Events

Mr. Mohamed currently serves as Group Head of Financial Institutions & Transaction Banking Sales at the National Bank of Bahrain (NBB), where he spearheads client strategy, product innovation, and business development across regional and international markets. In his role at NBB, he is responsible for managing strategic client relationships, driving performance across key product lines, and leading cross functional initiatives within the Financial Institutions and Transaction Banking segments. Mr. Mohamed brings nearly two decades of banking experience, with a significant portion of his career spent at Citi in senior leadership roles across the Middle East and GCC. He led Financial Institutions Sales for the Middle East and Pakistan, headed Treasury & Trade Solutions for Corporate, Commercial, and Public Sector clients in Bahrain. During his tenure, he also served as Interim CEO of Islamic Banking, where he provided strategic leadership and oversight for the bank’s Islamic finance operations. Across these roles, he played a central role in expanding Citi’s institutional client base, strengthening relationships with central banks, and delivering innovative transaction banking solutions tailored to complex regional markets. His experience reflects a deep understanding of cross-border banking, strategic client engagement, and product driven growth across diverse financial landscapes. Mohamed holds a Bachelor’s degree in Business Information Systems from the University of Bahrain and an MBA in Finance from the University of Technology Bahrain.

H.E. Raja Al Mazrouei, an accomplished leader in the world of finance and technology, serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Etihad Credit Insurance (ECI), where her visionary leadership has been instrumental in reshaping the landscape of trade credit insurance and bolstering the UAE's position as a global trading powerhouse. Since her appointment in late 2022, Raja has reinvigorated ECI with a fresh perspective. Her astute understanding of advanced technology has enabled her to craft innovative strategies that have become the driving force behind ECI's transformative goals. These initiatives not only support exporters and national development but also fortify the UAE's stature as a dynamic global trading hub. Under Raja's stewardship, ECI is embracing innovation and excellence as its guiding principles. She places strong emphasis on the acceleration of digitization in trade credit insurance and financing. As the federal export credit company, ECI maintains a resolute commitment to sustainable trade, emphasizing diversification strategies and catalyzing SME growth to bolster the UAE's economic contribution. Raja's illustrious career spans executive roles at renowned, multi-sector organizations, including Higher Colleges of Technology, Dubai Holding, National Bonds Corporation, and Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). Her tenure as the Executive Vice President of DIFC FinTech Hive is particularly noteworthy, as she played a pivotal role in establishing the region's most successful and innovative FinTech ecosystem. Educated with an MBA in Global Leadership and Management from the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), Raja stands as one of the pioneering Emirati women who embraced technology early in her career. Her quest for knowledge has taken her to renowned institutions such as Harvard Business School, London Business School, University of California at Berkeley, Singularity University, and Hawkamah Institute for Corporate Governance. Beyond her role at ECI, Raja serves on the boards of several prestigious organizations, including Mohammed Bin Rashid School of Government, Al Ansari Financial Services, Zand Digital Bank, Al Masraf Bank, and Ittihad International Investments. She is also appointed as the Chair for Harvard Business School Middle East and North Africa Advisory Board (MENAAB). Her exceptional leadership has garnered her recognition as one of the “Top 100 CEOs in the Middle East” (2023) and “100 Most Powerful Businesswomen” (2023) by Forbes Middle East, “50 Inspiring Business Leaders” (2023), and “Women of Influence in the Arab World” (2021) by Arabian Business, along with the honor of being named among the “50 Most Influential Women in Middle East Finance” (2019) by Dow Jones. More recently, Raja was recognised as one of the “100 Most Powerful Businesswomen” (2025) by Forbes Middle East for her remarkable leadership and exceptional contributions to the business world. She also received the “Woman of the Year (Leadership) Gold Award” at “Citywealth Powerwomen Awards International” (2025). This prestigious accolade emphasizes her remarkable achievements and influential role in reinforcing women’s participation in the financing and trade sectors. Adding to her list of achievements, Raja was recognized among LinkedIn’s top creators in the Insurance & Insurtech category in the UAE by Favikon (2024). She was ranked 52nd among Top 200 Creators nationwide, indicating her visionary leadership and impactful contributions to the industry. With a relentless pursuit of excellence, Raja Al Mazrouei continues to shape the future of trade credit insurance, technology, and sustainable trade. ‌

