Authors Page - Trade Finance Global

Odbayar Erdenetsogt is a career diplomat with more than 17 years of experience in governmental and international organizations. He was appointed as the Foreign policy advisor to the President of Mongolia in June 2021. Prior to his appointment, he served as an Ambassadorat-Large at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mongolia from 2016-2018 while serving as the Interim Director and Executive Director of the International Think Tank for Landlocked Developing Countries from 2012-2021 Mr. Erdenetsogt began his career as an officer at the European Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Where he served as an Attaché, 3rd Secretary and 1st Secretary of the Embassy of Mongolia in Germany, as well as 1st Secretary of the American and African Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He holds a master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Dresden, Germany.

Eric has more than 20 years of professional experience across both startups and incumbents in both product and technology leadership roles. He is proficient in product strategy and has helped customers and partners elevate their digital businesses with cloud technology. Prior to joining Red Hat, Eric worked globally in both the consumer and corporate bank at HSBC with a focus on growth markets. He is particularly interested in working with partners and customers in making banking simpler and more inclusive with cloud technology.

Simon joined the Group as CEO, Corporate & Institutional Banking in April 2016. He assumed the additional responsibility for Commercial Banking in March 2018 and the Europe & Americas region in January 2021. He was previously group managing director and chief executive of Global Commercial Banking at HSBC. He has extensive experience across our markets and client segments. Simon joined HSBC in 1989 and held a number of senior roles there, including deputy chairman and chief executive officer, Middle East and North Africa; chief executive officer, Korea; and head of Corporate and Investment Banking, Singapore. He has extensive experience in the areas of investment banking, corporate banking and transaction banking. Simon is also the Chairman of the advisory board of the Lee Kong Chian School of Business.

Assistant Manager, Standby LC and Letter of Guarantees, Scotiabank, Canada, covering corporate segment in North Americas, LatAm and UK region. 15+ years of experience in International Trade Finance, Documentary Credits, Guarantees and Stand-By Letters of Credits, Global Transaction Banking, Product Development and Management (Banking and Oil & Gas Industries), Collateral Management.

Max Heywood is Head of Public Sector Policy at Elucidate, a Berlin-based startup providing financial crime risk analytics. Previous roles include Head of Policy at the NGO Transparency International, and analyst at the Cordoba Stock Exchange in Argentina. Max regularly comments on financial crime issues in the media, and his most recent paper looks at the impact of sanctions on the banking sector following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Aldijana is an experienced Head of Credit Insurance and Monitoring in the financial services industry with a strong background in negotiation, business planning, banking, and credit analysis. She is a skilled Associate Actuary with analytical expertise and a focus on risk assessment. Currently pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in green economy, demonstrating a commitment to environmental sustainability and its impact on the financial sector.

Kristin Parello-Plesner is Head of Group Sustainability at Danske Bank. She believes that sustainability is a path that all companies will follow. Therefore, she works to move businesses towards sustainable business models and integrate them into strategy. She believes that sustainability and economic growth can go hand in hand, and that by integrating sustainability into business models, we can create long-term value for our customers and the world around The financial sector has a major responsibility for taking action for solving the climate crisis, and it is in a unique position to help companies with insights and tools to create a more sustainable future. Therefore, she is also convinced that Danske Bank has a lot to offer in the discussion about sustainability.

Francesca is UniCredit’s Global Head of Structured Trade & Export Finance. She reached HVB Group in October 1999 in the Trade Product Sales Italy unit within the Emerging Debt Capital Markets & Trade Finance Division. Having previously worked as a financial, commercial and legal advisor for Italian corporates investing abroad as well as in the Structured Finance Department of Mediocredito Centrale. In 2018 she was appointed as vice-chairman of the European Banking Federation (EBF) Export Credit Working Group

Ryan Hollar-Gregory is a Managing Director on the Supply Chain Finance team at MUFG, based in New York. Ryan joined MUFG in 2019. In this role, he leads the group that distributes supply chain and working capital assets to external investors. Prior to joining MUFG, Ryan was at Credit Suisse and Citigroup. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from the McIntire School of Commerce at the University of Virginia and with an MBA from NYU. He is a Capital markets professional with experience in sales and trading, origination, and relationship management. Specialization in structured finance asset distribution with transaction experience in the US, Canada, and Latin America including structured trade finance, project finance, securitization and export credit agency assets. Strong relationships with banks, asset managers, hedge funds, and insurance companies. Proven track record in educating and expanding investor base and growing revenues. Series 7,63 and 79.

