Authors Page - Trade Finance Global

Shirley is a Audit Staff Accountant at Deloitte. A Rotman Commerce University of Toronto graduate with aspirations in the fields of accounting, audit, and social activism. An aspiring CPA professional engaged in community building. Has founded with numerous student-led, grassroots organizations focused on creating communities of impact.

Daniela Chen is a Strategy Consultant at Monitor Deloitte. She graduated from Bayes Business School (formerly Cass), studying Investment and Financial Risk Management. Her interests include macroeconomics, equity research, trading and investment. She was a part of the TFG Student Writer Programme.

Mr. Dunlop is presently Director of Operations for ITFglobal.ie, and is responsible for the online trade transaction management team.  The team’s vision is for all companies worldwide to be able to trade goods and services between themselves online via the Internet. He is a trade finance consultant with patents pending for online eUCP trade finance Internet solutions.  Previously he was CEO of InterNetLC.com, LLC, providing management of international letters of credit for exporters and importers.  He was past Director of International Services for Escrow.com. From that experience, he identified the need for simplified online international trade finance capability. Mr. Dunlop has been providing commercial letter of credit transaction management and documentation services since 1992. He has designed online trade finance capabilities for international banks and proprietary Internet-based software systems. He also teaches as an adjunct instructor for International Transactions at Grossmont College in San Diego, California. His work experience includes aerospace engineering, airline operations, and commercial jet engine marketing and management positions with major airlines and OEM manufacturers. During his four years of active service in the US Army, he served as a Captain commanding a company in Vietnam, and Deputy Director of Engineering at  Corpus Christi Army Depot. Mr. Dunlop graduated from the University of Notre Dame in aerospace engineering and is a recipient of an Export Achievement Certificate from the US Department of  Commerce and a member of their District Export Council.

Agnès Joly is the Head of Trade Services, Global Transaction & Payment Services at Societe Generale. She joined Societe Generale in 1984, initially working as a junior maths expert for Export Finance and then as a FX derivative sales manager in the newly created Capital Market division. In 1991, Societe Generale created a team to help Western European companies partner with Eastern countries looking for trade and economic development and Joly was selected to focus on the Czech Republic and Hungary. She then went on to spend four years as human resources business partner for the Capital Market division prior to becoming deputy head of trade services.

Bob’s background in exporting and importing stretches over more than 50 years, initially in international banking then in the world of international commerce. In 1989 he started his own business as an independent consultant and educator assisting exporters and importers in the “back office” side of their businesses. In all, he has directly controlled and co-ordinated many tens of thousands of shipments of a very wide variety of products coming and going all round the world. Bob now has the honour of being the first Australian and only the second non-lawyer to be invited by the ICC to be a member of their Incoterms® Drafting Group to draft the new Incoterms® 2020. This was as a result of his being a member of the ICC’s committee which drafted the new publication “ICC Guide to Transport and the Incoterms® 2010 Rules”. He was previously a member of ICC Australia’s Incoterms® Committee contributing to the drafting of Incoterms® 2010 and was then Australia’s representative to the three days of Incoterms® 2010 Release Conference and Masterclass workshop in Paris October 2010. In May 2015 he gave a presentation on Incoterms® 2010 to the ICC’s first-ever conference in Yangon, Myanmar, and in October 2015 was invited to give a similar presentation to ICC Hong Kong.

Natalie is Chair of Innovate Finance, the independent industry body that represents and advances the global FinTech community in the UK. Natalie has a career spanning the public and private sectors, across a range of policy, leadership and regulatory roles. She has a passion for inclusion, and for using digital technology for good. In addition to Innovate Finance, Natalie chairs the independent Access to Cash Review, and is a non-executive director of Countrywide PLC, Anglian Water Services LTD, Ford Credit Europe and Sport England. Her career includes a strategy consultancy background at McKinsey & Company, membership of the executive team of HSBC UK leading on customer standards, and three CEO roles including The National Archives, the Financial Ombudsman Service and Her Majesty’s Courts and Tribunals Service.

Richard is a London based Partner and Solicitor Advocate at Eversheds Sutherland who specialises in advising on heavy- weight civil and public law matters in dispute situations and conducts High Court proceedings, arbitrations and other forms of dispute resolution in London and internationally. Richard has 20 years’ experience as a commercial disputes lawyer, which includes acting on: Minister of Finance (Incorporated) and 1Malaysia Development Berhad v International Petroleum Investment Company and Aabar investments PJs [2019], advising the Malaysian Claimants on Commercial Court proceedings and two LCIA arbitrations to set aside a consent award and settlement agreements entered into by the previous Malaysian Government.  IOEC V Dean International trading and Others [2019] – advising the successful Claimant who received judgment in full to recover $87m in stolen funds. The case is the leading authority on the interplay between illegality (post Patel v Mirza), sanctions and remedies. It also required the creation of bespoke processes to enable the first large scale e-discovery exercise in Iran for the purpose of foreign proceedings and establishing a three site virtual court. NIOC v Crescent Petroleum [2016]: acting in one of the largest ever challenges to an arbitration award before the London Commercial Court.

Cécile André Leruste is managing partner at Priscus Italia. She has more than 20 years of experience both in consulting and banking. Mrs. André Leruste worked at RGI Group, Accenture, McKinsey, Société Générale, Roland Berger and Capgemini. She graduated from HEC Paris business school and has an MBA from the Wharton School and the Lauder Institute. A mother of three, she has a passion for education and is vice president of the Paris-Ile de France Chamber of Commerce, overseeing its 19 schools. She is also a Board member of Savencia Gourmet. In 2013, she founded the Cercle des Femmes Dirigeantes, which gathers top female business leaders in France. Mrs. André Leruste is based in Paris.

