Authors Page - Trade Finance Global

John Khaw is a technology evangelist and cofounder of a trade finance technology startup after 10 years in trade finance operations in major banks like Westpac Banking Corporation and Citi. Combining this passion for technology and trade finance, John is now consulting for a major trade finance project in Singapore. John is also a member of the Digitalization Committee for Singapore International Chamber of Commerce.

Akinbobola Olukayode “Kay” Olugbemi studied Masters of Law in International Commercial Law (with Professional Arbitration Skills) at the University of Aberdeen. He is a Nigerian qualified legal practitioner with considerable experience working in a top tier law firm in Africa to provide legal advisory services and support to institutional investors in the trade and finance sector. Kay has been instrumental in advising on the licensing of major Fintech entities in Nigeria and the multi-jurisdictional financing of a Fintech group in Africa. Kay has also advised on major trade transactions in Africa and was part of the team that advised in the sub-concession of the Lekki Deep Sea-Port in Lagos, Nigeria. As a budding scholar, Kay is passionate about trade simplification and liberalization. He is also concerned about repositioning trade in Africa through economically tested trade principles and ideas. His current research interest centres around distributed ledger technology in trade, trade policy and governance and international arbitration.

Director, Trade Remedies Consultant, Lead Researcher Sarah is a leading expert in UK trade remedies, having worked in trade remedies at the Department for International Trade from its inception. Previously Sarah has worked as a journalist at Reuters and the BBC. Sarah was trained as a trade remedies investigator at the TRID and now runs a trade consultancy, Castle Knight Services Ltd. Castle Knight offera 1-day crash courses on trade remedies to explain how the system works and whether it is worth it to get involved in a case. They also assist companies throughout their participation in cases. In addition to trade remedies, Castle Knight monitors the changes in the UK’s trade policy and helps companies to participate in government and parliamentary consultations on trade issues, as well as lobbying to put forward their position in trade negotiations with the EU, United States and other countries.

Philip Oguntoye is a Finance professional with extensive knowledge and experience in International Trade, Cash Management as well as Financial and Investment Analysis. Philip spent about 8 years with Citibank across various functions. His background is in Economics and he is also in the final stage of the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Program.

Before joining Czarnikow in January this year, Tanya was as a Director within Trade Commodity Finance London platform at Societe Generale, London branch. Prior to that, she was Head of Commodity Finance at Bank Leumi UK, having worked in various credit and origination roles across an entire basket of commodities in international banks in the UK, France and Russia since 1996. At Czarnikow, her role is to bring innovative finance solutions to the company’s trading partners to support their working capital management, promoting Czarnikow name as multi-faceted supply chain manager and business partner.

Neha Saxena is a banking professional with over 10 years of experience in the Indian financial services industry. Her core expertise lies in credit appraisal, managing large business relationships and transaction banking. She has served in diverse roles within Commercial/Corporate Banking and Trade Finance with eminent corporates including ICICI Bank, Yes Bank and CTBC Bank. She currently holds the position of Regional Head – Product and Sales (Supply Chain Finance) with Indusind Bank. Her interests include reading, music and travel. She is passionate about promoting international trade and providing credit solutions backed by technology

Osama Ibrahem graduated from the Faculty of Commerce, Cairo University, Egypt and has four years of experience with the National Bank of Egypt as a trade finance officer dealing specifically with letter of credits and documentary collections, he is a CDCS holder and had several courses with coastline solutions in Trade Finance and also, currently applying for CTFP from ICC Academy. He is passionate about trade finance and always trying to keep updated with the latest news and events.

Poppie is currently part of the Corporate & Institutional Trade Sales team at Lloyds Bank, specifically focused on a portfolio of Financial Institutions clients. Building on strong relationships with other global banks, she works to support businesses of all sizes in achieving their international trade ambitions through tailored risk management and working capital solutions. Prior to joining the world of finance, she earned a degree in Computer Science and is therefore naturally passionate about the intersection of technology and trade, utilising her unique experience to bring the best of both worlds together.

Peter Mulroy is Secretary General of FCI, the world’s largest network of factoring companies, with its headquarters in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Peter was previously Senior Vice President, International Regional Manager and Managing Director with CIT. Peter is a past Chairman of FCI, and has served on the FCI Executive Committee for over a decade. Peter has an MBA from Thunderbird, School of Global Management in Arizona. As Secretary General, Mr. Mulroy assists banks, regulators and governments in educating the role and introducing the concept of factoring. He addresses audiences around the world on the subject of factoring and international trade and is generally regarded as an “ambassador for the factoring industry”.