Adam is an expert on the commodity and manufacturing sectors’ transition to a net-zero economy. He is the CEO and co-founder of CarbonChain, providing automated, asset-level carbon accounting for most carbon-intensive supply chains. Adam’s career spans nearly two decades across supply chain management, extractive commodities, and technology start-ups. He was the senior program manager for 8 countries in Amazon’s European supply chain from 2016 to 2019, and he worked at Rio Tinto for 12 years, increasing productivity of several ore supply chains. Adam holds an MBA from London Business School and an honors degree from Queensland University of Technology in Australia. At CarbonChain, he helps some of the world’s biggest and most impact-minded commodity companies, traders, manufacturers, financiers and logistics firms accelerate their climate action.

Dr. Susan Isiko Štrba is the Co-Founder of and currently Senior Research Fellow and Policy Advisor at the International Lawyers and Economists for Development (ILaED.org). She combines teaching and research with providing policy, legislative advice and technical training to governments, intergovernmental organisations and civil society, focusing mainly on intellectual property (IP), trade, e-commerce, women economic empowerment and development. She has written opinion pieces on women and technology and women and e-commerce, intellectual property and the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). She has taught Intellectual property, competition law and human rights in various institutions. She is a member of the International Association for the Advancement of Teaching and Research in Intellectual Property (ATRIP), From Woman to Woman, Phenomenal Women Global. She is an outgoing member of the Executive Council of the Society of International Economic Law (SIEL). She was recently named by Trade Financial Global (TFG) among the 100 Women in Trade, Treasury & Payments 2023

Michael Spiegel is the Global Head of Transaction Banking at Standard Chartered and a member of the Corporate, Commercial and Institutional Banking Management Team. He is responsible for the strategic positioning of the business, and delivery of solutions across Cash Management, transactional FX and Trade & Working Capital Financing to corporate and institutional clients. He is also a Member of the Supervisory Board of the Bank’s European Hub in Frankfurt, Standard Chartered AG. Outside the Bank, Michael is a Board Member of Singapore’s Trade Data Exchange (SGTradeX), a digital infrastructure that facilitates trusted and secure sharing of data between supply chain ecosystem partners. Michael is a veteran transaction banking and client coverage specialist. His career spans more than three decades across Europe, the United States and Asia where he has held senior management positions in Global Transaction Banking and Client Coverage. Prior to joining Standard Chartered in 2020, Michael worked at Deutsche Bank where he shaped the global trade finance and corporate cash management delivery and was a driving force behind the development and roll‐out of a fully integrated vendor finance solution.

Andrew Roberts has over 20 years’ experience in the maritime industry, is a qualified Master Mariner, holds an MBA from Alliance Manchester Business School, and a BSC (Hons) in Marine Navigation and Maritime Law from the University of Plymouth. He offers extensive experience in operational, commercial, business development and technical shipping roles, and led commercial and safety transformational change whilst holding senior leadership positions with Teekay Shipping and Anglo International Shipping Operations Limited. As Executive Director, EMEA, Andrews oversees RightShip’s business across the EMEA Region. This includes delivering growth in line with RightShip’s group strategy and stewardship of RightShip’s EMEA customers and colleagues. In addition, he is an advocate for RightShip’s vision of a maritime industry that causes zero harm, seeking to play a pivotal role in engaging with the maritime community to drive safety, social and environmental transformation of the maritime industry.

