Events

Khadir Ahmed is Vice President for Canada Payment Operations at ADP. Having spent most of his career in payments and financial services, he now leads a national team of Canadian associates with leadership of payment processes, high risk collection, and exception handling, related to hundreds of billions of dollars of annual client payroll funds and related disbursements. Khadir has also led global payment strategy and program leadership through his leadership of ADP’s Global Centre of Enablement organization. With over 18 years’ experience in the financial services industry, Khadir is passionate about engaging clients on payments innovation and modernization. Prior to joining ADP, Khadir was responsible for Payments Infrastructure and Strategic Innovation at TD Bank. He also worked at IBM Canada as a Senior Consultant in the Financial Services sector. Khadir has a bachelor’s degree in Information Systems from the University of Toronto.

Alisa DiCaprio is the Chief Economist at blockchain technology firm, r3, based in New York City. In this role she oversees r3’s research and market intelligence functions. This includes providing economic analysis on developments in blockchain, digital assets, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC), trade and payments as well as contributing to r3 interactions with the public sector. She has experience in both public and private sectors on trade, export promotion, labor issues, and designing and implementing development projects. She has worked in Cambodia, Chile, Finland, Japan, the Philippines, Thailand, and the US. Her work on global digital economy issues include chairing committees at the World Trade Board, ICC, BAFT, the US Department of Commerce Trade Finance Advisory Council, and the American Chamber of Commerce of Japan.

Avanee joined Swift in April, 2023 as the Global Head, Trade Strategy based at Singapore. Avanee has over 20 years of banking experience across Singapore, North America, Hong Kong and India. At Swift she is responsible to help formulate and drive the core strategic trade agenda as well as help swift redefine its role in the exciting and evolving global payments and trade eco system. She also helps drive partnerships with banks, corporates, fintechs, governments and industry bodies on various initiatives to ensure frictionless trade for the community. Before Swift, Avanee was responsible for global product management for trade and supply chain finance at ANZ. In her 20 years of banking, she has worked in a variety of roles including sales for trade, payments & cash management, relationship management covering the shipping and logistics sector, credit, strategy, and technology. Avanee has a master’s degree in computer engineering from State University of New York and an MBA from INSEAD.

Christian Hausherr is the Product Head for structured Trade Finance solutions at Deutsche Bank, bringing to the role over 20 years of experience in Banking, In-house Consulting and Product Management for Cash Management and Supply Chain Finance. Christian spent his career within Deutsche Bank in various divisions and regions, mostly spanning across Europe and the Transaction Banking business. He holds a diploma in business administration from the University of Bayreuth and has worked in Germany, The Netherlands, Great Britain, Spain, the US, as well as in India and Uganda on Corporate Social Responsibility assignments in the financial and educational sector. Christian contributed to the Standard Definitions for techniques of Supply Chain Finance and authored the open account section of the Wolfsberg Trade Finance Principles. He also acts as the chair of the Global Supply Chain Finance Forum and as a technical advisor for the Supply Chain Finance section of the ICC Trade Register.

Alexander R. Malaket, CITP, is the President of OPUS Advisory Services International Inc., in Canada, and Founder and Managing Director of Trade Finance Associates Pte in Singapore. Mr. Malaket is recognized internationally as a specialist and senior consultant in international trade and trade finance, having advised top-tier financial services, corporate, government and international institution clients across the globe, and having developed and delivered a variety of training seminars on an international basis. Mr. Malaket serves as a member of the Executive Committee and Technical Advisor to the ICC Banking Commission in Paris, as Secretary/Treasurer of the World Trade Centre in Winnipeg and is a long-time member of the Toronto Regional Board of Trade/World Trade Centre, as well as a member of the SWIFT/ICC Industry Education Group on the Bank Payment Obligation. Alexander is a member of the Board of Directors of the Forum for International Trade Training, Ottawa, Canada. Alexander is the author of “Financing Trade and International Supply Chains”, published by Gower/Ashgate UK.

Tony McLaughlin is responsible for Emerging Payments and Business Development in Citi’s Treasury and Trade Solutions (TTS) business. Tony is responsible for the TTS Ecommerce proposition and is deeply involved in new methods of payment, Distributed Ledger and Fintech engagements. He joined Citi in 2004 and has been Core Cash Head for Asia Pacific based in Hong Kong and the Global Transaction Services Head for the United Kingdom, spearheading Citi’s engagement with large public sector clients and payment aggregators. Tony was responsible for the design and development of ABN AMRO’s Third Party Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS) offering, core electronic banking platform and transactional FX solution. At HSBC Holdings, he fulfilled a global strategy role for the Payments and Cash Management business. Before that he was a Senior Product Manager for Barclays Bank with responsibility for electronic collections products including International Direct Debits.

