Authors Page - Trade Finance Global

Phil is a director of Hub Software Engineering Limited www.hubse.com which has developed its Claims Management System (CMS), a revolutionary way of calculating and progressing claims until their conclusion. HubSE has also launched their  Claims Hub Exchange which enables online delivery and negotiation of claims minimising the incidence of time bars and speeding up settlement of claims.   Phil Stalley is also a consultant to the oil and shipping industry specialising in laytime, demurrage, freight, deviation and shipping expenses incurred under the transportation of oil. A regular speaker at training seminars and industry conferences,  Phil also provides in house training, advice and ad-hoc consultancy.  Phil offers advice to Owners and Charterers on best practices to ensure processes and teamwork lead to improved recoveries and effective reduction of claims backlog.  Prior to becoming a consultant/Marketing Director Phil was head of BP’s demurrage  Team handling the negotiation and settlement of oil trading and charter party demurrage claims in support of BP’s European trading activities. His responsibilities there included freight, deviation and ancillary expenses incurred under the charter party. Whilst at BP he was a major contributor to the drafting of BPVOY4 and BP’s  oil trading terms

Peter Born is Commerzbank’s Chief Representative in Mumbai. A financial institutions and trade finance expert, Peter represents Commerzbank in India’s financial capital and also covers Nepal, Bhutan and Sri Lanka. After obtaining his MBA from Passau University, Germany in 1986, Peter travelled overland to India where he would become Regional Head at the New Delhi office of the Indo-German Chamber of Commerce. In 1992, he joined Commerzbank and has since served as Chief Representative in Korea and in Vietnam before returning to India in 2012.

Alejandro is a fund manager at NN Investment Partners Structured Private Debt team, where he works to shape the future of Trade Finance as a technology-driven asset class for institutional investors. Within his role he has a track record of originating and investing several hundred million euros in trade and receivables finance assets. Alejandro started his career at JP Morgan & Chase in the UK and has a background in sales and trading and business development. He is a member of Fasanara Capital Advisory Board and has been nominated as one of the Emerging Leaders in Trade Finance by ITFA. He holds an LLM from the University of Cambridge.

Anastasia heads Trade and Supply Chain Finance solutions at Finastra and has nearly 15 years of experience in the industry. Recently recognized by Trade Finance Global as a leading woman in Tradetech, she oversees Finastra’s strategy and roadmap for Trade and Supply Chain Finance. She actively contributed to the ICC Working Group for URDTT and is the Finastra Lead for the Trade Inclusion working group with the World Trade Board. Anastasia joined Finastra from Santander where, as a Senior Product Manager for the Supply Chain Finance, she supported Santander’s global investment-grade clients in Industrial, Telecom and Energy sectors. Previously, she worked at Barclays Bank and a UK based commodity trader focusing on areas of cash flow improvement and optimization of supply chain. Anastasia holds a Master’s degree in Finance and Banking from the University of Leicester.

Uche is a commercial lawyer and lectures at Nile University. She consults on different aspects of law, although her core interest and expertise is in international trade law. She has a growing interest in trade finance, particularly the digital aspects.  Uche loves animals and is an avid reader of HBR articles.

Cassandra is a University of Wisconsin – Madison 2018 graduate who entered her professional career with Marsh through the US Talent Recruitment and Accelerated Careers (TRAC) Program. During her two and a half years in the TRAC program, Cassandra was a Marine broker focused on Hull & Liabilities risk and insurance placement. She worked with a range of sectors, including global shipping companies, cruise lines, oil & gas companies, ports & terminals, and chemical-carrying companies. In January 2021, Cassandra joined the Credit Specialties team, which encompasses Trade Credit insurance, Political Risk insurance, Structured Credit insurance, Financial Risk Products, and Surety solutions. Her focus is on global strategy and bank surety insurance placement and solutions.

Maya Demeke is an international trade professional with over 15 years of experience in market research, consulting, project, and export finance. A certified expert in climate and renewable energy finance, she holds an MBA from the Thunderbird School of Global Management (Arizona State University) and a Post-MBA Diploma in Advanced Management from the Schulich School of Business (York University). Maya is a skilled corporate strategist and problem solver, known for helping clients secure optimal financing and connect with partners to enhance their value propositions.

Suhardiyoto Haryadi is a seasoned project developer specialising in forest conservation, carbon estimation, and biomass conversion. With 15 years of experience in agricultural and rural development in Indonesia and beyond, he has collaborated with private sector companies, state-owned enterprises, international corporations, and multilateral donors on a wide range of sustainability initiatives. His expertise includes plantation project development, sustainable certification supervision, implementation of good agricultural practices, social engagement, smallholder facilitation, and expanding international markets for agricultural products. Known for his strategic project management and multi-stakeholder collaboration, Suhardiyoto engages effectively with local communities, government authorities, research institutions, consultants, and NGOs. Additionally, he brings a decade of journalism experience, with strong skills in research, knowledge management, and report writing and editing in both English and Bahasa Indonesia.

Vice-President Insurance Sales Middle East & Africa Emmanuel joined Tinubu Square in 2008. His knowledge of international relations and multilingual skills ​​make him a key player in the global development of Tinubu Square, particularly in the Middle East and Africa thanks to his experience in this region. Before joining Tinubu, Emmanuel had a career as a journalist and wrote for Le Figaro, AFP, An Nahar. He published five essays and surveys, including “Affaires douanières” (Customs affairs, Grasset 1995) in collaboration with Pierre Baretti. Emmanuel has studied Arabic language (classic and syrian-lebanese) and Civilization at the National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations or Inalco.