Harry is Founder & CEO of SCC & Transactives and is an international positioning strategist. He previously worked at Banque Paribas and ABNAMRO and was a director at two leading international strategic consultants. He is a leading contributor to innovation in both the retail and corporate payments transaction space. He has a solid background in Cash- & Treasury Management. With that he is actively involved with repositioning the finance functions and the role of (new) technology. He is also expert in retirement management (pension scheme development and ageing issues). Harry is Founder and Chairman of AgingFinance. He is working actively on improving financial literacy and financial inclusion (a.o. solutions in areas like communication & education /budgeting/ personal financial planning solutions / pension planning). He also is very much involved with the ‘next generation developments of the way we will work and contribute to society’ (rebalancing work & income / working longer) and thus ‘social innovation’. Harry is Founder of WorldPensionSummit and the GlobalPaymentSummits (EMEA, ASIA, Oceania). Harry’s latest initiative as founder and chairman is the Transaction Innovation Forum (www.transactioninnovationforum.com) The inaugural APAC-Forum is planned for 20 November 2023 in Tokyo. He is also a columnist and guest speaker, sits on several advisory boards (such as GFLEC- Washington / NIBUD – Netherlands / CAFF50.net – Beijing / P&I – New York) and regularly publishes in leading international media.

Sarah Murrow joined Euler Hermes Americas in February 2004 and held a number of roles within the commercial underwriting and distribution areas of the business, including Regional Head of Broker Management from 2011-2016. In 2016, Sarah relocated to Paris and assumed the role of Head of Commercial Underwriting & Product Development for the Euler Hermes Group. Sarah was appointed the Regional Head of Market Management, Commercial Underwriting & Distribution for Euler Hermes’ Northern Europe Region, based from London in August 2017. In June 2021, she was appointed to her current role as CEO of Euler Hermes UK & Ireland, the first woman to hold the position. In March 2022 Euler Hermes was rebranded to Allianz Trade. Sarah holds the role of Chairperson on both the ABI Trade Credit Committee and the Women in Credit Insurance working group. Sarah holds a BA degree in International Relations from Roanoke College and a MBA from Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

Deepa Sinha, the VP for Payments and Financial Crime at BAFT (Bankers Association for Finance and Trade), based out of Washington, D.C., leads the association’s payments, cash management and financial crime-focused policy initiatives, as well as supports its related councils and committees. Deepa works to advance the goals of the payments, cash management and financial crimes mitigation industry through standardisation, defining best practices and developing usable industry data. She is also responsible for formulating policy recommendations and educating industry stakeholders including practitioners, regulators, policymakers and the broader business community. Prior to joining BAFT, Deepa accumulated more than 25 years of treasury and cash management experience at both corporations and banks.

Shirish joined Swift in 2022 as Managing Director, Global Head – Wholesale Payments & Trade Strategy,  based at Singapore. Shirish has over 24 years of experience and the last 16 years in Payments across retail, corporate, and financial institutions.  At Swift he is responsible for the definition of “Why” for Wholesale Payments & Trade, an area that is  both, core today and for the future of global commerce across the ecosystem Swift serves. Wholesale  Payments & Trade is an integrated agenda that covers core payment products for B2x payments and corporate treasury; trade standards, digitisation and trade platforms; payment market infrastructures,  and marketplaces. Shirish is also on the Board of Directors of Swift India, a JV with leading banks in India.  Before Swift, Shirish was Managing Director & Global Head of Payments for Standard Chartered Bank.  His 19-year career at Standard Chartered spanned geographies of Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East, and  Asia. He held multiple leadership roles encompassing Product P&L management of retail and corporate payments, currency clearing, and FI Trade finance. Most recently he led the bank’s foray into Digital  Currencies and alternate settlement networks. 

Shane Riedel is the founder of Elucidate, the financial crime risk ratings and analytics company using data and AI to standardise the financial crime risk market. Prior to Elucidate, he held senior roles at several financial institutions, including Standard Chartered, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs: Prior to his career in finance, Shane was a diplomat with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Since establishing Elucidate, Shane has applied his expertise in payments, trade finance, correspondent banking and financial crime to create efficient solutions for assessing and rating financial crime risk across FIs, enabling clients to streamline and accurately price financial crime risk, with a current coverage of more than 23,000 FIs. Shane Riedel, driven by regulatory challenges, spearheaded a team that manually assessed 600+ banks across 55 markets in 18 months. This endeavor, while successful, inspired the creation of Elucidate as a more efficient solution to FinCrime risk.