Erin is the resident Copywriter for Smart Currency Business. With a constant eye on the currency markets, she writes about how political and economic events impact the pound, euro and dollar.

Zane Piranditta is Commercial Partnerships Specialist at Currencies Direct

Hariesh Manaadiar is the author of this educational blog about Shipping and Freight Resource. Hariesh has been in the dynamic shipping and freight industry for over a quarter of a century and worked in several sectors of the industry like clearing & forwarding, vessel operations, stowage planning, equipment control, sales and marketing and management, in various countries.

Charles is recognised internationally as an authority in the field of receivables securitisation and working capital finance. He has over 30 years’ professional experience across a range of business sectors. He was engaged with Finacity Corporation since its inception in 2001 when he was appointed to Finacity’s Supervisory Board to represent the interests of Euler Hermes, an investor and strategic partner. Charles then headed Finacity’s European activity, leading its business development efforts. While at Euler Hermes in Paris, Charles successfully led the post-merger integration of the French Euler Group and German Hermes Group. Prior to joining Euler Hermes, Charles worked for Ford Motor Company, Union Bank of Switzerland and British Airways. Charles is a regular speaker at international trade finance and receivables securitisation conferences. He holds an MBA from the London Business School and a Master degree in Operational Research.

Manu is a London based consultant with 35 years of experience in Finance, Dispute Resolution and Insurance. He worked for 15 years in Investment Banking, Capital Markets and derivatives at Lazard and SBC after completing his MBA in 1984.  His 12 years’ experience of dispute resolution includes Arbitration and HM Courts and Tribunals where he has decided or advised parties on a variety of cases.  His insurance work has focused on representing policyholders on complex claims against insurers. More recently, he founded a technology start-up which provides compliance and credit data and insurance as well as invoice funding to companies from one dashboard, eliminating the need for multiple departments at smaller firms. Manu sits on the Charity Tribunal as a fee paid Member and is a Magistrate in central London.  He is a Member of the Finance Committee of JUSTICE, a UK based all-party law reform and human rights charity and a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Arbitrators. He studied Physics (Imperial College) and holds an MBA (LBS), an LLB and LLM in International Business Law (UCL).

Mark spent 18 years working for independent invoice finance companies and asset-based lenders in Manchester. In January 2019, PMD Business Finance launched its invoice finance division, which Mark joined to offer clients a fast and flexible review of their current funding. Mark’s time working in the lending arena means he understands what lenders are looking for from their clients. With PMD’s panel of over 70 funders, the firm is ideally placed to offer the best advice that allows clients to find the right funder for their business journey.

Alisa DiCaprio is the Head of Trade and Supply Chain at R3 in New York City. She joined from Asian Development Bank where she was a senior economist working on digital trade, trade finance and innovation. She has also worked in both the public and private sectors on export promotion, trade negotiations, and labour issues. Her PhD is from MIT, and she holds a BA and MA from Johns Hopkins University.

Mark heads up the trade finance offering at TFG where his team focuses on bringing in alternative structured finance to international trading companies. Prior to joining TFG (tradefinanceglobal.com), Mark qualified as a lawyer with a top ranked global trade and structured commodity finance team. Mark has previously advised commodity trading firms, banks and alternative capital providers on international structured trade financings, pre-export, prepayment and limited recourse structures – notably in the oil, soft commodities and metals sectors. This has included mining finance projects, structured letter of credit facilities, receivables discounting and forfaiting agreements.

Dr. Rebecca Harding is a highly respected international economist specialising in the workings of trade and trade finance. She is CEO of Coriolis Technologies, a business providing Data as a Service to the trade finance sector. In this role she was nominated to the Women in FinTech Powerlist 2017. Rebecca is co- author of the acclaimed The Weaponization of Trade: the Great Unbalancing of Policy and Economics.

Chris Southworth is Secretary General at the International Chamber of Commerce UK. Prior to joining ICC he was Executive Director for Global Partnerships, at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), Head of the International Chambers of Commerce Unit at UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and a Senior Policy Advisor to Lord Heseltine for his independent review of UK competitiveness. In 2011 he helped set up the mid-size business export programme at UKTI and was a Senior Policy Advisor for the 2011 Government Review of Mid-Size Businesses. Former roles have encompassed deregulatory policy at Better Regulation Executive, social enterprise policy at the Department for Business and stints in a local strategic partnership and the charity sector.

Simon Kleine is the Europe Business Lead for East and Partners, the leading specialist business banking insights and analytics consulting firm. He directs and leads all client work for East out of its London office, that also includes work for clients based in the Americas, the Middle East and Africa. He joined East in 2015 after a career that has seen him amass 15 years in the payments industry with American Express, Visa and Western Union, all where he held international communicationsleadershippositions. Beyond this he has held senior roles with global PR consultancies, serving clients across a range of industries. He holds a Politics BA Hons degree from Warwick University.

