Sereen Ahmed is an accomplished professional with a wealth of experience in the finance industry. As the Americas Head of Trade and Working Capital , Sereen has demonstrated exceptional expertise and leadership. Sereen’s educational journey began at Amman Alahliye University, where she completed her studies in banking and finance. Eager to expand her knowledge and skills, she pursued an MBA in internal Finance from Ashland University solidifying her foundation in the field. With a career spanning over two decades, Sereen has made significant contribution to renowned financial institutions. She started her journey at HSBC in 2002, where she gained a valuable experience and developed a strong understanding of the banking industry. In 2012, Sereen took on a new challenge by joining Barclays Dubai to oversee the Middle East business, and moved to New York in 2023 to take a new role as Americas Head of Trade and Working Capital.

Over 30 years of trade experience across business management, product development, client sales & operations & risk control in banking. Experience includes In-depth banking industry and working knowledge, including product development, relationship management, business understanding, strong product knowledge, and impact of key market trends on business strategy. Current responsibilities Heading team of Product and Technology team building a software solution (SaaS) automating trade finance processing.

With over 20 years of experience leading transformative global initiatives for Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, Cisco Capital, and TIAA, Nancy Amert is a distinguished expert in organizational change management and sustainable business practices. As the Founder and Principal Change Consultant at Think Green Advisors, she helps organizations navigate complex changes while aligning their strategies with sustainability, corporate responsibility, and operational efficiency.

With over 20 years of banking experience Jean-Paul leads a transactional services product team across Latin America responsible for the structuring and provision of working capital, trade & supply chain finance solutions to financial institutions, corporations and public sector entities. Jean-Paul manages a material asset portfolio through E2E product investment, development and market commercialization of trade/SCF products, including loans, payables finance, receivables finance, core trade, and export agency finance in Latin America.

Kwabena Ayirebi, is Managing Director, Banking Operations at the African Export Import Bank (Afreximbank). Afreximbank is the foremost pan-African multilateral financial institution devoted to financing and promoting intra- and extra-African trade. Kwabena, joined Afreximbank in September 2017 after 13 years with HSBC as an International Manager, serving in various leadership roles in India, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and UK. At Afreximbank he has led the development of payments and trade services capabilities which has positively impacted the availability of trade finance for the Bank’s member countries and clients. He loves travelling and in August 2023 undertook a 10,000km “Drive for Digitisalisation” from Accra to London raising funds for a charity that is delivering technology interventions in rural Ghana.

Mike is an experienced trade sales professional with over 20 years in international banking and risk management. Mike currently leads Trade at Synovus Bank where he is known as a trusted advisor and expert in international trade transactions. He is seen as the go-to resource for Synovus bankers and their clients. Prior to joining Synovus, he was responsible for a 20 state footprint with Bank of America for clients up to ~$2B in annual sales. As Co-Chair of the BAFT Regional Bank Committee, Mike is spearheading an initiative that promotes collaboration among regional banks. The initiative is gaining momentum and attempting to identify ways that regional banks can route transactions through each other in case regular correspondent banks are unable to facilitate a transaction. This initiative is known as the Trade Bank Exchange and currently has more than a dozen banks that are working towards its success.

Venkat B.V. is Head of StoneX Technology Services, a dedicated technology unit within the StoneX group that serves both external and internal customers. Venkat previously co-founded Akshay Software Technologies Ltd,, whose US subsidiary provided SWIFT services to the Global Payments Business unit of StoneX before it was acquired by StoneX in September 2018.

Kalyani Bhatia is the Global Head of Payments Go To Market in Business Development at Swift. Her team of payment experts execute the Swift Strategy through data driven prioritization, standardized programmes and global expertise. She is responsible for supporting global business product programmes including Swift gpi, ISO 20022, transaction management, prevalidation, Swift Go and Instant payments. Kalyani is on the US Advisory Board for Women In Payments and is the Co-Sponsor of the Multicultural Inclusion ERG at Swift. Prior to joining Swift in 2020, Kalyani spent 18 years at Deutsche Bank, holding senior positions in technology, product and client implementations & service. Her expertise lies in running large global change initiatives supporting global transaction banking. She also has experience in the oil & gas, automotive and retail industries delivering systems as a technical consultant with Price Waterhouse LLP. Kalyani holds a degree in Electrical Engineering from Rice University.

As CGI’s Global Payment Solutions lead, Karen’s visionary leadership and strategic acumen help to drive the company’s payment solutions forward. With more than 30 years of experience in the payments industry, Karen develops strategic payment solution frameworks and compelling marketing plans, helping CGI clients navigate the complexities of the global payments landscape with precision. Her deep understanding of both the technical and market dynamics of payment solutions reinforces CGI’s leadership in the financial services sector, positioning the company at the cutting edge of payments innovation and customer satisfaction. Karen’s career began in the UK banking sector, where she gained invaluable expertise in payment solution implementation.