Kofi Asumadu Addo is a seasoned professional with over 25 years experience in banking, development finance, export credit  and guarantee business.  He is the Head of Guarantees and Specialised Finance at Afreximbank and leads the Bank’s export credit business, including management of relationships with global ECAs, DFIs and Multilaterals as well as capital market investors.  He is also responsible for the Bank’s Guarantee Programme, Specialized Finance Programme and Country Export Programme.  He has structured several ECA/DFI and Guaranteed transactions across the African continent (both public and private sector) in different industries including  aviation, telecom , energy, transport, oil & gas, mining, among others. He is a Chartered Accountant and a graduate from Henley Business School, University of Reading UK (MSc Business & Management Research), University of Sorbonne, Paris-France (MSc Corporate Management and Finance) and University of Cape Coast, Ghana (B.Comm and  Dip. Education). He is currently a doctoral research associate at the Henley Business School, University of Reading, UK

Edgar is passionate about trade finance, a certified trade finance professional with a career spanning over 13 years in the banking industry. Edgar has worked with Standard Chartered Bank Uganda and now with the Central Bank of Uganda in treasury, reserves management and trade finance operations, presently as a Principal Banking Officer. He is a writer and trainer seeking to grow thought leadership in the trade finance space. Edgar is equally keen on supporting the translation of technology into solutioning trade. Edgar is from Uganda where he works and lives with his family.  

Mohamed is a trade finance passionate with experience for about 15 years in the banking industry, he is looking forward to expanding his knowledge by getting exposed to new challenges, providing new trade finance solutions, and spreading the knowledge to the new trade finance practitioners.

Tinashe Chiwanza is based in Zimbabwe from Chirundu One Stop Border Post between Zambia and Zimbabwe in Chirundu town. He is FIATA certified Logistician of 2017 (Young International Freight Forwarder competition (YIFFY)). He is the Shipping & Forwarding Agents Association of Zimbabwe (SFAAZ) advisor on capacity building and a lecturer with SFAAZ (FIATA programs) on imports and exports procedures.

Gadi Benmoshe is the Managing Director of Marinnovators, offering consulting services focusing on Digital transformation, Innovation and Cybersecurity to Port Authorities, Port Operators and Maritime-Tech Start-Ups. He is a former Chief Information Officer of Israel Ports Company, in which he led the Israeli nation-wide Port Community System. Benmoshe is vice chair of the International Association of Ports and Harbors (IAPH) Data Collaboration Committee in which he led the development of the whitepaper “The mindset shift to innovation in ports”. He also participated in a number of international organisations activities: IMO, IPCSA, UN/CEFACT, WEF, ISO. He holds B.A. in computer science as well as M.B.A.

Chidochashe Nicolette Ncube is a Zimbabwean lawyer. She graduated with an LLB Honours degree from Herbert Chitepo School of Law-Great Zimbabwe University. She is currently pursuing an LLM in International Trade, Investment and Business Law at University of the Western Cape in South Africa. Chidochashe has a keen interest in trade finance and Africa’s trade performance.

Tom is a recent graduate from the University of Bristol with a passion for the energy markets. Being raised in Zambia and South Africa he has seen first-hand the obstacles, but more importantly the opportunities present within the energy sector. He is eager to further develop his knowledge in this field and plans to complete a master’s programme from Cass Business School in Energy, Trade & Finance.

Mathieu is the founder and Managing Partner of Fitracor, a Paris-based advising boutique dedicated to the African trade finance space. Prior to establishing Fitracor, he was notably responsible of the Correspondent Banking relationships of East-Africa and Middle-East in Société Générale – Paris serving the commodity traders portfolio of the bank. Mathieu holds 15 years of experience in banking, mainly in the commercial bank, trade finance and emerging markets. Mathieu graduated from University of Paris-X in Bank, Finance and Insurance.

Ramesh is a corporate finance and corporate law professional and has more than 3 decades of experience of working with both Indian and multinational enterprises. He quit full time employment in 2008 and set up his own independent consulting services under the name of QuadCore Consulting Services. He has a keen interest in the trade finance domain and has successfully closed several structured trade finance assignments for export oriented entities, by leveraging his understanding of appropriate structures that complied with the exchange control law. Presently, he is working on similar structured finance opportunities in West Africa.