Announcing the conference speakers and panelists, Bristol 2021 – 6-8 October

With less than 1 month to go to the ITFA annual conference, we cannot contain our excitement. Registrations are flowing in nicely so be sure to join us at this year’s edition of the Annual Conference being held between 6-8 October in Bristol. Please click here to register at your earliest. Click here to view the programme. 

Marilyn Blattner-Hoyle, Swiss Re Corporate Solutions will be moderating a panel titled: ”Supply chain finance – evolution, or revolution?” Panelists include: Ali Ansari – Taulia, Baris Kalay – Bank of America, Mirka Skrzypczak – NatWest and Meera Saunders – AIG.

With a mix of experts from banks, insurance and fintech, we will explore what is next for Supply Chain Finance after the hurdles of the last year. Can we expect growth in the product? How are partnerships between banks and fintechs developing? What about other investors as well as insurers? How will the next tier of suppliers and buyers be catered for? How do we reinforce confidence in the product in terms of non-standard uses and even fraud? We look forward to a lively discussion with diverse perspectives.

As Taulia’s Global Product Lead for Supply Chain and Payables Finance solutions, Ali is responsible for driving innovation and extending the distribution of our solutions worldwide. He has over 25 years of financial industry experience working for top-tier multinational organizations, such as HSBC, J.P. Morgan, PWC, ABN AMRO, SMBC and Bank of America Merill Lynch. During these years, Ali has held senior roles across Asia, Africa and Europe regions and has become a subject matter expert on trade and supply chain finance. Ali is currently based out of London.

Baris Kalay started his banking career at Yapi ve Kredi Bankasi AS in 1999. Having worked in various financial institutions in Turkey, Netherlands and Russia, he joined Bank of America in 2011, holding various leadership roles in Istanbul and Dubai offices.

Baris is currently the head of Trade and Supply Chain Finance, EMEA. Baris leads Product Sales, Structuring and Risk Distribution teams, covering Corporate and Institutional clients in developed and emerging markets, focusing on key product offering on working capital management.

Baris got his degree in Economics in Middle East Technical University and has an MBA degree at Koc University.

Throughout her career Mirka had to be able to shift her mind-set in accordance with the ever changing market and her customer’s expectations.

The economist in her understands well that the economic equation stays open and always expanding, adding new variables all the time.

Mirka’s current role demands of her to be far more than just a product specialist & strategist – she needs to know the latest technologies; behavioural patterns of her customer base or even what app games people play the most… Recently Mirka has been described as the industry trailblazer in the blockchain space – dare you to debate with her on that topic.

All this distils down to customer obsessed mind-set and tenacious curiosity that propel her.

Meera is Strategy and Operations Manager for Trade Finance at AIG, as well as an Underwriter for the Trade Finance Flow business in Europe. Meera joined the Trade Finance team in 2015, which specialises in providing insurance solutions for Financial Institutions undertaking Trade Finance transactions including supply chain finance, receivables financing and securitisations.

Prior to joining the Trade Finance team, Meera was a Business Development Manager for AIG’s Portfolio Solutions division, focussing on implementing new Schemes and MGA’s across various lines of business. Meera joined AIG in 2011 as a graduate trainee working with the Package team where she spent three years as a Portfolio Analyst advising the business on pricing considerations and profitability analysis.

Marilyn is the Global Head Trade Finance at Swiss Re, Corporate Solutions. Marilyn is also a Vice Chair of the ICC Banking Commission, a member of the ITFA insurance & insurtech committees and on the advisory board of Tradeteq. Marilyn was previously Global Head of Trade Finance at global insurer AIG having joined in 2015 to focus on AIG’s trade finance products including supply chain finance, receivables and securitization transactions. Marilyn also led numerous trade-related digital applications for AIG. Marilyn previously worked in the international banking and finance practice for global law firm Hogan Lovells in London and New York. Marilyn was also seconded in-house to Citibank’s trade transaction services EMEA team including commodity trade finance, supply chain finance and risk optimisation divisions. Prior to that, Marilyn worked in international consulting.

We look forward to this interesting panel discussion in Bristol!