Kevin Miyamoto is Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Identifee, responsible for all operational and administrative procedures. Prior to working at Identifee, Kevin worked at Corporate Executive Board, now part of Gartner, and spent a number of years working in multiple roles in Wells Fargo’s Payments, Virtual Solutions, and Innovations Team. Most recently, Kevin was the Business Manager in Wells Fargo’s Sponsorship Team, managing over $850B of payment volume.

Kaushik Mukherjee is Senior Vice President and Head of Global Receivable & Trade for Asia Pacific, at Wells Fargo, based in Singapore. Kaushik joined Wells Fargo, Hong Kong in 2011, from Axis Bank, where he spent 14 years working in various leadership roles in Trade Operations, International Banking, Corporate Trade & Cash Management, Credit and Treasury functions as well as Trade Asset Distribution, both at Head Office in Mumbai and its Hong Kong branch. He moved to Singapore in 2014 with Wells Fargo, to manage the trade business for Asia South region involving India sub-continent, South-East Asia and Australia, both for the Corporate and FI clients. He took over the role of heading the GRT business for the entire APAC region in Oct 2020, with team members based in Singapore, Hong Kong, China and Japan, covering the Corporate and FI clients in the region.

Caryn Pace is a Managing Director in Global Payments Solutions at Bank of America. She heads Global Portfolio Management & Product Risk in Global Trade & Supply Chain. In this role, she has responsibility for the trade portfolio including monitoring, development of risk mitigation strategies, forecast impacts, and balance sheet management. Her team has oversight of risk mitigation on a portfolio and transaction level, including routines involving high risk transactions, asset quality, and business control. To drive and influence the global trade business strategy, she engages with clients and potential third party partnership opportunities to understand market perspective and evolving product needs. Caryn is a part of Bank of America’s Hispanic-Latino Executive Council. She serves on the GPS Social & Economic Action Council and is an active leader in junior talent initiatives. Previously, she held positions within global trade at J.P. Morgan where she worked for 12 years. She currently serves as a Vice-Chair on the International Chamber of Commerce Banking Commission. Caryn received her bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and is based in New York.

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.

Miriam Ratkovicova is a Managing Director in the Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Sanctions practice of Deloitte Transactions and Business Analytics LLP. She has more than 25 years of experience advising US, Canadian, European and Asian large financial institutions on various Bank Secrecy Act (BSA)/AML, Sanctions, Anti-Bribery & Corruption (ABC) and other Financial Crime compliance matters. Specifically, Miriam has led multiple large and complex projects involving historical transaction investigations, Know Your Customer (KYC) remediations, AML and Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) risk assessments, and customer risk ratings. Miriam has delivered anti-financial crime engagements in numerous countries throughout Europe, Americas and Asia Pacific.

Miriam is currently serving on the Board of Directors of the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade (BAFT) and the BAFT Executive Committee. She was recently elected as the BAFT’s Secretary/Treasurer and appointed as the BAFT’s Audit & Risk Committee Chair. Miriam is also serving as the Chair for the United for Wildlife North American Chapter.

Marc is responsible for the strategic development and positioning of cash clearing products for Deutsche Bank globally. The Clearing Product function is an integral component of the bank’s franchise in terms of strategic direction, product & service development, positioning, thought leadership as well as identifying and executing growth opportunities. Marc has been engaged in the financial services industry since 1998, re-joining Deutsche Bank in 2014 after having worked for JPMorgan and ING in various positions in both product management and operations. He is Deutsche Bank’s representative in various industry forums/working groups and holds a bachelor in foreign trade from the Liege Management School.

Ryan is currently the Head of Digital Assets for Citibank's TTS business. The TTS team helps enable their global clients by simplifying the management of treasuries, payments and commerce on a day-to-day basis. Recently, Ryan and the team announced Citi Token Services, which is a pilot that enables clients to transfer liquidity between Citi branches on a 24/7 basis. The service uses blockchain and smart contract technologies to deliver digital asset solutions for institutional clients. Citi Token Services will integrate tokenized deposits and smart contracts into Citi’s global network, upgrading core cash management and trade finance capabilities.

Elizabeth is the Head of Client Innovation & Advisory for Transaction Banking at TD Securities, leading a newly established function focused on connection long-term industry trends with actionable insights and collaborating with clients, partners, and industry peers to build innovative solutions. Elizabeth is a key member of the Digital Assets Strategy Team and has played a critical role in transforming TD’s Transaction Banking business, bringing deep knowledge of client needs and industry best practices. She first joined TD as Head of Product Management for GTB, driving strategy and product delivery across all client segments and geographies. With over 20 years experience in corporate banking, transaction banking and payments, Elizabeth has held leadership positions at Citibank, Oliver Wyman, Treasury Strategies, and Selkirk Financial Technologies. Her expertise spans the full business delivery lifecycle, including sales, product management, client service, operations, and technology. Elizabeth also serves on the Advisory Board for Women in Payments USA and is a frequent public speaker and published author on innovation culture, and diversity in financial services.