Jacco possesses over 35 years’ experience in the International Trade and Commodity Finance Banking space, having worked both for and with numerous major Trade Banks over the past three decades. With his vast wealth of knowledge and deep understanding of Trade Finance and digitisation processes from a Bank, Corporate and FinTech perspective, Jacco serves as a trusted advisor to numerous Corporates and Financial Institutions across the globe. In his role as Head of Global Sales, Jacco is expanding Bolero’s global network and developing collaborative partnerships with new technology initiatives such as Blockchain. As a SWIFT-certified Trade & Supply Chain Finance consultant, Jacco frequently moderates, speaks and participates in panels at international Trade and Supply Chain Finance events organized by institutions such as SIBOS, ICC, FIBA, SWIFT and more.

Susan Ross MBE is a trade credit broker at AON and Vice President at BExA. Susan Ross, Account Director within its Credit International division in the UK, was named on the Queen’s Birthday Honours List in July.  Susan will collect her MBE from a representative of Her Majesty the Queen at a ceremony today, in recognition of her tireless campaigning on behalf of the UK’s export economy. Susan has been a trade credit broker with Aon since the mid-1980s and has been a passionate volunteer member of the British Exporters Association for more than a decade, including a three year period as Chairman from 2009-2012. During this time Susan campaigned for the re-launch of the UK Export Finance (UKEF) Bond Support scheme to the benefit of the hundreds of companies who have since used the product to be able to bid for, and win, overseas business. Since its reintroduction in 2011, the UKEF Bond Support Scheme has been utilised by over 220 UK companies and supported almost £850m of UK exports.

Sean Edwards is Head of Legal at SMBC Bank International plc, part of the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group. He is a Special Adviser to the trade finance department of the bank and in the Trade Innovation Unit. Sean is Chairman of the International Trade & Forfaiting Association (ITFA). He helped draft the Uniform Rules for Forfaiting (URF) and the Standard Definitions for Techniques of Supply Chain Finance published by ITFA, ICC, FCI, BAFT and the EBA. He is a former member of the Executive Committee of the ICC Banking Commission and the ICC Working Group on Digitalisation in Trade Finance. Sean is a member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Trade Finance Expert Group. He is a non-executive director of KomGo S.A. Sean has written for all the major trade finance magazines and is on the editorial board of Global Trade Review (GTR). He has presented at many conferences.

Stephen Hubble is Chief Analyst and Senior Account Manager at Centtrip, a London-based fintech leader in intelligent treasury management. Thanks to nearly two decades working in the financial sector, he has developed a good judgement of and insight into market movements, geopolitical events and wider developments in financial services. Stephen has established himself as a true thought leader and has become a frequent contributor to the company’s Insights, shaping Centtrip’s newsroom output. He regularly comments on interest rates, FX, central banks’ monetary policy decisions and economic releases.

Nitin Gaur is a seasoned senior leader with vast experience in designing and developing enterprise infrastructures and applications for Fortune 500 companies globally. Throughout his career, he has successfully led cross-functional teams and guided over 450+ global resources, demonstrating his ability to thrive in complex, matrixed organizations. Nitin’s track record includes driving multimillion-dollar revenue growth by developing innovative business strategies and forward-thinking initiatives that capitalize on emerging technologies.

Dave Sutter currently serves as Chief Strategy Officer for TradeIX. He is an experienced Fintech entrepreneur, expert in distributed ledger technology and blockchain who helped pioneer the technology’s application in trade finance. Dave has worked and consulted with many of the world’s leading financial institutions, technology providers, corporations, and governmental agencies on understanding, designing and implementing cutting edge distributed ledger and blockchain-based solutions, networks, and applications. Most recently, Dave served as COO and co-founder of Hijro, an enterprise blockchain platform for global trade and supply chain finance.

Carter is a Research Associate at Trade Finance Global focusing on the impact of macroeconomic trends and emerging technologies on international trade. He holds international business and science degrees from the European Business School in Germany as well as Brock University and Queen’s University in Canada where he served as the director of operations and finance for the student executive council and as an operations associate for the Queen’s University Alternative Asset Fund. Carter’s work has been featured in publications and articles supported by the SME Finance Forum, managed by the International Finance Corporation, World Trade Organization, and International Chamber of Commerce. Carter is a graduate of the Trade Accelerator Program (TAP) through the Toronto Board of Trade and the head of international business development at the Canadian-based building supply exporting firm, The Great Egress Co. He is also a Certified International Trade Professional (CITP) and a member of the exam development panel for the Forum for International Trade Training (FITT) where he developed exam questions for the update of the CITP Professional Exam as part of FITT’s application for ISO 17024 Accreditation.