Wayne Busch serves as President of Financial Services for NTT DATA Services, a top 10 global IT services provider. With more than 26 years in the financial services industry, his leadership of high-impact consulting, technology and operations teams has allowed him to personally serve an array of clients across North America and Europe. Wayne helps clients optimize their current business and leverages NTT DATA Services’ capabilities to rotate them toward new waves of growth, creating new operating models through digital platform delivery, technology services transformation and As-a-Service solutions.

Luca Corsini, based in Milan, IT, is currently a Group Gtb head at UniCredit. Luca Corsini brings experience from previous roles at UniCredit, Deutsche Bank and ABN AMRO Commercial Finance PLC. Luca Corsini holds a 1985 – 1990 DES in Economics @ Università Bocconi. Luca Corsini has 3 emails on RocketReach.

Vipin Bharathan is the founder of dlt.nyc an Enterprise Blockchain consulting firm. Vipin has deep and broad interests from change through socio-technical methods in regulated enterprises to self-sovereign identity.

Michael Vrontamitis is the Lead Industry Principal for Finastra’s Lending Business Unit, which covers Cash Management, Trade and Working Capital Management, Retail and Corporate Lending. He also advises several start-ups, including Kountable Inc, and is a member of the World Trade Board. A renowned industry thought leader, he is particularly passionate about the intersection between sustainability, technology and finance and the impact digitalization can have in narrowing the trade finance gap and enabling sustainable supply chains. Prior to Finastra, Michael spent 25 years with Standard Chartered, spanning both wholesale and retail clients, as well as investor relations, working in Hong Kong, London and Singapore. He was the Global Head of Trade Finance Product, and most recently responsible for the bank’s trade finance business with European and American headquartered companies. He also looked after sales, product, distribution, service and implementation in Europe and the Americas. Michael has been a member of the BAFT Board of Directors and BAFT’s Global Trade Industry Council. He was also part of the ICC Banking Commission Advisory Board, where he co-chaired the ICC Working Group on the digitalization of trade finance and chaired the SWIFT Offshore CNY Best Practice Working Group on Cash & Trade. Michael was recognized by The Asset as The Renminbi Banker of the Year in 2014. He has a degree and Master’s in Economics from the University of Warwick.

Ken has extensive international experience in the insurance industry having spent 40 years working across a broad spectrum of disciplines in operational, corporate development and strategic management roles. He has worked in several markets including the UK, Europe and the Far East.Currently leading the marketing and communications strategy for B3i, Ken applies a strong leaning towards future thinking and strategies for disruption, whilst constantly striving for change and challenging the status quo.

Ludger Janssen is the Managing Director and Co-CEO of Digital Vault Services. He previously worked at Commerzbank AG as a Head of Product Management Trade Finance Products. Ludger Janssen attended Frankfurt School of Finance & Management. He brings experience from previous roles at Commerzbank AG. With a robust skill set that includes Leveraged Finance, Cash Management, PowerPoint, Eca, Corporate Finance and more.

John was Interim Permanent Secretary of the Department for International Trade (DIT) from 18 January 2021 to 15 August 2021. Previously he was Director General of Trade Policy at DIT from July 2016 to January 2021. From 2010 to 2016, he was CEO of the UK’s Intellectual Property Office (IPO), an agency of the Business Department. This involved extensive international engagement both within and outside Europe, including agreements and joint work with Chinese, Indian, South East Asian and other counterparts on intellectual property and chairing a group involving the US, Europe and Japan and some 40 other countries on international harmonisation of rules for patents. Prior to that, John was a Director General in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2005 to 2010, responsible for trade and EU policy, together with competition, corporate governance and labour markets. This was during the period of negotiations on the Doha Development Round. Over his civil service career John has been involved in a wide range of business and market oversight issues. He has worked closely with the aerospace, automotive, pharmaceuticals and other manufacturing sectors, especially during his time as head of the Department of Trade and Industry’s business sectors team from 2002 to 2005, and more recently with the creative and digital/tech sectors at IPO. He has considerable experience of EU negotiations on single market and competition issues. He has been private secretary to a number of cabinet and junior ministers.

A strategic thinker and leader with over 35 years experience gained from 4 Blue Chip companies working on international trade, (b2b) and leading the UK’s only professional body representing international trade. Responsible for rejuvenating the programmes and introducing a digital platform allowing easy anytime access to the Institutes qualifications for all. Award winning projects include guru.online.TV and opentoexport.com. Winning of CBI Business Women of the Year and CEO of the Year from the Congress of Trade Associations in 2015.

John Brehcist is an acknowledged expert in the Receivables Finance world. Previously the Head of Strategy for Lloyds TSB Commercial Finance, for over ten years he has run his successful roundwindow consultancy business working with clients (from start-ups to established leaders, from emerging to developed markets) in over twenty countries, offering impartial advice and constructive support on strategy, marketing, operations, people, risk and fraud control. He has combined this with taking several non-exec director roles, been Director of Advocacy at FCI and the Coordinator of the EU Federation for Factoring and Commercial Finance and is a key member of the team at World of Open Account, WOA. John has an MA from Oxford and an MBA from Warwick. He is a well-known author, lecturer and conference presenter.

Marco Nindl  is a Senior Banker – Trade Facilitation Programme. He is an experienced banker with a strong background in the international trade and development industry. He is skilled in financial structuring, financial institutions, corporate finance, banking, and credit analysis. A highly competent finance professional, he graduated from the Vienna University of Economics and Business Administration. Marco Nindl brings experience from previous roles at Ebrd. Marco Nindl holds a Masters @ WU (Vienna University of Economics and Business). With a robust skill set that includes Emerging Markets, Banking, Structured Finance, Project Finance, Corporate Finance and more.