Authors Page - Trade Finance Global

Haifa Fahoum Al Kaylani is President & Founder of the Arab International Women’s  Forum recognised in Arab and international government, private sector and NGO  circles as a high-impact change agent focussed on women’s leadership and youth  empowerment, working for progress, inclusion, peace and prosperity in the Arab  region and internationally.  Haifa founded the Arab International Women’s Forum in London in 2001 as a  development organisation committed to supporting women’s leadership in social and  economic growth in the MENA region and internationally and creating equality of  opportunity for all. Haifa is a development economist, an alumna of the American University of Beirut  and read for a Diploma in Economic Development at Oxford University. She brings a  wide range of skills and experience to her personal mission of encouraging greater  cultural understanding and sustainable economic growth and reform, supporting a  strong role for women and young leaders at the heart of that process. Haifa became  a Fellow of the Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative in 2017, spending a year in  Cambridge MA to undertake the year-long intensive Fellowship to research and  address global sustainability challenges. 

With over 15 years of experience in the industry, Tammy is a seasoned professional in commodity trading operations. She began her career in 2003 and has since worked with various multinational commodity trading companies, gaining expertise in handling a diverse range of commodities such as oil products and agri commodities.

Rajesh has a BA in Bank Management and an MBA in Finance from Madras University. He started his career with Scope International in Chennai (a wholly owned subsidiary of SCB) in the Trade Services division with a foundation in Trade Finance. Rajesh has been working with Habib Bank AG Zurich since January 2015 as Senior Manager in the Transaction Banking Services (Trade Finance) division in their Centralised Trade Operations hub in Dubai. Was shortly associated with our Zurich operations prior to handling UAE operations. Primarily responsible for the entire Import operations managing a team of 17. Job profile primarily revolves around authorising trade transactions in line with operational (external and internal) and regulatory guidelines.  Rajesh interacts and coordinates with internal stakeholders namely credit, legal and FI teams and external stakeholders in resolving queries and ensuring smooth flow of operations.

Achref Chibani is a Nonresident Fellow at TIMEP focusing on climate change in the Middle East and North Africa region. He is a Tunisian journalist, researcher, and civil society activist whose core areas of focus are climate change, human rights, and sustainable development.He was formerly a visiting scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ Middle East Program. You can follow him on Twitter at @ChibaniAchref.

Oksana Ocheretiana worked in the Department of Insurance of Export, Credit and Other Banking Risks of JSC “Ukreximbank”, including as a head of the department, where she participated in the development of the ECA Ukraine internal documents. Before that, Oksana worked at The National Commission to State Regulation of Financial Services Markets of Ukraine, where she studied all the peculiarities and problematic issues of the financial services. The practical experience in insurance was obtained at the PZU Ukraine insurance company. She has been a member of the Management Board of ECA Ukraine since February 2021.

Ana Kavtaradze is an Advisor to BASISBANK Georgia, in charge of Strategic Business Development of the Bank.  With 16+ years’ experience in trade finance, supply chain finance (SCF), global banking, client relationship  management, business strategy formulation, as well as cutting-edge innovation and digitalisation Ana has expanded Global Banking network bringing in full-scope business cooperation opportunities including Funding, Trade and  Supply Chain Finance, Treasury, and Correspondent Banking.

Baldev Bhinder is the Managing Director of BlackStone & Gold LLC, a specialist commodities law firm in Singapore with expertise in trade fraud investigation. Baldev can be reached at baldevbhinder@blackstonegold.com. Baldev is dual qualified in Singapore and England with more than 18 years of international experience across the world’s leading global law firms. He is an expert in O&G and Commodities and advises on all aspects of the supply chain from trading and trade finance arrangements to international recoveries and arbitration. He is a leading name in trade fraud cases and his views have been featured in the Singapore Business Times, Bloomberg, CNBC, CNA and the Financial Times. He is a regular speaker at the Financial Times Asian Commodities Conference alongside industry titans.