A veteran of the financial markets, with over 25yrs of market experience, Simon joined First Abu Dhabi Bank as its Macro Strategist in January 2018. Over his career, Simon has built up a wealth of multi-asset, global macro investment strategy knowledge, working in both London and New York. Simon worked previously for BNP Paribas, RBC and National Australia Bank in London, and for Bear Stearns in London and New York. Bi-lingual in French, his primary focus within the Market Insights & Strategy team at First Abu Dhabi Bank is on global macro issues and in particular how these are relevant to investment strategies within the MENA/GCC region.

Osama began his career in 1996 at the Saudi American Bank (SAMBA), a Citibank affiliate, during the early stages of digital finance. With a degree in Computer Science from King Saud University, he played a role in developing digital banking solutions. Osama worked at several banks, including Banque Saudi Fransi, Arab National Bank, and National Commercial Bank (now SNB). He contributed to the development of Transaction Banking in the banking industry in Saudi Arabia. He was behind Saudi Arabia’s first corporate online banking systems, the first national corporate collection platform, the first Host-to-Host (H2H) banking integration, and the first eWallet for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in partnership with a leading Saudi bank. These milestones weren’t incremental improvements, they were industry defining moments that laid the foundation for the Kingdom’s modern financial ecosystem.

Tod Burwell is the President and Chief Executive Officer of BAFT. Prior to being promoted to CEO, he served as the Senior Vice President of Trade Products with oversight of all trade-related initiatives including the Global Trade Industry Council, Trade Committees, and other strategic initiatives of the organization. Mr. Burwell has over 25 years of trade, supply chain and cash management experience as a banking practitioner, as well as serving as a consultant to global corporations and suppliers of strategically integrated trade solutions. Prior to joining BAFT, Mr. Burwell was a Managing Director at JPMorgan Chase and held senior global management roles responsible for trade operations, launching the logistics business and managing global product sales for trade finance and logistics management.

Tom has been at Ebury for close to 12 years. Throughout his tenure he has held various leadership roles most recently in Switzerland and the UK & Ireland where he was Country Manager and responsible for all commercial activity. He was made a Partner in 2014. As part of his new role, Tom will re-locate to Ebury’s office in the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), the leading and comprehensive financial ecosystem in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia (MEASA) region.

Anne-Fleur FELISSENT is Global Head of Sales for Correspondent Banking - Cash & Trade since September 2025. She joined Societe Generale in 2006 in the International Audit Division, where she held different positions, before moving to Global Transaction Banking in 2012. As Corporate Cash Management Global Sales, she was in charge of Large Corporates for Media & Telco, and Insurance. In 2018, she joined the Cash Clearing business line, first as deputy Head of sales for Western Europe, with a focus on French-based banks, then as Head of Sales for Western Europe and Americas in 2019 and finally Global Head of Sales for Cash Clearing in 2022.

A veteran in the industry, Mr. Fonseka, is a Fellow of the Institute of Bankers of Sri Lanka and holds an MBA from the Postgraduate Institute of Management at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura. He has been awarded a Distinction for the ACI Dealing Certificate and has accumulated over 29 years of experience in the field of Treasury Management. Furthermore, he is a Certified Member (CMA) of the Institute of Certified Management Accountants of Australia. n 2002, Mr. Fonseka commenced his tenure at People’s Bank, and since November 2011, he has been a member of the Bank’s Senior Corporate Management team as Deputy General Manager. In this role, he oversaw the Foreign Exchange operations, activities of the Primary Dealer Unit, Investment Banking Unit, and USD and LKR Money Market operations, in addition to managing relationships with local and foreign commercial banks and financial institutions. Prior to joining People’s Bank, he held senior positions at American Express Bank and Standard Chartered Bank. Mr. Fonseka was appointed as the Chief Executive Officer/General Manager of People’s Bank with effect from 1st of August 2023.