Ravi Kumar Jinugu has been working in the area of international trade for more than 15 yrs now and takes keen interest in keeping himself abreast of global trends and developments in this area. Having worked in international trade departments of several banks including few multinational banks (ICICI Bank Ltd, Deutsche Bank – India, Westpac NZ and currently with Bank of New Zealand) has insights into the operations of banks across countries.  He has several certifications in his kitty which includes 1) Certified Documentary Credit Specialist (CDCS) – year 2008 2. Certificate in Trade Finance offered by a premier banking organisation named IIBF (Indian institute of banking and finance), Certificate in Trade Finance again from IIBF ; most recently online training from tradefinance.training on Financial Crime, Fraud & sanctions and DC Master from Coastline Solutions. He has done a few automations in his stint with ICICI bank essentially pertaining to handling SWIFT messages; automating the process of e-mailing SWIFT to customers, automating the process of dishing out SWIFT messages to branches etc.

Akinkunmi Abolade is a Nigerian lawyer whose practice areas cover international trade and investment law, trade finance, energy, projects and commercial law. Akinkunmi is passionate about sustainable development and poverty alleviation in Nigeria and Africa. As such, asides being able to advise businesses as it relates to commercial transactions, he is skilled in advising businesses on how such commercial transactions affect sustainability and human rights. Also, he is capable of advising businesses on how to profit from sustainability through commercial transactions such as carbon trading, sustainable finance and impact investing. Akinkunmi has experience advising on cross-border transactions and he regularly advises private and public bodies on the regulatory framework in the energy and trade sector in Nigeria.

Usman Ahmed is the Head of Global Public Policy and Research at PayPal Inc.  His work covers a variety of issues including financial services regulation, innovation, international trade, and entrepreneurship.  Ahmed is also an Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law School where he teaches courses on international law and policy issues related to the Internet as well as fintech law. His research has been published in the Cambridge Press World Trade Review, MIT Press Innovations Journal, and Boston University International Law Journal.  His research has also been cited in articles appearing in the NY Times, USA Today, The Hill, and Detroit Free Press.  He is a Millennium Fellow at the Atlantic Council and a Security Fellow at the Truman National Security Project.  Ahmed earned his JD from University of Michigan, his MA from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service, and his BA from University of Maryland.

Kamel has occupied the role of Chief Commercial Officer at  FIMBank plc, a leading Trade Finance specialised bank based in Malta, since 1994. Previously Kamel was employed as Managing Director and Head of Transaction Banking MENA at Standard Chartered Bank, based in Dubai, and before that he enjoyed a long stint at Citibank Treasury and Trade solutions in multiple locations. Kamel Moris brings experience from previous roles at Standard Chartered Bank and Citi. Kamel Moris holds a 2001 – 2003 MBA in Business Administration and General Management @ University of Liverpool. With a robust skill set that includes Leadership, Team Building, Information Technology, Digitization, Cash Management and more.

Ankit is a Senior Product Owner with 14 plus years of experience in Banking financial services across Digital Transformation, Data Analytics, Financial Crime and Compliance (FCC) and Client Journey projects. He has a Passion for solving business problems using data. With more than half his career spent in conceptualizing and executing digitization/digitalization projects in Trade Finance, he is currently working on the one of the strategic re-platforming programs in Standard Chartered Bank. His past projects include usage of AI/NLP to provide customers a value-added digital experience and has worked across geographies like Australia, Singapore and India.  Ankit has graduated as an Engineer from the premier Indian Institute of technology Roorkee and with MBA in Operations and Technology from Indian Institute of technology Bombay.

As Local Process Lead for the Trade  Collections, Compliance and Control processes in ING Business Shared Services Manila, Monica is responsible for assessing impact and coordinating with  stakeholders on Process and System Changes including Migrations. She designs and reviews processes related to local and global system changes. She also delivers on automation and digital tools in collaboration with Cross Product Tooling for sustainable and scalable solutions.

Andrew is a Partner at HFW handling a number of high profile commodities and commercial litigation / arbitration matters. Andrew’s general dispute resolution work spans a wide range of areas including banking, financial services, insolvency, director / shareholder, fraud and general contract / tort disputes. He is regarded within HFW as a specialist in letters of credit and UCP 600 and regularly writes articles and give seminars / presentations on this topic.

Patrick Tibke was the Assistant Editor & Copywriter at Trade Finance Global (TFG). He has previously worked as a reporter and researcher at Nielsen, S&P Global, SportBusiness Group, Jakarta Globe, and more. He holds an MA in Journalism from the University of Sheffield, a BA in South East Asian Studies from SOAS at the University of London, and a Diploma in Journalism from the UK’s National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ).

Nagaraj Ramasubbarao is a seasoned banker with over 33 years of experience in various areas of banking, including branch banking, consumer banking, corporate banking, trade finance, international banking, and learning and development. He has held various roles in the State Bank of India, both in India and abroad, and is now a banking consultant and trainer. Nagaraj is empanelled with multiple national and international organizations for consulting, training, and strategizing. He is an expert in credit appraisal, assessment, credit management, and trade finance, having designed and delivered training modules for banks such as Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, and Aditya Birla Capital. He also serves as a visiting faculty member at Southern India Bank Staff Training College and is an empanelled trainer with FEDAI. Additionally, Nagaraj works as a banking domain consultant for a software company in Bangalore, helping with training design and project consultation. He also serves as a business analyst for a software company in Hyderabad.