For over 15 years, Marek has been working with international standard-setters, including UNCITRAL and UNIDROIT to draft conventions, model laws, principles and guides that assist States in modernizing their commercial law frameworks. He has worked on the implementation of these standards under the projects funded by the World Bank Group, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, FSD-Kenya, and others. He has assisted countries in Africa (e.g., Kenya), Asia (e.g., the Philippines), Eastern Europe (e.g., Ukraine), the Middle East (e.g., the UAE) and Latin America (e.g. Colombia) with reforms of their secured transactions, factoring, warehouse receipts and related legislation. In these projects, Marek drafted laws and regulations, assisted with the building of registration systems, and provided capacity building to various stakeholders, including financial institutions, government officials, and judges. Additionally, Marek is Professor of Practice at the University of Arizona, James E. Rogers College of Law and has served as a visiting scholar at the Institute for Monetary and Economic Studies of the Bank of Japan, and a visiting professor at the University of Puerto Rico School of Law. Marek has served as delegate to the UNCITRAL Working  Groups I [MSMEs]; Working Group VI [Security Interests]; and Working Group V [Insolvency].  At UNIDROIT, Marek serves as Advisor to the Secretariat on Model Law on Warehouse Receipt and is a member of Working Groups and Drafting Committees for the projects on Model Law on Factoring and Digital Assets and Private Law. Marek has served as a delegate to the Organization of American States.

Dr Miriam Goldby is Professor of Shipping, Insurance and Commercial Law and Director of Research at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies, Queen Mary University of London. She was previously director of the Centre’s Insurance, Shipping and Aviation Law Institute (2019-2022) and founder and director of its International Shipping Law LLM (2013-2022). She is the author of Electronic Documents in Maritime Trade: Law and Practice (OUP), the second edition of which was published in 2019, and has published extensively in the fields of shipping, insurance and financial law. She participated in the work of UNCITRAL WG IV which led to the adoption of the Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records in 2017. She also undertook a part-time secondment to the Law Commission of England and Wales to work on the Electronic Trade Documents project between November 2020 and March 2022. She is a member of the Comité Maritime International (CMI) Standing Committee on Carriage of Goods, and vice-chair of the International Chamber of Commerce UK (ICC UK) Commercial Law and Practice Committee.

Sylwia Nowak is a seasoned Customs & Foreign Trade Compliance professional with Bachelor’s degree in Human Geography, Diploma in World Customs Compliance & Regulations, Postgrad. Cert in Management and is currently finalising Master’s Degree in International Trade at Warwick University. With extensive experience in leading Brexit preparations, customs auditing and customs regulations, she excels in ensuring compliance, providing training and applying compliant duty-saving measures. Sylwia holds expertise in customs special procedures, trade compliance strategy and is an ‘alumna’ at Model WTO as well as a member of the Trade Policy Working group at Make UK and IOE&IT Membership Committee.

After a 30-year-plus career in HMRC, latterly as an Innovation Lead looking at the application of new and emerging technology in tax administration, Nick was appointed as the Director of the ICC Centre for Digital Trade & Innovation.  A firm believer in the power of tech to transform the way we do trade and ensure it is a driver of sustainability, he is keen to enable collaboration across all business types, sectors and countries to put the UK at the forefront of developing new digital capabilities in international trade

Merten Slominsky, Managing Director, Payments EMEA Merten is responsible for all direct and indirect software and services sales for Finastra’s payments solutions in Europe, Middle East & Africa. He brings over 25 years of experience in leadership, sales & services management, business strategy development and execution for international software companies. Prior to Finastra, he was General Manager and VP at MicroStrategy. Previous leadership positions include VP EMEA at Alfresco and Enterprise VP at Lexmark and Kofax. For 7 years at IBS Software Group, Merten managed Northwest Europe for ECM Business Unit post the Filenet acquisition. Merten has a master’s degree in economics.