Nassib Ghobril has been the head of economic research and analysis at Byblos Bank in Beirut since March 2006. From 1997 until 2002, he was the head of research at Lebanon Invest. Ghobril then joined Sarader Investment House, the investment banking arm of Groupe Saradar. When Beirut’s Bank Audi acquired Saradar in 2004, he became the head of research and played a major role in expanding the scope of research conducted at the bank. Ghobril has a bachelor’s degree in political studies from the American University in Beirut and a master’s degree in international relations from the American University in the US. He also has a master’s degree in international management from the American Graduate School of International Management in the US. In 2009, Ghobril was recognised as the best economist in Lebanon and its diaspora by the World Lebanese League.

International C-Suite Executive in FI & global transaction banking. Enriched by profound compliance knowledge (CAMS holder) and leadership skills, I have transformed Commerz Global Service Solutions, which is a 100% subsidiary of Commerzbank AG, into a global solution provider with over 800 staff in Kuala Lumpur and Penang . Strong performance in transformation strategy for Front Office, Back Office, Middle Office and support functions with proven track record in building and execution of global shoring strategies. In addition, front office experiences with market coverage Germany/ Europe / APAC / ME for corporates and Financial Institutions. An athlete mindset to cultivate high-performance cultures and empowered teams. As a CAMS holder, I bring profound compliance knowledge and demonstrated leadership capabilities.

Naman Kapoor as the Head of Payments for the Middle East & Africa (MEA) region, where he drives payments strategy across 29 countries. In this expanded role, Naman will focus on enhancing digital payments, liquidity management, and financial innovation to strengthen Citi’s presence in the MEA market. With over 18 years of experience, Naman continues to serve as Managing Director at Citi, a position he has held since January 2024. Previously, he led Payments and Liquidity for the India Subcontinent, overseeing cash management, receivables, and fintech partnerships. His global career spans leadership roles in India, Malaysia, Korea, and now MEA, making him a key driver of Citi’s digital banking and payments transformation. As he takes on this new responsibility, his focus will be on scaling Citi’s payment infrastructure, driving innovation, and delivering seamless financial solutions in the region.

Mr. Faisal Lalani joined the Bank on March 1, 2018, as Head of International Banking. He possesses over-all banking experience of over 20 years both at domestic and international locations. He started his career at JP Morgan Chase and had also been associated with ABN Amro Banki, Royal Bank of Scotland, Mashreq Bank-UAE and Emirates NBD Bank-UAE where he held senior positions. His past position at Emirates NBD Bank, UAE was head of Institutional and International Banking. During his career, he has worked in Singapore, Amsterdam, London and UAE. He also had short term assignments in New York And Hong Kong.

Anirudha Panse (Ani) is the MD & Head of GTB Trade Finance Product Innovation (TPI) at First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB). The TPI team is responsible for launching innovative, and digitized Trade products and solutions globally for FAB across the traditional trade products and open account solutions. Ani’s maintains oversight on the team responsible for structuring and commercializing the complex trade solutions in the trade and commodity finance domain. Risk Management forms a critical part of Ani’s domain wherein the Trade Risk Distribution as well as the Trade Business Risk functions form part of Ani’s responsibilities. During this career, Ani has successfully launched several innovating and complex solutions in the Supply Chain Finance (SCF) / Receivables Finance / Inventory Financing space and commercialized them into multi-million $ businesses. Ani was part of the founding team that launched industry wide initiatives like UAE Trade Connect, a blockchain based AI/ML driven solution for reducing frauds in Trade, and in the past has represented his bank in national FATF assessments with Central Banks and also through Steering Groups related to SCF with No 10 Downing Street, and the NHS.