Barry is the Principal at TransactionBanker.com, a payments consultancy, and is a recognized expert in wholesale banking and the payments industry. He has been involved in payment operations, systems transformations, and modernization related projects for global banks and hardware and software firms for decades. Barry has managed day to day operations, as well as planned, organized, directed, and managed, major banking initiatives for banks around the world. Barry is a current member of the Bankers Association for Finance and Trade (BAFT) Payments Committee and Co- Chairs their Payments Roadmap Workgroup. He is a past member of their Board of Directors. He was recognized in 2021 and 2022 as one of two BAFT Ambassadors of the Year. Barry is a former member of the US Faster Payments Council where he served as the Chair of their Cross Border Payments Workgroup and as member of their Operational Considerations Workgroup.

Renata Vilanova Lobo is the Head of Global Clearing at J.P. Morgan, being responsible for Clearing infrastructure, product, solutions and services related to cross border payments provided globally. Renata leads the product development, innovation and maintenance, go-to-market strategy, and client messaging of Cross Border Payments solutions globally offered to Financial Institutions and Corporate clients. In this role Renata has responsibility for providing strategic direction, leadership and oversight for the global correspondent banking business, working with J.P. Morgan stakeholders to deliver safe, efficient and innovative cross-border payments solutions. Renata joined J.P. Morgan in 2011 and for almost a decade she focused on building core cash management capabilities and growing the Payments business in Latam (Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Colombia). Renata has 25+ years of experience in the financial market, holding various positions leading local and international cash management and liquidity services, from a Product, Risk Management and Sales perspective.

Ken Wong is Head of Product Innovation and Partnerships for the Global Transaction Bank at TD Bank. Ken has been in the financial Industry for over 35 years in different business divisions from Consumer Banking to Wholesale Banking with roles from Front Office and Relationship Management to Back Office Operations and Technology. He is a seasoned Treasury, Cash Management, Payments practitioner as well as an innovator with Patents accredited to him. He has extensive international exposure having lived and worked in Asia, Europe, Middle East and North America. Prior to re-joining TD Securities, Ken was Global Head of Payments and Clearing for Standard Chartered Bank; and prior to that he worked for Citibank in the eBusiness group. In 1999, Ken was a pioneer in a payments infrastructure start-up, in partnership with VISA International and Allianz Group, where he designed and built an alternate cross-border / cross-currency clearing system that guaranteed delivery to which he is accredited as inventor in two patents.

Geoffrey Wynne is Head of Sullivan & Worcester’s London office and its Trade and Export Finance Group. A leading trade finance lawyer, he specialises in trade, structured trade and commodity finance, advising major banks, non-bank financial institutions and multilaterals on transactions in emerging markets. Geoff’s expertise includes digitalisation of trade, warehouse and inventory financing, collateral management, ownership structures and receivables financing. He works with industry bodies including BAFT, ITFA, and the ICC, advising them on documentation and rules promulgated by them in trade finance. Geoff co-chaired the ICC Drafting Committee for the Uniform Rules for Digital Trade Transactions (URDTT) and was involved in the Electronic Trade Documents Act (2023). Recognised with a Lifetime Achievement Award by RFIx in 2024, he is top ranked by Chambers UK (for which he is singled out as a ‘Star Individual’), the UK Legal 500 and IFLR1000. The team he leads has won numerous awards, including ‘Legal Innovation in Trade’ (TFG, 2023) and Best Export Finance Law Firm (GTR, 2023). Geoff is the editor of ‘The Practitioner’s Guide to Trade and Commodity Finance’ and General Editor of ‘A Guide to Receivables Finance’.

Michelle Zhao is Senior Vice President, Co-Founder and Global Product Head of Mastercard Move Cross-border Services. Mastercard Move Cross-border Services supports customers – Banks, Non-bank Financial Institutions, and SMEs in moving money to the world through one connection, ensuring accessibility, predictability, certainty, speed, and security. Prior to joining MasterCard, Michelle was the US Head of Cross-border Cross-currency Payments at HSBC, where she was accountable for USD Clearing and Cross-border Cross-currency Payment product portfolio, as well as managing cross-border Financial Institution Group inbound sales. She was also a member of The Clearing House CHIPS Business Committee and the BAFT Global Payments Industry Council. Additionally, Michelle held multiple roles at JPMorgan in its Global Payments Solutions organization, at Wells Fargo in its Wholesale Payments organization, and was the Head of Consumer FX eProducts in the Global Markets organization at Bank of America.