Authors Page - Trade Finance Global

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.

Senior Banker – Trade Facilitation Programme

George Riddell is an Associate Director for International Trade Policy where he works with Deloitte’s Brexit Insights Centre advising clients on all things trade and Brexit. He joined Deloitte after six years representing the UK at the World Trade Organisation where he focused on services trade and worked on the UK’s Brexit transition in the WTO. He also took part in several ongoing trade negotiations in Geneva. He also spent time seconded to the Kenyan Trade Ministry as well as working with trade-related think tanks. George has an MA in International Relations and a BA in History, both from Durham University.

Marc Auboin is a Counsellor in the Economic Research and Statistics Division of the WTO, responsible for the institution’s trade and finance agenda, including trade finance, and for WTO relations with the IMF and World Bank. Previously he held several positions at the International Monetary Fund (IMF), was Deputy-Secretary General of the Monetary Committee of the European Union, worked for the French Treasury. Mr. Auboin holds a PhD in Economics and published extensively on trade finance issues in academic books and articles. He runs the WTO Expert Group on Trade Finance.

Before co-founding Llewellyn Consulting, John was Global Chief Economist and then Senior Economic Policy Advisor at Lehman Brothers. This followed almost twenty years at the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, where variously he was Head of International Forecasting and Policy Analysis, Editor of the OECD Economic Outlook, Deputy Director for Social Affairs, Manpower and Education, and finally Chef de Cabinet to the Secretary-General. Prior to that he spent nearly ten years at the Faculty of Economics of the University of Cambridge, and he was also a Fellow of St. John’s College. John earned his undergraduate degree at the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and his doctorate at the University of Oxford. He has published widely.

Robert is a Partner at Clyde & Co with an industry leading reputation as a trade finance specialist advising across the international trade and commodity, energy and natural resource sectors.Robert focuses on commodity and trade finance law, structuring deals and complex cross-border financing arrangements for many of the world’s major banks, traders, exporters and other participants in the global trade market.Robert has acted in some of the most significant and innovative trade and commodity finance transactions in recent years. Based in the firm’s London office, he works closely with our finance specialists across our office network to assist clients with their global trade finance solutions.

Richard joined Bloomberg in September 2015, focusing on the promotion of Bloomberg’s Open Symbology initiative in the European market. This role includes prioritising the adoption of the Financial Instrument Global Identifier (FIGI) by EU regulators, thereby enabling firms to use the FIGI in their compliance with new EU reporting obligations. Prior to joining Bloomberg, Richard spent 20 years with the financial messaging and standards body – SWIFT, where he held a variety of roles in sales and marketing. Most recently Richard was Head of Regulatory Affairs at SWIFT, where he contributed to the development of new services arising from regulatory change, including services for reporting to Trade Repositories and reference data/standards initiatives, such as the development of SWIFT’s services for the Legal Entity Identifier (LEI).

Phongpetch Chuasakulvanich is the Vice President of International Trade at Kasikornbank PLC

Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Banking Circle looks at the challenges and opportunities ahead for financial institutions serving SMEs

Michael has almost 40 years of banking experience and joined Bank Leumi (UK) in 2014. He honed his expertise in several senior positions across the various sectors of the commodity finance industry, working in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands.

Vinco David is the Berne Union Secretary General since 2017. Prior to this, he has served as a Management Committee Member and as the Chair of the Investment Insurance Committee. A Dutch national, he has over 30 years’ experience in various aspects of credit and investment insurance, including more than 20 with leading international credit insurer Atradius, in diverse management roles across strategy, product development, economic research, project finance, marketing, underwriting and claims. He holds an MA in political science and international relations and a BA in economics and Italian language and literature from the Free Reformed University of Amsterdam.

Emma Parsons is the EDB’s Regional Director for the UK and Ireland.

Having started her career in political and security risks in London, Sihem Mouelhi has since garnered nearly a decade of experience working in compliance and financial crime risk management across Europe. During her time in the industry she has held positions at leading financial institutions and consultancy firms, including management roles at Citigroup, Ernst and Young, and The Capital Markets Company, before joining Elucidate as Chief Operating Officer.  In addition to her work in the industry, Sihem graduated from the University of Montreal with a Bachelor’s in Political Science, and a Master’s in Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics

Emmanuelle Ganne is Senior Analyst in the Economic Research and Statistics Division of the World Trade Organization (WTO) where she leads WTO work on Blockchain. She is the author of a recently published WTO book entitled “Can Blockchain Revolutionize International Trade?”

Raquel was a part of the Student Writer Programme at Trade Finance Global. She studied International Politics at the City University of London and was an intern at the House of Commons.

Mishal has more than 15 years’ experience within Banking and Financial Tech having held senior positions in organisations such as Barclays, WorldPay and First Data in roles that includes Corporate Finance, International Development and Sales. Currently General Manager for Banking Circle, a unique provider of banking services to the Financial Tech industry.