a 17-year career at the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and World Bank Group in various trade and investment project leadership roles. Before joining the IFC, Stevenson was the regional head of financial institutions at Standard Chartered Bank in Singapore. He earned his bachelor’s degree from Colgate University, and his MBA from York University.

Suresh Subramanian leads the Transaction Banking Americas business in BNP Paribas' Corporate and Institutional Banking division. The business provides global working capital, cash management and liquidity solutions to all corporate and institutional clients of the bank. Based in New York, Suresh is responsible for business strategy, product management and sales for the activity across North and South America. As a seasoned professional with over 30 years in the industry, Suresh’s expertise and leadership working within BNP Paribas across Asia Pacific, Europe and the Americas played a pivotal role in driving growth and innovation for the transaction banking business. His wealth of experience and ability to provide insight and guidance has afforded invitations to represent BNP Paribas on a variety of advisory boards, including serving as the current Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade (BAFT) and a recent appointment to the Board of BNP Paribas Asset Management North America.