Rebecca Fruchtman is counsel in Mayer Brown’s Chicago office and a member of the Firm’s Global Trade Finance practice group. Her practice focuses on the global trade finance space, including supply chain finance, Receivables financing, letters of credit, structured letters of credit and risk-distributed trade transactions, and asset-based financing transactions—both domestic and cross-border. With respect to supply chain finance matters at Mayer Brown, Rebecca has worked extensively with FI, hedge fund and private equity clients financing trade assets on various Fintech platforms, has spear-headed numerous global SCF roll-out initiatives on behalf of FI clients and structured, negotiated and executed a wide range of complex and bespoke revolving letters of credit facilities. Prior to joining Mayer Brown, Rebecca served as general counsel to Bank of America’s Business Capital line of business (US Central Region) on asset-based lending matters (2017 to 2019) and supported Bank of America’s Global Transaction Services Global Trade and Supply Chain Line of Business (2012 to 2017). Rebecca is active in BAFT, currently co-chairs the BAFT supply chain finance committee and is involved in various trade digitization initiatives in the industry.

Allan Garcia is a seasoned trade finance professional with a strong track record in sales, operations, and client origination across leading global financial institutions, including BBVA, The Bank of Nova Scotia, and MUFG. Based in New York City, Allan currently serves as a Senior Associate at BBVA. He has played a pivotal role in driving consistent growth within the Trade Finance group for Financial Institutions, while spearheading the development and expansion of BBVA's Bank Fronted Surety portfolio. With expertise in structuring competitive financing solutions, Allan has established a reputation for delivering innovative and client-focused results. Leveraging deep knowledge of international trade finance products, including SBLCs, Payables & Receivables Finance, and Working Capital solutions, Allan is dedicated to fostering growth while building and managing strong client relationships.

Camille Garcia is the Head of Core Trade Manufacturing within Citi’s Trade and Working Capital Solutions division. In his role, Camille Garcia has end-to-end responsibility product delivery and leads global teams across US, EMEA and Asia, focused on optimizing P&L, managing capital, mitigating risks and controls, executing the Technology Book of Work, and driving product innovation and digital transformation. Camille Garcia brings 25+ of experience in the banking and TMT sectors. During his tenure at Citi, Camille Garcia focused on deal origination, import/export product management and strategic product development. He also implemented large comprehensive trade insourcing deals in the FI segment. More recently, Camille Garcia was responsible for overseeing Citi’s trade investment spend and execution of the book of work against technology deliverables. He has also coordinated business strategic priorities across the payables, receivables, loans and documentary business pillars.

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.

Peter Hazou is Director of Business Development at Microsoft in the Financial Services Industry team and is responsible for client Corporate Banking and Trade Finance solutions and modernization worldwide. Prior to Microsoft, Peter was a Transaction Banking industry banker for 30+ years in the EMEA region. He was the Regional Head for GTB at HSBC for EMEA as well as the Regional Head for GTS at Citigroup for CEEMEA. He also headed Market Management for Treasury Services at BNY Mellon in London and was Head of Strategy for GTB at UniCredit in Milan. His background is in Product Management for Payments at Chase Manhattan Bank. He began his career in New York as a credit officer in correspondent banking at Manufacturers Hanover Trust.

Jenni is the Head of Financial Institutions, FinTech and Broker Dealers for Barclays Europe. Based in Frankfurt, she leads a pan European team of dedicated coverage bankers who provide cash management, FX risk management, debt and partnership opportunities to a wide range of established and fast growth clients in these sectors.

Asad is a member of the Enterprise Payments team for TD Bank. He leads a team of talented and motivated payments and data enthusiasts transforming TD's payments vision into reality. Asad is a trusted, global leader with decades of experience in leading strategic and transformational initiatives in a diverse set of industries including banking, telecom, hospitality and auto finance. Asad has structured and executed critical and complex transformations in numerous contexts including post-catastrophe business continuity management, business mergers and divestitures and digital transformations in large organizations.

Jenny Lee is a Managing Director and Head of US Wire Product for Global Payments Solutions at Bank of America based in New York City. She is responsible for end-to-end management and development of USD wire payments capabilities, including execution of large-scale industry initiatives such as ISO 20022 migration. Her experience in the global treasury services space includes strategy, risk, business and product management for Cash Management, Liquidity, and Payment products at J.P. Morgan and currently at Bank of America. Jenny is enthusiastic about building a payments platform with the stability, capacity and resiliency required for the largest global payment clearers, driving fast-paced, cross-functional and cross-regional efforts within the strict risk and compliance framework. She also creates strategy and positioning points for key payments industry groups including the Federal Reserve Financial Services Wholesale Payments Advisory Group.