Alfred Quertier is the Global Head of Sales Engineering at Azentio, where he leads strategic front-end engagements across product, technical, and solutions architecture for mission-critical BFSI software. Based in Dubai, Alfred has played a pivotal role in Azentio's transformation into a SaaS-driven leader, with his work impacting hundreds of millions of end users across Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. With a background spanning cloud engineering, infrastructure strategy, and enterprise architecture particularly in AWS environments he has overseen large-scale cloud migrations and built robust SaaS platforms. Prior to Azentio, Alfred held roles in system engineering, project management, and technical operations across sectors and geographies, from Indonesia to New Zealand. His passion for innovation and continuous improvement is matched by his belief in designing solutions built to last a generation. Alfred is AWS and Oracle certified and brings multilingual capability and global insight to his leadership.

Trailblazing business development in digital payments Aniruddha Sane, a seasoned entrepreneur, is a founding member of TerraPay. With over 20 years of experience in global business development for electronic payments and services, Ani, as he is more popularly known, also holds the position of Chief Business Development Officer at the company, playing a critical role in establishing TerraPay as a leader in global money movement. Ani made his entrepreneurial debut in 2015 by co-founding Rêv Worldwide, a leading payment products and service provider. Before Rêv, Ani was Director of Sales at Fidelity Information Services (FIS), where he oversaw the financial payment products and services business in the Indian market.

A strategic, accomplished, results oriented transaction banking and fintech leader with three decades of experience in running and scaling global, regional, and country businesses across multiple geographies. With deep expertise in the area of transaction banking and in particular, in trade and supply chain finance. And driven the execution of global agendas, both at Standard Chartered (as global head of trade finance ) and in a fintech (in DLT Ledgers ,Singapore where I was the CEO ). Farooq is passionate about people and culture, with a focus on career development and nurturing of future talent.

Deepa Sinha is the Senior Vice President of Payments and Financial Crime at BAFT, and will work to advance the goals of the payments and cash management industry through standardization, defining best practices and developing usable industry data. She will also be responsible for formulating policy recommendations and educating industry stakeholders including practitioners, regulators, policymakers and the broader business community. Prior to joining BAFT, Sinha accumulated more than 25 years of treasury and cash management experience at both corporations and banks. She formerly served as Treasurer at Caliburn International, now Acuity International, where she oversaw cash forecasting, working capital and debt management, and implemented policies and banking technology to support all core treasury functions. As the Associate Vice President of Banking Operations and Relationships at the Carlyle Group, she developed the cash management, FX and banking platforms, and built and managed the infrastructure for multicurrency cash management across 5,000+ bank accounts at more than 100 global banks. She also served on both the JPMorgan Chase Treasury and Wells Fargo Treasury Advisory Councils.

Luke Spires manages financial institution relationships at StoneX, focusing on the delivery of frontier and emerging market FX payout solutions across the EMEA region. Prior to joining StoneX, he held roles in correspondent banking and FX sales at J.P. Morgan, with a strong emphasis on building and managing relationships with banks across the GCC and wider MEA region.

As Head of Products and Solutions, Godfrey oversees the growth, adoption and evolution of Visa’s products and services to meet the needs of the vast set of fintechs, sellers, financial institutions, and consumers Visa serves across Central & Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Godfrey’s journey at Visa began in 2021 as Senior Vice President, Head of Strategy for CEMEA, overseeing the implementation of multi-year growth plans across dynamic and diverse markets. With an extensive 25-year career in the regional banking and payments industry, Godfrey has been instrumental in rolling out a range of transformational strategies that have defined the achievements of traditional and non- traditional financial institutions.

Ashutosh Taparia is CredAble’s Chief Operating Officer and Global MD for Enterprise Coverage & Trade. An experienced trade and supply chain finance professional, Ashutosh has a penchant for problem-solving and a knack for forging strong client relationships. At CrediAble, he is leading our efforts in building industry-focused differentiating competencies by recognizing potential avenues of growth and ensuring revenue realization. He heads a team responsible for identifying and developing opportunities for the platform business across India.