Nana Khurodze is Associate Director, Senior Banker, Trade Facilitation Programme (TFP), at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). Nana is responsible for developing of trade finance business of TFP partner banks in the Caucasus and the Western Balkans. Nana is also leading technical cooperation projects supporting sustainable trade and the digitalisation of TFP partner banks in countries where the EBRD invests. Prior to joining EBRD, Nana led the Trade Finance Program of Asian Development Bank in the Caucasus region, Central Asia, Mongolia, and Pakistan, based in Manila. Nana also worked at HSBC (Georgia and Switzerland); TBC Bank; Bank of Georgia and Basisbank (Georgia).

With more than two decades of experience in compliance, Gwen’s practice areas include: compliance program design, structure and operation; corruption prevention; trade compliance; and supply chain integrity. She currently serves as Interim Chief Compliance Officer and provides compliance consulting work for multiple companies including a medical laboratory company – Navis Clinical, a $28B retail pharmacy, a fintech startup, as well as multiple compliance consultancies and a training content provider. She previously served as Global Director of Compliance for CNH Industrial, the world’s third largest capital goods maker and second largest manufacturer of farming equipment where she led the compliance program globally. Areas of specific experience include global compliance investigations, enterprise risk assessment and management, third party due diligence, cross border transactions, human trafficking prevention, ESG program design and operation, policy development and compliance education. Gwen is the founder and host of the “Hidden Traffic” podcast designed to keep corporate compliance professionals updated about new developments in human trafficking prevention and regulation. She also serves as an adjunct professor for the Loyola University School of Law where she teaches courses on ESG and corporate compliance law. She is a graduate of DePaul University School of Law and the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Morgan Lépinoy is the Managing Director & Global Head of Trade Facilitation at ViaTrans, with over 10 years of international leadership experience in Maritime Logistics, Trade Finance, and Supply Chain. He leads the trade facilitation strategy, trade finance ventures, and expansion in Emerging Markets. Known for his entrepreneurial mindset, Morgan has successfully built companies across multiple geographies, including the EU, LATAM, W-E Africa, and Asia. He consistently drives growth and reduces costs through his strong organizational, interpersonal, and analytical skills.

Rogier is the Managing Director, Head of Global Transaction Products, Corporate & Institutional Banking at Lloyds Bank. His team help businesses to access cash, sustainable financing and manage risk as they trade – domestically or internationally. He is proud to work at Lloyds Bank who are working hard to digitise trade to make it more accessible, fast and secure. Born and raised in the Netherlands, Rogier moved to the UK in 2005, which has been his home ever since. He joined Lloyds Bank in 2009 and has held a number of senior positions since then, most recently as the Head of Pricing and Balance Sheet Management in the Transaction Banking division.

Channing Mavrellis is Global Financial Integrity’s Illicit Trade Director, focusing on the intersection of illicit financial flows, transnational crime, and international trade. Ms. Mavrellis has over a decade of experience working on issues related to anti-money laundering and countering terrorism financing (AML/CFT). She specialises in conducting data-driven analyses of illicit trade and trade-related IFFs. In addition, she has strong experience providing policy advice and training to U.S. and foreign government officials on illicit trade, in particular detecting and combating customs fraud and environmental crimes. She has testified before Congress on two occasions, presented to the European Parliament, as well as delivered remarks on illicit trade, customs fraud, and IFFs at events organised by organisations including the OECD, UNDP, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Department of State, and U.S. Department of Defense.

Piotr is Managing Director EMEA at Secro Inc. A former President of Polsteam USA, Piotr’s experience covers everything from ship chartering to ship management to port management to company management to M&A transaction management. Piotr is an open minded, disciplined, energetic team player and maritime expert with Over 30 years of experience in various positions with a major integrated dry bulk shipowner. Most recently, he has been involved in restructuring and M&A in a managerial function with a major listed Polish logistics and transportation capital group. Piotr also currently fulfills an investment advisory position with Poland’s largest shipowner.