Kaylee Karumanchi Lord is a senior product manager for Global Trade at Bank of America based in Chicago, IL. She heads North America Trade Product, which includes responsibility for supply chain finance, receivables finance, traditional trade and new product development initiatives. Prior to joining BofA, Kaylee served in a variety of roles within corporate treasury at a Fortune 100 manufacturing company, including managing their multi-billion dollar global Supply Chain Finance program. Kaylee has her MBA from Northwestern University.

Rania is a Director of Consulting in the Washington, D.C. area, collaborating with business and technology leaders to drive optimal outcomes across government and industry. Her prior 9 years in Singapore included strategic growth roles at Forrester, managing consulting and advisory services in India, Southeast Asia, China, and Australia, and founding the regional D&I committee to promote an authentic and inclusive workplace. Previous to Forrester, she worked in international economic and trade development for the Republic of Cyprus, focusing on foreign direct investment at the Cyprus Investment Promotion Agency. As a strategic sourcing consultant at Procurian (now part of Accenture), she spearheaded business process outsourcing projects, reducing costs and negotiating favorable terms. Early in her career, she worked in retail fuel operations for Sunoco. Rania holds an MBA from the Saïd Business School, Oxford University, and a dual concentration undergraduate degree in supply chain management and marketing from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Matt O’Neill is the former Managing Director of U.S. Secret Service Global Cyber Investigative Operations, a position from which he directed and participated in the Service’s worldwide cyber investigations. In his role, Matt led high-stakes missions against mobile threats, employing many means – including individual combat and ingenious disguises – to bring notorious global hackers to justice in the United States. Matt is a 25-year veteran of the Service. His career includes service on the U.S. Vice President’s Detail from 2003-2007. His exceptional achievements have earned him prestigious accolades such as the U.S. Secret Service Special Agent of the Year and the Department of Homeland Security’s Gold and Silver Medals.

Rodman Reef is a consultant specializing in the global payment business. Recent assignments addressed: payments strategy including cross border and real-time payments, reducing card processing expenses, identifying chip (EMV) card benefits, reviewing retail POS systems, and implementing prepaid card programs. Rod is the former Chairman and CEO of Citishare Corporation. During his long tenure, Citishare expanded to 50+ countries, volume increased from $125 million/year to $36 billion/year, unit costs were substantially reduced, and many innovative products were introduced including mobile phone money transfers and cross border real-time payments. Prior to his role at Citishare, Rod held several positions at Citigroup including managing one of its Fedwire operations. Rod served on the Fed’s Faster Payments Task Force and several other industry groups. Rod is or has been a board member or advisor to NYCE, The Clearing House, Visa, the EFTA, Mastercard, the Faster Payments Council and several young payment companies.

John Rodriguez is the General Manager for Banco Internacional de Costa Rica .S.A. (BICSA), Miami Representative Office, responsible for the bank’s regional trade finance strategy to drive commercial sales, building its loan portfolio, and expanding the client base.  John has expertise in   commercial lending, trade finance, supply chain finance, risk participations, factoring, structured trade finance and credit risk insurance mitigation. John developed market opportunities in financial services with a focus in the Americas in FIG and Corporate Banking having worked with top tier banks and fintech throughout his three-decade career; always applying sound Risk and International Portfolio Management best practices.  He has served on the BAFT Board and is a past-Chair of the Florida International Bankers Associations (FIBA).  He is a graduate of the Stonier Graduate School of Banking (ABA) and holds an undergraduate bachelor’s degree in business administration from Rutgers University.

Gayle Roenbaugh is the Export Finance Director for the West Region with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Working closely with the network of SBA field offices and SBA’s Office of International Trade (OIT), she provides international trade and export finance expertise to small business exporters and lending communities to deliver them effective export results. Gayle works with SBA-staffed U.S. Export Assistance Centers (USEAC) to educate small business exporters, their lenders and trade related organizations on trade finance products through market knowledge, financing options and trade connections. She also provides insights into SBA’s trade policy and market developments in collaboration with key stakeholders. Prior to joining SBA, Gayle was Senior Regional Manager for Export Development Canada (EDC) where she provided market knowledge, trade connections and financing origination to support the development of Canada’s direct or indirect export trade. She was also Senior Trade Sales Manager at HSBC Bank’s Global Trade & Receivables Finance group and led the sales, execution and management of the bank’s SBA and Export Import Bank of the U.S. Of The United States (EXIM) lending programs as well as Supply Chain, Receivables Finance and traditional trade solutions and has held similar roles at RBS Group, PNC and JPMorgan Chase.

Emy Ruiz currently oversees the bank’s Global Trade and Supply Chain Finance team responsible for managing liquidity solutions for the banks clients. Ms. Ruiz has over 30 years of banking experience with 20 years in Global Trade Finance management responsible for Open account solutions, trade finance, traditional trade, portfolio management, risk mitigation and product development. She has held various leadership positions in Credit, commercial, corporate and international sales with various financial institutions with vast domestic and international capabilities, including Southeast Bank, First Union and Regions Bank. She is very active in various international Chambers and United Way.

Amy Sahm joined Fulton Financial’s International Group in 2002 following a long-term career in the Japanese banking and trade industry. She works as department manager, overseeing product development, operations, sales and risk management. The International Group at Fulton is responsible for foreign exchange risk management and all international transactional products and services including Trade Finance for Fulton’s customer base. The International Group primarily serves import / export SME clients within Fulton’s five state footprint. She serves as a Board Member and Treasurer of both the World Trade Center of Harrisburg and the Mid-Atlantic District Export Council supporting the US Commercial Service Export Assistance Center. Amy is a member of the International Business Advisory Board of Elizabethtown College where she mentors students and presents guest lectures on international finance. Amy also holds a Board seat at BAFT as well as a Co-Chair position on the North American Council. In addition to BAFT, Amy is active throughout the North American regional bank network in several international banking industry groups.

Tom joined HSBC in September 2024, and leads product strategy and execution globally for HSBC’s currency clearing products, as well as North America’s cross border payments proposition. He is based in New York. Prior to joining HSBC, Tom led a firm-wide transformation initiative at Morgan Stanley and spent over 10 years at Citibank in a variety of product management and sales roles, covering domestic and cross border payments, CLS settlement services and liquidity management. He has over 14 years’ experience in providing tailored treasury solutions to clients, with a specialization in product management, product development and the client experience for Financial Institutions and Corporates. Tom has also represented various institutions on payments infrastructure risk committees and payments market practice and industry.

Christian Stolcke is a Capital Markets and Transaction Banking veteran who has spent his career growing financial service businesses and executing global, large scale performance improvement programs across Shared Services, Operations and Technology. At Bank of America, Christian is Managing Director and head of Global Financial Institutions, Non-Bank Financial Institutions and Governments within Global Payments Solutions (GPS). In this role, Christian leads a worldwide team of sales and product professionals responsible for maintaining and strengthening relationships with clients across several industries, including banks, governments, investment managers, securities firms, insurance, paytech, private capital and specialty finance firms.

Patricia Sullivan is Managing Director and Global Head of Institutional Cash Management (ICM) at Deutsche Bank since January 2024. In this role Patricia oversees the business and teams within the Corporate Bank delivering a wide range of payment, transactional FX, risk management, and liquidity solutions to financial institutions (banks & central banks) and Deutsche Bank affiliates. Patricia has more than 20 years of experience in covering ICM, Criminal Prosecution, Litigation, Financial Crime Compliance and Core Compliance.

Kalpana Sundar is a seasoned product management leader with over 18 years of experience in the payments industry. As Senior Director at PayPal, she oversees global payment processing, driving innovations that empower millions of customers. Her team processes over a trillion transactions annually, leveraging machine learning and AI to enhance customer experiences. Kalpana is passionate about making radical changes through impactful product development and believes in “being herself and being the change she wants to see around her.” She is a board member in multiple non profits and mentors women in technology, students and entrepreneurs. She lives with her family in the Bay Area, California.

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.

Dr. Ruth Wandhöfer has been instrumental in shaping the future of finance and money during her impressive career over more than 22 years. She operates at the nexus of technology, cyber security, identity, finance and regulation and advises and speaks to international audiences on the evolution of the digital economy. As a sought-after keynote speaker, author and recognized global authority on banking, technology, ccyber and regulation she is a very influential female leader in the Fintech space, promoting the understanding, development and deployment of new business models and technologies for our digital future across payments, financial markets and processes.

Karen Webster is one of the world’s leading experts on emerging payments and a strategic advisor to CEOs and Boards of multinational players in the payments and commerce space. As the CEO of Market Platform Dynamics, she works extensively with the most innovative players in the payments, financial services, mobile, B2B, digital media and technology sectors to identify, ignite and monetize innovation. Karen also serves on the boards of a number of emerging companies, helping innovators develop and implement business strategies that drive market adoption for their products and services. Karen is also an entrepreneur herself, who has successfully founded and launched several new ventures in the loyalty, on-line media, and social networking sectors, including PYMNTS.com.

Rina Wulfing leads Policy & Campaigns in North America for Wise. Based in New York City, she advocates for policies that further the mission of money without borders: instant, convenient, transparent and low cost. Prior to Wise, she worked on financial services policy for two Members of Congress, most recently for Congressman Denny Heck of Washington state as his Chief of Staff.